Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said in an interview that he takes the threat of terrorism very seriously and views himself as a patriot, and insisted he is not under the control of Russia's government and has given Moscow no intelligence documents after nearly a year of asylum there.

"I have no relationship with the Russian government at all," Snowden told NBC News in an interview – the whistleblower’s first with a U.S. television network – aired late Wednesday. "I'm not supported by the Russian government. I'm not taking money from the Russian government. I'm not a spy."

The remarks by Snowden, whose leaks about highly classified U.S. surveillance programs upended the NSA, upset millions of ordinary people as well as world leaders and prompted limited reforms by President Barack Obama, were his most extensive to date on his relations with his host government.

While some U.S. government officials have said Snowden's leaks could benefit those wishing to harm American interests, he insisted that he takes "the threat of terrorism seriously."

"I was on Fort Meade [in Maryland, where the NSA is headquartered] on Sept. 11th. I was right outside the NSA. So, I remember the tension on that day. I remember hearing on the radio the planes hitting. And I remember thinking my grandfather, who worked for the FBI at the time, was in the Pentagon when the plane hit it," Snowden said.

"And I think it's really disingenuous for the government to invoke and sort of scandalize our memories to sort of exploit the national trauma that we all suffered together, and worked so hard to come through, to justify programs that have never been shown to keep us safe."

But Current and former U.S. intelligence officials have said it is unlikely Russian security services have not squeezed Snowden for secrets.

Snowden — who said he wants to return to the United States — said he destroyed classified materials before transiting to a Moscow airport, where he was prevented from onward travel.

"I took nothing to Russia, so I could give them nothing," he told NBC's Brian Williams in the hour-long interview.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have said he was welcome to return to the United States if he wanted to face justice for leaking details of massive U.S. intelligence-gathering programs.

"If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home," Snowden told Williams in an interview that is one of several he has given since leaving the U.S.

Asked how eager he was to make a deal to return to the United States, Snowden replied: “My priority is not about myself. It’s about making sure that these programs are reformed — and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind — can be helped by my actions.”

But when asked why he doesn’t go home and "face the music," as suggested by some in the U.S. government, he said that "the music is not an open and fair court."