--- title: Post-Snowden Leak Reveals Secret Details of U.S. Terrorist Watch Lists description: The documents are not as highly classified as the materials released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden canonical: https://time.com/3083318/terrorist-watch-list-leak-snowden/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-05T21:54:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:35.181Z article:section: Politics og:title: Post-Snowden Leak Reveals Secret Details of U.S. Terrorist Watch Lists og:description: The documents are not as highly classified as the materials released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden og:url: https://time.com/3083318/terrorist-watch-list-leak-snowden/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1493 og:image:height: 840 og:image:alt: Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Post-Snowden Leak Reveals Secret Details of U.S. Terrorist Watch Lists twitter:description: The documents are not as highly classified as the materials released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Post-Snowden Leaks Reveal Secret Details of U.S. Terrorist Watch List > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Snowden Speaks: “There Are Some Things Worth Dying For” [Watch (HLS stream): Snowden Speaks: “There Are Some Things Worth Dying For”](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HEz0anrx.m3u8) (2:28)  _Published 2014-05-30. The man responsible for the largest security breach in U.S. history says he had no choice, and he did it for his country. Wednesday night’s broadcast on NBC marked the first interview by the now infamous NSA leaker with an American network._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 5, 2014 9:54 PM UTC  Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Pavel Golovkin—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 5, 2014 9:54 PM UTC The U.S. government believes that someone other than former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has recently leaked secret national-security documents to the media, an official confirmed Tuesday. The documents, [published](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/08/05/watch-commander/) by the Intercept on Tuesday, detail the growth of federal terrorist watch lists. They were drafted after Snowden fled prosecution in the U.S. for Russia, when he no longer had access to classified intelligence networks. CNN [first](http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/politics/u-s-new-leaker/index.html) reported that the government has assessed a second source of the documents. Classified as “secret” with instructions not to reveal them to foreign nationals, the documents would have been available broadly throughout the intelligence community and the military on the classified SIPRNet, the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, the system predominantly used by former Army Private Bradley Manning to collect documents to pass to WikiLeaks. That network is open to a vastly larger audience than the top-secret-level JWICS, the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, which was used by Snowden to gather as many as a million documents on some of the nation’s most sensitive surveillance programs. So far, just a couple of documents have been published, making it impossible to determine whether the source of the leak simply passed the Intercept a small number of documents or a larger contingent on the order of the previous leaks. The published documents describe government efforts using the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), a database used by federal state and local law-enforcement agencies to identify and track known or suspected terrorist suspects. The database has been subject to public debate and federal litigation, because of the secretive process that determines inclusion on this list. The leaked documents say TIDE included more than 1 million people in June 2013, after Snowden had fled the country. The documents also detail use of the database in tracking possible combatants in the Syrian civil war and in providing security at events, like the Boston and Chicago marathons. A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the possible source of the leak. ## Transcript The man responsible for the largest security breach in US history says he had no choice and he did it for his country. Had the government not gone too far and over reached uh, we wouldn't be in a situation where whistleblowers were necessary. There are some things worth dying for. And I think the country is one of them. During the hour long broadcast Wednesday night, Snowden told NBC's Brian Williams, in his first interview with an American network, that he felt he had no choice but to expose the NSA's massive surveillance system. US officials have estimated Snowden leaked 1. 7 million top secret documents. And have charged him with espionage, that happened last summer. While Snowden said that he wants to return home, he dodged the question when Williams asked how anxious he is to make a deal to return to the US and leave temporary asylum in Moscow. My priority is not about myself. It's about making sure that these programs are reformed and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind, can be helped by my actions. US Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials denounced Snowden ahead of NBC's broadcast, seeming to seize on pre- released sound bites of Snowden saying he considered himself a patriot. Patriots don't go to Russia. Edward Snowden is a coward, he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country. And if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so. The New York Times reports NBC negotiated with Snowden's associates for months to get the interview, with what the paper called cloak and dagger tactics. Including unannounced plane travel, lost luggage, hotel bookings under assumed names, and two days sequestered in a room with a view of Red Square. Snowden acknowledged concerns he's abroad and receiving shelter from a country most would consider as having uneasy relations with the US at best. However Snowden says he's had no contact with the Russian government and he destroyed his own copies of the documents so no one could leverage him. The political and diplomatic damage in wake of Snowden's leak has been well documented, but government officials won't detail what actual damages the leaked documents caused to national security. Snowden also said if there's any indication his temporary asylum appears in danger of expiring this summer, he'll apply for an extension to stay in Russia. Thanks for watching. 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