CIA Veteran: Defectors Like Snowden "Tend To Be Lazy"

Belinda Luscombe at Time.com speaks to former CIA officer Jack Devine, author of Good Hunting, about his view of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

Jack Devine, who served for 32 years in the CIA, much of it undercover, did some of his training with Aldrich Ames, whom the CIA considers one of the worst traitors in its history. He was also Ames’ boss. One of Devine’s jobs was to find people in hostile foreign nations who would betray their country for money, which he details in his new book Good Hunting, a spirited defense of the work ( and funding) of the CIA. So the dude has some experience with defectors.

Devine says that turncoat agents always have some story, but when it comes don to it, they’re basically dissatisfied with the level they have reached in the CIA. “They’re usually well-read, and they think they’re smarter than everyone else, and they’re just not,” he says. He feels the same is true of Snowden. “I don’t think he was an agent of the Russians,” he notes. “But I would say today that you don’t stay in Russia for free.”     

You can watch the video via the below link:

http://time.com/2823581/cia-veteran-defectors-like-snowden-tend-to-be-lazy/