Epstein Secrets

War. But the Snowden breach exposing military sources was an order of magnitude greater than any past breach. The CIA’s assessment was no less grim. Morell, the deputy director of the CIA in 2013, wrote that Snowden’s action went beyond taking the handful of documents, such as the FISA order, “that addre

A briefer that it was urgent for the CIA to be brought in on the case. After all, the CIA had employed Snowden only four years earlier. Specifically, Morell said, the CIA needed to find out three things: Had CIA docu- ments been part of Snowden’s haul? How long had Snowden been stealing documents? Had Sno

ism, which was backed by the Internet billion- aire Pierre Omidyar. Poitras remained in Hong Kong, where she moved, along with the Guardian reporter MacAskill, to the five-star Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers, which, like the Mira hotel, was on Nathan Road in Kowloon. The Guardian paid the bill. Her next

skill, whom Poitras had not wanted Greenwald to bring to the initial meeting, joined Poitras and Green- wald in Snowden’s room. Snowden insisted that MacAskill also go through the ritual of stowing his cell phone in the minibar refrigera- tor. Not without irony, Snowden’s own phone can be seen on his bed rec

ay of the 9/11 attack, “Terrorist organizations around the world were already start- ing to modify their actions in light of what Snowden disclosed,” Morell wrote in 2015. “Within weeks of the [Snowden] leaks, com- @ munications sources dried up, tactics were changed.” Even more @ disturbing, suspects on

w with author. 134 The NSA had also notified: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author. 136 NSA did not immediately share: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 283-88. 136 briefed by the NSA: See “Unclassified Declaration of David G. Leatherwood,” US. District Court for the District o

n.” 27 “through the system”: Burrough, Ellison, and 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,

ity, wrote that Snowden’s action went beyond taking the handful of documents, such as the FISA order, “that addressed the privacy issue.” Instead, as Morell put it, “he backed up a virtual tractor trailer and emptied a warehouse full of documents—the vast majority of which he could not possibly have read

of which he would likely understand—T[and] and he delivered the documents to a variety of news organizations and God knows who else.” _—_As a result, Morell concluded “Snowden’s disclosures will go down in history as the greatest compromise of classified information ever.” General Keith Alexander, the he

urnalists with the atmospherics of “an international spy thriller,” as Greenwald subsequently described the instructions. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020250 | MacAskill had stayed at the W Hotel when Poitras and Greenwald Poitras went to the Mira Hotel. Poitras did not want to bring along an uninvited guest to the fi

lations.” (He was correct that Snowden had stolen a larger number of CIA documents that he had not turned over to journalists, as CIA deputy director Morell confirmed.) Whatever this material might reveal, the FSB was presumably aware of its existence. After all, Kucherena was on the FSB’s public oversig

ial journalism which was backed by Internet billionaire Pierre Omidyar. Poitras remained in Hong Kong, where she moved, along with Guardian reporter MacAskill, to the five-star Sheraton Hong Kong Tower, which, like the Mira hotel, was on Nathan Road in Kowloon. Her next task was to set up what was to be Sno

ugh Snowden had greatly exaggerated the positions he held with the CIA and DIA, no effort was made to check them by the team of journalists. Instead, MacAskill wrote Janine Gibson in New York “The Guinness is good.” It was a pre-arranged code by which MacAskill certified Snowden’s credibility for the Guardia

s around the world were already starting to modify their actions in light of what Snowden disclosed. Communication sources dried up.” What heightened Morell’s concern about this loss of intelligence sources was the discovery a 26-page document on an ISIS computer in Syria indicating that the terrorist gro

USE_OVERSIGHT_020392 241 CHAPTER SEVEN Crossing the Rubicon 1. “What I came to feel...” —Snowden quoted in “I, Spy: Edward Snowden in Exile,’Ewen MacAskill and Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian, July 18, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower- interview-transc