Former CIA officer Bob Baer said on CNN Sunday evening officials are speculating that Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing could be “potential Chinese espionage.” Snowden came forward yesterday and identified himself as the leaker of the NSA’s massive surveillance operation.
Snowden revealed he was currently located in Hong Kong.
“It’s [Hong Kong’s] not an independent part of China at all. I’ve talked to a bunch of people in Washington today, in official positions, and they are looking at this as a potential Chinese espionage case,” said Baer.
When he was asked if there was a possibility to extradite Snowden, Baer responded, “We’ll never get him in China. They’re not about to send him to the United States and the CIA is not going to render him, as he said in the tape, is not going to try to grab him there.”
President Obama recently met with China’s Presdent Xi Jinping where they discussed issues of cybersecurity.
Baer said, “”It almost seems to me that this was a pointed affront to the United States on the day the president is meeting the Chinese leader,” Baer said, “telling us, listen, quit complaining about espionage and getting on the internet and our hacking. You are doing the same thing.”
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