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It's June 3rd, 2013. Edward Snowden is sitting in a hotel room in Hong Kong.

He keeps glancing at the door, his nerves racked. Over and over Snowden replays the same haunting image in his mind.

A SWAT team kicking down the door, agents shoving him to the ground and laying cold handcuffs on his wrists.

Snowden can imagine the police hauling him away and shoving him in a jail cell where he'll spend the rest of his life, a prisoner for trying to do the right thing.

It's a terrifying vision, and the longer Snowden entertains this nightmare, the more he can feel anxiety creeping up inside him, threatening to swallow him whole.

So Snowden stops himself, takes the deep breath. He has to stop fredding, he has to focus on the present, because right now he's giving the most important interview of his life.

And if he doesn't stay clear-headed, no one will understand the full story, and why America has to learn the truth about its government.

Snownex hails and looks back up at Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the Guardian.

For hours, the two men have been talking about why Snowden leaked thousands of top secret government documents, showing that the National Security Agency has been spying on Americans.

The interview has been exhausting, but it's not over yet.

Alright Ed, I'm sure you're tired, but we gotta keep going. We have to cover your personal journey.

Well okay, but can we first talk about the actual programs at the NSA? I mean I can tell you all about what they're capable of, why these surveillance programs pose a real danger to democracy.

Yeah sure, we'll talk about that, we'll get there. But right now let's talk about you. This story isn't about me. Well it's about the government sure, but it is also about you.

Are you okay with that?

Snowden bites his lip. He was the one who invited journalists into the story. He knows he could have just uploaded the files to the internet and been done with it, but Snowden wants to have an impact.

And he knows that means trusting the journalists to do their job.

Yeah okay, we can talk about me. Well good.

Now you spent most of your adult life working for the intelligence community, right?

Yeah that's right. And in that community, loyalty and secrecy are paramount.

Sure, so these values, they're seared into your brain. How did you get to a point where you were willing to go against these bedrock principles?

I just felt like the public had a right to know what was happening to its privacy.

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