Was The Putin - Edward Snowden Q&A A Screw-Up?

Snowden’s Camp: Staged Putin Q&A Was a Screw-Up -- Noah Shachtman, Daily Beast

Even the NSA leaker’s closest advisers now say his appearance on a Kremlin call-in show, which touched off yet another international firestorm, was a mistake.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden instantly regretted asking Russian President Vladimir Putin a softball question on live television about the Kremlin’s mass surveillance effort, two sources close to the leaker tell The Daily Beast.

“It certainly didn’t go as he would’ve hoped,” one of these sources said. “I don’t think there’s any shame in saying that he made an error in judgment.”

“He basically viewed the question as his first foray into criticizing Russia. He was genuinely surprised that in reasonable corridors it was seen as the opposite,” added Ben Wizner, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who serves as one of Snowden’s closest advisers.

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My Comment: I would not say it was a screw-up .... and if people perceive that  it was .... everyone will have forgotten about  it after the next NSA revelation is revealed. But .... it is true that NSA leaker Edward Snowden is more effective in having his press friends do the reporting on his leaks, and if he writes the odd Op-Ed or shows up in a TED conference via a live feed link.