Every time Edward Snowden opens his mouth, another fabrication appears. In an interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams, he apparently took affront to being called a “simple hacker” and took great pains to explain that he was, in fact, just like James Bond.
“I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover overseas — pretending to work in a job that I’m not — and even being assigned a name that was not mine,”
Uh…no. Like his lie that he could wiretap the President of the United States from his desk, that statement is a whopper of an exaggeration at best and a complete fabrication at worst.
Being a “spy” is a hell of a lot more than getting a fake passport handed to you and working out of a cubicle in Geneva, Switzerland. If all it took were a phantom job and a different name, then most Americans are, in fact, spies. At least the ones who drank in college when they were underage. How many underage drinkers have sauntered into a bar with false identification – a different name and birthdate – and told the bouncer they were working construction or some other BS job story? Does that make them a spy? No, but they have MORE in common with being a spy than that ass Snowden, because at least they were on the streets using their skills instead of growing pale staring at a computer screen. While he grandstands about the “traditional espionage training” he received, the truth is he was sent home from Switzerland, then fired from the CIA.
Him saying he’s a spy is an insult to every Operations Officer at the CIA, and not just because he’s a traitor, but because he has no idea what it actually takes to live in that world. The CIA’s own website, says it requires 18 months to even get probational status, and then years of overseas work in hazardous areas that Snowden has never even imagined. Next, he’ll be telling us he’s a SEAL, because that’s where all the liars eventually end up.
This man is a “spy”:
Fair Use
Michael Spann, Operations Officer with the Special Activities Division of the CIA, KIA in Afghanistan.
This man is a shit-weasel:
Fair use.
During the same interview, when asked if he’s a patriot, Snowden says he is, then states, “Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen…”
Oh, really? Is that why you keep offering to tell whatever country will listen US capabilities? First China, then Brazil, and most recently, Germany. Was that your patriotic duty, designed to protect your country?
Later on, in a confusing bit of language, when asked if he was working with the Russians, he says, “I’m not a spy, which is the real question.” Funny, I thought you just said you were? More to the point: Why on earth would any sane person believe that Snowden – who’s shown a willingness to divulge national secrets to third parties – not be willing to help the one country that’s given him the ability to evade US law enforcement? It flies in the face of the facts. He told Germany he’d love to help them because he thinks all German citizens rights have been “violated” by the NSA. So German citizens count, but Russian citizens don’t? I’ll bet Putin would be a little aggravated at the slight. In an open letter, he also told Brazil he’d give them all of his secrets in exchange for asylum. Brazil told him to pack sand. Guess who gave him asylum? Russia. Oh, but in this case, there was no quid pro quo, because Snowden is a patriot. Yeah, right….
Does anyone really think he’d be willing to tell Brazil and Germany anything they wanted, while not doing the same for the one country that’s keeping him out of jail? Do you think Putin is sitting there saying, “Yes, my little shit-weasel, go tell Germany all you know. I don’t want any of that information for Russia. Brazil? By all means, ask them for asylum and dangle your secrets. I won’t make you do that here.”
I’ll agree with him on that “spy” statement, though. He’s definitely not a spy, but there is an intelligence term that applies to Edward Snowden. It’s “asset”. As in “Any resource at the disposition of an intelligence organization for use in an operational or support role. Often used with a qualifying term such as agent asset or propaganda asset.”
He’s no spy, but he’s certainly being cultivated as an asset. That title fits him perfectly.
You have me rolling Brad, “shit weasel” love it. He needs a new asshole drilled straight between his eyes!
Brad, as usual you are 100% correct in your assessment of Mr. Snowden. My only criticism of your remarks is when you called him an “asset” that you did not capitalize and bold the word ASS in ASSet.
There is a lot of BS in every story that comes from his mouth. For instance if you ultimately wish to go to Cuba then a South American country like Venezuela, why fly west to Hong Kong then on to Russia while you have a valid passport? Why not fly east and/or south directly to South America. But I guess as a “spy” he needed to take the long want to help cover his tracks. However, the press eats this stuff up and helps perpetuate his perceived persona by sharing his story not matter how far fetch some of it may be.
What an insult he is to our collective intelligence and certainly an insult to those true spies like Michael Spann and others that help protect us from our enemies .
Keep up the good work both in your books and you blog. Always a pleasure to read!
Ha! Brad has taken off the gloves,good stuff! Snowden is a narcissistic sissy boy.
I just don’t understand why he is still being treated seriously by the news media and asked to do speaking engagements – why hasn’t he been publicly ridiculed into obscurity?
From the very beginning his actions were questionable because if you are such a patriot, why would you flee to countries the U.S. has such uneasy alliances with? The guy is obviously trying to make himself more important then he really is.
I hired and supervised dozens of IT consultants while in state government. Most are great but the ones who feel that someone has wronged them are dangerous. I had a case where a consultant who thought he’d been wronged at a different agency – like Snowden no doubt feels he was wronged by the CIA – tried to demonstrate his superiority over state workers by taking sensitive data home and building a pretty nice alternate program for dealing with it. Instead of being grateful and praising him for his ‘superior’ work, we fired him and called the police to run a full and immediate forensic investigation. Snowden is the most vile type of traitor there is, but who the hell was supposed to be minding the store? That’s our government today – I hope someone learns something!
Of course he’s given everything – or most of it – to Putin. Aside from President Obama’s own weakness, international apologist mentality, dishonesty and overall ineffectiveness, Snowden’s revelations have certainly emboldened Mr. Putin and he’s showing us and Ukraine the price to be paid, or at least the start of it. I know, he’s worried about the ethnic Russians, just like the little corporal was worried about the ethnic Germans. Either that, or we can believe him when he says he isn’t doing anything.
Finally, Snowden can do one thing for his former country before his 15 minutes are up: send us the IRS emails!