House Intelligence Committee Report: Edward Snowden in Contact with Russian Agents

Posted: December 22, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Politics, Russia, Terrorism | Tags: Adam Schiff, American Civil Liberties Union, Barack Obama, Devin Nunes, Edward Snowden, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, FORT LEAVENWORTH, Hacker, National Security Agency, Russian Agent, Russian Intelligence |Leave a comment

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The criminal government leaker with the hero complex is now living in Moscow under a 2013 asylum deal granted after Snowden gave the media troves of classified documents that revealed the extent of the U.S. surveillance state.

Eric Geller reports: Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been in contact with Russian intelligence agents since he stole troves of classified documents, a House committee alleged on Thursday.

“If the Russian or Chinese governments have access to this information, American troops will be at greater risk in any future conflict.”

— Committee report Mini-Snowden-Me

“Since Snowden’s arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services,” the House Intelligence Committee said in a report on the Snowden leaks released Thursday.

“Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy. Its compromise has been of great value to America’s adversaries and those who mean to do America harm.”

— House Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff

The declassified report, which is heavily redacted, did not offer proof of its serious accusation. It follows the committee’s release in September of an executive summary of the then-classified document.

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said in a statement that the report offers “a fuller account of Edward Snowden’s crimes and the reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security, including the safety of American servicemen and women.”

The document casts Snowden as a dishonest miscreant and attempts to refute the portrayal of him as a duty-minded whistleblower.

[Read the full story here, at POLITICO]

The House panel’s report says there is “no evidence that Snowden took any official effort to express concerns about U.S. intelligence activities … to any oversight officials within the U.S. government, despite numerous avenues for him to do so.”

Snowden and his defenders claim that he feared reprisal and have pointed to numerous instances of the intelligence community retaliating against employees who complain about secret programs.

Ben Wizner, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing Snowden, blasted the report. In a statement, he said it “wholly ignores Snowden’s repeated and courageous criticism of Russian surveillance and censorship laws” and “combines demonstrable falsehoods with deceptive inferences to paint an entirely fictional portrait of an American whistleblower.”

Snowden himself weighed in on Twitter, arguing that the report relied on weak evidence to allege Russian collusion.

“After three years of investigation and millions of dollars,” he wrote, “they can present no evidence of harmful intent, foreign influence, or harm. Wow.”

The famous government leaker is now living in Moscow under a 2013 asylum deal granted after Snowden gave the media troves of classified documents that revealed the extent of the U.S. surveillance state….(read more)

Source: POLITICO