Edward Snowden: The Untold Story, and a second, hidden, Snowden

There is a great article on Edward Snowden over on wired.com -- when I got the magazine in the post this afternoon, I was really taken with the cover photo. Contrived? I don't think so, I think that he really does love America, or at least that America that should be, maybe not what it is.

Meanwhile, Snowden will continue to haunt the US, the unpredictable impact of his actions resonating at home and around the world. The documents themselves, however, are out of his control. Snowden no longer has access to them; he says he didn’t bring them with him to Russia. Copies are now in the hands of several news organizations, including: First Look Media, set up by journalist Glenn Greenwald and American documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, the two original recipients of the documents; The Guardian newspaper, which also received copies before the British government pressured it into transferring physical custody (but not ownership) to The New York Times; and Barton Gellman, a writer for The Washington Post. It’s highly unlikely that the current custodians will ever return the documents to the NSA.

That has left US officials in something like a state of impotent expectation, waiting for the next round of revelations, the next diplomatic upheaval, a fresh dose of humiliation. Snowden tells me it doesn’t have to be like this. He says that he actually intended the government to have a good idea about what exactly he stole. Before he made off with the documents, he tried to leave a trail of digital bread crumbs so investigators could determine which documents he copied and took and which he just “touched.” That way, he hoped, the agency would see that his motive was whistle-blowing and not spying for a foreign government. It would also give the government time to prepare for leaks in the future, allowing it to change code words, revise operational plans, and take other steps to mitigate damage. But he believes the NSA’s audit missed those clues and simply reported the total number of documents he touched—1.7 million. (Snowden says he actually took far fewer.) “I figured they would have a hard time,” he says. “I didn’t figure they would be completely incapable.”

Read the full article here: Edward Snowden: The Untold Story

One intriguing point made is that it appears that there is a second leaker, who is leaking documents in Snowden's name. Snowden refused to discuss the possibility, but the reporter went through the cache of documents in order to verify that what has been leaked came from the Snowden files, and there are some that cannot be verified. So it may well be that there is someone still at the NSA or other security agency, who is using the cover of Edward Snowden to continue divulging information.

Excellent article, well worth your time.

Its an advertisement!!!!

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Its an advertisement!!!!

Care to explain that cryptic description?
It didn't make me want to buy anything.
It looked decent in my scan of it, if maybe too much about the author's background.

a reply to: VoidHawk

Huh? An advertisement for what?

It's a news article, in the current issue of a magazine that you can read free, and on a topic of great relevance to ATS. Pretty much every article in this forum links to online news sources, so I have no idea what you're on about.

a reply to: adjensen

When you go to the link provided, it has an advertisement that does not go away until you click on the #1 at the top left or scroll down. Then it takes you to the text of the article. Easy to manage.

I'm off to read the piece now...shall comment later if need be.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

When you go to the link provided, it has an advertisement that does not go away until you click on the #1 at the top left or scroll down.

Hmm… well, that's weird, it doesn't for me -- takes me to a page with a big 'ol Snowden head on it, scroll down and the story appears.

Sorry to anyone that's getting an ad! (No, I don't have any ad blockers running.)

a reply to: adjensen

It seems to be gone now. I am seeing exactly what you are.

Weird that this thread would get so little interest on ATS.

Yea, it is like it exhausted itself. The information is what it is, and we have already taken that to the bank, although there probably is a lot more to know. If you really want to get a handle on the way this guy thinks, I recommend the TED talk he did using a mobile telepresence to the auditorium. I am sure it can be found with google easily.