(VOVworld) – Edward Snowden said in a Monday interview with the BBC that he had offered to return to the United States and go to jail for leaking details of National Security Agency programs to intercept electronic communications data on a vast scale.

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden (Photo: AFP)

The former National Security Agency contractor fled to Moscow two years ago after revealing information about previously secret eavesdropping powers, and faces U.S. charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years. Snowden, 32, allegedly stole up to 1.77 million NSA documents while working in two consecutive jobs for U.S. government contractors in Hawaii between March 2012 and May 2013. Snowden's revelations about the NSA, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters and other intelligence agencies set off an international debate about spies' powers to monitor personal communications and about the balance between security and privacy.