Over the past month, a number of NSA spy programs have been revealed thanks to some leaked documents that came from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It appears that he’s not done leaking either, and things could get much interesting if he’s caught.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist that wrote the original stories on the NSA surveillance program, told The Daily Beast that Snowden has an insurance file that contains all of the documents that he took from the NSA. The files have been given to “many different people around the world” to ensure that the “stories will inevitably be published.”
To make things more interesting, the files that Snowden shared are all heavily encrypted. Those who have the files can not open them without the password and those passwords are hidden even from them. It’s not known how the information will be accessed, but Snowden apparently will give them full access in the event that something happens to him.
In the meantime, Greenwald will continue to work through the thousands of documents that Snowden gave to him. He’s not going to “gratuitously publish thing” as he believes that would do more harm than good. Instead, he will be very selective in what he publishes making sure to avoid documents that detail the technical specifications of NSA systems or harm individuals within the CIA and NSA.
As for Snowden, he’s still in Russia. To be more specific, he’s hiding out in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport since he can’t leave the transit zone on account of his passport being made invalid. In this situation, Russia could easily hand over Snowden to U.S. authorities, but Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his country doesn’t have an extradition treaty with U.S. In other words, there is no legal basis for Russia to extradite Snowden, but Putin would like Snowden to leave Russia at his earliest convenience because “it is better for us and for him.”
Well, Snowden may leave Russia sooner rather than later, but the saga of the most wanted man on the planet isn’t going to end anytime soon. This is one for the history books, and possibly even a movie.