Epstein Secrets

all the intelligence services in Hong Kong knew that she was in contact with Snowden. “I was being tailed,” Poitras recalled in an interview with a Vogue | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 97 @ 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019585 98 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS reporter in Berlin in 2

ournal. Snowden was certainly aware that he would soon be the object of a manhunt that could involve those with whom he was acquainted. He instructed Poitras to mask their e-mail communications in cyber- space “so we don’t have a clue or record of your true name in your file communication chain.” Such prec

eedoms. Within hours of the release of that video on the Guardian website, Snowden was known throughout the world as a courageous whistle-blower. In Laura Poitras’s remarks in accepting her Academy Award for Citizenfour on February 22, 2015, she said that Snowden acted as a whistle-blower not only to “expose a th

cy at an undisclosed location in Moscow and walked out of the airport with Snowden. Sarah Harrison, Snowden’s companion on the plane to Moscow, told Vogue that she and Snowden for thirty-nine days had shared a windowless room in the transit zone of the airport where they watched TV, washed their clothes

h as putting their cell phones in refrigerators, remain visible to a sophisticated intelligence service such as the SVR. All the defensive tactics of Laura Poitras, including PGP encryption, Tor software, and air-gapped computers (computers that have never been connected to the Internet), did not keep secrets ab

rets about her sources entirely to herself. Snowden, at a time when he was stealing NSA secrets in February 2013, went to great lengths to impress on Poitras the need for operational security about his contacts with her, but that injunction did not prevent her from telling at least five people about her so

’s Options for Refuge Narrow.” Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2013. Corbett, Sara. “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.” Vogue, Feb. 19, 2015. De, Rajesh. “Former NSA Lawyer on ‘Harm’ of Edward Snowden’s Revelations.” Bloomberg, Jaly 27, 2015. Gellman, Barton. “Code Name ‘Ver

vidently did not want to expose himself to prosecution or defect from the NSA. That was Snowden’s role. By accepting the sole blame in the video that Poitras made about him in Hong Kong, Snowden shielded anyone else from suspicion, which was, as he told Poitras, his purpose. Whoever helped him may still be

“Mini Documentary Reveals Full Extent of ‘Stellarwind’ Domestic Spy Program,” Infowars, Aug. 28, 2012. 62 Poitras had other impressive credentials: “Laura Poitras: Secret No Longer,” New School News, Aug. 14, 2013. 63 “I didn’t. You chose yourself”: Snowden’s e-mails to Poitras were extracted from her film Cit

14th all the intelligence services in Hong Kong knew that she was in contact with Snowden. “I was being tailed,” she recalled in an interview with a Vogue reporter in Berlin in 2014. “The risks became very great,” she said in describing her situation in Hong Kong. So, on June 15", she left Hong Kong and

illance Under Obama.” Along with it was the FISA warrant to Verizon. The PRISM story broke hours later in the Washington Post. Written by Gellman and Poitras, it claimed that the NSA and FBI were tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S, Internet companies which were knowingly particip

ding such well known activists as Runa Sandvik (who he supplied his true name and address via email), Micah Lee, Jacob Appelbaum, Parker Higgins, and Laura Poitras. “It is not statistically improbable that members of this circle were being watched by a hostile service,” a former NSA counterintelligence officer t

unmasked.” Times Magazine, August 29, 2015. 5. “Everyone was screaming ‘Snowden’...”—Author’s interview with Irina Galushka 6. “Sarah Harrison told Vogue ...”-- Sara Corbett. “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport,” Vogue, February 19, 2015. 7. “So either the rule...”—The ma

ining. His motive was not money, as it was a lower- paying position. At the time, he made this choice he had already set up an encrypted channel with Laura Poitras for the purpose of sending her secret material. But he did not have to change jobs to send her secrets. So what was his purpose in making this fatefu

hed, before switching jobs Snowden had already taken most of the documents pertaining to the NSA’s domestic operations that he could have supplied to Poitras and Greenwald for whistle-blowing purposes. Indeed, while still at Dell, it will be recalled, he had he had told Poitras he had a copy of Presidentia