Epstein Secrets

09 @ 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019597 110 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS tary, the hero of the 2016 Hollywood movie Snowden (directed by Oliver Stone), and a consultant to the 2015 season of the televi- sion series Homeland. He would be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. He would attract

pst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 177 @ 9/30/16 11:09 AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019665 178 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS interviews. In the case of Stone’s movie Snowden, Wizner asked for the right to veto any shots featuring Snowden in the film. In it, he would tell handpicked journalists that he had

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

tate Department explicitly told: Ibid. 175 “I had spent ten years”: Hill, “How ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner Became Snowden’s Lawyer.” 176 Inthe case of Stone’s movie: Irina Alexsander, “Edward Snowden’s Long, Strange Journey to Hollywood,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2016. 176 “I went the first six

w with author. 248 $1 million: Mike Fleming Jr, “Oliver Stone Buys Edward Snowden Russian Lawyer's ‘Novel’ Abo

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

e Chinese Puzzle Chapter Twenty-Three The Pawn in the Game PART FIVE WALKING THE CAT BACK HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020155 Chapter Twenty-Four Dinner with Oliver Stone Chapter Twenty-Five Vanishing Act Chapter Twenty-Six through the Looking Glass Chapter Twenty-Seven the Handler PART SIX CONCLUSIONS Chapter Twenty

ge also sung his praises, telling Rolling Stone “Jake [Appelbaum] has been a tireless promoter behind the scenes of our cause.” For its part, Ro//ing Stone entitled its profile of Appelbaum, “Meet the most dangerous man on the Internet.” The reason that Assange needed a replacement for this particular ev

position since the top- secret unit was responsible for discovering and countering the threats posed by Chinese, Russian and other adversary nations. Ledgett was also the logical choice to head the damage assessment investigation since the Center’s regional branch in Hawaii was from where highly-sensitive

ugh he was acting without compensation from Snowden, later received the stunning sum of one million dollars from Open Road Films, the distributor for Oliver Stone’s “Snowden” movie, for the rights to his not completed novel called “Time of the Octopus,” a story based on his story of Snowden’s stay at the airport.

ng to Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at Parma, an Italian restaurant on the upper east side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone ability as a film director after watching him work in Wall Street IT: Money Never Sleeps, a film in which I had a cameo role. I also had debated Ston

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

st of these clients were reputed to be part of Putin’s inner circle. To break the ice, I asked him about Oliver Stone. I knew he had a small role in Oliver Stone’s forthcoming movie “Snowden.” in which he plays Snowden’s lawyer in Moscow. “T was impressed by how few takes he needed to shoot my scene,” he answer

ived one call back from Kucherena’s assistant, Valentina Vladimirovna Kvirvova. She wanted to know how I knew Oliver Stone. He told her of my part in Stone’s movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. That was the last he had heard from her. Meanwhile a Moscow based journalist told me that she had waited 1

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

tated,” Assange said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2012. Indeed, without the anonymity provided b

ell was transferring files held at Fort Meade to backup computers in Hawaii. He “was moving copies of that data there for them,” said Deputy Director Ledgett, “which was perfect cover for stealing the [NSA] data” through the fall and winter of 2012. The security mea- sures at the Hawaii base presented no o