General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I wonder if Bradley Manning's torture encouraged Snowden to leave the US [View all]pnwmom
(108,973 posts)For example, while Obama was meeting with Putin, Snowden released documents related to US spying on the previous Prime Minister.
And in China, by the way, there is no bright dividing line between governmental and commercial activities.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/officials-how-edward-snowden-could-hurt-the-u-s/
Beyond technical systems, U.S. officials are deeply concerned that Snowden used his sensitive position to read about U.S. human assets, for example spies and informants overseas as well as safe houses and key spying centers.
They worry this recent quote from Snowden was not an exaggeration: I had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets all over the world. The locations of every station, we have what their missions are, and so forth.