Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal

The National Security Agency, it seems, has not told the public the whole story about Edward Snowden's contacts with oversight authorities before he became the most celebrated and vilified whistleblower in US history. Hundreds of internal NSA documents, declassified and released to VICE News in response to our long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, reveal now for the first time that not only was the truth about the "single email" more complex and nuanced than the NSA disclosed to the public, but that Snowden had a face-to-face interaction with one of the people involved in responding to that e-mail.

The documents, made up of e-mails, talking points, and various records — many of them heavily redacted — contain insight into the NSA's interaction with the media, new details about Snowden's work, and an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the efforts by the NSA, the White House, and Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to discredit Snowden. The trove of more than 800 pages, along with several interviews, offer unprecedented insight into the NSA during this time of crisis within the agency. And they call into question aspects of the US government's long-running narrative about Snowden's time at the NSA.