Privacy and Security Part 2: An Accurate Account

(If you haven’t done so already, please read part 1 entitled “Privacy and Security: Can they Coincide?” before continuing)

The job of an analyst requires them to revise their interpretation as new information comes to light. So that is what I will present with the story of Edward Snowden…

As it turns out, I didn’t do my research well and cited an article/interview from the Guardian, which is the journal Snowden gave the stolen, classified documents from the NSA to. I jumped on this source because the journal was so close to the events that unfolded. However, it should have been obvious to me that they would have their own motives for not incriminating him and of course Snowden’s responses in the interview would seek to prove his innocence.

The Wall Street Journal tells a v e r y different story.

In short: Snowden is not the victim he played himself out to be. Those who are truly innocent should have nothing to hide, but instead he lied.

He lied about the number of documents he stole and which ones. He lied about his reason for stealing them. He lied about why he was in Russia. He lied that he didn’t have any more documents in his possession while in Russia.

As I have learned from my studies in Intelligence Analysis, a large portion of good analysis is learning to ask the right questions. The Guardian did not. The Wall Street Journal did.

They didn’t take Snowden’s words at face value and instead spoke with other witnesses who were involved. These were to include Anatoly Kucherena, who was Putin’s lawyer at the time and acted as the mediator between Snowden and Russian intelligence. Kucherena personally attested that Snowden had not given all of the documents over to the journalists as he had originally claimed. This also explained why WikiLeaks (“an organization that the Obama administration asserted to be a tool of Russian intelligence after the hacking of Democratic Party leaders’ email in 2016”) continued to release NSA documents after Snowden arrived in Russia. According to a damage assessment carried out by the NSA and the Pentagon, Snowden extracted 1.5 million documents, not just the ones related to surveillance, as he had claimed, but documents that could endanger U.S. troops and national security at large.

Furthermore, upon the publication of his memoir, “Permanent Record,” the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Snowden and his breach of contract with the CIA and NSA. “ ‘Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit,’ said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.” Customarily, when a former employee of the intelligence services looks to publish anything that may compromise classified material, they are under contract (a non-disclosure agreement) to submit their writing for review. After review, material is often redacted, which means either the author must revise their writing for re-submission or phrases are simply blacked out (as can be seen here with former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game).

In conclusion, I hope this helps to set the record straight and you can learn from my mistake.

Now that you have seen both perspectives and have read an accurate account, the question still remains… is Edward Snowden a traitor or a patriot?

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde