I, a Snowden-Denier
(originally posted 11.08.2015 on Google+)


In my Twitter bio, I call myself a "Snowden-Denier" -- but what does this mean?

First what it doesn't mean: I don't deny that Snowden worked (as a contractor) for the NSA, neither I claim that the documents published under his name were fabricated. Much more I assume all the published documents so far are genuine.

What I deny is that Snowden could prove any of his key claims. There is still no evidence of mass surveillance in western countries, that NSA would engage in industrial espionage, no COINTELPRO, no deliberate violation of (American) law, no hints the NSA would be a rogue agency out-of-control. Or in short: So far not a single wrongdoing was revealed. Quite the contrary, the published documents (and not the misleading headlines and press reports) present the NSA in a very positive light, as a bureaucratic, rule-based and law-abiding agency under strict control.

And I deny that Snowden was an idealistic loner. I'm not sure if Russian intelligence was behind him (with or without his knowledge) like Edward Lucas suggested in his great book "The Snowden Operation", but I'm very sure that he didn't act alone. I highly doubt that Snowden has the technical skills (if you are unsure, please read his dumb posts at Ars Technica or hear the technical generalities he has to say today) to steal 1.7 million top secret documents from the NSA undetected. And I do not believe in the "second leaker" fairy tale that another insider is leaking top secret NSA documents to media like Der SPIEGEL or Wikileaks. No, someone other than Snowden is in possession of the documents, too.

I further deny that Sowden was an "infrastructure analyst" as he claimed. He was an IT-guy, a system administrator, who could manage (probable with help..) to steal top secret documents, but without insight into the NSA's operational work. He had no clue about the documents he took, this is very clear from his many misrepresentations.

I deny that Snowden was a "whistleblower". A whistleblower blows, you know, a whistle. What Snowden did was excessive data theft and handing over to the press (and likely others). And a whistleblower usually reveals wrongdoings, what Snowden failed to do.

I deny that Snowden "stranded" in Russia. He would be the first person who tried to travel from Hawaii over Hong Kong and Moscow to South America. It is proven that he was in touch with the Russian Embassy while he was in Hong Kong. And no independant source could confirm he spent more than a month in the transit zone of Moscow airport.