They know what info he has, and are trying to get ahead of the story.

It will be interesting to see if there's a Congressional investigation or perjury charges. I sort of doubt it, Republicans want this vast intelligence apparachik for themselves if they get the WH.

What we know so far, from them, was dragged out with great difficulty.

But I did read that they have a pretty good idea what Snowden has based on what they could tell he accessed. Frankly, I don't believe they have more than vague guesses.

One of the Kardashians will do something stupid in the next several days and then they can all go back to what they were doing before.

Plus, these confessions are giving them some immunity. If there is a terrorist attack ahead, they can blame it on the fact that they were forced to expose their secrets.

And if the heat gets much worse, well, then let's say it would be very unfortunate if America suffered another attack, wouldn't it?

Yes. They anticipate the story exploding. And they were asked by congress to explain. The NSA explained - in secret - but then the FBI was caught lying.

Yes. They know what Snowden took. If they didn't they should all be fired.

All of this was bound to come to light because they are a few patriots left.

That the secrets they're trying to protect by throwing whistleblowers in prison aren't as important as the code of National Security Omerta.

They're making these disclosures themselves, which means these things aren't the super-duper uber-secrets that will allow Al Qaeda to nuke the Statue of Liberty if they were ever disclosed. When they disclose the secrets themselves, for no reason other than spin-doctoring, that means that these things shouldn't have been secret to begin with.

No, it's all about vengeance and punishment of the wayward national-security analyst who has a sudden attack of conscience and spills the beans on the American Stasi's crimes.

Every key stroke he made while at NSA and charges will be forthcoming. Guess he did not expect them to "catch him".