The Proliferation of Edward Snowden
The details of the control of Snowden’s documents remain hazy: Other revelations have appeared in the Brazilian and German press, and it’s not clear who controls access to the full document store.
The fact that three major American publications, as well as the Guardian, have access to the documents is likely to ensure an increasingly competitive story that doesn’t go away any time soon.
It is increasingly clear that Snowden himself does not control access to the documents he pilfered from the NSA. I had floated the idea last week, when a new tranche of documents appeared in the Independent — a possibility both Greenwald and Snowden denied vehemently.
Edward Snowden recently claimed that these files are locked up so tightly with encryption and other forms of access that not even torture could unlock them. Yet looking at how many news agencies that have published on his documents raises questions about just how secure those data really are. NSA stories have appeared in or soon will appear in:
- The Guardian
- The Washington Post
- O Globo
- Der Spiegel
- The New York Times
- ProPublica
It is difficult to argue, as Snowden’s most ardent fans do, that his documents can be spread so widely, yet still be completely secure from any intelligence service eager to get their hands on it.
So now it almost seems like a question of when his entire tranche — all 50,000 documents, by one count — will be posted online.
Should make for an interesting autumn and winter, no?