<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA who is responsible for us knowing that President Obama knows that we still listen to Avril Lavigne sometimes (got that? He&amp;#039;s the guy who blew the whistle on the government surveillance program PRISM), is being hailed as a traitor by some, a hero by others, but everyone agrees he will be known as one of the biggest leakers of government info in American history.  According to a new profile of Snowden in The Guardian, before he made the decision to come forward, Snowden was a contractor for NSA with a cushy paycheck (about $200,000) and a long-term girlfriend in Hawaii. But, as he&amp;#039;s said in interviews, knowing about the encroaching on the private lives of citizens was weighing heavily on him: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can&amp;#039;t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they&amp;#039;re secretly building.&amp;quot; So he told his clueless girlfriend \u2014 you can only imagine what she might be feeling now \u2014 that he had to take a trip, and bailed. Considering he&amp;#039;s deep in hiding now, it is safe to assume that this is probably the first she&amp;#039;s heard about him since. It&amp;#039;s understandable why he would not want to involve her, but difficult to imagine your boyfriend being caught up in one of the largest scandals our country&amp;#039;s ever seen. She&amp;#039;s probably terrified that the government will question her due to her affiliation with Snowden, even if she knows nothing about his plans. Maybe she&amp;#039;s turned on by his commitment to transparency. Maybe dating a fugitive long distance will make the heart grow fonder. But if not, this is going to be one dramatic breakup.  Follow Anna on Twitter. Image courtesy The Guardian "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a13181/edward-snowden-nsa-girlfriend/?src=global_footer>