US expects more leaks from Snowden

Says journalists have released only about 1 per cent taken by the whistleblower

Whistleblower or traitor, leaker or public hero? National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off US government surveillance methods five years ago, but intelligence chiefs complain that revelations from the trove of classified documents he disclosed are still trickling out.

That includes recent reporting on a mass surveillance programme run by close US ally Japan and on how the NSA targeted bitcoin users to gather intelligence to combat narcotics and money laundering. The Intercept, an investigative publication with access to Snowden documents, published stories on both subjects.

The top US counter-intelligence official said journalists have released only about 1 per cent taken by the 34-yearold American, now living in exile in Russia, “so we don’t see this issue ending anytime soon.”

Sensitive stuff

“This past year, we had more international, Snowden-related documents and breaches than ever,” Bill Evanina, who directs the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at a recent conference. “Since 2013, when Snowden left, there have been thousands of articles around the world with really sensitive stuff that’s been leaked.”

Snowden’s defenders maintain that the US government has for years exaggerated the damage his disclosures caused. Glenn Greenwald, an Intercept co-founder and former journalist at The Guardian, said there are “thousands upon thousands of documents” that journalists have chosen not to publish because they would harm peoples’ reputation or privacy rights or because it would expose “legitimate surveillance programmes.”

“It’s been almost five years since newspapers around the world began reporting on the Snowden archive and the NSA has offered all kinds of shrill and reckless rhetoric about the ‘damage’ it has caused, but never any evidence of a single case of a life being endangered let alone harmed,” Greenwald said.

US intelligence officials say they are still counting the cost of his disclosures that went beyond actual intelligence collected to how it was collected.

Snowden’s defenders maintain that the US government has for years exaggerated the damage his disclosures caused.