Epstein Secrets

cknowledges: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.” 154 “absence of evidence”: Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), 49. 154 “The greatest trick”: Cherkashin, interview with author. The quotation from The Usual Suspects was adopted by the movie from Charles Baudelaire’s observation “La plus belle des rus

th author. Cuarter 25 Through the Looking Glass 254 “There's definitely a deep state”: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.” 255 according to Cherkashin: Cherkashin, interview with author. 258 Pelton had left the NSA: George E. Curry, “Ex-intelligence Expert Guilty of Espionage,” Chicago Tribune, Jun

trick, Privacy for Me and Not for Thee, pt. 6. 52 “the state is all-powerful”: Fitzpatrick, introduction to ibid. 53 “Meet the Most Dangerous Man”: Appelbaum, interview with Rolling Stone, “Meet the Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace: The American Behind WikiLeaks,” Rolling Stone, Dec. 2, 2010. 53 In Berlin

then cited the signature line from the movie Zhe Usual Suspects “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020275 124 In view of such past successes of the Russian intellig

mous spy delivered 27 computer discs containing hundreds of secret documents revealing the sources and methods of American intelligence. According to Cherkashin, it was the largest haul of top secrets documents ever obtained by the KGB (although it was only a small fraction of the number of top secret NSA, De

len documents, Wikileaks became a media sensation and Assange, the runner-up for Zime’s Man-of-the Year for 2010, became a leading figure, along with Appelbaum, in the global hacktavist underground. In November 2010, however, he also ran into a legal problem. A judge in Stockholm, Sweden ordered his detentio

201 “Tt was the information in his head that we wanted.” Cherkashin said that as KGB rarely got access to any NSA officer, it was worth the risk. So he was given $5,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Vienna, where he w

the NSA would have received its full attention after he contacted Russian officials in Hong Kong. While the tactics of the SVR may have changed since Cherkashin retired, its objectives remained the same. And the NSA remained its principal target. Nor is there any reason to doubt that it still measures success

ing Stone interview with Jacob Appelbaum, “Meet the Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace: The American Behind Wikileaks, Rolling Stone, December 2,2010 “Appelbaum acted to defeat-...”—George Packer, The Holder of Secrets, The New Yorker, October 20, 2014 “She identified herself in Forbes...’”—Runa A Sandvik, F

then cited the signature line from the movie The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said, “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” In view of such past successes of the Russian intelligence services, it cannot be

ncerning the NSA hacking of the cell phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. The story was published on October 23 on the Der Spiegel website. Appelbaum was the co- author of the story. Even though Snowden had by now been in Rus- sia for four months, he was cited in the story, along with unnamed “othe