Epstein Secrets

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

sian espionage. It came in the form of a message from one of its best-placed moles in the Russian intelligence service. This surreptitious source was Alexander Poteyev, a fifty-four-year- old colonel in the SVR, which was the successor agency to the first chief directorate of the KGB. While the FSB took over the KGB

es to Russia.” 41 Physical Phatness: Lindsay Mills’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com /lindsay.mills.90/about. 42. the first known document: Ledgett revealed this in an interview with Vanity Fair. Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.” 42 “He stole the [NSA] test”: Snowden’s obtaining th

“I, Spy.” “was moving copies of that data”: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.” 45 he later pointed out: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.” 45 Ledgett subsequently reported: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.” 45 This theft was made: Michael Hayden, interview with author. 46 “Icrossed

who requested anonymity, interview with author. CHAPTER 18 The Unheeded Warning 185 “The NSA—the world’s”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 287. 185 Alexander Poteyev: Sergei L. Loiko, “Former Russian Spymaster Convicted of Treason,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2011. 186 “live under cover in the West”: Pavel Sudop

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

out after the Cold War ended, the KGB also had the ability to sustain moles for decades. The CIA also had its share of long term successes, such as Alexander Poteyev, who fed the CIA secrets for over ten years while burrowing into Russian intelligence. In the choreography of these operations, as in Le Carre’s fict

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

onymity. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020413 20. 10. 11. 12. 13. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Unheeded Warning “The NSA—the world’s...”—Morell, op. cit. p. 287 “Alexander Poteyev, a 54-year old...”-- Sergei L. Loiko, “Former Russian spymaster convicted of treason,” Los Angeles Times. June 28, 2011 “Harold Nicholson in 1996...