Just from what I know so far (and I’m always open to changing my mind if I find anything new), I’ve kind of concluded that this is a “good-guy” intel operation.
See what it accomplishes:
1. Gets to bring up the US gripe with Chinese hackers against the US, while simultaneously giving the Chinese a bit of a fright, with indications of how far they’ve been hacked. Lots of room here for swinging between arm-twisting and the kind of hugging boxers do before matches
2. Brings out of the closet the massive extent of the US surveillance state and does it in a colorful “sexy” way, replete with pole-dancing, a little gender-tweaking, spy versus spy. Desensitizes the public to some of it, while alerting it about some of its dangers.
3. Lets the “bad guys” and terrorists know that the USG has their number.
4. Scares away any minor trouble-makers from joining “the revolution” (Wolf’s point). Creighton’s point is exactly the opposite – that Snowden is a provocateur.
5. Now comes my favorite explanation – “maps” social networks and assesses real-time responses, in a form of cyber war-gaming or, if your prefer it, a kind of opinion poll.
6. Informs people of the need to encrypt communications. This is the good guy part. The government is concerned that a lot of its data bank is being used by criminals and private contractors for their own purposes. So mom and pop need to be told it’s a good thing to encrypt (it is, if you can).
However, even Snowden admits tacitly that the NSA can get its hands quite easily on anything you write, even encrypted, by spying at other points in the chain of communication.
7. Separates bloggers/activists/other trouble-makers into groups:
a. Those who will support their fearless leader, not matter what. And those who won’t.
b. Those who will play the game, and those who aren’t into game playing, generally.
c. Those who can be allowed a greater voice. And those who can’t.
8. Feeds bogus information about the NSA into the internet to confuse foreign intelligence agencies (and my heart is not breaking for any of them)…. because the “battle-field is everywhere”.
9. Feeds bogus information to activists at home who might otherwise inadvertently disclose sensitive security matters.
10. Possibly hurts another agency or department (i.e. interdepartmental outing, a favorite sport of the government (think State versus CIA or FBI versus Military Intelligence).
11. Payback against Booz Hamilton or maybe this is a government versus contractor pay-back?
12. Creates a credible and popular voice in the alternate media.