Epstein Secrets

en a massive breach. Thousands of secret files bearing on com- munications intelligence had been stolen from a heavily guarded regional base in Oahu, Hawaii. The suspect was Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old civil- ian analyst at that base, who had fled to Hong Kong before the breach was discovered.

declined to be interviewed by me, saying he had said all he was going to say about the Snowden case. I was able, though, to make an appointment with Robert Tibbo, a Canadian-born barrister specializing in civil liberties cases. Tibbo had worked closely with Ho on the Snowden case. I met Tibbo in the tearoom a

r exchange between him and Mills (who was in Honolulu). That day Mills informed Snowden that two government investiga- tors had come to their home in Hawaii, asking her about Snowden’s whereabouts. When he had failed to show up for work on June 3 it | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 91 @ 9/29/16 5:

true of Snowden’s escape plan. Snowden had no plan to stay put and face the music. On the morning of June 10, though, there was apparently a problem. Robert Tibbo and Jonathan Man, the lawyers who, along with Albert Ho, had been retained for Snowden by an unidentified party, received an emergency phone call ear

e number of its most secret files had been stolen. The suspect was Edward Snowden, a 29 year old civilian analyst at the NSA’s regional base in Oahu, Hawaii, who had fled to Hong Kong. The stolen documents revealed, among other things, the secret tools and capabilities that the NSA employed to do its job.

But Ho politely declined to be interviewed by me, saying he had said all he was going to say about the Snowden case. I next made an appointment with Robert Tibbo, a Canadian-born barrister, specializing in civil liberties cases, who had worked closely with Ho on the Snowden case. He immediately agreed to see m

ted as a hero for defying the US government. He had not sacrificed himself, he had transformed himself. He had risen from being a lowly technician in Hawaii whose talents went largely unrecognized, to the status of an international media star in Moscow. In his new messianic role, he could make Internet ap

arties in a foreign country, do not necessarily go as planned. On the morning of June 10", 2013, Snowden’s escape plan apparently ran into a problem. Robert Tibbo and Jonathan Mann, the lawyers who, along with Albert Ho, had been retained for Snowden by an unidentified party, received an emergency phone call ea

workers, such as Ames, it is plausible that it spotted Snowden through his Internet rants against U.S. surveillance. Even if it had missed Snowden in Hawaii, a disgruntled ex-civilian employee at the NSA would have received its full attention after he contacted Russian officials in Hong Kong. While the ta

Snowden and Ho. See Keith Bradsher, “Hasty Exit Started With Pizza Inside a Hong Kong Hideout.” New York Times, June 24, 2013 11. “Appointment with Robert Tibbo...”==Author’s interviews with Tibbo. “Meet with me on condition...”—this source, as well as many others in the investigation, spoke to me on conditi