Ex-KGB Major: The Russians Tricked Snowden Into Going To Moscow

[Blue_Tires]

Ex-KGB Major Boris Karpichkov told Nigel Nelson of The Mirror that spies from Russia’s SVR intelligence service, posing as ­diplomats in Hong Kong, convinced Snowden to fly to Moscow last June.

“It was a trick and he fell for it," Karpichkov, who reached the rank of Major as a member of the KGB's prestigious Second Directorate while specializing in counter-intelligence, told Nelson. "Now the Russians are extracting all the intelligence he possesses.”

Karpichkov fled Moscow in 1998 after spying on his native Latvia for the KGB and the post-Soviet FSB. The 55-year-old says he is still in contact with several of his old spy pals.

Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong on May 20, 2013 and identified himself to the world on June 9. The 30-year-old American became stranded in Moscow on June 23 after he landed with a void U.S. passport and an unsigned travel Ecuadorian document obtained by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Karpichkov said that the Kremlin leaked Snowden’s planned flight to Moscow to provoke the U.S. into revoking Snowden's passport, which Washington did on June 22. Assange also advised Snowden that "he would be physically safest in Russia."

Snowden has been living under the protection of the post-Soviet security services (FSB) since at least receiving asylum on Aug. 1. Karpichkov told The Mirror that Snowden lives in an FSB-controlled neighborhood in Moscow's suburbs.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-kgb-spy-the-russians-tricked-snowden-2014-6

[TheNutcracker]

1. The U.S wanted to charge him, Snowden knows what Russia is...and me think this is propaganda.

[Blue_Tires]

2. And Russia now knows what Snowden knows...

[apnu]

8. Heck, most of the world knows thanks to Snowden's public leaks

About the only thing they can extract from him, that's of value, is the processes our Security-Military structure uses. Not really secret information, service members tell me of policies and procedures all the time. Like on the train going to work as casual conversation and general bitchery about how horrible their jobs are.

[blm]

3. How would Snowden know if he was served a mickey and

Putin's agents and IT experts poured over everything he had while Snowden was out?

He wouldn't, would he?

[Man from Pickens]

4. How was it a trick?

Snowden needed a safe place to land and the US was intimidating everyone else into making sure he didn't get asylum. Looking at the treatment of other whistleblowers, it was a sensible move for him to go to Russia even knowing - as he surely must have - that he would be exploited by them for intel.

[Skinner]

6. It was only a sensible move if a person believes protecting their own ass is more important...

...than possibly handing over sensitive intelligence to another country.

To be clear, I am a Snowden supporter. I believe he did a very courageous and important thing. But his choice to go to Russia was a very unwise move which threatens national security and undermines his argument that he was acting in the best interests of the citizens of the United States.

[Man from Pickens]

9. on the other hand

The information he revealed indicates that our own security agencies are a far bigger threat to actual national security than are the Russians.

The real stunner in this story is not what happened to Snowden, but the complete lack of corrective action after he produced incontrovertible proof of the systematic elimination of the 4th Amendment (among other Constitutional violations that are now standard practice).

[Skinner]

11. That may or may not be true. But either way...

...it has nothing to do with Snowden's choice to go to Russia.

[Man from Pickens]

12. what other options did he have?

He couldn't sit in an airport forever, China didn't want to touch him, and there's no other country that had the ability to resist US demands to turn him over. As far as I'm aware, it was the only option available to him which did not lead back to a US prison.

[Skinner]

13. I think he should have thought it all through a little more before he went public.

He might have been able to figure out some way to do it that doesn't end with him (possibly) making state secrets available to the Russian government. It was pretty clear that he was making it up as he went along.

[bemildred]

16. I think it's amazing he got as far as he did.

Last edited Wed Mar 11, 2015, 11:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Typical nerd, all over the technical side, all those TOR servers and heavy encryption and key management issues and paranoia to the max. And that worked great, he stole the family jewels. They didn't know who he was or what he had until he told them.

But naive about politics and how things are done in the real world.

But if I am to believe the OP, we are not only so stupid at to WANT him in Moscow, but predictably so, otherwise one is at a loss to explain why we revoked his passport so he had no choice, and how the Russians knew we would do that if they only leaked his flight plan.

He did sit there in the airport for a month or so while Putin waited to see what offers he got, which does not suggest great eagerness to see what Snowden had.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. right.

'cause like life in prison wasn't his other option. This doesn't pass the sniff test.

[jakeXT]

7. How did they trick the US to revoke his passport?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/23/us-usa-security-passport-idUSBRE95M0CW20130623

[OnyxCollie]

15. Don't let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

The OP's vendetta against Glenn Greenwald for some wrong Glenn had done to the OP's friend now extends to Edward Snowden, who is guilty by association.

Which doesn't sound crazy obsessive at all.

[geek tragedy]

10. I'm the furthest thing from a Putin fan, but this seems like creative speculation from a guy who

has been on the outside looking in for 16 years.

[longship]

14. Yup! My thoughts exactly.

How does this guy know what he claims?