Intelligence chair: NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have had Russian help - The Guardian

Subject: Re: Intelligence chair: NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have had
Russian help - The Guardian


Flap our lips and point fingers at everybody else. Anything to distract our
attention from the fact that we are playing just as dirty as the other
nations jockeying for Empire status. Let's just admit it. We want to be
top dog and we're willing to do anything to get there. After all, Nice Guys
Finish Last!

Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
To: "'Blind Democracy Discussion List'" <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2014 2:04 PM
Subject: Intelligence chair: NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have had Russian
help - The Guardian


Intelligence chair: NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have had Russian help
Dominic Rushe in New York . Edward Snowden is currently in Russia, where he
was granted asylum. Photograph: The Guardian/AFP/Getty Images Russia may
have helped the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to
reveal details of surveillance programmes and escape US authorities last
year, the chairman of the House intelligence committee claimed on Sunday.
Mike Rogers, a Republican representative from Michigan, interviewed by NBC's
Meet the Press , said Snowden was "a thief whom we believe had some help".
"I believe there's questions to be answered there," Rogers said. "I don't
think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the
handling of the [Russian intelligence service] FSB. Rogers added: "Let me
just say this. I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the
loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence.
Rogers' comments were backed by Michael McCaul, chairman of the House
committee on homeland security. Speaking from Moscow, the Texas Republican
told ABC's This Week: "I believe he [Snowden] was cultivated by a foreign
power to do what he did. McCaul said he could not "definitively" say it was
Russia that helped Snowden. "Hey, listen, I don't think ... Mr Snowden woke
up one day and had the wherewithal to do this all by himself. I think he was
helped by others. Again, I can't give a definitive statement on that ... but
I've been given all the evidence, I know Mike Rogers has access to, you
know, that I've seen that I don't think he was acting alone. Snowden was
granted temporary asylum in Russia last August, after travelling to Moscow
from Hong Kong. Last year, in an interview with the New York Times , Snowden
said he did not take any of the documents he obtained to Russia, "because it
wouldn't serve the public interest". Snowden said there was "zero-percent
chance" that Russia had received any documents and that he had handed all
his NSA data to journalists from media outlets including the Guardian,
before leaving Hong Kong. "What would be the unique value of personally
carrying another copy of the materials onward? he said. Snowden has
consistently denied any involvement with foreign spying agencies and said he
leaked the documents because he believed the NSA programmes were against the
best interests of the US people. "I don't want to live in a society that
does these sort of things," he told the Guardian last year. Rogers did not
give any supporting evidence for his claims, but suggested Snowden "used
methods beyond his technical capabilities" and had help with his travel
arrangements. "He was stealing information that had to do with how we
operate overseas to collect information to keep Americans safe ... and some
of the things he did were beyond his technical capabilities," Rogers said.
Mike Rogers is chair of the House intelligence committee. Photograph: AP
Rogers' comments came after President Barack Obama outlined possible reforms
to surveillance practices and a review of the NSA's programmes on Friday .
The speech met with a mixed reaction from privacy advocates and tech and
telecoms companies, all of whom said there was too little detail and little
clarity on how or if the system was being reformed. Some Democrats have also
been critical . Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate judiciary
committee, told Fox News Sunday that further checks and balances were
needed. "There's a concern that we have gone too much into Americans'
privacy," he said. "There's still going to be legislation on this. Rogers
was also critical of Obama. Also on Sunday, he told CNN's State of the Union
that Friday's speech had created more uncertainty in the intelligence
community and was potentially dangerous. "We really did need a decision on
Friday and what we got was lots of uncertainty," he said. "And just in my
conversations over the weekend with intelligence officials, that level of
uncertainty is already having a bit of an impact on our ability to protect
Americans by finding terrorists trying to reach into the United States. He
added: "I just don't think we want to go to pre-9/11 just because we haven't
had an attack. Sign up for the Guardian Today Our editors' picks for the
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