The young government contractor who leaked details of a vast, secret US program to monitor Internet users, said he would be made to pay dearly for his action, the Washington Post reported.
"I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end," Edward Snowden wrote in an indirect exchange with Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman.
Snowden gave an even starker view of his possible fate in an interview published Sunday in Britain's Guardian newspaper, saying that he feared he might be snatched by the CIA.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads (Chinese mafia). Any of their agents or assets," he said.
But he said in his exchanges published in the Washington Post that he hoped the intense media attention he was now getting would help keep him safe and perhaps prompt some government to offer him protection.
"There's no precedent in my life for this kind of thing," he wrote to Gellman. "I've been a spy for almost all of my adult life -- I don't like being in the spotlight."
Nearly a month ago, as he was taking the first steps that would lead to two newspaper exposes and a massive global furor, Snowden said he was aware of, and ready for the risks he was courting.
But he said it was worth it.
"Perhaps I am naive," he wrote, "but I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents."
Gellman said Snowden contacted him weeks before getting in touch with British newspaper The Guardian, which ultimately published the leaked information first.
The Post reporter said Snowden had asked on May 24 that the paper publish in full, within 72 hours, a 41-slide power point presentation describing PRISM, the NSA program used to gather data trails left by targeted foreign citizens using the Internet outside the United States.
But the newspaper refused, preferring to take time to consult government officials about the potential harm to national security, and ultimately publishing just four of the slides, two weeks later.
In the meantime, Snowden contacted Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian, which published its own expose a day earlier.
Under PRISM, which has been running for six years, the US National Security Agency can issue directives to Internet firms demanding access to emails, online chats, pictures, files, videos and more, uploaded by foreign users.
US President Barack Obama has defended the data trawls, saying America was "going to have to make some choices between balancing privacy and security to protect against terror." There was no immediate White House reaction to Snowden's declaration.
