Epstein Secrets

ations Center in Oahu. It employed threat analysts to surrep- titiously monitor the secret activities of potential enemies, mainly China, Russia, and North Korea. A large part of their job was to make transparent to the United States the hostile activities of the Russian and Chinese services so that they posed

ely a deep state. Trust me, I’ve been there. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2014 Wa WAITING to hear back from Kucherena’s office, I arranged to meet with Victor Cherkashin, who had been one of the most successful KGB spy handlers in the Cold War. Cher- kashin, born in 1932, had served in the KGB’s espionage branch from

811 9/30/16 e13.am | | 324 | Notes to pages 214-231 212 “it stays secret’: De, “Former NSA Lawyer on ‘Harm’ of Edward Snowden’s Revelations.” 212 North Korea in 1968: John Prados and Jack Cheevers, “USS Pueblo: LBJ Con- sidered Nuclear Weapons,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 453, J

owden.” “Tf I were providing information”: Transcript of interview with Snowden in Moscow, Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.” Pelton, for example: Victor Cherkashin, interview with author. “This debriefing could not”: Intelligence source who requested anonymity, interview with author. Mike Rogers, the chairman:

xceptions, the flights to them had stopovers in a country that was an ally of the US, and which could seize Snowden. The three exceptions were China, North Korea (via China) and Russia. The only one of these three countries, or any other country, that Snowden is known to have dealt with directly during his 33

the CIA’s sophisticated lie detector tests. Both Hanssen and Ames eluded intensive FBI and CIA investigations that lasted over a decade. According to Victor Cherkashin, their KGB case officer, who I interviewed in Moscow in 2015, the KGB was able to hide their existence from investigators for such a long period part

den on Cyber Warfare, Nova, PBS. January 8, 2015 > “One million dollars for...”—This payment was revealed in the Sony documents allegedly stolen by North Korea. They were posted on the Wikileaks website. Author’s interview with Oliver Stone. “Putin’s telethon on...”-- Elias Grolla, “Snowden Called in to P

have many notable cases...” For the cases of Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, see Appendix A 16. “The greatest trick the...”—Author’s interview with Victor Cherkashin. The quote from Zhe Usual Suspects was adopted by the movie from Charles Baudelaire’s observation, “La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous per