Since June 23rd Edward Snowden is staying at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport because Washington invalidated his passport. A few days ago he submitted his application for temporary asylum in Russia. Up until now, this thirty year old American information technology guy was working for the elite NSA and CIA, where one does not get in accidentally. His fleeing the US showed that National Security Agency is conducting a mass electronic surveillance that incorporates even the US allies.
PRISM program's (this is what is so talked about) essence is to monitor phone calls as well as other countries diplomatic missions, social networks, and even emails of US citizens. The free world called this a scandal whereas Americans, using a great pressure, requested for the extradition of his agent accusing him of leaking confidential information and espionage. However, he declared that he did this because of ideological motives and for the sake of truth and liberty.
However, I do not believe in either of these parties because neither the leak of information regarding electronic surveillance, conducted by the US, was an extremely ground-breaking secret news, as the US government indicates, nor E. Snowden revealed more details regarding this topic for the sake of ideology because such special agents as him are neatly selected and do not have a right to take up other activities since they know the price of treason. In this case, what is the deal then? All of this seems as a very complicated agency game as a very good chess game where one of the players is sacrificing his figure only so that to deceive the other. The creation of the so-called 'good spy' legend is the basis for the success of a spy. To illustrate this I will give an example from the past.
60 years ago the famous colonel Juzef Światło (the real name Issac Fleischfarb) ran away from the Polish security agency where he worked as the deputy director of the X department at the Ministry of public safety. In 1953, during a business trip to East Germany, the colonel J. Światło ran away to West Berlin where he surrendered to US government. He took a suitcase with him full of documents compromising the intelligence agency's leadership and Polish communist government. He was called a traitor in the country and his death was demanded. He was taken away to the other side of the ocean and for a few years after that he used Free Europe radio to spread compromising information about the country's leadership, to expose the crimes of communism in Poland although his own hands were bloody. He said that he ran away because he saw the real face of intelligence agencies and because of his patriotism (sic!) he wanted to inform the West about it all. For many years he was considered to be almost a hero. J. Światło died in 1985 in the US. The truth was revealed after the collapse of communism when secret documents reached the surface.
It turned out that he conducted a secret Moscow's mission. In reality, the escape was planned and directed by the Soviet agencies. The archives show that the 'escapes' of spies in many cases were the games used to deceive opponents. The unclassified documents from STASI show that J. Światło presented a fake version and that his' escape' was aided by some other person.
So who was Józef Światło? He was the most trustworthy colleague of Sorov's Poland. He was the only person from communist secret police who had a privilege to call on special phone to Beriya. The operation was approved by N. Khrushchev himself who was preparing to take over the power after J. Stalin. This is why he wanted to get rid of the Polish government that was connected with him, i.e. all the Stalinists that had to be replaced by communists coming together around Gomulka.
This is what happened. The government's overthrow was aided by the shameful news from the 'refugee' J. Światło. The finale of such rearrangement was the urgent invitation of president Bierut to Moscow from which he returned, however, in a coffin. The Polish government was taken over by Gomulka who was loyal to N. Khrushchev. These facts about the 'legend' of J. Światło made it reliable. After this, he could start pursuing his main goal – espionage. He informed soviet agents in the US about the behind the scenes functioning mechanisms of Free Europe radio and the CIA agents who questioned him.
However, let's return back to E. Snowden. Isn't his case similar to the one described before? He had access to a lot of secret information; however, he revealed only the most obvious, the one that could harm the current team in Washington and the one that would make him trustworthy in the eyes of Russians. Maybe I am mistaken, however, in my opinion, this is an American attempt to house an agent in Russia similarly as the Soviets did with the colonel J. Światło in the US.
All of this is done by the same old CIA that is back in the game for power and influence. So the news from E. Snowden compromising the B. Obama administration is paving the way for republicans in the next presidential elections. It seems that someone is trying to shoot down two rabbits with one bullet. The E. Snowden's long stay in the airport's transit zone shows that Russians are not buying into the Prometheus-type of refugee legend. They are dragging the time. This is a proof that the intrigue was identified. If my suspicions are right, the Americans are very naïve to think that they can 'take over' the experienced Russians this way.
Dr. Bogusław Rogalski,
political scientist, AECR advisor for international affairs at the European Parliament
