House Intelligence Committee chair believes Snowden an amateur helped by Russian spies

On Meet the Press Sunday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Michigan Representative Mike Rogers (R), said that he believes Edward Snowden may have been working for agents of the former KGB.

"Let me just say this," Rogers said. "I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence."

He accused Snowden of being an amateur, saying "it's like having the janitor at a bank who figured out how to steal some money deciding matters of high finance. This was a thief who, we believe, had some help to -- who stole information the vast majority of which had nothing to do with privacy." Rogers was referring to the idea, popularized by Glenn Greenwald, that Snowden's central concern wasn't with sharing state secrets so much as informing Americans as to the scope of government intrusion into their lives.

When NBC's David Gregory pressed Rogers on the question of who helped Snowden, Rogers said "that are certain questions we have to get answered...he didn't look for information on the privacy of Americans, he was stealing information that had to do with how we keep Americans safe."

"Some of the things he did were beyond his technical responsibilities," Rogers said, suggesting that Snowden lacked the technical capability to acquire the information he did. Also suspect, according to Rogers, was "how [Snowden] arranged travel before he left, how he was ready to go. He had a go bag, if you will."

"What high [of a] level, do you think?" Gregory asked.

It was at this point that Rogers said he didn't believe it was a "coincidence" that Snowden ended up "in the loving arms of an FSB agent in Moscow."

When Gregory noted that FSB involvement would be "a significant development," Rogers tried to demur.

"I said 'we have questions we have to answer.' As somebody who used to do investigations, some of the things we're finding we would call 'clues' that certainly indicate to me that he had some help and that he stole things that had nothing to do with privacy."

Watch the entire segment with Mike Rogers on Meet the Press below.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

[Image via AFP]