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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Did Greenwald just say that Snowden has documents that could cause grievous harm the United States, and that he may have set up a dead man's switch that would cause them to be published should any harm come to Snowden?

Three possibilities I can see:

(1) Greenwald really can't think even one move ahead and see that he's just published a reason for any number of US adversaries to kill his source.

(2) Greenwald understands the implications of what he's published but is, owing to his own incentives, fine with the idea of his source being killed

(3) Greenwald doesn't believe what he's saying and isn't meant to be taken seriously.

Cards on the table: that guy could be reporting that water is wet and I'd still have him in bucket (3). Although now you kind of hope the freakshow government in North Korea is smart enough to bucket him the same way.

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(5) Greenwald is thinking two moves ahead. Now that US adversaries have a motive to kill his source, the US finally has a motive to protect his source.

Russia is not going to let harm come to Snowden in their airport or on their airplane. No one's going to stab him with a poisoned umbrella or anything.

Greenwald and co. have been consistent since the beginning that precautions had been taken with the trove of documents to ensure the reporting would not be suppressed were something to happen to Snowden. It's recently been sensationalized as a "dead man's switch", but it's not new info.

So I think you're right.

Look at how reflexive the US has been with all the diplomatic threats and goofups compared to Snowden's team's patient and careful tactics. The US hasn't been on the receiving end of effective hardball tactics in a long long time. It's taking a while to sink in that they need a better strategy than the standard prosecutorial bullying.

Greenwald just said there was more unpublished material that would be harmful to the US were it to be published. It's right there in the article.

Yes, but he's been saying that since the very first articles and interviews on Snowden. This is not new information.

Has he laid out in such stark terms, though? He has been saying the documents could cause "grievous damage" or something along those lines, but that's a far cry from "more damage to the US government in a minute alone than anyone else has ever had in the history of the United States."

Yeah he did get a bit less subtle about it in that interview. Anyone's guess as to whether that was a calculated change or just speaking off-the-cuff.

Discussing Greenwald is like playing Calvinball.

I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe it's you.

I find your numbered options fairly absurd.

The US has let Snowden linger in the Moscow airport, likely hoping that he'll do something stupid due to the stress.

By reminding everyone of the dead man switch, Snowden (via Greenwald) reminds the US that both have a shared interest in Snowden's asylum bid moving along smoothly.

Your conjecture above depends entirely on the idea that Snowden is unsafe at the Moscow airport.

What does it matter where he is? The same numbered points would apply if he was holed up in the back of a Chili's in Des Moines.

1) the information had already been published.

2) wildly speculative and wildly inconsistent with all of Greenwald's other behavior.

3) I imagine you have some kind of conspiracy theory to justify this one?

In this case, the simplest answer is that a dead man's switch gives Snowden a bit of additional leverage, and that Greenwald mentioned it to help the reporter interviewing him understand the dynamics of the situation.

Next time read the article you're commenting on.

I did read it. Did I miss something that invalidates my counter argument?

Yes.

and what was it?

Read the article, then reread your comments. You're plenty smart, and it's pretty obvious.

I just re-read it a third time and do not see what you're referring to. If you'll humor me and paste in the relevant paragraph I'll give it extra attention and (I hope) admit if I was wrong above.

Snowden made it very clear weeks ago that there was a dead man switch for the release of documents. Greenwald was just restating it with some sensationalism. Just trying to get more people to read the article.

Isn't Greenwald now relying on all of the governments of Iran, North Korea, China, Syria, Russia, and who knows who else to also understand that he's just being a sensationalist?

I too immediately thought this statement was a misstep in Greenwald's otherwise discriminating journalism. The possibilities you outlined detail exactly why, but I would add a fourth, if somewhat far-fetched, circumstance to your list.

(4) Snowden has verified knowledge of an imminent death threat from the USG and is using Greenwald to convey awareness of his "dead man's switch" for his own protection. Employing Greenwald as a channel for this message, as opposed to himself, gives him some cover legally and won't further alienate Snowden from the public who might see him as blackmailing the United States if he were to outright state this in say, a new video interview.

No, he didn't. He said it would cause embarrasing damage to the US Government, not to the US per se. Besides this is no news, Snowden himself said so earlier.

Read. [...] the reality that he has all sorts of documents that could quickly and seriously harm the US if disclosed, yet he has published none of those.

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