Edward Snowden and the whistleblowers

Edward Snowden

Who: Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

What: Snowden revealed that the NSA is monitoring cellphone logs, accessing emails, file transfers and live chats from Google, Facebook, Apple and other internet companies.

Why: “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”

Bradley Manning

Who: Private First Class Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst in the US Army who was based in Iraq.

What: Manning released 720,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks. The leak included cables written by US diplomats. He is currently on trial for the leaks and faces 154 years behind bars.

Why: “Weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, inattentive signal analysis ... a perfect storm.”

Joe Darby

Who: Sergeant Joe Darby, a US Army reservist

What: Darby stumbled upon a series of photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad that showed US soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners.

Why: “I knew that some people wouldn’t agree with what I did. You have some people who don’t view it as right and wrong. They view it as: ‘I put American soldiers in prison over Iraqis’.”

Jeffrey Wigand

Who: Jeffrey Wigand, a teacher and former vice-president of research and development at cigarette maker Brown & Williamson.

What: In 1996 Wigand went public and alleged that tobacco companies knew that cigarettes were addictive and caused lung cancer but stated the opposite. His story was made into an Oscar-nominated feature film The Insider.

Why: “I am honoured that people think I am a hero but I do not accept that moniker as others are much more deserving of it. I did what was right, I have no regrets and would do it again.”

W. Mark Felt

Who: W. Mark Felt, Associate Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

What: Deep Throat provided reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with crucial tips in uncovering the Watergate affair, showing President Richard Nixon engaged in illegal wiretapping and burglaries.

Why: “I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat.”

Daniel Ellsberg

Who: Daniel Ellsberg, a US military analyst for the RAND Corporation

What: He released The Pentagon Papers in 1971 showing that President Lyndon Johnson had planned to bomb North Vietnam while campaigning on a platform of “we seek no wider war” in 1964. The US Supreme Court ruled the papers could be published.

Why: “I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public.”