EDWARD SNOWDEN: 'I Was Trained As A Spy'
In a story out on NBC's website today, Snowden pushes back on critics who claim he was no more than a low-level hacker, instead telling Brian Williams that he was "trained as a spy" that worked undercover overseas, sometimes even using a name other than his own.
"But I am a technical specialist. I am a technical expert," Snowden told NBC. "I don't work with people. I don't recruit agents. What I do is I put systems to work for the United States. And I've done that at all levels from - from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top."
Snowden is believed to have "touched" around 1.7 million documents on NSA servers, ultimately giving 200,000 of them to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras after meeting them in Hong Kong in early June.
While he grabbed the documents while working under contract to NSA at Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii, Snowden has an extensive work history with intelligence agencies, including a stint as a CIA technician and contractor with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"When they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading," Snowden told Brian Williams. The DIA later confirmed to NBC that the 30-year-old contractor had actually spoken at three of their conferences.
Besides some critics downplaying Snowden's work history, others have taken a different track, instead arguing that, if he wasn't under Russian control when he stole thousands of top-secret documents, he is now.
"It would be most unusual if he were allowed to remain there as a guest for free," former director of CIA Operations Jack Devine said. "I don't think he was a controlled asset, but I think at the end of the day he will be."