Epstein Secrets

[DECEMBER DRAFT--- 287 pages] THE SNOWDEN AFFAIR A Spy Story in Six Parts By Edward Jay Epstein HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020153 Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Ch

[TK] HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020156 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020157 Chronology 1: Snowden Thriller: From Honolulu to Moscow in 82 Days. April 8, 2013, Honolulu. Edward Snowden begins working as an infrastructure-analyst in training at the National Threat Operations Center for outside contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. June 5,

secution. To be sure, the view of those on the Snowden side of the divide is not grounded in legal definitions, but in a broader notion of morality. Snowden‘s supporters do not accept that the law should be applied in this fashion to Snowden. They argue that Snowden had a moral imperative to act, even if it

s TOR software, Wikileaks could not have easily entered into a document-sharing arrangement major newspapers, including the Guardian, New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pais. Through the magic of TOR, these newspapers simply attribute their sources to Wikileaks which, in turn, made Assange a major fo

1 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019479 | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_rt.zindd 2 @ 929N6 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019480 HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft Edward Jay Epstein AR ALERED A. KNOPE NEW YORK | 2017 | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_rt.zindd 3 @ 929N6 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_O

| Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_rt.zindd 8 @ 929N6 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019486 Contents Prologue Snowden’s Trail: Hong Kong, 2014 000 part onE SNOWDEN’S ARC CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 Tinker 15 Secret Agent 22 Contractor 28 Thief 3

tware, WikiLeaks could not have easily entered into a document-sharing arrangement with major newspapers, including The Guardian, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and El Pats. Through the magic of Tor, these newspapers simply attribute their sources to WikiLeaks, which, in turn, made Assange a major

led comprehensively, and each level of oversight, each level of re- sponsibility that should have addressed this, abdicated their re- sponsibility. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2013 Wi SNOWDEN in Hong Kong was attempting to reel in the journalists, Lindsay Mills returned to Honolulu from her “island-hopping” trip t

as attempting to reel in the journalists, Lindsay Mills returned to Honolulu from her “island-hopping” trip to find their house partially flooded and Snowden nowhere to be found. In a brief note Snowden left her, he said he was away on a business trip and indicated that, at least tem- porarily, their eight

na’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 information to a source), S

entation of more sophisticated secu- rity procedures, such as the polygraph examination and extensive background checks. In 1995, eleven years before Snowden joined it, the CIA’s inspector general completed a study of the KGB’s use of false defectors to mislead the U.S. government from the end of the Cold

sses of a nation’s potential adversaries. The most impor- tant of these in peacetime is communication intercepts. It was just such state secrets that Edward Snowden took from the NSA in the spring of 2013. Before that breach, America’s paramount advantage in this subterranean competition was its undisputed domina

a spy. It was also as a whistle-blower that he contacted Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, and Barton Gellman, who published the scoops he provided in Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Snowden’s penetration went beyond whistle-blowing, however. In the vast number of files he copied were docum

oward NSA surveillance. It there- fore seems entirely plausible that he found a co-worker willing to cooperate or, vice versa, a co-worker found him. Snowden might not have been aware of his new accomplice’s true motives or affili- ations, but without some co-worker’s providing him with entry to the sealed

ith author. | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.indd 308 @ 9/30/16 8:13AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019796 Notes to pages 23-25 | 309 23 The only person: “Edward Snowden’s Friend Mavanee Anderson Exclusive Interview,” Last Word, MSNBC, June 12, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v= beQUMdolBWE. 25 “was trying to break into”:

ose All Respect for Russia if They Haven't Fully Exploited Snowden,” VentureBeat, May 23, 2014. 166 He was put in contact: Kucherena, interview with Der Spiegel, “Snowden’s Law- yer: ‘Russia Will Not Hand Him Over’” Spiegel Online International, Jane 24, 2013. 166 “Officially, he is my client”: “Snowden in t

101 Even though Snowden had greatly exaggerated the positions he held with the CIA and DIA, no effort was made to check them by the team of journalists. Instead, MacAskill w

t does those sorts of things.” He had succeeded in defining himself for the public. The Guardian story accompanying the video carried the headline, “EDWARD SNOWDEN: THE WHISTLE BLOWER BEHIND THE NSA SURVEILLANCE REVELATIONS.” Snowden’s identity as a whistle-blower was now established in the media. Overnight, Sno

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 information to a source.) S