Rogers: Snowden may have had help with leaks

House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) hinted in an interview set to air Sunday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden may have had assistance when he was gathering top-secret information about American intelligence practices from a Russian spy agency.

“I believe there’s questions to be answered there,” Rogers said in an interview to air on “Meet the Press.” “I don’t think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB.”

{mosads}The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is the successor to the KGB, and serves as Russia’s primary intelligence service.

Rogers says his suspicions were aroused because some of the information Snowden obtained while working as a contractor for the NSA were “beyond his technical capabilities.” The Michigan Republican also questioned how Snowden had assembled a so-called “go bag” for his escape to Hong Kong after turning over the classified documents to journalists. 

Moreover, Rogers argues Snowden targeted information about foreign intelligence operations, rather than intelligence programs that raised privacy concerns for American citizens. 

“I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow,” Rogers said. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

In an interview last month with the Washington Post, Snowden said there was “no evidence at all for the claim that I have loyalties to Russia or China or any country other than the United States.”

“I have no relationship with the Russian government,” he continued. “I have not entered into any agreements with them.”

Instead, Snowden said he was motivated by concern over the programs’ privacy violations.

“All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,” Snowden said.