Edward Snowden has highly sensitive documents on how the National Security Agency is structured and operates that could harm the U.S. government, but has insisted that they not be made public. Disclosure of the information in the documents “would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it.” http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/15/world/americas/ap-lt-nsa-surveillance-greenwald.html?partner=rss&emc=rss “literally thousands of documents” taken by Snowden constitute “basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built. In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do.”
Glenn Greenwald, a columnist with The Guardian newspaper who first reported on the intelligence leaks, said he believes the disclosure of the information in the documents would not prove harmful to Americans or their national security, but that Snowden has insisted they not be made public.
“I think it would be harmful to the U.S. government, as they perceive their own interests, if the details of those programs were revealed.”
The documents have been encrypted to help ensure their safekeeping.
The U.S. has shown it’s “willing to take even the most extreme steps if they think doing so is necessary to neutralize a national security threat,” Greenwald said.
A so-called dead man’s pact, which Greenwald has said would allow several people to access Snowden’s trove of documents were anything to happen to him.”It’s not just a matter of, if he dies, things get released, it’s more nuanced than that,” he said. “It’s really just a way to protect himself against extremely rogue behavior on the part of the United States, by which I mean violent actions toward him, designed to end his life, and it’s just a way to ensure that nobody feels incentivized to do that.”
Upcoming stories from Greenwald will include details on “other domestic spying programs that have yet to be revealed,” but which are similar in scope to those he has been reporting on.
