Is Edward Snowden really what he claims to be — a whistleblower out to expose government overreach? Or is he a pawn, witting or unwitting, of America’s adversaries?
It’s been the longest couple weeks in the history of the National Security Agency, thanks to Snowden’s astonishing leaks of sensitive information — among the most damaging in U.S. history. The former IT contractor for the NSA, and previously for the CIA, has already divulged vast amounts of data about highly classified signals intelligence (SIGINT) programs. It’s by far the worst series of leaks ever for NSA, America’s biggest, best-funded, and most secretive spy agency. And Snowden promises more to come.
But the case hasn’t taken the path many expected. When Snowden first appeared in his Hong Kong hotel, dramatically outing himself as the source of stories in the Guardian and the Washington Post about a top-secret program called PRISM, attention immediately focused on whether the NSA was violating U.S. laws and the 4th Amendment by collecting information about Americans, as Snowden asserted forcefully
Read the rest at POLITICO …
The XX Committee 
John, Could it be that Putin’s recent statement about not extraditing Snowden was a fulfillment of a condition that Snowden imposed in order for him to cooperate with the FSB? I.e. he could have told his FSB interrogators “I will cooperate with you but only if I hear President Putin himself say on TV that I won’t be extradited”? Seems logical to me….
It’s possible. Tough to say just yet. Bottom line is FSB will get what it wants from Snowden whether he cooperates or not. He’s on their territory.
his claims of fighting for democraercy has been shown to be false by flying through russia and cuba.is anyone naive enough to think that russian and cuban intelligence won’t want a quiet word with him.also russia are using this to get one over the americans
Yildirim claimed that he wanted to save the world from a nuclear war. Sounded better than “I was in it for the money”.