Some say Edward Snowden is a hero and a patriot. Others say he’s a fool and a traitor.
The evidence is mounting that the guy who leaked the details about the National Security Agency’s Internet-eavesdropping program may be something more sinister — namely, a willing tool in China’s ongoing cyberwar against our nation.
Indeed, his revelations may have just kicked the bottom out of one of the NSA’s leading efforts to track down other bad guys, whether they work for Beijing, Moscow or al Qaeda.
Liberals seem to have generally accepted Snowden as he’s sold himself, as a dreamy-eyed idealist who loves his country and is trying to bring “transparency” to our government’s spying operations. But the only people to gain any transparency in all this have been Chinese intelligence.
Conservatives, meanwhile have painted him as a dim-witted dupe. In fact, Snowden has apparently played a shrewd game of seeking protection from his fellow countrymen in the bosom of their most potent foe.
Consider the timing of Snowden’s revelations: They came just after release of a report from the Defense Science Board revealing that Chinese hackers have compromised a long list of weapons systems, including the F-35 fighter plane and the Aegis anti-missile system — and just before President Obama was supposed to give China’s new leader a major dressing-down on Beijing’s cyber-thievery.
Now, thanks to Snowden, the focus has shifted from what the Chinese are doing to what we’ve been doing, from intrusive Chinese hackers to intrusive American cyber spooks.
But is it really likely that the 29-year-old Snowden, a high-school dropout whose girlfriend is a pole dancer, could really be a Chinese spy? Would Beijing really find a way to recruit and use this temperamental loser?
Well, three facts point strongly in that direction.
First, Snowden worked at the NSA station in Oahu, Hawaii, which runs cyberops against both China and North Korea. It’s been a target for Chinese spy services for years; and it wouldn’t have taken them long to learn that the Booz Allen consultant had, by his own admission, lost faith in the work he was doing. He even said so in a 2010 online chat room, which any skilled cybersnoop could trace back to his home IP address.
Second, his choice of asylum in Hong Kong is strange to say the least. In interviews, Snowden claims he chose Hong Kong because its laws will protect his rights. Huh? Unlike Sweden where Wikileaker Julien Assange ran to ground, Hong Kong lives under the thumb of the ultimate Big Brother, Communist China. And Beijing’s abuse of rights — especially cyber-rights — is common knowledge in the tech-savvy circles in which Snowden surely moved.
So if Hong Kong’s laws don’t protect him, who does? The answer is Beijing, which can veto any extradition of Snowden.
Third, Snowden admitted to the South China Morning Post that’s he’s already passed a boatload of information to the Chinese about US cyberspying on their facilities, including the IP addresses of specific computers that have been under attack from our forces.
All in all, that doesn’t sound like a whistle-blower. It sounds like a spook with his cover blown being debriefed by his masters — or at the very least trading secrets in exchange for protection.
So is Snowden a spy or an idealist? Many of the famous Cold War spies, from Alger Hiss to Kim Philby, thought they were high-minded — yet the damage they did was just as severe.
Edward Snowden may not be a Chinese mole, but he might as well be. He’s just handed Beijing a major score, while the NSA struggles to pick up the pieces— and the rest of us pay the price in terms of future national security.
Arthur Herman’s
Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II is out in paperback next month.