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NEW: Girlfriend's father says he's shocked by Snowden's actions
Lindsay Mills describes herself as a "pole-dancing superhero"
She took to her blog after her boyfriend came forward as the leaker behind Guardian, Post stories
"My world has opened and closed all at once," she wrote Monday
The girlfriend of self-avowed National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote that she was “adrift in a sea of chaos” after he spilled government secrets and decamped to Hong Kong.
In a post on her blog, Lindsay Mills – who described herself as a “pole-dancing superhero” – said she was typing on a “tear-streaked keyboard.”
“For those of you that know me without my super hero cape, you can probably understand why I’ll be refraining from blog posts for awhile. My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass,” she wrote Monday, a day after American and British newspapers published Snowden’s identity as the source behind their reports on the U.S. surveillance programs.
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“Surely there will be villainous pirates, distracting mermaids, and tides of change in this new open water chapter of my journey. But at the moment all I can feel is alone. And for the first time in my life I feel strong enough to be on my own. Though I never imagined my hand would be so forced.”
The same day, on the photo-sharing website Flickr, Mills wrote, “I have lost my compass and find myself adrift in a sea of chaos. Goodbye my friends. I’ll see you when the waves calmly set my vessel back on dry land.”
Her blog has since been taken down.
Snowden, 29, touched off a Washington firestorm when he leaked classified documents that revealed the scope of the NSA’s collection of telephone and Internet data.
There is no evidence that Mills knew of Snowden’s actions.
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Her father spoke to reporters Tuesday outside his home in Laurel, Maryland.
He described Snowden as “nice, shy, reserved.” His daughter and Snowden dated for four to five years.
“He’s always had strong convictions of right and wrong, and it kind of makes sense, but (I’m) still shocked,” Jonathan Mills said.
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He wished Snowden good luck: “He’s got my love.”
Snowden told the British newspaper the Guardian, one of the two outlets that broke stories on the programs last week, that he left his job with an NSA contractor in Hawaii without telling either his family or Mills.
“My family does not know what is happening,” he said. “My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with … I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.”