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WASHINGTON — The man who exposed two sweeping U.S. surveillance programs and touched off a national debate on privacy versus security, has revealed his own identity. He risks decades in jail for the disclosures to reporters — if the U.S. can extradite him from Hong Kong where he has taken refuge.

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Edward Snowden, 29, who says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity Sunday.

He initially wanted to keep his name hidden, but later said he was certain to be exposed — and warned that both he and reporters could be in danger for publishing the information.

“I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end,” he wrote in early May, before making his first direct contact with reporters.

The U.S. intelligence community, he wrote, “will most certainly kill you if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information.”