operations relish in. they enjoy doing these things, especially the capture. unfortunately, it went south and they had to kill several individuals. this is a big deal. this is shifting the attention from the battlefield, the operational and tactical piece to the organization itself. there s been quite a few isis leaders killed within the last several months. they have been decimated in terms of their operational piece. now, we are starting, i think, the military and the coalition is starting to turn toward the other lines of operation, financial, informational and other. but, former cia operative, bob beyer says his death doesn t hurt isis at all. i think they were going for a bigger target. i m only speculating at this point. they did capture somebody and they sort of exaggerated his
environments around the world. wow, joining me for perspective, bob beyer, cnn national security analyst and a former cia operative. welcome. thanks. was snowden really a spy? no. i wonder about his credibility now. when he was in geneva, he was a systems administrator. the cai doesn t take contractors and turn them into spies. yes, he had a cover, he had a name in chris spon dents when he communicated with langley. the national security agency doesn t have spies overseas. i have no idea what he s talking about. i do wonder about him now. how so? well, i mean what can you believe? he wasn t a spy. he didn t get training. he wasn t a spy in the traditional sense. what else can we believe and not believe? clearly the documents he hacked from the national security agency are legitimate. but his personality credibility
not that sensational. but it s likely to cause more fascination about this mythical place. i think any document that comes out about area 51 stirs up the pot of intrigue. that people are inherently fascinated with area 51. it says so much about national security secrets. so i think any new release makes people even more interested. reporter: the documents obtained through a public records request by an academic researchers may put an end to questions about the site s existence. but experts like former cia officer bob beyer who calls it one of the agency s biggest secrets says the debate will rage on about whether we re really alone. now, this isn t going to go away. the myths about area 51 will always be out there. i don t even know what went on there. and i was in the cia a very long time. and people that worked out there have told me recently, they didn t know all that was going on there.