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Congressional Report Claims Snowden In 'Contact With Russian Intelligence' (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Edward Snowden has been in contact with Russian intelligence officials since arriving in Russia in 2013, according to a new report from Congress. "Since Snowden's arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services," the 33-page report, issued Thursday by the bipartisan House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked volumes of information on American intelligence and surveillance operations to the media, settled in Moscow after initially traveling to Hong Kong following his 2013 public disclosure of classified information. The Russian government granted asylum to Snowden shortly thereafter. Large portions of the pertinent section, entitled "foreign influence," are redacted, but one paragraph reveals the Russian link, saying that Frants Klintsevich, the deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's defense and security committee, "publicly conceded that 'Snowden did share intelligence' with his government." Snowden immediately took to Twitter following the report's release to dispute the accusations, writing "they claim without evidence that I'm in cahoots with the Russians." The report cites classified material in the section linking Snowden to Russian intelligence. The investigation also noted that Snowden left encrypted hard drives containing classified information in Hong Kong and that the CIA had refused to grant Snowden access to sensitive information years before he began working with the NSA, documenting numerous issues that Snowden had with supervisors and co-wokers during his various jobs in the intelligence community.

8 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Just the US policy backfiring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you take everything from a whistle blower but the information they have, your enemies become the only ones they have anything to give in exchange for safety.

  2. This is why by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 5, Insightful

    we will never be rid of fake news.

    It's far too useful to some folks when they need to sway public opinion on something. The truth be damned.

  3. Duh! by klingens · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any soviet defector will be in contact with US intelligence aka FBI until the rest of his life, even if he never ever sees them or speaks to them
    That's their fscking JOB to monitor former agents of another country. So Snowden has no influence whatsoever that he is under permanent surveillance of a counterintelligence agency. Snowden telling them "I was subcontracted to the NSA" is "intelligence", nothing surprising about that.

  4. Snowden is a patriot by negRo_slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know the red scare is back in vogue with the powers that be but all I see here is a convenient smear against a man who has acted in good faith every step of the way.

    --
    On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    1. Re:Snowden is a patriot by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

      From this link:

      The Treason Clause applies only to disloyal acts committed during times of war. Acts of disloyalty during peacetime are not considered treasonous under the Constitution.

      There are plenty of other examples. To commit treason, there must be an Enemy. For an Enemy to exist, war must be declared.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  5. Extra confusing.. by Xenographic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly what does Snowden have to do with Wikileaks, which released the emails leaked to them by the DNC insider and those phished from Podesta's gmail account?

    And just what did they think would happen to an NSA whistleblower who got stuck in Russia after the USA cancelled his passport? It's doubly ironic when the NSA watchdog who said that Snowden should have come to him was fired for retaliation against whistleblowers.

    This isn't exactly new. The fact that they had to dig up something this old to push tells you they've got nothing.

    1. Re:Extra confusing.. by bigwheel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here you go...

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

      "A Wikileaks envoy today claims he personally received Clinton campaign emails in Washington D.C. after they were leaked by 'disgusted' whisteblowers - and not hacked by Russia.

      Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and a close associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, told Dailymail.com that he flew to Washington, D.C. for a clandestine hand-off with one of the email sources in September.

      'Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,' said Murray in an interview with Dailymail.com on Tuesday. 'The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.' "

  6. Continued Smear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is more from the smear report they released a few months ago.
    Barton Gellman (one of the reporters that received the full Snowden Archive) investigated the report the first time and concluded it's full of provable lies and smears.
    https://tcf.org/content/commentary/house-intelligence-committees-terrible-horrible-bad-snowden-report/