re: #66 AntonSirius

Rather than being driven by patriotism and privacy concerns, Snowden now seems certain to have been acting under orders from his Russian paymasters when he stole and leaked the documents.

I don’t think he did. I think he started off with the intention of stealing a load of stuff and moving to a libertoonian paradise somewhere as a hero. I remember reading some stuff from him about how great Hong Kong was, probably because it’s got a low income tax rate and therefore must be a Randian free speech utopia. He was also talking about Iceland.

So the NSA gets wind of what he’s doing (since it seems the investigation was underway before Snowden booked), Snowden gets wind of that and blows town to Hong Kong in a hurry. He gets hooked up with Wikileaks, which most likely is working for the Kremlin, and after he willingly or unwillingly gives up the docs to the Chinese and they’re done with him, Wikileaks shops him to Russia, where he willingly or unwillingly hands them the same stuff.

I’m guessing that he handed over the material to both of the countries, since he was in about the worst bargaining position imaginable with intelligence agencies who wouldn’t hesitate to put the screws to him, and he had exactly one thing to offer up to keep his neck.

The rest is history.