Epstein Secrets

ed. The FBI always had this power, if it obtained a warrant, but it did not previously have the “haystack” of records in a single database. Gen- eral Keith Alexander, who headed the NSA between 2005 and 2014, believed that maintaining such a haystack database made sense. “His approach was, ‘Let’s collect the whole

ied, “I want to identify myself as the person behind these disclosures.” On June 9, the video was posted on the Guardian website with the Freedom of the Press Foundation getting an on-screen credit. “My name is Ed Snowden,” the extraordinary disclosure began. He then described how the NSA was watching U.S. citizens. E

yber-defense units of the army, navy, marines, and air force cyber forces were merged together and put under the command of the NSA director. General Keith Alexander became the first director of this new command. One problem for the Cyber Command was separating attacks by civilians, including criminals, hacktivist

the anti-surveillance movements. This would include core participants in the Tor Project, WikiLeaks, Noisebridge, CryptoParties, the Free- @ dom of the Press Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Founda- @ tion. (Snowden, for example, had been in touch with members of all these groups in 2012 and 2013.) The SVR wo

ong, 2014 3, “No Such Agency”: The best description of the birth of the NSA can be found in Bamford, Puzzle Palace, 1-4. 4 the NSA learned: General Keith Alexander, interview with author. 4 twelve-minute video: This video can be seen at http://www.theguardian.com /world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edwar

nwald,” BuzzFeed, June 26, 2013. 60. by “ordering illegal eavesdropping”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 2. On Ron Paul, see ibid., 24. 60 Freedom of the Press Foundation: Michael Calderone, “Freedom of the Press Foundation Launches to Support WikiLeaks,” Huffington Post, Dec. 16, 2012. 60 “The first serious info war”

_—_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 head of the NSA at the time, came to a very similar assessment, asserting that Snowden did “the greatest damage to our combined nations’ intelli

de” was taking its toll on Wikileaks. According to Assange, “WikiLeaks had been cut off from more than 90 percent of its finances.” So the Freedom of the Press Foundation came to its rescue. John Perry Barlow, one of the song writers for the Grateful Dead band, was one of its chief financial backers. “The first serious