Epstein Secrets

g as in mainland China. Even though the CIA kept officers there in 2013, it was considered “hos- tile territory,” according to the former CIA officer Tyler Drumheller. Snowden apparently knew the limits of CIA operations in Hong Kong, which provided him with an envelope of protection. He told Greenwald that he was

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

d Andrews, “Snowden Saga.” CHAPTER 3 Contractor 28 “Much of what I saw”: Greenwald, Poitras, and MacAskill, “Edward Snowden.” 30 This “free pass”: Tyler Drumheller, interview with author. 30 “So the guy with whom the CIA”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 284. 30 His initial job for Dell: Burrough, Ellison, and

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

.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks, New York Times, October 10, 2013 5. “It was not a stellar...”—Author’s interviews with Tyler Drumheller 6. “Snowden’s superior had suspected...”-- Eric Schmitt, “C.L.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks, New York Times, October

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

e America and go public, he could serve as a near-perfect umbrella. “Snowden may have carried out of the NSA many more documents than he knew about,” Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA station chief, said. It @ could also account for the disparity between the claims of Snowden @ and the NSA damage assessment as to t

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