Edward Snowden Was Not a Trained Spy
So Edward Snowden told NBC News that he was not a low-level CIA employee or analyst. He says he was a “trained spy.”
No he wasn’t.
Snowden was a low-level computer technician who briefly worked for the CIA abroad. After he left CIA, he was a computer technician for NSA and for Booz Allen.
Like most CIA employees when they work abroad, Snowden was given a cover name and cover employment. This is standard practice for almost all CIA employees working overseas.
Snowden was a CIA intelligence officer. Like all CIA intelligence officers, he received professional training. When Snowden says he was a spy, he is trying to equate his low-level CIA employment with CIA case officers who run and recruit human assets and conduct covert operations.
These officers are carefully chosen and put through intense training and evaluation. Many wash out. While Mr Snowden somehow slipped through the cracks to become a CIA computer technician, I can say without hesitation that there is no way such an undisciplined and reckless individual would ever meet the high qualifications and pass the difficult tests required to become a CIA case officer.
I believe Edward Snowden’s ridiculous claim that he was a trained spy is a sign of his irritation that fewer people are taking him seriously and more people are beginning to see him for the traitor that he is.
Fred Fleitz served in 2018 as a Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump and Chief of Staff to National Security Adviser John Bolton.
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