New reports say that the National Security Administration (NSA) is beginning to lose interest in making any deals for the return Edward Snowden to the United States.
According to The Hill, NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett pointed out at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the hundreds of thousands of pages of U.S. intelligence stolen by Edward Snowden are starting to age and become irrelevant.
“As time goes on, the utility for us of having that conversation becomes less. It’s been over a year since he had access to our networks and our information so the need for us to understand that greater level of detail is lesser and lesser,” Ledgett said.
Snowden himself has been seeking a deal with the U.S. government so that he might return from Russia, where he sought asylum. But that deal has been elusive for the former U.S. security operative. And now that so much time has passed, that deal seems to be passing, as well.
“As time goes on, his information becomes less useful,” Ledgett insisted.
With the passage of time, fewer and fewer people are talking about Snowden in the U.S. also. In March, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said that Snowden is the “21st century equivalent of Benedict Arnold.”
“Anyone who thinks Edward Snowden is a hero,” Bolton said, “is unfit to serve” the country.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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