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Snowden Might Have Taken 20,000 Secret Australian Files

When he grabbed the files from the NSA, Snowden could have taken a lot of Australian docs

Dec 5, 2013 12:52 GMT  ·  By
Edward Snowden is believed to have taken some 20,000 files belonging to the Australian intelligence service
   Edward Snowden is believed to have taken some 20,000 files belonging to the Australian intelligence service

Several NSA files regarding Australia have already been published, including one that rocked the country’s relationship with Indonesia. Now, the authorities seem to believe that out of the entire trove of files Snowden took from the NSA, about 20,000 could belong to the Australian intelligence agency.

“The majority of the stolen reports are likely to discuss political, economic and military intelligence gleaned by Australian agencies, especially the Australian Signals Directorate in the Asia-Pacific region,” the Australian reports.

There’s currently an audit underway that should provide better understanding to the authorities of exactly what files Snowden could have downloaded. Given the number of files assumed to have been taken, the process could take quite a while.

The exact amount of files Snowden managed to take from the NSA is unknown. Despite an investigation running for some months now, the NSA director admitted that he could have copied up to 200,000 files, but they cannot be sure about the number. One thing is for sure, however, namely that the Guardian has some 53,000 files, while many others have been handed out to other media organizations.

The Australian Attorney General George Brandis is quite upset with the revelation and says that the files have the capability to produce massive damage.

“The Snowden revelations are the most serious setback for Western intelligence since the Second World War. Given that most of the sophistication and the structure of Western intelligence-gathering was developed since the Second World War, it would not be an exaggeration to say it is the most serious ever,” Brandis said.

Australia is one of the United States’ allies and, along with the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand form the Five Eyes – a group of nations that has agreed to share intelligence, but not to spy on each other.

So far, aside from New Zealand, there have been reports involving each and every country on the list, as well as several others that have played a role in the mass surveillance efforts.