Epstein Secrets

leased the Manning files on Wikileaks. In Berlin, Appelbaum went to extreme lengths to protect himself from American surveillance. For example, when George Packer interviewed him for the New Yorker, in 2014, he insisted on meeting with Packer naked in a sauna so he could be sure Packer did not have a recording

Intelligence Committee on March 12, 2013. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) of the Committee asked the spy master if the NSA collected data on Americans. Clapper answered that the NSA did not knowingly “collect any type of data” on millions of Americans. Clapper’s answer was clearly untrue. However, it did not

ier that the NSA did not collect phone data in America. This warrant would allow the Guardian, in the best tradition of “Gotcha” journalism, to catch Clapper in an apparent lie. Continuing his string-pulling, he instructed Poitras not to show the FISA warrant to Greenwald until they were safely aboard the

ing the Manning files on WikiLeaks.) In Berlin, Appelbaum went to extreme lengths to protect him- self from American surveillance. For example, when George Packer interviewed him for The New Yorker in 2014, he insisted on meet- | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 53 @ 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_0

ing records for ninety days to the NSA. It was as close to a smoking gun as anything he had copied at the NSA. It would also get atten- tion because James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, had stated before Congress just two months earlier that the NSA did not collect phone data in America. This w

ier that the NSA did not collect phone data in America. This warrant would allow The Guard- ian, in the best tradition of gotcha journalism, to catch Clapper in an apparent lie. Continuing his string pulling, Snowden instructed Poitras not to show the FISA warrant to Greenwald until they were safely aboar

te sheets and covers, white head- board, white bathrobe, white skin—Snowden seems like a figure in some obscure ritual, being readied for sacrifice,” George Packer wrote about the film in a widely read article in The New Yorker. This powerful narrative, as lucidly articulated by Poitras, Green- wald, and other

Snowden supporters, described the NSA activities exposed by Snowden as part of a vast criminal conspiracy involv- ing, among others, President Obama, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, and both Democratic and Republican members of the congressional oversight committees. It further derided any

VERSIGHT_019617 130 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS per answered that the NSA did not knowingly “collect any type of data” on millions of Americans. Clapper’s answer was clearly untrue, but it did not mislead Senator Wyden or any other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Clapper had truthfully t

r I The Great Divide 1. CitizenFour can be seen in its entirety on-line at https://thoughtmaybe.com/citizenfour/ 2. “Sitting on his unmade bed...”— George Packer, “The Holder of Secrets,” New Yorker, October 20, 2014 3. “This powerful narrative...” See Greenwald, op. cit. pp. 248-254. Snowden “Trapped: Interv

that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies” in the fifth volume of his autobiography Closing the Ring, (Houghton Mifflin, 1951) 36. “Clapper answered that the NSA...”—the transcript was published by the Washington Post, January 29, 2014. For Clapper’s earlier closed door testimony, see Ste