Edward Snowden was 'disgruntled employee' not a 'principled whistleblower', report finds

A report by the House Intelligence Committee has concluded that whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee who leaked thousands of classified US documents three years ago, was a "disgruntled employee" and not a "principled whistleblower."

The documents he leaked revealed the enormous surveillance measures put in place all over America following the 9/11 attacks.

The report, which took two years to compile, said of Snowden: “[He] was a disgruntled employee who had frequent conflicts with his managers and was reprimanded just two weeks before he began illegally downloading classified documents."

The classified report which was released in a shorter, unclassified version, highlights that Snowden "did not voice such concerns to any oversight officials”.