Inquiry says Snowden in contact with Russia's spy services

[webfact]

Inquiry says Snowden in contact with Russia's spy services 
EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press
RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services, according to a bipartisan congressional report released at a time when Russia is considered a top national security concern.

 

The two-year inquiry focused on Snowden's 2013 leak of classified U.S. material about America's surveillance programs. It concluded that Snowden compromised national security by these disclosures and is avoiding prosecution while living in a country that is considered one of the top U.S. adversaries. In recent months, U.S. intelligence agencies have been outspoken about their beliefs that Russia actively interfered in the U.S. political process by hacking into private email accounts.

 

The report sends a strong message to President Barack Obama during his final days in office: Do not pardon Edward Snowden.

 

Obama has not offered any indication that he is considering pardoning Snowden for the leaks that embarrassed the U.S. and angered allies. Lisa Monaco, Obama's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, said last year that Snowden "should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers — not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime."

 

However, there has been a push by privacy advocacy groups to pardon the former NSA contractor who they herald as a whistleblower for leaking documents that disclosed the extent of the data the U.S. collects on Americans in its efforts to fight terrorism. After the disclosures, Obama reined in some of the surveillance authorities and put in place additional measures to provide more transparency to the classified programs.

 

The House intelligence committee released the report to provide what the panel's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., called "a fuller account of Edward Snowden's crimes and the reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security."

 

The 33-page unclassified report pointed to statements in June 2016 by the deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the Russian parliament's upper house, who asserted that "Snowden did share intelligence" with the Russian government.

 

The report said, "Since Snowden's arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services." The following sentence was redacted, and there is nothing in the unclassified report that explains why the committee believes Snowden is still sharing intelligence with the Russians.

 

The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Snowden isn't a whistleblower as he and his defenders claim. "Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans' privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to America's adversaries and those who mean to do America harm," Schiff said.

 

Ben Wizner, Snowden's lawyer, dismissed the report and insisted that Snowden acted to inform the public.

 

"The House committee spent three years and millions of dollars in a failed attempt to discredit Edward Snowden, whose actions led to the most significant intelligence reforms in a generation," Wizner said. "The report wholly ignores Snowden's repeated and courageous criticism of Russian surveillance and censorship laws. It combines demonstrable falsehoods with deceptive inferences to paint an entirely fictional portrait of an American whistleblower."

 

One of the programs that came under great scrutiny is set to expire in a year, and it will be a top priority for the House committee, among others in Congress, to get it renewed. Under that program, the NSA sweeps up communications of non-Americans outside the U.S., and it can also capture the domestic communications of any American in contact with the terror suspect, even if those contacts have nothing to do with terrorism. The resulting sweeps are likely to have included emails and other data from tens of thousands of Americans over the past decade, experts have said.

 

Three years ago, Snowden revealed U.S. government efforts to hack into the data pipelines used by U.S. companies to serve customers overseas. The programs collected the telephone metadata records of millions of Americans and examined emails from overseas.

 

Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia to avoid prosecution.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-12-23

[jesimps]

The guy's a traitor and deserves the death penalty if the Spams can get him back IMHO.

 

[Tapster]

Er,...........or he's a very brave guy who blew the whistle on some issues of personal freedom which should be held dear by every American and every citizen of any country.

 

If he went home, he'd never be judged by a jury of his peers, there'd be a kangaroo court and he'd be put away for life.

 

The shit he's had to go through, leaving his life in the US, exiled in Moscow and cut off from his cultural roots...................rather than being carried on the shoulders of his loving countrymen, grateful for the exposure of such double-dealing on the part of their government....................he really doesn't deserve. At least his girlfriend is with him.

 

It's bullshit to say that he's involved with Russia's intelligence network. I'm sure they're interested in him but he's not a commie who's sold out to the Ruskies, rather someone who needs protection from a hostile nation whose government is more powerful than the will of its people.

 

[craigt3365]

1 minute ago, Tapster said:

Er,...........or he's a very brave guy who blew the whistle on some issues of personal freedom which should be held dear by every American and every citizen of any country.

 

If he went home, he'd never be judged by a jury of his peers, there'd be a kangaroo court and he'd be put away for life.

 

The shit he's had to go through, leaving his life in the US, exiled in Moscow and cut off from his cultural roots...................rather than being carried on the shoulders of his loving countrymen, grateful for the exposure of such double-dealing on the part of their government....................he really doesn't deserve. At least his girlfriend is with him.

 

It's bullshit to say that he's involved with Russia's intelligence network. I'm sure they're interested in him but he's not a commie who's sold out to the Ruskies, rather someone who needs protection from a hostile nation whose government is more powerful than the will of its people.

 

Sure, pretty much everybody is concerned about their personal freedom.  They're also concerned with the security of their country.  Which this guy obviously didn't care about when he released all this info.  There are ways to deal with things like this.  Sure, they take time, but he went the short way and is now paying the price.  He violated some serious laws.

 

He'd be judged properly.  And possibly put away for life.  He knew the risk.  It was up to him.  So yes, he did deserve it. 

 

He's in Russia, so yes, he sold out to them.  His choice.  It's pretty much a guarantee he's met with Russian intelligence officers.  No way they'd let him into the country and protect him with out at least having some conversations.  What was said?  You and I will probably never know.

[hdkane]

From patriot to traitor...

[JHolmesJr]

It would be real easy for the donald to get snowden back. I think he will, but doubt he'll pardon him either. 

[deathmule]

15 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Sure, pretty much everybody is concerned about their personal freedom.  They're also concerned with the security of their country.  Which this guy obviously didn't care about when he released all this info.  There are ways to deal with things like this.  Sure, they take time, but he went the short way and is now paying the price.  He violated some serious laws.

 

He'd be judged properly.  And possibly put away for life.  He knew the risk.  It was up to him.  So yes, he did deserve it. 

 

He's in Russia, so yes, he sold out to them.  His choice.  It's pretty much a guarantee he's met with Russian intelligence officers.  No way they'd let him into the country and protect him with out at least having some conversations.  What was said?  You and I will probably never know.

 

Well, to be honest Russia was the safest place to be. Considering the US illegally (diplomatic immunity) grounded the plane of Evo Morales because they thought Snowden was onboard. They would seize the place to find him, in Russia they can't really do that.

 

Originally he applied for asylum in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua and all of them accepted the request. Short term these countries could be safe but with a government change things could change.

 

Russia is more stable

[dick dasterdly]

Its one of those things.

 

Some of us appreciate those who 'whistle blow' when our governments/military/politicians are behaving badly - whereas others are more concerned that 'whistle blowers' violated their countries' laws, regardless of any wrong doing proven by said whistle blowers' revelations.

[up-country_sinclair]

He shouldn't be pardoned for his crimes against the United States, but having him sit in Russia isn't the answer either.  I have no idea how this situation wil be resolved.  Maybe Putin will turn him over to Trump on inauguration day.

 

And I'm not saying his crimes were or weren't justified, simply that they were crimes.

[craigt3365]

4 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Its one of those things.

 

Some of us appreciate those who 'whistle blow' when our governments/military/politicians are behaving badly - whereas others are more concerned that 'whistle blowers' violated their countries' laws, regardless of any wrong doing proven by said whistle blowers' revelations.

Where do you draw the line regarding which laws can be broken and which ones can't?  A slippery slope for sure.

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, deathmule said:

 

Well, to be honest Russia was the safest place to be. Considering the US illegally (diplomatic immunity) grounded the plane of Evo Morales because they thought Snowden was onboard. They would seize the place to find him, in Russia they can't really do that.

 

Originally he applied for asylum in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua and all of them accepted the request. Short term these countries could be safe but with a government change things could change.

 

Russia is more stable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident
 

Quote

 

On 1 July 2013, president Evo Morales of Bolivia, who had been attending a conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia, appeared predisposed to offer asylum to Edward Snowden during an interview with RT.^[1] The following day, the airplane carrying him back to Bolivia from Russia took off from Vnukovo Airport, but was rerouted to Austria when France, Spain and Italy^[2] reportedly denied access to their airspace, allegedly due to suspicions that Snowden was on board.^[3] Snowden was in fact still in Sheremetyevo Airport, where he had been staying since arriving in Russia a week earlier. An audio tape was subsequently released which appeared to be a recording of the flight crew requesting to land in Austria on the grounds they "could not get a correct indication" of their remaining fuel levels.^[4]

 

Austria's deputy chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, said that the plane was searched, although the Bolivian Defense Minister denied a search took place, saying Morales had denied entry to his plane.

 

 

Interesting.  So much for Wikileaks always publishing correct info. LOL

Quote

In April 2015, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange admitted to having deliberately leaked the false information about Snowden being on the plane to the US, as part of "special measures" to distract secret services. In response, the Bolivian ambassador to Russia has demanded that Assange apologize for putting their president's life at risk.^[17] In an interview by the Bolivian Newspaper El Deber, in August 2015, Assange admitted that Wikileaks negotiated with Venezuelan diplomats the escape of Snowden in Maduro's and later in Morales' presidential plane. He added that Bolivian diplomats "most certainly were informed about the negotiations" and that there was a clear subordination of the involved European countries, despite of their claims of being defendants of human rights.^[18]

 

[Tapster]

 

I'm hearing you.

Your anti-Snowden comments are a vote for increasing government oversight of your daily lives.

If you're OK with that, I don't have very much more to say.

 

[dick dasterdly]

12 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Its one of those things.

 

Some of us appreciate those who 'whistle blow' when our governments/military/politicians are behaving badly - whereas others are more concerned that 'whistle blowers' violated their countries' laws, regardless of any wrong doing proven by said whistle blowers' revelations.

 

6 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Where do you draw the line regarding which laws can be broken and which ones can't?  A slippery slope for sure.

I thought I made that fairly clear?

 

When whistle blowers expose wrong doing by governments/military/politicians?

[deathmule]

4 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/forcing-down-morales-plane-air-piracy

 

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

I thought I made that fairly clear?

 

When whistle blowers expose wrong doing by governments/military/politicians?

Luckily, this is why we have laws.  So people can't pick and choose which ones they obey and which ones they don't.

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, deathmule said:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/forcing-down-morales-plane-air-piracy

 

That's an opinion piece.  I can easily post dozens that will say the opposite.

[BuaBS]

He should work with Russia's spy agencies. If I were Snowdon , I tell them everything and more . Revenge is a ...female dog.

[elgordo38]

On 12/23/2016 at 2:13 PM, webfact said:

Obama's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, said last year that Snowden "should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers — not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime."

Geeze give the guy some credit. He is not that stupid. Funny how after he exposed a lot hanky panky in the government so that Obama rushed to close intelligence loop holes. Quote  Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services, according to a bipartisan congressional report released at a time when Russia is considered a top national security concern. unquote. bipartisan?? really. You almost make Prayuth look like a saint. 

[hawker9000]

19 hours ago, Tapster said:

 

I'm hearing you.

Your anti-Snowden comments are a vote for increasing government oversight of your daily lives.

If you're OK with that, I don't have very much more to say.

 

Why can't you oppose the increasing government oversight AS WELL AS advocating the appropriate punishment of traitors?   Snowden's defenders seem to think his whistle-blowing - and by that I mean violating the conditions of his security clearance and deliberate unauthorized disclosure of classified information  - "pays for" his treason.   Nope.   'Doesn't, and can't, work that way.   When you get a security clearance, the certification you AGREE TO doesn't include an exclusion for the classified information YOU think YOU ought to be able to release to whomever you please.    Personally, I'd oppose giving a security clearance to anyone who even defends, or can be shown to have ever defended, Snowden or his practices.   Such people may be "people of conscience", but they're simply not good security risks.

 

Congress and inspectors-general and other internal affairs departments throughout the structure of the government  have the responsibility and authority for oversight of the national intelligence agencies and their practices.  In letting the NSA run amok, it's THEY who bear the responsibility and who should have been, and should now be doing, the digging here, not rogue employees (and, um, err, certain former Secretaries of State...) taking the security of classified information into their own hands. 

[dandythai]

Geez' ... I remember the times of the Romanian dictator Ceausescu, listening to almost all the telephones in the country ... what a wave of indignation in the western world, the whistle blowers were patriots ... or were they traitors ? Think again !

[dick dasterdly]

4 hours ago, hawker9000 said:

Why can't you oppose the increasing government oversight AS WELL AS advocating the appropriate punishment of traitors?   Snowden's defenders seem to think his whistle-blowing - and by that I mean violating the conditions of his security clearance and deliberate unauthorized disclosure of classified information  - "pays for" his treason.   Nope.   'Doesn't, and can't, work that way.   When you get a security clearance, the certification you AGREE TO doesn't include an exclusion for the classified information YOU think YOU ought to be able to release to whomever you please.    Personally, I'd oppose giving a security clearance to anyone who even defends, or can be shown to have ever defended, Snowden or his practices.   Such people may be "people of conscience", but they're simply not good security risks.

 

Congress and inspectors-general and other internal affairs departments throughout the structure of the government  have the responsibility and authority for oversight of the national intelligence agencies and their practices.  In letting the NSA run amok, it's THEY who bear the responsibility and who should have been, and should now be doing, the digging here, not rogue employees (and, um, err, certain former Secretaries of State...) taking the security of classified information into their own hands. 

Probably because some of us prefer to be informed of the truth - and aren't happy that those who provide this are considered 'traitors' for exposing the truth.

[Tapster]

5 hours ago, hawker9000 said:

Why can't you oppose the increasing government oversight AS WELL AS advocating the appropriate punishment of traitors?   Snowden's defenders seem to think his whistle-blowing - and by that I mean violating the conditions of his security clearance and deliberate unauthorized disclosure of classified information  - "pays for" his treason.   Nope.   'Doesn't, and can't, work that way.   When you get a security clearance, the certification you AGREE TO doesn't include an exclusion for the classified information YOU think YOU ought to be able to release to whomever you please. 

 

@Hawker9000

 

You use the word 'traitor', presumably because Snowden revealed government secrets.

 

Whistleblowers in other jobs may have signed non-disclosure agreements. The only difference is that they can only be charged with civil offences whereas Snowden or any government employee is faced with Federal prosecution.

 

My point is that the act of whistleblowing is the same. Snowden is no more a traitor than any whistleblower.

 

In Snowden's case the US government was clearly violating its own regulations in the way it intruded into people's lives. If nobody had blown the whistle, it would be continuing now, and you wouldn't know how much the government could find out about you if it wanted to.

 

Opposing excessive govenment oversight is not compatible with draconian punishments for those who expose the excesses of government.

 

It's government of the people, for the people and by the people, isn't it? 

But if the people can never know how their government is taking liberties with their liberty, we need brave people like Snowden, or we need more transparency in govenment.