Epstein Secrets

ith as lawbreakers. All six were indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Sterling, a CIA officer who allegedly turned over a document to James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Times, was sentenced to forty-two months. The most severe sentence was meted out to Pri- vate Manning, who

am headed by Richard “Rick” Ledgett, who was then director of the NSA’s Threat Opera- tions Center at the NSA’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. Ledgett was the logical choice to head the damage assessment inves- tigation because the center’s regional branch in Hawaii was under his command. Ledgett fl

n camera in his Hong Kong interview in June 2013 that NSA investi- gators would have “a heart attack” when they discovered the extent of the breach. Ledgett, the NSA official who had conducted the damage assess- ment, while not having a heart attack, confirmed that Snowden had taken a massive number of do

he former CIA station chief, told me in 2014. Snowden blamed his career-ending “derog” on an “e-mail spat” with a superior. From Moscow, he wrote to James Risen of the Times that his superior officer ordered him not “to rock the boat.” Further, he complained that the technical team at the CIA station in Genev

ell was transferring files held at Fort Meade to backup computers in Hawaii. He “was moving copies of that data there for them,” said Deputy Director Ledgett, “which was perfect cover for stealing the [NSA] data” through the fall and winter of 2012. The security mea- sures at the Hawaii base presented no o

-breakers. All six men were indicted, tried, convicted and received prison sentences. Sterling, a CIA officer who allegedly turned over a document to James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the New York Times, was sentenced to 42 months, for example. The most severe sentence was meted out to Private

position since the top- secret unit was responsible for discovering and countering the threats posed by Chinese, Russian and other adversary nations. Ledgett was also the logical choice to head the damage assessment investigation since the Center’s regional branch in Hawaii was from where highly-sensitive

. His first exchange with an American journalist after his arrival in Russia was not until October 1°7, 2013. It was conducted over the Internet with James Risen, a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times reporter. Essentially Snowden supplied answers to a set of questions. In then, Snowden now asserted he took

se “bread crumbs” were missed by the NSA according to its statement. It is within the realm of possibility that the NSA Damage Assessment team under Ledgett falsified its finding to inflate the number of documents that Snowden stole. NSA executives also might have lied to Congress to the same end. But why

erican activities, could do immense damage to Western intelligence. Indeed, he said as much once he got to Moscow. In respect to China alone, he told James Risen, the New York Times’ national security reporter, in October 2013 that he had had “access to every [NSA] target, every [NSA] active operation” that co

ld walk out the door,” Snowden interview, German NDR TV, January 26, 2014. http://www.tagesschau.de/snowden-interview- englisch100.pdf “According to Ledgett, the perpetrator...” Tabassum Zakaria and Warren Strobel, “After 'cataclysmic' Snowden affair, NSA faces winds of change,” Reuters December 13, 2013