William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers [to] emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington's move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at a conference in London organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism and revealed the extent of the surveillance programs unleashed by the Bush and Obama administrations. "At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US", Binney said. "This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores." Binney ... described a future where surveillance is ubiquitous and government intrusion unlimited. "The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control", Binney said. He praised the revelations and bravery of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Unlike Snowden, Binney didn't take any documents with him when he left the NSA. He now says that hard evidence of illegal spying would have been invaluable. The latest Snowden leaks, featured in the Washington Post, detail private conversations of average Americans with no connection to extremism. It shows that the NSA is not just pursuing terrorism, as it claims, but ordinary citizens going about their daily communications. "The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone", Binney said, "and it's said to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks."