Eric Snowden is now in Moscow, allegedly with 4 laptops full of NSA data. He may or may not be on his way to Ecuador via Cuba. I can pretty much guarantee that Russia will borrow those laptops for a while and the results will be the worst security breach for the United States since the capture of the U.S.S Pueblo. Putin will publicly release everything that is embarrassing to the Obama administration and will exploit the rest. This is turning out to be a huge blunder.
By making this maneuver, Snowden has moved totally into the treason category. But the problem is that this didn’t have to happen. If, and that is a big if, the data he had was that important, the U.S. should have authorized someone we trust to make him a deal. At least in Iceland the Russians would not have access to our data. But instead the United States filed charges against him and tried to intimidate Hong Kong into giving him up. It sure looks like Eric Holder, once again, botched it up and didn’t get the paperwork filed properly and on time. They made Snowden’s ultimate decision very easy and his ultimate decision is the worst case scenario for us.
Up until now, the information Snowden had released did not jeopardize anything but the abuse of power by the Obama administration. But, if the Russians gain unfettered access to those computers they may learn more than even Snowden can imagine. According to reports Snowden is holed up at the international airport in Moscow. I doubt seriously that Putin would have agreed to this without something in return. That something was probably access to those computers.
The most important piece of information available to any country is to learn what your enemy knows about you. Everybody knows that spying is going on. That is hardly news. During World War II, Japan did not realize that the U.S. had broken the diplomatic code and they did not realize that the U.S. had broken the Japanese naval code. The Battle of Midway was lost, at least in part, because the U.S. learned that Midway was the target of their next invasion. During the battle of the Atlantic, Allies had broken the German Enigma code. If German had known that the Enigma code had been compromised, it would have made a major difference.
This is looking worse by the minute. According to the following, Snowden chose this last job because he knew it would gain him access to all the systems. If that is true, then the foreign agent theory starts to gain a little weight. This may not be a country, it could be an organization like Wikileaks. Someone told this guy where to go and what to do. He didn’t learn that in school and he probably didn’t figure it out by himself. The following ABC News report is stunning:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/officials-how-edward-snowden-could-hurt-the-u-s/
There are reports of “gaps” in his resume. Following is the timeline published by ABC on June 13, 2013.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/timeline-edward-snowdens-life/story?id=19394487&page=2
He claims to have worked “undercover” for the CIA in Switzerland. He claims to have attended a University of Maryland campus in Japan. His alleged college work is not verified by transcripts. He definitely doesn’t have a degree in anything.
So we ended up putting someone with gaps in his personal history, unexplained overseas travel, questionable associates, no documented experience and unverified academic history in a position of power. Does this sound familiar? Why would we have expected a different result?
TDM