Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files To Russia

mspohr writes "There's an interesting interview with Edward Snowden in the NY Times. He talks freely about his decision to start collecting documents. His experience in reporting problems and abuse convinced him he would be discredited. He also states he didn't take any of the documents to Russia and that the Chinese don't have them either. 'What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of the materials onward? There's a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents,' he said. Snowden turned them all over to the journalists. He also corrects last week's NY Times story about the derogatory comment in his personnel file; it was due to him discovering and trying to report a vulnerability in the CIA's internal software."

Re:Trust

[segedunum]

Stabbing who in the back, exactly?

Re:Trust

[cheekyjohnson]

He's blown a whole lot of trust as it is, by stabbing his country in the back so spectacularly.

Precisely. Nonsensical things such as freedom and the constitution are overshadowed by the threat of the bogeymen who are out to get us.

Re:Trust

[ClassicASP]

I dunno....I'd say he stabbed his country's _government_ in the back. I wouldn't say he stabbed his country in the back though. So far I haven't heard anything that would indicate that Snowden hates America.

Re:He'd better have something.....

[Errol backfiring]

He does not need to remain relevant. I think he just wants a boring life now, possibly including some potatoes. He already knows that "May you live in interesting times" is a curse. And as long as he remains in a country that is willing to stick up a finger to the USA, he is probably safe.

Some accused him of giving the files to Russia

[thue]

There has been various accusations that Snowden leaked the documents to Russia, willingly or unwillingly. This should (in a perfect world) make those accusations less valid. Also, this shows against that Snowden is damn brave and clever - it must have been very tempting to hold on to the documents, which he paid so dearly for.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174983/did-russia-china-harvest-snowdens-secrets# [thenation.com]

Re:Trust

[Anonymous Coward]

He's only "stabbed you in the back" if you're a bootlicker. Not all of us piss ourselves over "teh terrists" and need Big Brother to monitor our lives 24/7 "for our safety". He's no more stabbed anyone in the back than the persons who leaked the Pentagon Papers and the information on the Watergate scandal. Stop being a compliant ninny.

Re:Trust

[TWiTfan]

What makes him think that everyone should believe him now?

Because he's been telling the truth and the NSA definitely haven't?

Re:Zero Percent Chance?

[Anonymous Coward]

So how much do you get paid being a bootlicking shill of the US government? A traitor to the people masquerading as "patriot". How pathetic this country has become.

Re:Trust

[khallow]

The Obama administration and the NSA chief have already radically changed the stories they were telling because of Snowden.

Snowden will and does lie & bend his tale to justify his acts

That's why we look at evidence and not just make up shit. The Obama administration has vast resources at its disposal with which to disprove Snowden assertions. It hasn't chosen to do so for some reason. I wager it is because Snowden's assertions and accompanying evidence are close enough to truth.

Re:Zero Percent Chance?

[khallow]

Speaking of lying, I'm more concerned about how radically the Obama administration changed its stories after Snowden's revelations. Basically, a bunch of officials were caught lying and only changed their story due to Snowden. It sure looks to me also like there is far more going on than most people want to believe.

Re:Only moose and squirrel have them

[TapeCutter]

Do you recall that Mr. Greenwald's lover was carrying electronic copies of many documents with him, as well as a scribbled note with the password?

Yes, I also seem to recall the UK government "probed" Mr Greenwald's lover for 8-9 hour before letting him thru the border. Pretty sure they wouldn't have done that if they had found a "spy". What Snowden did was most certainly illegal. I'm not so sure it was "wrong", but I'm sure as hell that baying for his crucifixion based on what been reported so far is immoral. .

Having said that I think there' more than political "coincidence" to the timing. Just prior to it hitting the news Obama was loudly beating his chest telling the world he was "not going to put up with cyber spying from China". The meeting was supposed to be a big deal, Obama was going to get tough with "cyber-spies", the meeting was blown off the front pages by the Snowden story. Talk about "egg meets face", the US tried to claim the moral high ground by loudly proclaiming it was China who was spying on everyone, it's my contention the Chinese responded by pulling Uncle Sam's pants down in front of the whole world (politically speaking).

When you look at the political powerhouses on the planet, Russia, US, EU and China, it's China (a federation of ancient empires) that shows the most unity at the top and given it's miraculous economic rise from famines to fortunes over the last 40yrs they have very strong support amongst the people. "Good", "evil", "apathetic", doesn't matter what kind of empire/republic it is, unity will win the day when push turns to shove..