Edward Snowden Steps Into Secret U.S.-Russia Spy Scuffle

[struggle4progress]

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , LEE FERRAN (@leeferran) and RANDY KREIDER
June 26, 2013

... An ABC News review of public reports shows that in the past 16 months alone, at least six people have been accused or convicted of spying for the U.S. in Russia, including two Americans who were kicked out of the country and four Russians purportedly recruited by U.S. intelligence -- all sent to prison. Another American, a lawyer, was reportedly expelled from Russia this May because he rebuffed Russian agents' attempt to recruit him to spy for them ...

Some of the cases, like that of blown CIA agent Ryan Fogle, splashed across headlines the world over. But several others, like the case of a Russian intelligence colonel who worked with the CIA and got 18 years behind bars for it, barely made a ripple in American media.

Prior to 2012, the whole world took notice in 2010 when the FBI rounded up 10 undercover Russian agents in America – including the "SoHo Spy" Anna Chapman – but far fewer heard in 2011 when it was revealed a Russian intelligence official in Moscow had given the spy ring up and then fled to the U.S. That man, Col. Alexander Poteyev, reportedly had been recruited by the CIA ...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/edward-snowden-steps-secret-us-russia-spy-scuffle/story?id=19495341

[leveymg]

1. What the frack does this have to do with Snowden other than innuendo? Has Snowden been shown to be

an agent of Russian intelligence by any real evidence? No. As is typical for Ross, this is nothing more than setting a negative tone and implying guilt by reference. Pure old-fashioned propaganda technique.

[struggle4progress]

2. Snowden to newspaper: I took contractor job to gather evidence

By CNN Staff
updated 9:04 AM EDT, Wed June 26, 2013

... "My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked," the Post quoted him as saying in a story published Monday. "That is why I accepted that position about three months ago" ...

"If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published," the newspaper quoted him as saying ...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/nsa-leak-snowden-job/index.html



http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/nsa-leak-snowden-job/index.html

[leveymg]

5. That doesn't prove he was acting as a foreign agent, so it isn't proof of Espionage. eom

[struggle4progress]

10. "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind

at the same time and still retain the ability to function"

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

[struggle4progress]

3. Russia spies may be chatting with 'tasty morsel' Snowden

By Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW | Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:46pm EDT

... "He is a tasty morsel for any, any secret service, including ours. Any secret service would love to talk to him," said a Russian security source ...

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters. But a former officer of its Soviet predecessor, the KGB, said Russia was unlikely to miss out, assuming Snowden is willing to cooperate.

"It would be silly to pass on such an opportunity to get information that is very difficult, impossible or expensive to get in any other way," said the ex-officer, Lev Korolkov ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUSBRE95O1DG20130625

[leveymg]

6. Of course. Do you think the FBI/CIA/DIA would act any differently with a Russian leaker?

Again, unless we know what's being said, that doesn't prove anything other than the fact that Russian intelligence acts just like American intelligence, and they'll attempt to find out what else he might know. Personally, I think that's pretty minimal.

[Narkos]

4. He is certainly not an agent of the US

[leveymg]

8. He likely has done a great service to the country by opening the eyes of many Americans to the

extent of nearly universal surveillance of phone and email communications in America, today. That has to be balanced against potential harm of disclosure of other information, but we don't know what he knows and might be saying. So right now, it looks like a net positive.

[Narkos]

12. Perhaps right, but you seem to have a habit

Of equating us with our enemies

[leveymg]

15. We've proven time and again, that we are our own worst enemies.

I'm not alone making that equation. Virtually all heads of state, military leaders and Agency heads have eventually said the same thing - if you read biographies and history, you would know that, too.

[Narkos]

16. I think you are wrong

and guilty of false equivalence. I'll leave it at that.

[leveymg]

18. I wish I were wrong. Enough said about it.

[struggle4progress]

7. Let's now turn to your question. I haven't decided yet what I think of Snowden.

He has allegedly disappeared into a transit corridor at a Russian airport

As far as I can tell, nobody willing to be identified admits to having actually seen him, though there is at least one report out there saying he discussed room prices with a check-in clerk at the terminal pod hotel before disappearing. Nobody on the plane said they remembered seeing him

I actually don't know where he is or even if he ever left Hong Kong. Assange briefly took up the job of mouthpiece on this, but nothing Assange has said seems to have survived scrutiny in the news cycle

There are quite a number of possibilities here: he could be a brilliant lone ranger; he could be a covert US attempt to plant an agent somewhere under whistle-blower cover; he could be a naive kid with poor impulse control who's in over his head; he could have been turned by Chinese or Russian outreach

In an interview recently published by SCMP, he's advertised he has a lot more stuff. People who have been involved with Russian intelligence have said they'd like to get their hands on it. Maybe they're just jerking the US's chain. Or maybe Russian intelligence found him a place to stay while he decides where to go next

I dunno

[leveymg]

9. You may be right, and that's a good summary of possibles. I haven't made up my mind about him, too.

It will be interesting to see what else comes out. But, right now, we don't know what he is.

[struggle4progress]

11. Now let me raise another issue: Snowden's safety may actually depend on muddy waters

[leveymg]

13. Right. Both sides will want to know what he really knows, and he has been telling the other.

So, I assume he's not going to be disappeared so long as he doesn't reveal too much to either party. He probably knows that, and is likely playing the game accordingly.

[struggle4progress]

14. Well, he might know that. But he's a computer geek and systems administrator, which

may not have required a background in geopolitics, or the details of different police cultures, or other training possibly relevant to his present conditions, whatever those conditions might be

[leveymg]

17. If Greenwald has had a role as advisor, it's probably been on subjects like this where he may have

sound insight and been able to give Snowden some idea what to expect during debriefings by various parties, as a good lawyer would advise his client.

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall for those conversations.

[struggle4progress]

19. Sadly, I don't share your high opinion of Mr Greenwald

[leveymg]

20. Nothing I've seen so far has changed that.

But, that too is entirely provisional.