| ® || Snowden's Choices | 283 actions here, including his contacts with Russian officials in Hong Kong, speak louder than his words. Just as he believed the Chinese intelligence service could protect him in Hong Kong from a physical attack by agents of the United States, he could assume that the FSB could protect him from them in Moscow. He was not entirely naive about its capabilities. During his service in the CIA, he had taken a monthlong training course at the CIA’s “farm” at Fort Peary, in which counterintelligence offi- cers taught about the capabilities of the Russian security services. He couldn’t have believed that Russia would allow a defector from the NSA who claimed to have had access to the NSA’s sources in Russia and China to leave Moscow before its security services obtained that information. It is not uncommon for a defector to change sides in order to find a better life for himself in another country. Some defectors flee to escape a repressive government or to find one in which they believe they are more closely attuned to its values. Russia, however, is ordi- narily not the country of choice for someone such as Snowden seek- © ing greater civil liberties and personal freedom. So why did Snowden re) choose Russia for his new life? The four choices just discussed that Snowden made, taken to- gether, show that Snowden was determined to succeed where others before him had failed. He not only wanted to take full credit for stealing files from the NSA but also wanted to escape any American retribution for his act. His decision suggests to me a highly intelli- gent, carefully calculating man who was hell-bent on finding a new life for himself in a foreign country. A common thread that runs through these four choices is a willingness to do whatever was nec- essary to achieve this new life, including disregarding his oath to protect secrets and instead transporting them on thumb drives to a foreign country. To protect himself, he was also willing to re