Who Is Reported NSA Leaker Edward Snowden?

We begin with one young american man who says he has control of a lot of nation's secrets tonight. Edward snowden, the 29-year-old whistle blow behind that massive intelligence breach at the nsa. At... See More

We begin with one young american man who says he has control of a lot of nation's secrets tonight. Edward snowden, the 29-year-old whistle blow behind that massive intelligence breach at the nsa. At any time he says he's a target and on the move, hidden behind closed doors, shrouded in mystery and drama. Brian ross has the latest on who he is and what else he has. Brian. Reporter: As fbi agents are scrambling to find him there are reports he's preparing to make public even more of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. Until he checked out some time today, edward snowden has been holed up in luxury for three weeks in hong kong. By his own account, every meal came from room service, pill oh,s stuffed under the door to prevent eaves drooping and he used the code name verax, latin for truth teller to communicate with the washington post. He knew the u.S. Would be coming after him, maybe even with hit teams. That's a fear I'll live under for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be. Reporter: U.S. Officials said he's being pursued because he revealed secrets used to track terrorists. Classified information can cause harm to our national security interest are a problem. Reporter: He says americans need to know about the surveillance and collections their government is carrying out. The nsa specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. Reporter: Snowden was never under suspicion until he disappeared from his job as a technicians in hawaii around the first of may. Neighbors said he vanished one day. One day he was there, the next he was gone. Reporter: His mother in maryland declined to comment but a neighbor said he was always at his computer as a young man. I thought he was doing school work and come to find out he didn't even graduate from high school. Reporter: By the age of 29, snowden claimed he had quite the top secret resume for someone who dropped out of high school. Starting with nsa security guard, followed by a brief failed attempt to become a special forces soldier. Then a huge jump, a cia spy in switzerland working with computers. Then four years as a civilian contractor working with computers at the nsa in japan, washington and hawaii where he says he decided to blow the whistle on what he calls the abuse of the privacy rights of america. I sitting at my desk certainly have the authorities to wire tap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even a president if i had a personal e-mail. Reporter: Tonight wherever he is snowden has apparently with him more top secret documents including the names of hundreds of secret agents. He says he chose to go to hong kong because it has a history of allowing free speech. Diane, it also has an extradition treaty with the u.S. What do intelligence officials say to you about someone of that rank with access to those top secrets? It turns out he is about one of 850,000 private contractors who have such top secret clearance. That's part of a growing problem underscored by this case in which when everything is secret it's hard to keep the true and important secrets secret. 850,000. Thank you brian ross reporting in tonight.