Whistleblower Snowden Defends Leaks: Webchat Whistleblower Edward Snowden has insisted he did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets, as he gave his views in a live webchat. Mr Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency (NSA), also said the American government "immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason." It comes as a British diplomat in Ankara is meeting the Turkish foreign ministry over allegations the country's finance minister was spied on during the G20 summit. British spies eavesdropped on a string of foreign diplomats during the 2009 talks, according to documents leaked by Mr Snowden. Asked about why he had gone to Hong Kong where he made his revelations about a secret US internet surveillance programme, he said "it would be foolish to volunteer yourself...if you can do more good outside of a prison than in it." The ex-CIA employee added: "Leaving the US was an incredible risk, as NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30 days in advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained. Hong Kong provided that. The former intelligence analyst, 29, who leaked top-secret information about the controversial US Prism programme, also said "the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped. The American citizen has admitted to giving details of the monitoring of phone calls and internet data from companies such as Google and Facebook, to The Guardian and Washington Post. Based on the information leaked by Mr Snowden, the newspapers disclosed the existence of the Prism system - set up by the NSA to track customer data directly from ISP servers to fight the threat of terrorism. Speaking during the webchat with The Guardian, he dismissed claims he was working as a Chinese agent, saying: "This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public." He also said he planned to release more details on how he says the NSA can gain direct access to internet data on private servers. "More detail on how direct NSA's accesses are is coming," he said, repeating his allegation that US federal agents have access to private users' emails and web traffic. He said: "I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target. Not only that, when NSA makes a technical mistake during an exploitation operation, critical systems crash. Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting? So we can potentially reveal a potential terrorist with the potential to kill fewer Americans than our own Police? No, the public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the 'consent of the governed' is meaningless. Mr Snowden said he is not trying to hide from justice in Hong Kong, where he fled to last month..