Flip on any of the Sunday political talk shows and you might have heard this provocative suggestion:
MIKE ROGERS: "I don't think it was a gee whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB." (Via NBC)
That was House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on NBC's "Meet The Press,"
Essentially suggesting that Russia had helped NSA leaker Edward Snowden steal U.S. intelligence. Snowden of course was granted temporary asylum by Russia last year. (Via The Guardian)
Rogers wasn't the only one to level the charge. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul did the same on ABC — though he wouldn't go quite as far — only suggesting an unspecified foreign power helped Snowden.
MCCAUL: "I think he was helped by others."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "The Russians?"
MCCAUL: "You know, to say definitively, I can't — I can't answer that. But I personally believe that he was cultivated by a foreign power."
No word from Snowden in response to those allegations — but it's no secret he isn't a favorite of the intelligence community.
BuzzFeed recently quoted several anonymous Pentagon and NSA officials who apparently told the outlet they wanted him dead.
The U.S. has called for Snowden to return to stand trial either through extradition or voluntarily. He's accused of espionage. Friday President Obama announced reforms to the NSA surveillance program Snowden helped reveal.
