This article is inaccurate, and I've been corresponding with the author.
It's predicated on the data being in the laptops.
As well, even by the author's own wild story, Snowden would "feel terrible, and remember being drugged and losing the information"
That doesn't jive with:
1) Snowden and Assange & Appelbaum (who likely are advising) would NOT make the rookie mistake are carrying the data on one's person. That'd be like Assamge carrying the original Wikileaks dump with him at all times.
2) Greenwald has talked by phone (Snowden called him) on Sat and again this Tues, and Snowden told him no such drugging story. Indeed, his spirits are high and he's satisfied with the global debate that's ensued from his actions. He said specifically he's never been in China or Russia authorities' hands.
The #FoutLaptops are for Snowden to get online securely. There's even that hashtag on Twitter to debunk the silly rumors about the laptops.
NYT is spreading a false, wild speculation.
NYT is also responsible for the earlier "while in HK his laptops were compromised" rumor (wrong-he was in a hotel provided by his HK media and parliament contacts).
That rumor was "quoted" by the New Yorker reporter in Beijing and that's the genesis of how it spread. I contacted that reporter (who I know tangentially) and told him not to publish the NYT speculation the day he posted it. Now that its even more refuted, I contacted him again last night.
Snowden (and Asaange/Appelbaum likely advising) are much too skilled to make an unprofessional infosec mistake. Everyone knows the security is both "physical" and "electronic". That's 1st grader knowledge, and the NYT apparently has little infosec training.
It doesn't matter whether Snowden has physical assets on his person. If he knows things that could be useful to Russian intelligence, which he certainly does, and if he can access things that would be useful to them, he has put himself in a position where they can make it extremely difficult to deny them whatever they want. You think they play beanbag?
Snowden has said that if his goal was to do business with foreign intelligence, he could be "living in a palace petting a phoenix." If he really believed that his leverage as a defector was strong, then he's hopelessly naïf and who knows what other missteps he's making. I see his flight from China to Russia as an indication that this may be the case: He appears to have thought that he could play China against Russia and take the better deal. When China laughed in his face and sent him packing, he had to throw himself on the mercy of Russia.
On the other hand, if he knew what really awaits defectors, he was making a disingenuous argument. In which case, how much of the rest of his story is like that?
Why would Snowden steal four laptops from the US government if not for the data on them? Is the theory that he took them for his own personal usage, rather than taking a personal laptop he already had with him? If so, why four?
Also the idea that a hashtag on twitter can "debunk the silly rumors" itself seems rather silly, as the entire argument rests on the word of Snowden/Wikileaks/Greenwald/etc. There is no verifiable way - on either side of the argument - to know what is going on inside the special transit section of the Moscow airport he is holed up in.
It's predicated on the data being in the laptops. As well, even by the author's own wild story, Snowden would "feel terrible, and remember being drugged and losing the information"
That doesn't jive with:
1) Snowden and Assange & Appelbaum (who likely are advising) would NOT make the rookie mistake are carrying the data on one's person. That'd be like Assamge carrying the original Wikileaks dump with him at all times.
2) Greenwald has talked by phone (Snowden called him) on Sat and again this Tues, and Snowden told him no such drugging story. Indeed, his spirits are high and he's satisfied with the global debate that's ensued from his actions. He said specifically he's never been in China or Russia authorities' hands.
The #FoutLaptops are for Snowden to get online securely. There's even that hashtag on Twitter to debunk the silly rumors about the laptops.
NYT is spreading a false, wild speculation.
NYT is also responsible for the earlier "while in HK his laptops were compromised" rumor (wrong-he was in a hotel provided by his HK media and parliament contacts).
That rumor was "quoted" by the New Yorker reporter in Beijing and that's the genesis of how it spread. I contacted that reporter (who I know tangentially) and told him not to publish the NYT speculation the day he posted it. Now that its even more refuted, I contacted him again last night.
Snowden (and Asaange/Appelbaum likely advising) are much too skilled to make an unprofessional infosec mistake. Everyone knows the security is both "physical" and "electronic". That's 1st grader knowledge, and the NYT apparently has little infosec training.