Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21 , 1983 , in Elizabeth City , North Carolina . His maternal grandfather , Edward J. Barrett , a rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard , became a senior official with the FBI and was at the Pentagon in 2001 during the September 11 attacks . Snowden 's father , Lonnie , was also an officer in the Coast Guard , and his mother , Elizabeth , is a clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland . His older sister , Jessica , was a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington , D.C. Edward Snowden said that he had expected to work for the federal government , as had the rest of his family . His parents divorced in 2001 , and his father remarried . Snowden scored above 145 on two separate IQ tests
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Edward Snowden