by Russ Read
A congressional report finds that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave up top secret information to Russia, embellished his resume and consistently lied throughout his short-lived intelligence career.
Compiled by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), the report is the result of a two-year investigation into Snowden’s theft of more than 1.5 million classified documents from NSA networks. The theft is widely considered the largest release of classified information in U.S. intelligence history. The report received bipartisan support, and while it remains classified, HPSCI released an executive summary.
Snowden, who is currently living under asylum in Russia, claims that he has not shared his information with Russian officials, but Russia claims otherwise. Snowden gave up information to the Kremlin, according to remarks made in June, 2016, by the Deputy Chairman of the Russian parliament’s defense and security committee Franz Klintsevich. John Schindler, a former NSA analyst and columnist for the New York Observer, corroborated this information in July.
“Let’s be frank. Snowden did share intelligence. This is what security services do. If there’s a possibility to get information, they will get it,” said Franz Klintsevich, as quoted by Schindler.
Snowden admitted that he did not read all of the stolen documents in an interview with John Oliver in April, 2015, and also acknowledged that he may have endangered an intelligence operation fighting al-Qaida in Iraq through the massive leak.
“Additionally, although Snowden’s professed objective may have been to inform the general public, the information he released is also available to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and North Korean government intelligence services; any terrorist with Internet access; and many others who wish to do harm to the United States,” stated the HPSCI report.
HPSCI noted that the full damage resulting from Snowden’s actions remain “unknown,” despite reviews by the Department of Defense and intelligence community.
The investigation concluded that Snowden was a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” throughout his career, claiming that he was allegedly discharged from the Army because of broken legs, when in reality he “washed out” of basic training due to shin splints. Snowden’s claim that he obtained a high school diploma equivalent after dropping out was also found to be false.
Snowden continued his fabrications after moving into his intelligence career. Though he claimed he was a “senior advisor” at the CIA, he was in reality an entry-level computer technician. He continued to manipulate his achievements while working for the NSA, rising through the ranks through resume embellishment and stealing the answers to an employment test. The final lie came in May, 2013, when Snowden told his superior that he would be taking time off for epilepsy treatment. In truth, he was on his way to Hong Kong with his trove of stolen documents.
Snowden continues to defend his actions as a public service, noting that he stole and released the documents in order to expose mass government surveillance. The HPSCI report found “no evidence that Snowden took any official effort to express concerns about U.S. intelligence activities — legal, moral, or otherwise — to any oversight officials within the U.S. government, despite numerous avenues for him to do so.”
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