It's Becoming Clear That The NSA's Nightmare Has Just Begun

12-05-2013 • Michael Kelley, Seattle PI

The National Security Agency and its allies face a long, painful drip of classified documents relating to their intelligence operations.

The quantity and range of leaks facilitated by Edward Snowden have become clear in recent news stories.

First, The Australian reports that Edward Snowden stole as many as 20,000 Aussie signals intelligence files from the NSA's systems. Australia's attorney general called the disclosures the most damaging in the country's history.

That, combined with 58,000 documents from Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency and an unknown but substantial number of NSA files, means the claim Snowden took as many as 200,000 files is not far-fetched.

Second, on Thursday Swedish television reported that Sweden's signals intelligence agency, the FRA, has been a key partner for the United States in spying on Russia and its leadership. A previous report said that Sweden is also a key partner of the GCHQ.