Epstein Secrets

ted for his fantasy games. It was bur- nished so deeply in his self-image that he cited it eight years later, in exaggerated fashion, in Moscow. When Brian Williams, then an NBC anchorman, began an hour-long television interview with Snowden in 2014 by saying, “It seems to me spies probably look a lot more like E

d contact with Snowden a year earlier, Unfortunately, that room was occupied, but I was given a nearby room that served my purpose. Snowden had told Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the Guardian reporters he met in Hong Kong, that he had hidden out at the Mira hotel since his arrival in Hong Kong because he fea

he later said, she was in charge of their “operational security.” When they finally settled at a table in the nearly empty restau- rant, she showed Greenwald e-mails she had received from Citizen Four. Greenwald, as he recounted, made “no connection” to the “long-forgotten emails” he had received from Snowden

the time. Snowden had little concern about misleading journalists when it suited his purpose. For example, he told Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian, Brian Williams of NBC News, James Bamford of Wired, Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, Barton Gellman, and Jane Mayer of The New Yorker that the U.S. government i

st you try the lounge instead. I’ll offer to show you where it is, @ and at that point we’re good. You simply need to follow naturally.” According to Greenwald’s account, Snowden changed the plan to the upper lobby. “We were to go to the third floor,” Greenwald writes. “We were to wait on a couch near a ‘gia

ty for what would turn out to be the largest theft of top secret documents in the his- tory of U.S. intelligence. In the video, it will be recalled, Glenn Greenwald, who had bro- ken the NSA story in The Guardian, questioned Snowden. What was his motive? Greenwald asked. Why did he do it? Snowden replied that he

019795 308 | Notes to pages 8-23 8 appointment with Robert Tibbo: Tibbo, interviews with author. 11-12 “angel descending”: Snowden, interview with Brian Williams, NBC, May 28, 2014. CHAPTER 1 Tinker 15 “It’s like the boiling frog”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.” 15 Lon Snowden, like his father: The best reporti

013 while he was still on the NSA payroll. He also carefully orches- trated the exposure of the PRISM surveillance programs, precisely specifying, as Greenwald writes in his book No Place to Hide, who was to release the “scoops” in which newspapers. He gave Gellman a seventy-two-hour ultimatum for exposing P

. 13, 2013. 138 “Something is not right”: Transcript of interview with Alexander, Australian Financial Review, May 8, 2014. 138 This discovery came: “Glenn Greenwald’s Partner Detained at Heathrow Airport for Nine Hours,” Guardian, Aug. 18, 2013. 139 downloading documents: Ledgett was interviewed in this timeline by

the time. Snowden had little concern about misleading journalists when it suited his purpose. For example, he told Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian, Brian Williams of NBC News, James Bamford of Wired Magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, Barton Gellman of the Washington Post and Jane Mayer of Zhe New Yo

y 20" to June 1? Wherever he was, he apparently considered himself safe enough to take another irrevocable step in his defection. He sent journalist Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian a “welcome package,” as he called it, of 20 top-secret NSA documents on May 25, 2013. He had now not only downloaded documents but, i

Snowden was questioned by Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist living in Brazil who had broken the NSA story in the Guardian. What was his motive? Greenwald asked. Why did he do it? Snowden replied that he had become horrified by the NSA’s secret operations which, to him, represented a kind of distillatio

ired magazine, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian and Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation. He also gave a televised interview to Brian Williams of NBC News in which he explained that since he had no access to the NSA documents in Russia, he could not provide access to the Russians even if the

ibson in New York “The Guinness is good.” It was a pre-arranged code by which MacAskill certified Snowden’s credibility for the Guardian. Gibson told Greenwald to proceed with the story. Greenwald wrote his first story about NSA transgression based almost entirely on the FISA watrant that Snowden had copie

evealed to Wizner that she had found an anonymous source with access to U.S. government surveillance secrets. So he was not completely surprised when Glenn Greenwald, Poitras’ writing partner, asked him in July 2013 to contact Snowden in Russia. Snowden offered an opportunity for Wizner since the ACLU already had

lder of Secrets,” New Yorker, October 20, 2014 3. “This powerful narrative...” See Greenwald, op. cit. pp. 248-254. Snowden “Trapped: Interview with Brian Williams, May 28, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview 4. “When two NSA analysts...”—‘“Claim US Spy Caught with Secrets.” Los Angele

switching jobs Snowden had already taken most of the documents pertaining to the NSA’s domestic operations that he could have supplied to Poitras and Greenwald for whistle-blowing purposes. Indeed, while still at Dell, it will be recalled, he had he had told Poitras he had a copy of Presidential Policy Direc

he- nsa-and-commander-of-the-us-cyber-command-general-keith-alexander-20140507- itzhw#ixzz3m6TkuRal . “This discovery came when...”—Guardian staff, “Glenn Greenwald's partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours, Guardian, August 18, 2013 “What we know, what we don’t know...”-- Bryan Burroughs, Sarah Elliso