Arms races in transparency and secrecy.

• Author: Greenwald, Glenn
• Position: Glenn Greenwald - Interview

Heated debates continue over the right balance between privacy and security. The Journal of International Affairs talked to Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story on Edward Snowden, about government surveillance and disclosures of government secrets. Greenwald discusses WikiLeaks, Russia and the U.S. presidential election, and the impact leaks have on international relations.

Did the Russian government try to influence the U.S. presidential election?

It is possible. The history of both the United States and Russia, both subsequent and prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, is one filled with examples of each government trying to interfere in the political affairs of other countries, including one another.

I just think that there has been very little evidence presented to support that accusation. That is not to say that I doubt it or that I would be shocked if it were true. It is just that there are lots of assertions continually that, for example, the Russians are behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). There may be some evidence that somebody who is actually Russian, a Russian citizen or in Russia physically, had some role in that.

But whether that means that the Russian government is actually involved in any way--let alone a broader plot to influence the outcome of the election--is extremely speculative at best.

Is it possible that WikiLeaks has been instrumentalized by Russia?

I am really even more unconvinced by this claim. First of all, that assumes that WikiLeaks got the emails of the DNC from the Russian government or a group controlled by the Russian government, and there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that is the case. That is a complete speculation.

As for the timing, in order to make any claims for the timing we would need to know when WikiLeaks got these materials. As somebody who has worked on several leaks involving large amounts of documents, it can take a really long time to process them and to get them ready for publication. It is possible WikiLeaks got these materials months ago and it is possible they got them just a few days before the convention. It is really hard to say.

News organizations are constantly trying to release their big stories so as to connect to an event that will bring more attention to the revelations. So the fact that WikiLeaks was able to publish these materials before a natural news event, which was the DNC, does not in any way immediately suggest that it is...