It is really hard at this point to come away from reading anything about Assange or Snowden at this point and not feel you are being manipulated in some way or

It is really hard at this point to come away from reading anything about Assange or Snowden at this point and not feel you are being manipulated in some way or another. None of the agencies which are involved are beyond suspect, nor are Assange or Snowden without major faults/ issues. About the only really clear winner in this whole disaster is Russia. Regardless of how this all plays out and what people believe, the US looks like shit here (to a large extent rightfully) and they walked away with piled of top secret and confidential US information. This is perhaps the greatest espionage victory since WWII and it was largely self-inflicted.