When NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden left the U.S. with documents detailing the massive government intelligence apparatus spying operation on American citizens, the establishment political and nattering classes and the propaganda media called Snowden a traitor, citing a period of 11 “missing days” for his period in Hong Kong  as evidence he was a Russian or Chinese spy.
All the so-called “media of record” — the big newspapers and broadcast outlets — ran with the story, turning into what The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald describes as a “cottage industry of media conspiracists” that “devoted itself to accusing Edward Snowden of being a spy for either Russia and/or China.”
Based on reports from “a source familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency report on the Snowden affair,” proclaimed The Wall Street Journal’s Edward Jay Epstein  — the paper that advertises itself as “America’s most trusted news source” – U.S. investigative agencies were unable to find any hotel record or credit card charges indicating his whereabouts during those 11 days from May 20 until May 31. It also reported that “a U.S. official” claimed CCTV cameras showed Snowden entering the skyscraper that housed the Russian consulate on three occasions, but they were in June.
This has been the narrative since Snowden last walked out of the NSA almost four years ago.
But new documents released by the Mira Hotel to Snowden’s lawyers show that Snowden was exactly where he said he was the whole time. He checked into the Mira Hotel on May 21, 2014 under his own name and stayed there continuously until June 10.
The Intercept reported on the documents more than a week ago, but none of the so-called U.S. “media of record”  have bothered to update their articles or report the new information, least of all “America’s most trusted news source” (which saw Epstein, one of the originators of the Snowden-is-a-spy memes, publish a book on Snowden titled, “How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft”). This even though several Snowden supporters, including The New York Times’ Charlie Savage, have repeatedly tweeted at Epstein and The Journal about the new documents.
It would have taken little journalistic legwork from a multinational media company with assets in Hong Kong to establish whether Snowden was staying or had stayed where he claimed to be. But rather than expend the energy, the mainstream media parroted unnamed “official” sources within the Deep State.
A side note: Is it at all plausible that America’s vaunted intelligence agencies were so inept they weren’t able to determine whether Snowden stayed in the hotel he claimed even though he was there under his own name? If you believe that, then you probably believe the MSM/Deep State narratives on 9/11, Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, Pulse nightclub, and the other bogus Deep State-enabled terrorist attacks.
These same media organizations – which are at least Deep State parrots if not outright Deep State propagandists – tell us today that Russia hacked the election and President Donald Trump is a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And the MSM wonder why thinking people don’t believe anything they report!
Snowden is not and never was a spy for Russia, China or anyone else. He is an American patriot who did more than anyone in decades to unmask the massive operation the U.S. government has to vacuum up all information on all Americans all the time.
He’s hero and a true patriot, not a traitor; and should be treated as such.