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In view of such past successes of the Russian intelligence services, it cannot be precluded that there was another person in the NSA working with Snowden who used an enthusiastic as cover to prevent any light from falling on his own surreptitious spying. While it may seem extremely unlikely that Snowden had such assistance, the alternative scenario, that Snowden broke into the sealed compartments and made off with the documents without any assistance, seems equally unlikely.
Even if Snowden had been, as he claims, a pure idealist seeking to right a perceived wrong, it
does exclude the possibility of his becoming entangled in the plots of others. Intelligence services make it their business to bring about such witting or unwitting entanglements.
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