Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is not a whistleblower, but rather was a “serial exaggerator” and a “fabricator” who mostly stole military, defense and intelligence information unrelated to privacy or civil liberty issues, according to a new report from the House Select Intelligence Committee.
The 33-page bipartisan report also found that the U.S. Intelligence Community has not installed safeguards to prevent future acts of theft like the one Snowden committed in 2013.
The report was produced after a two-year inquiry into the actions of Snowden, an NSA contractor who downloaded and stole 1.5 million classified intelligence documents before fleeing the country. The report is aimed at providing “a fuller account” of Snowden’s actions and his “reckless disregard” for national security and the safety of the U.S. servicemen and women, said Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
Snowden used “scraping” programs to download NSA documents in bulk, covering a vast range of information. “In light of the volume at stake, it is likely that even Snowden does not know the full contents of all 1.5 million documents he removed,” the report said.
Snowden lives in Russia, and according to the Intelligence panel report, he remains in contact with Russian intelligence officials. The bipartisan report also concluded that Snowden did not steal the material as a whistleblower, as he claims.
For example, Snowden has said he was motivated by a controversial Senate hearing in which James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, said that the intelligence committee does “not wittingly” collect information on Americans. But the report noted that many of Snowden’s downloads of information “predated Director Clapper’s testimony by eight months.”
“Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to America’s adversaries and those who mean to do America harm,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff of California.
The report found that Snowden took information detailing the “capabilities of” the Defense Department to Russia that could endanger American troops in the event of a war.
“If the Russian or Chinese governments have access to this information, American troops will be at greater risk in any future conflict,” lawmakers wrote.
The report was finished in 2016 but required a declassification review before being released to the public today.
Among the report’s findings:
— The Intelligence Community has not fully implemented safeguards needed to prevent future threats. According to the report, even “relatively simple” safeguards preventing employee hacking have not been put in place. According to the report, the committee “remains concerned that the NSA and [Intelligence Community] as a whole have not done enough to reduce the chances of future insider threats like Snowden.”
— The committee found no evidence Snowden tried to communicate his concerns about intelligence activities to senior officials during his time working at the CIA or NSA.
— Snowden appeared to be a disgruntled employee who often fought with supervisors.
— Snowden’s actions “did tremendous damage to U.S. national security,” according to the report. The Defense Department identified 13 “high risk” issues, eight relating to the capabilities of the military.
The Intelligence Community assessment of Snowden’s leaks are not complete but have so far found they caused “massive damage to national security.”
