Edward Snowden's Relationship With WikiLeaks Should Concern Everyone
Julian Assange holding a photo of Edward Snowden.
Amid calls for the clemency of Edward Snowden, many questions remain about the 30-year-old's flight from America and asylum in Russia.
One major unresolved issue is the relationship between "the most dangerous leaker in American history" and WikiLeaks, an organization with an admitted antagonism toward the U.S. and a cozy history with the Kremlin.
Given WikiLeaks' penchant for facilitating U.S. government leaks, its early involvement in the Snowden saga deserves scrutiny.
After the NSA contractor outed himself in Hong Kong on June 9, he parted ways with the journalists he met there and went underground.
On June 12, the same day he leaked specific details of NSA hacking in China to the South China Morning Post, Snowden contacted WikiLeaks. The organization subsequently paid for his lodgings and sent top advisor Sarah Harrison to help.
Harrison accompanied Snowden as he met with Russian officials (perhaps in the Kremlin consulate), and WikiLeaks bought his ticket to Moscow on June 23.
( Some suspect Russia and/or WikiLeaks contacted Snowden before June 12, but there is no clear evidence of that.)
Snowden and his closest supporters contend that he was on his way to Latin America when the U.S. government stranded him in Moscow, but there are several reasons to doubt that claim.
First, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone that he advised Snowden against going to Latin America because " he would be physically safest in Russia."
Second, the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport by June 22 , and the unsigned Ecuadorian travel document acquired by Assange was void when Snowden landed in Moscow.
WikiLeaks told BI that the Ecuadorian document was meant help Snowden leave Hong Kong, which raises the question of why he would need it if his passport was still good. The organization has not explained why it would send the NSA-trained hacker to Russia knowing he would land with a void passport and a bunk travel document.
On July 12, Snowden's Moscow lawyer Anatoly Kucherena explained that Snowden " is in a situation with no way out. He has no passport and can travel nowhere; he has no visa."
Third, even if Snowden had proper travel documentation, it's unclear if Russia's post-Soviet security services (FSB) would have allowed a systems administrator who beat the NSA vetting system and stole a bunch of intel to simply "pass through the business lounge, on the way to Cuba.”
On Aug. 1 Kucherena, who is employed by the FSB, explained why Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum: "Edward couldn't come and buy himself tickets to Havana or any other countries since he had no passport."