Epstein Secrets

had a role in acquiring the product of the self- described “single point of failure,” would work to cover their tracks in the affair even before the Aeroflot plane carrying Snowden touched down at Sheremetyevo International Airport on June 23. If any false flag operations had been used to trick, mislead, o

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

lakic Keith Alexander: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Vladimir Putin: AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev Julian Assange: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire @ Russian airline Aeroflot: Courtesy Ena and Ines Talakic @ Michael Hayden: Rex Features via AP Images U.S. base at Yokota: Courtesy Ena and Ines Talakic Snowden’s home in Hawa

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:

ozen such decoy tickets to confuse Snowden’s pursuers in US and British intelligence. The only actual tickets she bought for Snowden, according to an Aeroflot official, was a one-way ticket to Moscow. She paid for it at the last minute. She also bought a ticket for self on the same flight leaving on June 23

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

proved allowing HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020369 218 Snowden to come to Russia. Putin’s s decision no doubt set in motion the operation to exfiltrate him on Aeroflot, the state-controlled airline. We know that the Russian government acted in advance to facilitate Snowden’s trip from Hong Kong. Without such an int

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