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.

nvolving maintaining the computer technology necessary to monitor threats. Despite a cut in pay, Snowden took that job. “Snowden was an IT guy, not a SIGINT analyst,” a former NSA Signals Intelligence officer pointed out. “He was working as a contracted infrastructure analyst for NSA’s Information Assuran

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

ional intelligence, justified the secret intelligence budget by saying in an open session of Congress, “We are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT [signals intelligence] capabilities to collect against high priority targets, including foreign leadership targets,” and to develop “groundbreaking c

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

tional Intelligence justified the secret intelligence budget by saying in an open session of Congress, “We are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT [signal intelligence] capabilities to collect against high priority targets, including foreign leadership targets,” and to develop “groundbreaking cr