Snowden responds to accusations that he is selling sensitive information to China:
In response to a question as to why he fled to Hong Kong enclave, Snowden said, the U.S. government "immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home..."
He said the U.S. government openly declared him guilty of treason and claimed his actions were "an unforgivable crime."
"That's not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it," he wrote.
He also suggested that it was easier to go to Hong Kong rather than risk being interdicted on the way to Iceland, which also appeared to be a likely haven.
Snowden was dismissive of charges that he has or will exchange U.S. information to China in exchange for asylum.
He called the charge a "predictable smear" from a U.S. media with a "knee-jerk'RED CHINA!' reaction" to anything involving Hong Kong or or China.
" Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now," he said.
Snowden also addresses why he is revealing information about the Obama administration but hasn't provided the same type of disclosures about previous administrations.
Snowden said he did not release the documents during the prior administration because Barack Obama's campaign promises and election "gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes."
"Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge." Snowden wrote.
Snowden also accuses Google, Facebook and other tech companies of being "misleading" in their denials of a giant government surveillance program called PRISM.
"They are legally compelled to comply and maintain their silence in regard to specifics of the program, but that does not comply them from ethical obligation," he said. "If for example Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple refused to provide this cooperation with the Intelligence Community, what do you think the government would do? Shut them down?"
Keep your eyes on The Guardian's NSA page, since they are the ones Snowden went to and have been the main source of breaking news on the Obama administration's domestic spying antics.
Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.
