Epstein Secrets

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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.

_—_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

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

the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force cyber forces, were merged together in this new command put under the command of the NSA director. NSA director Keith Alexander became the first director of this new command. One problem for the Cyber command was separating attacks by civilians, including criminals, hacktavist

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

an be found in James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1982, pp. 1-4 “the NSA learned ...”—Author Interview with General Keith Alexander “12 minute video ...”——This extraordinary video can be seen at http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-