So where's Snowden in all this? The article talks at great length about everybody he gave copies to and how they've all gone silent, but obviously he holds copies as well and is not beholden to the US on what he does with them. (Although he is surely on a short leash with his Russian masters as well.)
> In January 2014, he told a German TV interviewer that he gave all of his information to American journalists reporting on American issues.[56] During his first American TV interview, in May 2014, Snowden said he had protected himself from Russian leverage by destroying the material he had been holding before landing in Moscow [0]
Also, please refer to a reply to a similar comment: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49781990">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49781990
Because I know that's what we'd all do when fleeing our home country with a couple million highly desirable classified documents, attempting to avoid prosecution.
We'd all make sure to "protect" ourselves from "leverage" by the people who might (and ultimately did) help us achieve our goals by destroying our one and only bargaining chip.
His autobiography is worth reading. Yes, he wrote it, so it can be skewed all kinds of whichways to suit his agenda, but the picture it paints is of someone born into the US establishment (government / military / intelligence) and essentially a strong belief in the outward impression the US presents to the world. Freedom and Liberty!
I may be all kinds of naive in saying this, but I think he did it for relatively purely "the US must be better than this" motivations. I can't see his motivation being of the same ilk as The Cambridge Five.
motionlessveloc · · focus · HN ↗
BLKNSLVR · · focus · HN ↗
Also, please refer to a reply to a similar comment: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49781990">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49781990
[0]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Hong_Kong" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Hong_Kong
0110101001 · · focus · HN ↗
We'd all make sure to "protect" ourselves from "leverage" by the people who might (and ultimately did) help us achieve our goals by destroying our one and only bargaining chip.
BLKNSLVR · · focus · HN ↗
I may be all kinds of naive in saying this, but I think he did it for relatively purely "the US must be better than this" motivations. I can't see his motivation being of the same ilk as The Cambridge Five.