>What's been done with the zero to a billion documents that haven't been provided to the press? Who knows? Have they been encrypted and stuck on the Internet as an insurance policy? Have they been provided to Russian intelligence?
Glenn Greenwald has made it clear that if something happens to Snowden (i.e. he's killed), "all the information will be revealed"[1], implying that all the documents he stole will be released.
So, let's imagine a conversation between a Russian intelligence officer and Snowden, sometime around the tail-end of July last year.
In fair Sheremetyevo, where we lay our scene, Edward Snowden is sitting in a bare room, furnished with nothing but a table (bolted to the floor) and two uncomfortable chairs. Snowden's been looking at his reflection in a one-way mirror. A CCTV camera in a corner blinks a red LED at him and there is no door handle/knob on the inside.
Suddenly, a friendly-looking Russian bursts into the room and greets Snowden warmly, full of bonhomie.
Russian: "Good morning, Mr Snowden! You are keeping well, yes?"
He grabs Snowden's hand and shakes it warmly. Snowden half-rises.
Snowden: "Yes, thank you."
The Russian holds onto Snowden's hand for just a split second too long, looking him in the eye with a half-smile on his face, before letting go and settling himself into the other chair.
Russian: "Good, good! You just let us know if you need anything! So! I understand you seek asylum in Russia! No problem! We'd be delighted to offer you asylum! We'll just need you to hand over all the documents you stole."
Snowden: "What?! No! I can't do that!"
Russian: "Come now, Mr Snowden! Under Russian law, before we can officially consider your application for asylum, we need to... inspect these documents of yours for evidence of criminal activity in Russia."
Snowden: "No, I can't... That's outrageous! I'm not going to do give you those documents!"
Russian: "I'm sorry, Mr Snowden but I'm afraid I must insist! Otherwise..." [He glances down at his lapel and flicks away an imaginary speck of dust before looking back at Snowden and shrugging.]
Snowden: "Otherwise what? You'll send me back to America! How could you threaten to do that?! They'll torture me! They'll kill me! How could Russia, with its long and impeccable record of respecting human rights and the freedom of the press even consider doing such a thing?!"
Russian: "It's out of my hands, Mr Snowden. Besides... You know, there are some of my colleagues who have been reading what Mr Greenwald has been saying, about how the United States better hope nothing happens to you because, if anything does happen, all the documents will be released!"
Snowden: "Well, that's an obvious way to make sure that the CIA don't try to silence me by killing me!"
Russian: "Yes, of course but.. Well, some of my colleagues have beeen asking why we shouldn't simply kill you ourselves and manufacture evidence that it was a CIA hit squad. That way we can embarrass the United States and simply download all the documents from the Internet when they are released."
Snowden: "...!"
Russian: "I mean, these are crazy people! Relics of the KGB. They wouldn't think twice about shooting you in the head. Or torturing you to extract as much information as possible and then shooting you in the head. I tried to argue against them but my power here is limited, Mr Snowden. I begged them to reconsider and eventually, they agreed to give you a chance to cooperate."
Snowden: "..."
Russian: "So, Mr Snowden. You will share these documents with us?"
Why in the world would the the US kill Snowden? They have nothing to gain and everything to lose. You think the Russians are stupid enough to send a goon to threaten him? The second he gets out of that interview he's going to tell the media all about it.
Why would there be a very suspicious "lying about wearing a condom" charge leveled at Assange with multiple super-powers demanding justice for an unnamed swedish woman, coincidentally right when he's pissing off those super-powers? Sounds like silly spy movie stuff, like COINTELPRO or something, stuff that would never happen in the real world.
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. There really are people out there playing the game for those stakes, and most of us aren't idealistic or dumb enough to jump into their game.
It is (apparently) per US policy to use weapons (like drone missile strikes) with high likelihood for collateral damage without taking such damage into account.
Drone strikes are much more accurate than conventional weapons. Nothing is 100% accurate 100% of the time, so using them vs. carpet bombing an entire neighborhood is a good thing, not bad.
> Drone strikes are much more accurate than conventional weapons.
Drone strikes are conventional weapons. They are more accurate than many alternative conventional "stand-off" weapons that seek to minimize risk to the weapon user, and less accurate (though perhaps more reliable) than many other alternative conventional weapons (a knife is far more accurate than a drone-launched missile, but far less reliable in many of the circumstances where drone strikes are used.)
We aren't going to send Seal Team 6 in to knife everyone we want to kill around the world.
Drone strikes are more accurate than F14's bombing buildings, and also safer for American soldiers (since they can't get shot down), thus they are a gain vs. a loss in terms of US personnel killed and accidental collateral damage (but this is still not the ideal 0%).
Oooor maybe they knew that the US stranded him in Russia on purpose to try and pass them fake information. Their agents had already found out about the plot so they decided to play along, providing a tactical advantage, by letting their American counterparts think the mission had been successful.
Or it took much less effort to offer him asylum and score political points, knowing full well that the disclosures would also be damaging to 'enemies'.
Or they knew he had information on them and that it would come out as well.
Or maybe they already knew what he knew through other sources and didn't need his documents.
Or...
Or...
There are many possible scenarios (some much more ridiculous than others) but it is always lots of fun to just jump to the one that is most like a spy novel. It certainly is the most entertaining no doubt!
I find myself gradually coming around to the Snowden side, but it is entirely despite his fans on HN, not because of them.
The concept of a self-releasing trove-in-case-I-die is fascinating to the HN crowd from a technical perspective, but it puts Snowden in a really bad light. Without it he can make a convincing argument that he only took what was necessary to expose bad behavior.
He took who knows how many documents. So far only a select few have been released that support his allegations. I have no doubt there is information in his stack that could cause very bad things to happen to various people and/or organizations. Chances are those documents will never be released, if he has any level of conscience. Therefore, if the people who might do him harm understand that such documentation will not be released as long as he is not harmed, then it's a defense mechanism that fits exactly in line with what he claims he is doing all this for in the first place.
If he had done a massive document dump onto the Internet then I would have immediately questioned his motives.
Glenn Greenwald has made it clear that if something happens to Snowden (i.e. he's killed), "all the information will be revealed"[1], implying that all the documents he stole will be released.
So, let's imagine a conversation between a Russian intelligence officer and Snowden, sometime around the tail-end of July last year.
In fair Sheremetyevo, where we lay our scene, Edward Snowden is sitting in a bare room, furnished with nothing but a table (bolted to the floor) and two uncomfortable chairs. Snowden's been looking at his reflection in a one-way mirror. A CCTV camera in a corner blinks a red LED at him and there is no door handle/knob on the inside.
Suddenly, a friendly-looking Russian bursts into the room and greets Snowden warmly, full of bonhomie.
Russian: "Good morning, Mr Snowden! You are keeping well, yes?"
He grabs Snowden's hand and shakes it warmly. Snowden half-rises.
Snowden: "Yes, thank you."
The Russian holds onto Snowden's hand for just a split second too long, looking him in the eye with a half-smile on his face, before letting go and settling himself into the other chair.
Russian: "Good, good! You just let us know if you need anything! So! I understand you seek asylum in Russia! No problem! We'd be delighted to offer you asylum! We'll just need you to hand over all the documents you stole."
Snowden: "What?! No! I can't do that!"
Russian: "Come now, Mr Snowden! Under Russian law, before we can officially consider your application for asylum, we need to... inspect these documents of yours for evidence of criminal activity in Russia."
Snowden: "No, I can't... That's outrageous! I'm not going to do give you those documents!"
Russian: "I'm sorry, Mr Snowden but I'm afraid I must insist! Otherwise..." [He glances down at his lapel and flicks away an imaginary speck of dust before looking back at Snowden and shrugging.]
Snowden: "Otherwise what? You'll send me back to America! How could you threaten to do that?! They'll torture me! They'll kill me! How could Russia, with its long and impeccable record of respecting human rights and the freedom of the press even consider doing such a thing?!"
Russian: "It's out of my hands, Mr Snowden. Besides... You know, there are some of my colleagues who have been reading what Mr Greenwald has been saying, about how the United States better hope nothing happens to you because, if anything does happen, all the documents will be released!"
Snowden: "Well, that's an obvious way to make sure that the CIA don't try to silence me by killing me!"
Russian: "Yes, of course but.. Well, some of my colleagues have beeen asking why we shouldn't simply kill you ourselves and manufacture evidence that it was a CIA hit squad. That way we can embarrass the United States and simply download all the documents from the Internet when they are released."
Snowden: "...!"
Russian: "I mean, these are crazy people! Relics of the KGB. They wouldn't think twice about shooting you in the head. Or torturing you to extract as much information as possible and then shooting you in the head. I tried to argue against them but my power here is limited, Mr Snowden. I begged them to reconsider and eventually, they agreed to give you a chance to cooperate."
Snowden: "..."
Russian: "So, Mr Snowden. You will share these documents with us?"
No prizes for guessing how that scene ends.
[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/13/us-usa-security-sn...