Intelligence Director to Edward Snowden: Hand Over Your Documents

If former NSA analyst-turned-whistle-blower Edward Snowden is sitting on any more classified documents with intent to leak their contents, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper believes Snowden ought to give them back to the U.S. government.

Clapper blasted Snowden during Wednesday’s session before the Senate on threats to America’s national security, claiming the expatriated analyst had emboldened the nation’s enemies, estranged allies and endangered intelligence agents by letting loose with the information Snowden leaked last year. As The Washington Post reported Wednesday, Clapper also riffed on Snowden’s recent “mission accomplished” declaration to the press:

“Snowden claims that he has won and his mission is accomplished,” Clapper said. “If that is true,” he added, Snowden should return the documents that have not been released.

Alluding to Snowden’s refu­gee status in Russia, Clapper scoffed at the former contractor’s comments “about what an Orwellian state he thinks this country is.”

But Snowden wasn’t the only figure high on Clapper’s list of security threats. The intelligence chief also pointed to Syria as a growing area of concern, as upheaval in that region has spawned and strengthened militant groups with anti-U.S. inclinations.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson