The US National Security Agency Is On The Ropes
"Serial leaks of the agency's cyber-weapons have damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations & resulted in attacks on businesses worldwide"
A special investigation by New York Times reporters published this month concludes: "The flood of digital secrets ... is raising profound questions. Have hackers and leakers made secrecy obsolete? Has Russian intelligence simply outplayed the United States, penetrating the most closely guarded corners of its government?"
The hackers, calling themselves the Shadow Brokers, are a "mysterious group that ... somehow obtained many of the hacking tools the United States used to spy on other countries": "There is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who fled with four laptops of classified material in 2013…Snowden released code words, while the Shadow Brokers have released the actual code."
Ghost Snowden
Now a Russian investigative journalist has claimed that whistleblower Edward Snowden is 'a sort of ghost'. “Nobody can talk to him, nobody has seen him,” Andrei Soldatov, an author and expert on post-Soviet security services said on a recent Lawfare podcast. “He is a sort of ghost.”Snowden has been living in exile in Russia since summer 2013 after fleeing the US, and spending weeks in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
In his attempts to escape 'persecution' by the US authorities, Snowden asked more than 20 countries for asylum but was unable to leave Russia after the US revoked his passport. Since then he's a lived a relatively quiet life aside from a few interviews with Western media and some video chat gigs on the speaking circuit.
But he has been careful not to give too much away about his personal life, and takes intense security measures amid fears that he could be kidnapped by US agents. He has also tried to distance himself from his new home. While America's most wanted has been told he can stay in Moscow until 2020, he is evidently worried this does not give him enough protection.
In a move that would infuriate Washington, his attorney Wolfgang Kaleck recently asked the European Parliament to consider granting him asylum.
Berlin-based attorney Mr Kaleck claimed EU countries were indebted to the whistleblower for exposing US snooping on 'friendly' European governments.Kucherena has also said that he could apply for full Russian citizenship after being resident in the country for five years, which would prevent him from ever being extradited to the US.
One of the criminals being considered for the controversial exchange was said to be convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed the 'Merchant of Death'. Bout, a former russian air force officer, was kidnapped by US authorities in Thailand in 2011 and convicted of conspiracy to kill US citizens and provide material for terrorists.
In Moscow respected journalist and political analyst Sergey Parkhomenko claimed an exchange of Snowden for Bout had already been agreed by Putin and Trump. But this was stopped because of the political climate in the US over Trump's alleged links to Russia.
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