Epstein Secrets

The most sensational of them was a purported document attrib- uted to Snowden concerning the NSA hacking of the cell phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. The story was published on October 23 on the Der Spiegel website. Appelbaum was the co- author of the story. Even though Snowden had by now been in

istent with @ Kucherena’s assertion that he had access to the archive. @ Adding to the intrigue, Poitras was apparently caught by surprise when the Merkel story broke in Der Spiegel. She urgently texted Snowden on what she called “background” (which ordinarily means that a journalist will not attribute

is computer had no files stored on it at that moment of course meant very little. Just six weeks earlier, Snowden had met with the former CIA officer Ray McGovern, who had been invited to meet him in Moscow along with three other American whistle-blowers. At that meeting, he told McGovern that he had stored all

s expose purported U.S. government actions in foreign lands, including the alleged tapping of friendly government officials’ con- versations, such as Angela Merkel’s, these are implicitly conflated with the NSA’s domestic surveillance program, around which a | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.indd 303 @ 9/30/16 8:1

ficial who requested anonymity, inter- view with author. 183 German federal prosecutor: Theodore Schleifer, “Germany Drops Probe into U.S. Spying on Merkel,” CNN Politics, June 13, 2015. 184 “Russian planners might have”: Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes, and Siobhan Gorman, “U.S. Scurries to Shore Up Spy

6 “There’s nothing on it”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA @ Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.” 176-177 former CIA officer Ray McGovern: Mark Hosenball, “Laptops Snowden Took to Hong Kong, Russia Were a ‘Diversion,’ ” Reuters, Oct. 11, 2013. 177 “break my fingers”: Snowden, interview

ovided it. The most sensational of them was a purported document attributed to Snowden concerning the NSA hacking the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The story was published on October 23, 2013 on the Der Spiegel website. The co-author of the story was Jacob Appelbaum. Even though Snowden had by n

istent with Kucherena’s assertion that Snowden had access to the archive. Adding to the intrigue, Poitras was apparently caught by surprise when the Merkel story broke in Der Spiegel. She urgently texted Snowden on what she called “background” (which ordinarily means that a journalist will not attribute

ust I Snowden’s application for asylum is granted for one year. September 23 Kucherena states Snowden has access to NSA documents in Russia October 2 Ray McGovern, Thomas Drake, Coleen Rowley and Jesselyn Radack meets with Snowden and Harrison. October 10 | Snowden aided by ACLU legal team put together by Ben