Epstein Secrets

14. James Bamford. “Edward Snowden: The Untold Story,” Wired, August 2014. (Hereinafter Bamford Wired.) “We’ve crossed lines.” --- Snowden quoted by Bamford, Wired “Congressman Ron Paul organized...”—Rebecca Shabad, “Former Rep. Ron Paul launches petition for Snowden clemency,” The Hill, February 13, 201

s, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby, See “The Spy Cases,” Appendix A of this book. Intention of staying in Russia...”-- Snowden NBC Interview. Op cit. Bamford, Wired. Op. cit. Jane Mayer “Snowden Calls Russian-Spy Story “Absurd” in Exclusive Interview,” New Yorker, January 21, 2014. December 28, 2014. “Sta

201 “Tt was the information in his head that we wanted.” Cherkashin said that as KGB rarely got access to any NSA officer, it was worth the risk. So he was given $5,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Vienna, where he w

the NSA would have received its full attention after he contacted Russian officials in Hong Kong. While the tactics of the SVR may have changed since Cherkashin retired, its objectives remained the same. And the NSA remained its principal target. Nor is there any reason to doubt that it still measures success

nterviews. Most of these were with the journalists who had published his story, but one was with James Bamford for his 2014 Wired piece. According to Bamford, it took nearly nine months to arrange the meeting. “I have been try- ing to set up an interview with him [Snowden]—traveling to Ber- lin, Rio de Jan

intelligence coups through the eyes, and mind-set, of their KGB handler might provide some historical context for the Snowden defection. So I invited Cherkashin to lunch at Gusto, a quiet Italian restaurant, located near the Chekhov Theater in Moscow. Cherkashin, a tall thin man with silver hair, showed up p

ontext for the Snowden defection. So I invited Cherkashin to lunch at Gusto, a quiet Italian restaurant, located near the Chekhov Theater in Moscow. Cherkashin, a tall thin man with silver hair, showed up promptly at 1:00 p.m., wearing an elegant gray suit and dark tie. He walked with a spry step. Because he

OVERSIGHT_019794 Notes PRoLoGuE Snowden’s Trail: Hong Kong, 2014 3, “No Such Agency”: The best description of the birth of the NSA can be found in Bamford, Puzzle Palace, 1-4. 4 the NSA learned: General Keith Alexander, interview with author. 4 twelve-minute video: This video can be seen at http://www

cknowledges: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.” 154 “absence of evidence”: Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), 49. 154 “The greatest trick”: Cherkashin, interview with author. The quotation from The Usual Suspects was adopted by the movie from Charles Baudelaire’s observation “La plus belle des rus

th author. Cuarter 25 Through the Looking Glass 254 “There's definitely a deep state”: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.” 255 according to Cherkashin: Cherkashin, interview with author. 258 Pelton had left the NSA: George E. Curry, “Ex-intelligence Expert Guilty of Espionage,” Chicago Tribune, Jun

researching his 2014 article on Snowden for Wired magazine, he was given access to all the documents Snowden gave to Poitras, Greenwald and Gellman. Bamford used a sophisticated indexing program to search through the database specifically for The Merkel material. , Even so, he did not find any. He reporte

then cited the signature line from the movie Zhe Usual Suspects “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020275 124 In view of such past successes of the Russian intellig

mous spy delivered 27 computer discs containing hundreds of secret documents revealing the sources and methods of American intelligence. According to Cherkashin, it was the largest haul of top secrets documents ever obtained by the KGB (although it was only a small fraction of the number of top secret NSA, De

n documents that the NSA reported were com- promised. He offered, however, no more specific details on the mag- nitude of his theft. Nor did he offer Bamford any way to verify his assertion other than to say that he had purposely left behind “a trail of digital bread crumbs” at the NSA base in Hawaii so th

then cited the signature line from the movie The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said, “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” In view of such past successes of the Russian intelligence services, it cannot be