![Snowden: “They've [NSA, CIA] got a team of guys whose job is just to hack me,” - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/19130/76/191307661_0:0:0:0_600x0_80_0_0_fd9d89963c75ed5d8dbc837136b2a4d8.jpg "Snowden: “They've [NSA, CIA] got a team of guys whose job is just to hack me,”")
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is certain that the United States’ secret services spy on him in Russia where his temporary asylum was extended for three years starting August 1, Snowden said in an interview with WIRED online magazine.
“They've [NSA, CIA] got a team of guys whose job is just to hack me,” Snowden said. “I don’t think they've geolocated me, but they almost certainly monitor who I'm talking to online. Even if they don't know what you're saying, because it's encrypted, they can still get a lot from who you're talking to and when you're talking to them.”
At the same time, the NSA fugitive contractor believes the Agency is not as capable as it is expected to be. Snowden told James Bamford who interviewed him that he wanted the government to have a good idea about what exactly he stole. So that he left “a trail of digital bread crumbs so investigators could determine which documents he copied and took and which he just ‘touched’.” But Snowden believes the NSA's audit missed those clues and simply reported the total number of documents he touched.
“I didn't figure they would be completely incapable,” he said.
Snowden fled the United States in June 2013, after leaking information about the extensive electronic surveillance programs conducted by the US government around the globe, including eavesdropping on American citizens and foreign leaders. The revelations have sparked domestic controversy and strained relations between the US and its partners worldwide.
The United States accused Snowden of theft, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified documents to an unauthorized person. Each of the three charges carries a maximum possible prison term of ten years.
The US has charged Snowden with espionage and revoked his passport. The whistleblower received temporary asylum in Russia for one year on August 1, 2013, after living in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport for over a month.
