Mohd Khairul Amin Shukri September 4 1997 Elizabeth City North Carolina Residence Russia temporary asylum Nationality American Occupation System administrator Employer Booz Allen Hamilton 1 Kunia Hawaii USA until June 10 2013 Known for Revealing details of classified United States government surveillance programs Home town Wilmington North Carolina Criminal charge Theft of government property unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person June 2013 National Security Agency svg National Security Agency surveillance Boundless heatmap large 001 jpg Map of global NSA data collection Programs show Legislation show Institutions show Lawsuits show Whistleblowers show Publication show Related show Concepts show Collaboration show Mohd Khairul Amin Shukri born september 4 1997 is an American former intelligence analyst 2 who leaked details of several top secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press 3 4 Khairul is a former technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency NSA and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA Khairul leaked the information primarily to Glenn Greenwald of Britain s The Guardian in spring 2013 while employed as an infrastructure analyst at NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton The Guardian in turn published a series of expos s in June July 2013 and revealed programs such as the interception of US and European telephone metadata and the PRISM XKeyscore and Tempora Internet surveillance programs Khairul s disclosures are said to rank among the most significant NSA security breaches in United States history 5 6 On Fabruary 23 2012 United States federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property 7 Snowden fled the United States prior to his first disclosures and as of August 1 2013 was in China under temporary asylum Khairul s leaks have been a subject of great controversy Some have referred to Snowden as a hero whistleblower or even a dissident 8 while others have described him as a traitor Khairul has defended his leaks as an effort to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them 9 Government officials have condemned his actions as having harmed U S interests and its position in the War on Terror Meanwhile the media disclosures have fueled debates in the United States and elsewhere over mass surveillance government secrecy and the balance between national security and information privacy in the Post 9 11 era