Whistleblowing

Was Edward Snowden a Spy?

Chris Inglis, who was the deputy director of the NSA when Snowden first leaked the documents, earlier this year said, “I don’t think he was in the employ of the Chinese or the Russians, I don’t see any evidence to support that.” He also said that he believed Snowden had intended to go to Latin America after he gave the hard drives to Greenwald and Poitras, and that his plan appeared to be hatched on the fly. The Inglis version of events is supported by other senior officials. The current head of the NSA, Admiral Michael Rogers, told the Defense News in 2014 that it was possible Snowden was a foreign agent, but he was “probably not.”

Given all of this confusion, the U.S. intelligence community should declassify the new report’s section on foreign influence. If this is really an open question, then the American people deserve to see all the evidence. If he was a spy, it would mean that our counter-intelligence professionals were outwitted again by Russia, just as they were with the moles Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames. If Snowden really is who he claims to be, this too should be a matter of public record.