Multiple reports appear to confirm that the FBI has closed in on a second NSA leaker who is suspected of having fed information to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, as well as Edward Snowden. The FBI reportedly raided his home this week, seeking more evidence of his cooperation with the media.
While both the Justice Department and the FBI have declined to comment, Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff reported that a man in northern Virginia, who has yet to be identified, is a suspect in a new series of leaks to the reporters who worked with Edward Snowden.
According to Isikoff’s report, the FBI “recently executed a search of the suspect’s home,” alongside the work of federal prosecutors in opening a criminal investigation on the person. There are no details pointing to who the person may be, other than his or her location and that he or she works for a contractor employed by the federal government.
The source is suspected of being behind information in a post at the website The Intercept by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux exposing a classified government database of people currently being monitored on the United States’ terror list. The post reveals that, as Isikoff writes, “Nearly half the people on the U.S. government’s master terrorist screening database had ‘no recognized terrorist affiliation.'”
No evidence exists pointing to this individual knowing Edward Snowden. However, as The Sydney Morning Herald reports, it does appear that Snowden and Greenwald have a conversation about him in the film Citizenfour. In an exchange in Moscow, Greenwald appears to tell Snowden that they have secured a second source, which prompts Snowden’s admiration. “It was motivated by what you did,” Greenwald replied dramatically.
Snowden himself remains in Moscow for the foreseeable future, a celebrity among a group of activists bent on diminishing the national security power of the United States. He has since turned his eye on the United Kingdom, however, Skyping into the Observer Ideas festival last week to condemn the UK’s surveillance agency. Describing UK intelligence as “anything goes,” Snowden called on the British media to go on the offensive against government agencies to expose their secrets. Snowden has yet to make similar statements in his new home, where personal political rights and those of the media are often flagrantly violated by President Vladimir Putin.
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