The father and stepmother of Edward Snowden, the man who said he leaked news of the government’s classified surveillance program, live in Upper Macungie Township and were visited Monday afternoon by two people who identified themselves as FBI agents.
Karen Snowden, 48, said the couple had been “bombarded” by media, including ABC’s “Good Morning America,” since the story broke Sunday.
Her husband, Lonnie Snowden, 52, briefly spoke to ABC News on Sunday, saying he had last seen his son months ago for dinner and the two parted with a hug. The elder Snowden told the network he was still “digesting and processing” the news about his son.
Edward Snowden revealed himself to the British newspaper The Guardian as the person responsible for outlining the U.S. National Security Agency’s practice of monitoring Americans’ calls, emails and Internet usage.
Cordial but firm, Karen Snowden refused to offer any information about her stepson, including whether he ever lived in the Lehigh Valley. She and her husband will make a public statement but were not planning to do so Monday, she added.
A short time later, two people arrived at the home and identified themselves to a newspaper photographer as FBI agents from the Allentown office. An FBI spokesperson in Philadelphia said she could not comment.
One of the Snowdens’ nearby neighbors, Tammy Reck, said she spoke briefly with the couple Sunday.
“We were out front and they came out to tell us the neighborhood might get a little confused – that there might be a lot of media around, and they told us why,” Reck said. Reporters from CNN, CBS, NBC, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press were outside the home Monday evening.
Karen Snowden was upset at the possibility of never seeing Edward again, Reck said. “Not seeing a child anymore, that’s sad, no matter how old that child is,” she said.
Edward Snowden, 29, told The Guardian he does not expect to ever go home again, and when asked what he thinks will happen to him, he responded, “Nothing good.”
Lonnie and Karen Snowden live in the 15th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Charlie Dent, a Republican. Dent said Monday that their son “should face prosecution.”
Dent added that while the programs Edward Snowden exposed are controversial, “they have likely stopped attacks and saved lives.”
Most Americans, 56 percent, said it’s acceptable for the government to secretly access Americans’ phone records, according to a public poll conducted by The Washington Post/Pew Research Center from Thursday through Sunday.
Lonnie Snowden was an officer in the Coast Guard, according to public records.
The elder Snowden lived in coastal Elizabeth City, N.C., where Edward was raised, and in Crofton, Md. – near NSA headquarters – from the early 1990s until 2007, according to public records.
It was unclear when Lonnie Snowden moved to the Lehigh Valley and married Karen, who, records show, has lived at the Upper Macungie address since 1998.
Reck, who described the Snowdens as “great neighbors,” said she remembers the couple having a backyard celebration five years ago after a quiet wedding.
Edward Snowden, a high school dropout who most recently worked as a private contractor working at the NSA in Hawaii, told The Guardian that as an analyst he had the capability to wiretap anyone. After leaking the information, he fled to Hong Kong without telling his family, he told the newspaper.
“No. My family does not know what is happening. … My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with … ,” Snowden said in the interview.
“I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. I am not going to be able to communicate with them. They [the authorities] will act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night.”
Journalists flocked to the Snowdens’ Upper Macungie home Monday, but except for WFMZ’s television van, the presence of the press was difficult to notice. Most reporters sat outside in passenger vehicles, looking for a sign that the Snowdens might issue a statement.
When a neighbor came out of his house at 7:15 p.m., a CBS camerawoman asked the man if he minded her taking pictures of him walking to his garage.
“Go for it,” he said, and her camera followed him as he left in a pickup truck.
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Reporter Frank Warner contributed to this story.
