[NullCharacter]

Using your same logic here, you could claim that those documents are forgeries to begin with, leaked to "assassinate" the "character" of the NSA. You can't have it both ways. Either you're skeptical of the documents origin/source or you aren't.

[ewindisch]

Absolutely. Also remember this was a thought experiment, not a conspiracy theory.

FYI, not sure why you're using quotes around Character assassination. It is a fixed expression in English, it's not something I made up: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_assassination 2. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/character%20assass...

[NullCharacter]

I used quotes because I don't know if it's actually possible to assassinate the character of a government organization, in the sense that I'm not sure if a government organization has a character to be assassinated per se. Generally I'd save that term for individuals. I wasn't being flippant.

[ewindisch]

Sorry, I was speaking of character assassination of Edward Snowden, not of the NSA. I did not intend to insinuate you were being flippant, it was very possible you had not known this turn of phrase (not everyone is a native English speaker).