Charlie Rose Talks to Ex-Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff

Based on what you know, has [Edward] Snowden been speaking with the Chinese or Russian authorities about U.S. surveillance?
I wouldn’t be surprised if [the Russian authorities] were debriefing him or trying to. I don’t know if he’s carrying data with him. I don’t know whether the Russians have sought to obtain that data. And by the way, he might not have a lot of choice in the matter. I’ve got to tell you that, if he’s got data on laptops or thumb drives, I’d be really surprised if a lot of that didn’t wind up in the hands of the Chinese army or intelligence community. I’d worry about, as a traveler, whether my own data would be captured unwittingly. In this case, you know, he’s advertised himself.

He’s indicated that he’s left a lot of damaging data to be released if he disappears.
It’s possible. But it’s also been known to be the case that these guys bluff. Some of the WikiLeaks folks would make assertions about incredibly damaging stuff. Then that stuff, when it came out, if it came out at all, was ho-hum. Although he planned this in advance, I can’t say it’s been extremely well thought out.