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.

lls for IT jobs from outside contractors. So it had no need for employing a twenty-two-year-old dropout who did not meet its requisites. According to Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA station chief in Europe, the only plausible way that Snowden, with no qualifica- tions, was allowed to jump the queue was that “he had

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:

e America and go public, he could serve as a near-perfect umbrella. “Snowden may have carried out of the NSA many more documents than he knew about,” Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA station chief, said. It @ could also account for the disparity between the claims of Snowden @ and the NSA damage assessment as to t

gence by the NSA @ was hardly a secret. As the NSA expanded further, it delegated part of its work to regional bases, including ones in Utah, Texas, Hawaii, and Japan. The paramount task of the NSA remained monitoring the channels of communications that an adversary might use. The vast prolifera- tion of

g as in mainland China. Even though the CIA kept officers there in 2013, it was considered “hos- tile territory,” according to the former CIA officer Tyler Drumheller. Snowden apparently knew the limits of CIA operations in Hong Kong, which provided him with an envelope of protection. He told Greenwald that he was

not believe an investigative book should be written without the author visiting the crime scene and other pertinent ven- ues, I undertook research in Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, and Moscow. Where possible, I flew the same flights that Snowden did. I am grate- ful to Ena and Ines Talakic for their assistance

d 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, 284. 30 His initial job for Dell: Burrough, Ellison, and

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.

ogatory comment. He was also threatened with a punitive investigation unless he agreed to quietly resign from the CIA. “It was not a stellar career,” Tyler Drumheller, former CIA station chief told me in 2014. The job in Geneva did have its benefits, however. It provided him a generous housing and travel allowance

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

.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks, New York Times, October 10, 2013 5. “It was not a stellar...”—Author’s interviews with Tyler Drumheller 6. “Snowden’s superior had suspected...”-- Eric Schmitt, “C.L.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks, New York Times, October