“No Such Agency”: The best description of the birth of the NSA can be found in Bamford, Puzzle Palace, 1–4.
the NSA learned: General Keith Alexander, interview with author.
twelve-minute video: This video can be seen at http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video. All of the dozens of videos Snowden made after this initial one can be viewed in chronological order at https://nsa.gov1.info/dni/snowden.html.
I had written several books: My book Inquest examined the failure of the FBI, the Secret Service, and the CIA to establish the context of the John F. Kennedy assassination. This interest continued in other books of mine, including Deception, in which I investigated the vulnerability of intelligence services involved in espionage during the Cold War, and Agency of Fear (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977), in which I explored intelligence failures of domestic intelligence in the war on drugs.
extradite Trent Martin: The FBI press statement on this case was released on March 27, 2013, less than two months before Snowden bought his ticket for Hong Kong: https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/australian-research-analyst-extradited-on-insider-trading-charges.
“It’s very mysterious”: Hayden, interview with author.
My first surprise: I interviewed six members of the Mira staff, all of whom asked me not to identify them. Te-Ping Chen, a journalist for the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal, received similar replies when she interviewed Mira hotel employees the day Snowden left the Mira. Chen and Brown, “Snowden’s Options for Refuge Narrow.”
to send Greenwald: Greenwald’s description of his encounters with Snowden is taken mainly from chapter 1, “Contact,” and chapter 2, “Ten Days in Hong Kong,” in Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 7–32.
Snowden also contacted: Gellman, “Code Name ‘Verax.’ ”
He proposed we meet: Bradsher, interview with author. Bradsher wrote a number of excellent articles about Snowden and Ho. See Bradsher, “Hasty Exit Started with Pizza Inside a Hong Kong Hideout.”
appointment with Robert Tibbo: Tibbo, interviews with author.
“angel descending”: Snowden, interview with Brian Williams, NBC, May 28, 2014.
“It’s like the boiling frog”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
Lon Snowden, like his father: The best reporting on Snowden’s childhood was done by Suzanne Andrews. See Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
Brad Gunson, who knew Snowden: Carol D. Leonnig, Jenna Johnson, and Marc Fisher, “Who Is Edward Snowden?,” Washington Post, June 15, 2013.
Snowden stayed home: Kinsey, interview with author.
Posting under the alias: Mullin, “NSA Leaker Ed Snowden’s Life on Ars Technica.”
He even went to anime conventions: Christopher Johnson, “Chatting About Japan with Snowden,” Japan Times, June 18, 2013.
“body fat percentage”: Leonnig, Johnson, and Fisher, “Who Is Edward Snowden?”
“I’ve always dreamed”: Mullin, “NSA Leaker Ed Snowden’s Life on Ars Technica.”
Admiral Barrett: Coast Guard Biography, http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/Flags/BarrettEBio.pdf. Also, for his FBI career, see http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/OathBetrayed/FBI%2047.pdf.
Army records show: Author interviews. The U.S. Army spokesman George Wright stated Snowden was enrolled in the program between May 7, 2004, and September 28, 2004. The spokesman Colonel David Patterson said, “He attempted to qualify to become a Special Forces soldier but did not complete the requisite training and was administratively discharged from the army.”
taking a job as a security guard: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
“So sexxxy it hurts”: The information about Snowden’s modeling career comes from his posts on Ars Technica. See Mullin, “NSA Leaker Ed Snowden’s Life on Ars Technica.”
Jonathan Mills, Lindsay’s father: Daniel Bates, “Snowden Totally Abandoned His Girlfriend When He Fled amid NSA Revelations, Her Dad Says,” Daily Mail, Jan. 17, 2014. The information about Lindsay Mills comes from her Twitter and Instagram postings.
The CIA’s minimum requirements in 2006: https://www.cia.gov/careers/application-process.
“It seems to me spies”: Snowden, interview with Williams.
team of information technologists: Former CIA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
The only person: “Edward Snowden’s Friend Mavanee Anderson Exclusive Interview,” Last Word, MSNBC, June 12, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=beQUMdolBWE.
“was trying to break into”: Schmitt, “C.I.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks.”
explained the discrepancy: Former CIA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“It was not a stellar”: Drumheller, interviews with author.
“e-mail spat”: Snowden was interviewed via the Internet by Risen, “Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia.”
“totally incapable”: Snowden, interview with Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“through the system”: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
“Much of what I saw”: Greenwald, Poitras, and MacAskill, “Edward Snowden.”
This “free pass”: Tyler Drumheller, interview with author.
“So the guy with whom the CIA”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 284.
His initial job for Dell: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
Lindsay Mills: The information about Lindsay comes from her postings on Instagram and her blog L’s Journey, https://twitter.com/lsjourneys. The information about her and Snowden’s travel to Mount Fuji and other places in Japan comes from the Little Red Ninja blog written by Jennie Chamberlin: https://www.facebook.com/Little-Red-Ninja-214045021941347/timeline/.
working on a backup system: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
most of the classified data: Source who requested anonymity, interview with author.
spotted a major flaw: Snowden, interview with Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“I actually recommended”: Ibid.
Snowden made a ten-day trip: Harris, “What Was Edward Snowden Doing in India?” Also, Shilpa Phadnis, “Edward Snowden Sharpened His Hacking Skills in Delhi,” Times of India, Dec. 4, 2013.
“It is a dead-end job”: Former Booz Allen official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
shaded by a sakura: The description of Snowden’s life in Maryland comes entirely from Lindsay Mills’s Internet postings. See L’s Journey.
The guest speaker was: Michael Hayden, interview with the author.
“They [the NSA] are intent”: Greenwald, Poitras, and MacAskill, “Edward Snowden.”
“none of whom took any action”: Andrea Peterson, “Snowden: I Raised NSA Concerns Internally over 10 Times Before Going Rogue,” Washington Post, March 7, 2014. The NSA’s response came from the NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines in an author interview.
U.S. Investigations Services: Dion Nissenbaum, “U.S. Gives New Contract to Firm That Vetted NSA Leaker Edward Snowden,” Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2014.
In Hawaii in 2012: Former Dell executive who requested anonymity because of company policy restricting Dell employees from discussing the Snowden case, interview with author.
“You’re in a vaulted space”: Transcript of interview with Snowden in Moscow. Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
“Law is a lot like medicine”: David Weigel, “Edward Snowden and Ron Paul Kick Off Libertarian Student Conference,” Bloomberg News, Feb. 13, 2015. For Ron Paul’s position on “secret government,” see http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/06/02/413952/US-Ron-Paul-CIA-NSA-secret-government.
“The [American] government”: Arundhati Roy, “Edward Snowden Meets Arundhati Roy and John Cusack,” Guardian, Nov. 28, 2015.
“fear and a false image”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
Snowden was fully aware: Snowden in Moscow, e-mail interview with James Risen. Risen, “Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia.”
Physical Phatness: Lindsay Mills’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lindsay.mills.90/about (this website is no longer active).
the first known document: Ledgett revealed this in an interview with Vanity Fair. Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
“He stole the [NSA] test”: Snowden’s obtaining the NSA examination is described by Michael McConnell. See King, “Ex-NSA Chief Details Snowden’s Hiring at Agency, Booz Allen.” The extended video of the interview is at www.wsj.com.
“It was totally unrealistic”: NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
subsequently joking to a reporter: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“What I came to feel”: Snowden quoted in Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
“was moving copies of that data”: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
he later pointed out: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
Ledgett subsequently reported: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
This theft was made: Michael Hayden, interview with author.
“I crossed that line”: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
“We’re subverting our security”: Transcript of Snowden interview on PBS. James Bamford and Tim De Chant, “Edward Snowden on Cyber Warfare,” Nova, Jan. 8, 2015, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/military/snowden-transcript.
bragged to James Risen: Risen, “Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia.”
this counterculture is “tormented”: Shils, Torment of Secrecy.
“[The elites] know everything”: Roy, “Edward Snowden Meets Arundhati Roy and John Cusack.”
“What do you think”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
violate U.S. espionage laws: Michael Hayden, interview with author.
the group Anonymous: Coleman, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, 1–8.
“My own forays”: Sue Halpern, “In the Depths of the Net,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 8, 2015.
Silk Road, which acted: Holman W. Jenkins Jr., “The Anti-hero of Silk Road,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2015. Also, Justice Department official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“Tor’s importance”: Hastings, “Julian Assange.” Also see Julian Assange, introduction to Underground, by Suelette Dreyfus and Julian Assange (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2012).
Tor was a creation: Fitzpatrick, Privacy for Me and Not for Thee, pt. 6.
“the state is all-powerful”: Fitzpatrick, introduction to ibid.
“Meet the Most Dangerous Man”: Appelbaum, interview with Rolling Stone, “Meet the Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace: The American Behind WikiLeaks,” Rolling Stone, Dec. 2, 2010.
In Berlin, Appelbaum: Packer, “Holder of Secrets.”
she identified herself: Runa A. Sandvik, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/runasandvik/.
According to an anonymous: Andy Greenberg, “An NSA Coworker Remembers the Real Edward Snowden,” Forbes, Dec. 16, 2013.
“Without Tor,” he later wrote: Twitter, https://twitter.com/snowden/status/682257506018672640.
“Tor Stinks”: Sean Michael Kerner, “Snowden Leaks Show NSA Targets Tor,” E Week, Oct. 4, 2013.
He would later tell Sandvik: Runa A. Sandvik, “What Edward Snowden Said at the Nordic Media Festival,” Forbes, May 10, 2015.
According to Sandvik’s account: Sandvik did not reveal her encounter with Snowden in any of her blogs until eleven months after Snowden went public in June 2013. It was only after Greenwald disclosed in his book No Place to Hide that Snowden used the alias Cincinnatus that Internet investigators discovered he had hosted with Sandvik the CryptoParty. Sandvik then wrote her account of it. See Sandvik, “That One Time I Threw a CryptoParty with Edward Snowden.” Also, Kevin Poulsen, “Snowden’s First Move Against the NSA Was a Party in Hawaii,” Wired, May 21, 2014.
owner of BoxJelly: Fujihira, interview with author.
“The idea was to spread”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 288.
“Snowden was not an NSA”: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“It wasn’t that they put”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
He used the same alias: All of Snowden’s post-party activities in 2012 and 2013 come from the Twitter account of “Oahu Crypto Party.”
The journalist to whom: The description of Snowden’s attempts to contact Greenwald in December 2012 and January 2013 can be found in Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 7–10.
Greenwald had not always: Mark Memmott, “He Broke the NSA Leaks Story, but Just Who Is Glenn Greenwald?,” NPR, June 11, 2013. For his part ownership of the HJ website, see Dareh Gregorian, “Glenn Greenwald, Journalist Who Broke Edward Snowden Story, Was Once Lawyer Sued over Porn Business,” Daily News, June 26, 2013. Also, Jessica Testa, “How Glenn Greenwald Became Glenn Greenwald,” BuzzFeed, June 26, 2013.
by “ordering illegal eavesdropping”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 2. On Ron Paul, see ibid., 24.
Freedom of the Press Foundation: Michael Calderone, “Freedom of the Press Foundation Launches to Support WikiLeaks,” Huffington Post, Dec. 16, 2012.
“The first serious info war”: David Sarno, “ ‘Hacktivists’ Fight for Their Cause Online,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 2010.
“The US operates a sprawling”: Glenn Greenwald, “FBI’s Abuse of the Surveillance State Is the Real Scandal Needing Investigation,” Guardian, Nov. 13, 2012.
Poitras had been diligently filming: Adan Salazar, “Mini Documentary Reveals Full Extent of ‘Stellarwind’ Domestic Spy Program,” Infowars, Aug. 28, 2012.
Poitras had other impressive credentials: “Laura Poitras: Secret No Longer,” New School News, Aug. 14, 2013.
“I didn’t. You chose yourself”: Snowden’s e-mails to Poitras were extracted from her film Citizenfour and published in Wired. See Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
he wrote to Micah Lee: Lee’s involvement with Snowden, although known to the journalists Greenwald and Poitras since April 2013, was not revealed to the public for some eighteen months. Lee, “Ed Snowden Taught Me to Smuggle Secrets Past Incredible Danger.”
“I was at that point filming”: Poitras, interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, Jan. 15, 2015, http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2015/1/15/oscars_2015_laura_poitras_film_on.
“At this stage”: Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
surveillance of her communications: Glenn Greenwald, “U.S. Filmmaker Repeatedly Detained at Border,” Salon, April 8, 2012.
“Kafkaesque government harassment”: Ben Child, “Citizenfour Director Laura Poitras Sues US over ‘Kafkaesque Harassment,’ ” Guardian, July 14, 2015.
“more paranoid”: Snowden, interview with vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.”
“Is C4 a trap?”: Andy Greenberg, “Snowden’s Chronicler Reveals Her Own Life Under Surveillance,” Wired, Feb. 4, 2016.
Stellarwind: Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
“No one, not even”: Ibid.
under enormous stress: Greenberg, “Snowden’s Chronicler Reveals Her Own Life Under Surveillance.”
he had Poitras write: “The Frontline Interviews,” “Barton Gellman,” PBS, March 7, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/united-states-of-secrets/the-frontline-interview-barton-gellman/.
Poitras had requested help: Karen Greenberg, interview with the author.
Council on American-Islamic Relations: CAIR-NY Blog, “Glenn Greenwald Speaks at CAIR-NY Annual Banquet,” May 16, 2013.
When they finally settled: The descriptions of the initial two meetings between Greenwald and Poitras in April 2013 are provided in Greenwald’s 2014 book, No Place to Hide, pp. 10-15.
“They think there’s a smoking gun”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
system for stratifying its data: Michael McConnell, interview with King, “Ex-NSA Chief Details Snowden’s Hiring at Agency, Booz Allen.”
Snowden applied to Booz Allen: Booz Allen officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“Snowden was an IT guy”: John R. Schindler, “Snowden Is a Fraud,” XX Committee, June 12, 2015.
“get access to lists”: Lana Lam, “Post Reporter Lana Lam Tells of Her Journey into the Secret World of Edward Snowden,” South China Morning Post, June 23, 2013.
“He targeted my company”: King, “Ex-NSA Chief Details Snowden’s Hiring at Agency, Booz Allen.”
he would not have password access: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
engaged in a minor subterfuge: Hosenball, “NSA Contractor Hired Snowden Despite Concerns About Resume Discrepancies.”
“playing with fire”: Spencer Ackerman and Ewen MacAskill, “Snowden Calls for Whistleblower After Claims by New Pentagon Source,” Guardian, May 22, 2016.
establish a paper trail: Director of National Intelligence, IC on the Record (blog on Tumblr), May 27, 2014, http://icontherecord.tumblr.com/post/87218708448/edward-j-snowden-email-inquiry-to-the-nsa-office. Snowden response, in “Edward Snowden Responds to Release of E-mail by U.S. Officials,” Washington Post, May 29, 2014.
He returned on April 13: Lindsay Mills’s blog.
a brief medical leave: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
needed to get passwords: Stephen Braun, “NSA to Congress: Snowden Copied Co-worker’s Password,” Military Times, Feb. 13, 2014.
software applications called spiders: David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, “Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best N.S.A.,” New York Times, Feb. 8, 2014.
Finally, Snowden had to: Former intelligence officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
These later acquisitions: The document can be seen in the National Security Archives, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB436/docs/EBB-059.pdf.
“I’m not self-destructive”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“I took everything”: Edward Snowden and Peter Taylor, “Are You a Traitor?,” transcript, Panorama, BBC, Oct. 15, 2015 (aired on BBC Oct. 10, 2015).
At this point: Former DIA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
He had visited Hong Kong: Lindsay Mills’s blog.
According to Albert Ho: Bradsher, “Hasty Exit Started with Pizza Inside a Hong Kong Hideout.” Also, Keith Bradsher, interview with author.
for the next ten days: Former DIA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“his first priority”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 43.
“That whole period”: Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
He e-mailed Gellman: Gellman, “Code Name ‘Verax.’ ”
Gellman could not make: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 51–52.
more pressure on Gellman: Gellman, “Code Name ‘Verax.’ ”
“I’ve been working on”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 11.
Continuing his string pulling : Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
asked Appelbaum to help: Appelbaum, “Edward Snowden Interview.”
Greenwald was awaiting: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 16–18.
Gibson authorized Greenwald’s trip: The description of The Guardian’s reaction to Greenwald’s offer of a scoop was reported by Luke Harding, a Guardian reporter commissioned to write The Snowden Files, a book that Oliver Stone bought the film rights for from The Guardian for $700,000. See Harding, Snowden Files, 100–115.
Snowden arranged for Micah Lee: Lee, “Ed Snowden Taught Me to Smuggle Secrets Past Incredible Danger.”
“They elected me”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
“I feel alone”: Lindsay Mills’s blog.
“so we don’t have a clue”: Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
“On timing, regarding meeting”: The description of the meetings with Snowden in Hong Kong, June 3–June 9, is taken from Poitras’s documentary Citizenfour. The film can be found at https://thoughtmaybe.com/citizenfour/.
“The initial impression”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 30.
“Minutes after meeting”: Packer, “Holder of Secrets.”
One possible reason: Snowden, interview with Williams; Bamford, “Edward Snowden”; Jane Mayer, “Snowden Calls Russian-Spy Story ‘Absurd’ in Exclusive Interview,” New Yorker, Jan. 21, 2014.
the Guardian policy required: Harding, Snowden Files, 114–16.
The next morning he: Packer, “Holder of Secrets.”
Tibbo and Man planned: Patrick Koehler, “The Hong Kong Layover in Snowden’s Getaway,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 2016.
“I am in a safe house”: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 8.
The journalist chosen: Lam, “Post Reporter Lana Lam Tells of Her Journey into the Secret World of Edward Snowden.”
“I was being tailed”: Corbett, “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.”
“Thanks to Russia”: Julian Assange, “How ‘The Guardian’ Milked Edward Snowden’s Story,” Newsweek, April 20, 2015.
Julian Assange had made: David Leigh and Luke Harding, “Julian Assange: The Teen Hacker Who Became Insurgent in Information War,” Guardian, Jan. 30, 2011.
Sarah Harrison: Sarah Ellison, “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” Vanity Fair, Oct. 2013.
Snowden telephoned Assange: Assange interview, in Giles Whittell, “Julian Assange Unmasked,” Sunday Times (London), Aug. 29, 2015.
“Snowden told me they had abused Manning”: Michael Sontheimer, “Spiegel Interview with Julian Assange,” Spiegel Online International, July 19, 2015.
Assange called Harrison: Corbett, “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.”
“We were working very hard”: Ibid.
U.S. government informed: Jane Perlez and Keith Bradsher, “China Said to Have Made Call to Let Leaker Depart,” New York Times, June 23, 2013.
Tibbo wanted Snowden to remain: Tibbo, interview with author.
“The purpose of my mission”: Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
“If I end up in chains”: Snowden video on the Guardian site, June 17, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/17/edward-snowden-video-interview.
insert an encrypted key: Gellman, “Code Name ‘Verax.’ ”
“I can’t help him evade”: Gellman quoted in Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
asked Fidel Narváez: Juan Forero, “Ecuador’s Strange Journey from Embracing Snowden to Turning Him Away,” Washington Post, July 2, 2013.
“My only comment”: Lam, “Post Reporter Lana Lam Tells of Her Journey into the Secret World of Edward Snowden.”
his passage through: Perlez and Bradsher, “China Said to Have Made Call to Let Leaker Depart.”
Snowden first met Harrison: Corbett, “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.”
Assange continued creating: Assange interview, in Whittell, “Julian Assange Unmasked.”
“Anyone in a three-mile radius”: Corbett, “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.”
$20,000 fee: Station KGUN9, “Documents: Snowden Paid 20K for UA Skype Talk,” ABC 15 Arizona, April 1, 2016, http://www.abc15.com/news/region-central-southern-az/tucson/documents-snowden-paid-20k-for-ua-skype-talk.
first live interview in Moscow: Snowden met with James Bamford, the author of the 1982 book The Puzzle Palace, in Moscow in June 2014. Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“That moral decision”: Edward Snowden, statement, https://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html.
“Sitting on his unmade bed”: Packer, “Holder of Secrets.”
This powerful narrative: See Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 248–54; Snowden, interview with Williams.
“There was no question”: Emily Bell, “Snowden Interview: Why the Media Isn’t Doing Its Job,” Columbia Journalism Review, May 10, 2016.
When two NSA analysts: “Claim US Spy Caught with Secrets,” Los Angeles Mirror, Aug. 2, 1960, 1. Also see Rick Anderson, “Before Edward Snowden,” Salon, July 1, 2013.
“man up”: Interview with John Kerry, CBS This Morning, May 28, 2014.
By the Lawfare Institute’s count: https://www.lawfareblog.com/snowden-revelations.
British cyber service GCHQ: RT television report, “NSA, GCHQ Targeted Kaspersky, Other Cyber Security Companies,” June 22, 2015, http://www.rt.com/usa/268891-nsa-gchq-software-kaspersky/.
six government employees: Matt Apuzzo, “C.I.A. Officer Is Found Guilty in Leak Tied to Times Reporter,” New York Times, Jan. 26, 2015. The notable exception to the policy of seeking imprisonment of intelligence workers found guilty of passing classified information to journalists is the extraordinary case of the ex-CIA director General David Petraeus. Petraeus had given classified information from his personal notebooks to his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell. Although none of this information appeared in her 2012 biography, All In: The Education of Davis Petraeus, he had violated his oath to protect this information. Yet in a 2014 deal with the Justice Department, Petraeus was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine. See Eli Lake, “Petraeus, Justice, and Washington’s Culture of Leaks,” Bloomberg View, March 4, 2015.
he posted about it: Snowden wrote in chat rooms on the Ars Technica site between May 2001 and May 2012. His posts are quoted by Mullin, “NSA Leaker Ed Snowden’s Life on Ars Technica.”
“an act of civil disobedience”: Mayer, “Snowden Calls Russian-Spy Story ‘Absurd’ in Exclusive Interview.”
Ben Wizner, a lawyer: Wizner called his representation of Snowden the “work of a lifetime.” Hill, “How ACLU Lawyer Ben Wizner Became Snowden’s Lawyer.”
“We’ve crossed lines”: Snowden quoted by Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“Snowden a whistleblower”: Cheryl Arvidson, “Distrust of Government Apparent in Snowden Case,” Leader’s Edge, Oct. 2013.
“they can trust”: “Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government,” Pew Research Center, Nov. 23, 2015.
“Thanks to one man’s”: Rebecca Shabad, “Former Rep. Ron Paul Launches Petition for Snowden Clemency,” Hill, Feb. 13, 2014.
his son Senator Rand Paul: See Katie Glueck, “Rand Paul Backs Snowden, Bashes Clapper,” Politico, Jan. 5, 2014.
“We actually buy cell phones”: Snowden quoted in “New The Guardian Interview with Edward Snowden,” Guardian, July 17, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-interview-transcript.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Edward Jay Epstein, “What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn,” New York Review of Books, Dec. 22, 2011. Vance made his statement on the Charlie Rose show, Feb. 19, 2016.
Apple made headlines: Mike Isaac, “Apple Still Holds the Keys to Its Cloud Service, but Reluctantly,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 2016.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Newt Gingrich, “A Government Snoop That Puts the NSA to Shame,” Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2015.
the FISA court: http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/courts_special_fisc.htm.
“His approach was”: Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick, “For NSA Chief, Terrorist Threat Drives Passion to ‘Collect It All,’ ” Washington Post, July 14, 2013.
Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Charlie Savage and Jonathan Weisman, “N.S.A. Collection of Bulk Data Is Ruled Illegal,” New York Times, May 5, 2015. This court decision was stayed three months later on August 27, 2015, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals on procedural grounds. By this time, however, the legal issue was rendered moot by Congress. See http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/2015/.
knowledge of the service providers: Timothy B. Lee, “Here’s Everything We Know About PRISM to Date,” Washington Post, June 12, 2013.
“Edward Snowden is not the ‘whistleblower’ ”: Nicole Mulvaney, “NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers Discusses Freedom, Privacy, and Security Issues at Princeton University,” NJ.com, March 14, 2015.
“Snowden stole from the United States”: Mark Hosenball, “U.S. Spy Agency Targets Changed Behavior After Snowden,” Reuters, May 12, 2014.
“The vast majority”: “Snowden Leak Could Cost Military Billions: Pentagon,” NBC News, March 6, 2014.
“over 900,000” military files: The document was obtained via a Freedom of Information request by Vice. See Leopold, “Inside Washington’s Quest to Bring Down Edward Snowden.”
“has caused grave damage”: Hearings Before Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jan. 27, 2014. See http://www.dia.mil/News/SpeechesandTestimonies/ArticleView/tabid/11449/Article/567078/dia-director-flynn-unauthorized-disclosures-have-caused-grave-damage-to-our-nat.aspx.
The CIA’s assessment: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 298.
“the greatest damage”: Transcript of interview with General Keith Alexander, Australian Financial Review, May 8, 2014, http://www.afr.com/technology/web/security/interview-transcriptformer-head-of-the-nsa-and-commander-of-the-us-cyber-command-general-keith-alexander-20140507-itzhw#ixzz3m6TkuRa1.
“I don’t look at this”: Jeremy Herb and Justin Sink, “Sen. Feinstein Calls Snowden’s NSA Leaks an ‘Act of Treason,’ ” Hill, June 6, 2013.
duck-rabbit cartoon: Jastrow, Fact and Fable in Psychology, 202–4.
“I haven’t shot anybody”: Mark McClish, “The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald,” Statement Analysis, Jan. 3, 2013, http://www.statementanalysis.com/lee-harvey-oswald/. Like Snowden, Oswald was a high-school dropout from a broken family who joined an elite unit of the U.S. military but failed to get an honorable discharge, became hostile to policies of the U.S. government, and defected to Russia. See Edward Jay Epstein, Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), 64–104.
Clapper answered that: The transcript was published by The Washington Post, Jan. 29, 2014. For Clapper’s earlier closed-door testimony, see Steven Aftergood, “The Clapper ‘Lie’ and the Senate Intelligence Committee,” FAS, Jan. 6, 2014.
On his application to Booz Allen: Hosenball, “NSA Contractor Hired Snowden Despite Concerns About Resume Discrepancies.”
in contacting Laura Poitras: Greenberg, “These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks.”
“read” in the news reports: Snowden Q&A, Moscow, July 12, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNQSVurlAak.
“Consul General–Hong Kong”: James Gordon Meek et al., “NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Seeks Asylum in Ecuador,” ABC News, June 23, 2013.
“had an enormous interest”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 284.
the Enigma machines: Sebag-Montefiore, Enigma, 286–94.
“Any private contractor”: Snowden, interview with Williams.
Fifteen miles northwest: U.S. Navy Information Operations Command, “History of NIOC Hawaii,” http://www.public.navy.mil/fcc-c10f/niochi/Pages/AboutUs.aspx.
General Alexander: Alexander, interview with author.
The NSA had also notified: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
NSA did not immediately share: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 283–88.
briefed by the NSA: See “Unclassified Declaration of David G. Leatherwood,” U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Case 1:10-cv-02119-RMC Document 63-8 Filed 04/26/13, https://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/shaffer/042613-leather.pdf.
By late July: Former intelligence executive familiar with the initial investigation who requested anonymity, interview with author.
According to Ledgett: Tabassum Zakaria and Warren Strobel, “After ‘Cataclysmic’ Snowden Affair, NSA Faces Winds of Change,” Reuters, Dec. 13, 2013.
“Something is not right”: Transcript of interview with Alexander, Australian Financial Review, May 8, 2014.
This discovery came: “Glenn Greenwald’s Partner Detained at Heathrow Airport for Nine Hours,” Guardian, Aug. 18, 2013.
downloading documents: Ledgett was interviewed in this timeline by Bryan Burrough. See Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
the chronology: NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“millions of records”: Snowden interview, German NDR TV, Jan. 26, 2014, http://www.tagesschau.de/snowden-interview-englisch100.pdf.
The FBI could assume: Former Justice Department official with knowledge of the Snowden case who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“I’m in exile”: Former member of the national security staff who cited State Department records, interview with author. Also, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, told AP, “As is routine and consistent with US regulations, persons with felony arrest warrants are subject to having their passport revoked.” That arrest warrant was issued on June 14, 2013. The State Department Operations Center alert said “Snowden’s U.S. passport was revoked on June 22, 2013,” after the Justice Department unsealed the charges that had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on June 14, 2013. “The Consul General in Hong Kong confirmed Hong Kong authorities were notified that Mr. Snowden’s passport was revoked on June 22,” according to the State Department’s senior watch officer.
had met nearly every day: Miller, “U.S. Officials Scrambled to Nab Snowden.”
Putin admitted: Interview, Channel One, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/19143.
“Vladimir Putin had personally approved”: Jennifer Martinez, “Report: Snowden’s US Passport Revoked,” Hill, June 23, 2013.
“When you look at the totality”: Hayden, interview with author. Also, “Hayden Interview,” Meet the Press, NBC-TV, Dec. 15, 2013.
whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld: David Kocieniewski, “Whistle-Blower Awarded $104 Million by I.R.S.,” New York Times, Sept. 11, 2012.
whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg: Martin Arnold, “Pentagon Papers Charges Are Dismissed,” New York Times, May 11, 1973.
FBI office in Media: Mark Mazzetti, “Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows,” New York Times, Jan. 7, 2014.
“treasure trove”: Andrew, The Sword and the Shield, 206.
“It is inconceivable to me”: Former Booz Allen executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
we know that Snowden: Sandvik, “That One Time I Threw a CryptoParty with Edward Snowden.”
The FBI, which was: Senate Intelligence Committee staff member who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“Snowden may have carried out”: Drumheller, interview with author.
As Snowden acknowledges: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“absence of evidence”: Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), 49.
“The greatest trick”: Cherkashin, interview with author. The quotation from The Usual Suspects was adopted by the movie from Charles Baudelaire’s observation “La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu’il n’existe pas.”
“The NSA was actually”: Bamford and De Chant, “Edward Snowden on Cyber Warfare.”
The career of the KGB mole: Bagley, Spy Wars, 46.
A counterespionage review: Member of the PFIAB who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“in that they both used”: Kevin Gosztola, “NSA Inspector General Speaks on Snowden for First Time,” Shadow Proof, Feb. 25, 2014.
KGB major Anatoliy Golitsyn: Bagley, Spy Wars, 6–11.
Wang Lijun: Steven Lee Myers and Mark Landler, “Frenzied Hours for U.S. on Fate of a China Insider,” New York Times, April 17, 2012.
“I think Snowden is”: Vincent Kessler, “Snowden Being Manipulated by Russian Intelligence: Ex-NSA Chief,” Reuters, May 7, 2014.
A former CIA officer: Tyler Drumheller, interview with author.
“It is not statistically improbable”: Former NSA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“when and how he”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 296.
“looking to capitalize on”: Transcript of interview with Alexander, Australian Financial Review, May 8, 2014.
“He can compromise thousands”: Carol J. Williams, “NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Seeks Return to U.S. on His Terms,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2015.
“I am still working”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
“every facet of Snowden’s communications”: Reitman, “Snowden and Greenwald.”
“his hosts”: Richard Byrne Reilly, “Former KGB General: Snowden Is Cooperating with Russian Intelligence,” VentureBeat, May 22, 2014.
“I would lose all respect”: Richard Byrne Reilly, “Former NSA Director: ‘I Would Lose All Respect for Russia if They Haven’t Fully Exploited Snowden,” VentureBeat, May 23, 2014.
He was put in contact: Kucherena, interview with Der Spiegel, “Snowden’s Lawyer: ‘Russia Will Not Hand Him Over,’ ” Spiegel Online International, June 24, 2013.
“Officially, he is my client”: “Snowden in the Kitchen,” Interpreter, Nov. 18, 2013.
an interview as “great”: Bamford and De Chant, “Edward Snowden on Cyber Warfare.”
Putin’s telethon: Elias Groll, “Snowden Called in to Putin’s Telethon. Does That Really Make Him a Kremlin Pawn?,” Foreign Policy, April 17, 2014.
“There’s a zero percent chance”: Risen, “Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia.”
“the instruction manual”: Glenn Greenwald, “ ‘Guardian’ Journalist: Snowden Docs Contain NSA ‘Blueprint,’ ” USA Today, June 15, 2013.
“a heart attack”: Citizenfour.
“keys to the kingdom”: Walter Pincus, “Snowden Still Holding ‘Keys to the Kingdom,’ ” Washington Post, Dec. 18, 2013. Also, Ledgett interview, 60 Minutes, CBS, Dec. 15, 2013.
“touched” documents: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
more than half the documents: Staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who requested anonymity, interview with author.
Snowden also disputed: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
via a Vice magazine: Leopold, “Inside Washington’s Quest to Bring Down Edward Snowden.”
previously cited road map: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
The compartment logs showed: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“No intelligence service”: Glenn Greenwald, “Email Exchange Between Edward Snowden and Former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey,” Guardian, July 16, 2013.
An answer soon came: Sophie Shevardnadze, “ ‘Snowden Believes He Did Everything Right’: Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena,” SophieCo, RT television, Sept. 23, 2013, //www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/snowden-russia-lawyer-kucherena-214/.
“all the reports”: Kucherena, interview with author.
Russian cyber service: Former member of the staff of the national security adviser who requested anonymity, interview with author.
State Department explicitly told: Ibid.
“I had spent ten years”: Hill, “How ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner Became Snowden’s Lawyer.”
In the case of Stone’s movie: Irina Alexsander, “Edward Snowden’s Long, Strange Journey to Hollywood,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2016.
“I went the first six months”: Bell, “Edward Snowden Interview.”
“There’s nothing on it”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
former CIA officer Ray McGovern: Mark Hosenball, “Laptops Snowden Took to Hong Kong, Russia Were a ‘Diversion,’ ” Reuters, Oct. 11, 2013.
“break my fingers”: Snowden, interview with Williams. See also Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga,” and Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“said they believed that”: Perlez and Bradsher, “China Said to Have Made Call to Let Leaker Depart.”
“Both the Chinese and the Russians”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 284.
“What I can say”: Snowden interview, ARD-TV, Jan. 26, 2014, https://edwardsnowden.com/2014/01/27/video-ard-interview-with-edward-snowden/.
She urgently texted Snowden: Citizenfour.
Poitras’s co-interrogator: Appelbaum, “Edward Snowden Interview.”
there was no document: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
He reported that no: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
another person in the NSA: Ibid.
Greenwald suggested to the New York Times: Jo Becker, Steven Erlanger and Eric Schmitt, “How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West’s Secrets, “ New York Times, Sept. 1, 2016.
Greenwald and Poitras: “Snowden Leak: Israeli Commandos Killed Syrian General at Dinner Party,” Jerusalem Post, July 16, 2015.
Specifically, it disclosed: Cora Currier and Henrik Moltke, “Spies in the Sky,” Intercept, Jan. 28, 2016.
Putin had publicly enjoined him: Interview, Channel One, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/19143. Also, former Russian intelligence officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“If Snowden didn’t give”: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
German federal prosecutor: Theodore Schleifer, “Germany Drops Probe into U.S. Spying on Merkel,” CNN Politics, June 13, 2015.
“Russian planners might have”: Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes, and Siobhan Gorman, “U.S. Scurries to Shore Up Spying on Russia,” Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2014.
Britain also discovered: Tom Harper, Richard Kerbaj, and Tim Shipman, “British Spies Betrayed to Russians and Chinese,” Sunday Times (London), June 14, 2015.
“losing some of its capabilities”: Chris Strohm and Gopal Ratnam, “NSA Leader Seeks Openness on Secret Surveillance Orders,” Bloomberg News, June 13, 2013. Also, staff member of National Security Council who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“The NSA—the world’s”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 287.
Alexander Poteyev: Sergei L. Loiko, “Former Russian Spymaster Convicted of Treason,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2011.
“live under cover in the West”: Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), xxii.
The CIA learned of this: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“the business of intelligence”: Angleton, interview with author.
preparing these “Americans”: FBI, “Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case,” Oct. 31, 2011, https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/operation-ghost-stories-inside-the-russian-spy-case.
NSA at Fort Meade: Gertz, “Counterspies Hunt Russian Mole Inside National Security Agency.” Also, Bill Gertz, interview with author.
“They [were] looking for one”: John R. Schindler, “The Painful Truth About Snowden,” XX Committee, http://20committee.com/2015/07/19/the-painful-truth-about-snowden/.
“insider threats by trusted insiders”: Gellman and Miller, “ ‘Black Budget’ Summary Details U.S. Spy Network’s Successes, Failures, and Objectives.”
The preemptive arrests: Gregory L. White, “Russia Convicts Former Spy Official for Exposing Agents in U.S. Ring,” Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2011.
turned up no evidence: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“broke the record”: Tennent H. Bagley, Spymaster (New York: Skyhorse, 2015), 3.
Russia had dispatched: Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, 450–51. Also, Walter Pincus, “CIA Passed Bogus News to Presidents,” Washington Post, Oct. 31, 1995.
“There are no rivers”: Baker, “Michael Hayden Says U.S. Is Easy Prey for Hackers.”
“The best defense”: Former NSA official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“There are many things”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
By 1914, the U.S. Army: National Security Agency, Pearl Harbor Review: The Black Chamber, NSA, 2009, https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/center-cryptologic-history/pearl-harbor-review/black-chamber.shtml.
“Its far-seeking eyes”: Kahn, Codebreakers, 358.
The NSA also organized: Woodward, Veil, 471–75.
In 1980, President Ronald Reagan: David R. Shedd, “How Obama Unilaterally Chilled Surveillance,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 30, 2015.
“We are approaching”: Turner, Secrecy and Democracy, 92.
“vastness”: Woodward, Veil, 202.
James Bond provision: Ian Cobain, “How Secret Renditions Shed Light on MI6’s Licence to Kill and Torture,” Guardian, Feb. 13, 2012.
The NSA had assiduously: Kevin Poulsen, “New Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-cracking,” Wired, Aug. 29, 2013.
“Yes, my continental European friends”: Woolsey, “Why We Spy on Our Allies.”
“very foundation of U.S. intelligence”: John McLaughlin, “We Need NSA to Do What It Does—It Makes Us Safer,” Press of Atlantic City, Jan. 8, 2014.
It made leading hacktivists: Charlie Savage et al., “Hunting for Hackers, N.S.A. Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border,” New York Times, June 4, 2015.
“one of the most regulated”: De, “Former NSA Lawyer on ‘Harm’ of Edward Snowden’s Revelations.”
the attack on Sony: Rob Lever, “Some Experts Still Aren’t Convinced That North Korea Hacked Sony,” Business Insider, Dec. 30, 2014.
“The Chinese are viewed”: Alexander quoted in Kelley Vlahos, “America’s Already-Failed Cyber War,” American Conservative, July 23, 2015.
“We are bolstering our support”: “Black Budget: Congressional Budget Justification Excerpt,” Washington Post, Aug. 30, 2013.
These compartments were: Former NSA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“The queen on our chessboard”: Former NSA officer who requested anonymity, interview with author.
to confront flagging morale: Hayden, interview with author.
“the nation has lost”: Mulvaney, “NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers Discusses Freedom, Privacy, and Security Issues at Princeton University.”
Although repairing the damage: King, “Ex-NSA Chief Details Snowden’s Hiring at Agency, Booz Allen.”
“You have private for-profit”: Bamford and De Chant, “Edward Snowden on Cyber Warfare.”
According to a report: “Out of Control,” NSA, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB424/docs/Cyber-009.pdf.
“All of us just fell”: Baker, “Michael Hayden Says U.S. Is Easy Prey for Hackers.”
“it stays secret”: De, “Former NSA Lawyer on ‘Harm’ of Edward Snowden’s Revelations.”
North Korea in 1968: John Prados and Jack Cheevers, “USS Pueblo: LBJ Considered Nuclear Weapons,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 453, Jan. 23, 2014.
Booz Allen Hamilton: Booz Allen Hamilton issued a history of its evolution in 2004. “Helping Clients Envision the Future,” PDF file, 2004, https://www.boozallen.com/content/dam/boozallen/documents/90th-History-Book-Complete.pdf.
The private company named: Julie Creswell, “The Private Equity Firm That Grew Too Fast,” New York Times, April 24, 2015.
USIS had prematurely closed: Tom Hamburger and Debbi Wilgoren, “Justice Department Says USIS Submitted 665,000 Incomplete Background Checks,” Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2014.
USIS was also open to: Ellen Nakashima, “DHS Contractor Suffers Major Computer Breach, Officials Say,” Washington Post, Aug. 6, 2014.
successful 2011 attack: Andy Greenberg, “Anonymous Hackers Breach Booz Allen Hamilton,” Forbes, July 11, 2011.
a computer system called e-QIP: Joe Davidson, “Federal Background Check System Shut Down Because of ‘Vulnerability,’ ” Washington Post, June 29, 2015.
this memorandum noted: Former NSA executive who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“The collapse of the Soviet Union”: Nick Allen, “Soviet Break-Up Was Geopolitical Disaster, Says Putin,” Telegraph, April 26, 2005.
Russian units had managed: Entous, Barnes, and Gorman, “U.S. Scurries to Shore Up Spying on Russia.”
Russian acronym SORM: Steven Aftergood, “The Red Web: Russia and the Internet,” FAS, Oct. 5, 2015.
William Martin and Bernon Mitchell: David P. Mowry, “Betrayers of the Trust,” Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series (NSA), Feb. 28, 2003.
Victor Norris Hamilton: “American Defector Is Found in Russian Prison,” New York Times, June 4, 1992.
He was found dead: Edward Jay Epstein, “The Spy Wars,” New York Times, Sept. 28, 1980.
Harold Nicholson: Elizabeth Farnsworth, “Update on the Case of CIA Agent Harold Nicholson,” PBS (transcript), Nov. 19, 1996. See also “Affidavit in Support of Complaint, Arrest Warrant, and Search Warrants: United States v. Harold J. Nicholson,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/ciaspy/affidavt.htm.
When it comes to recruiting moles: Angleton, interviews with author.
well experienced with false flags: Epstein, Deception, 22–28.
the “Trust” deception: Ibid. Also, Raymond Rocca (the CIA’s former research chief for the counterintelligence staff), interview with author.
“a learning experience”: “Out of Control.”
127-page Standard Form 86: David Larter and Andrew Tilghman, “Military Clearance OPM Data Breach ‘Absolute Calamity,’ ” Navy Times, June 18, 2015.
Under Putin: Nicole Perlroth, “Online Security Experts Link More Breaches to Russian Government,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 2014.
“It is next to impossible”: Schneier quoted in Jenkins, “Anti-hero of Silk Road.”
The Silk Road founder: Jenkins, “Anti-hero of Silk Road.” Also, former Justice Department official who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“better cyber security”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 291.
“The first [false assumption]”: Snowden video in Hong Kong.
“China its first credible”: 2014 Annual Report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, quoted in David Tweed, “China Takes Nuclear Weapons Undersea Away from Prying Eyes,” Bloomberg Business, Dec. 8, 2014.
“results of decades”: Select Committee, U.S. Congress, Report, 1999, http://www.house.gov/coxreport/chapfs/over.html.
a vast enterprise in China: Nir Kshetri, The Rapidly Transforming Chinese High-Technology Industry and Market (London: Chandos, 2008), 92.
By 2007, Paul Strassmann: “China Has .75M ‘Zombie Computers’ in U.S.,” UPI, Sept. 17, 2007.
cyber attack had harvested: David E. Sanger and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Hackers May Have Obtained Names,” New York Times, June 11, 2015.
“Those records are”: Baker, “Michael Hayden Says U.S. Is Easy Prey for Hackers.”
any attempt to “monopolize”: Patrick Goodenough, “Chinese President in Veiled Warning to the US: Don’t Try to ‘Monopolize Regional Affairs,’ ” CNS News, May 22, 2014.
Chinese intelligence maintains: Former U.S. intelligence officer stationed in Hong Kong who requested anonymity, interview with author.
“hostile territory”: Drumheller, interview with author.
“the single point of failure”: Gellman, “Code Name ‘Verax.’ ”
“Snowden thinks he is smart”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 285.
“The purpose of my [Hong Kong]”: Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
“This guy”: Ibid.
“It was a nervous period”: Ibid.
“I’m not going to”: Dave Boyer, “Obama on Snowden: ‘I’m Not Going to Be Scrambling Jets to Get a 29-Year-Old Hacker,’ ” Washington Times, June 27, 2013.
“huge strategic setback”: Harper, Kerbaj, and Shipman, “British Spies Betrayed to Russians and Chinese.”
Adding insult to injury: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.”
“They talk about Russia”: Bamford and De Chant, “Edward Snowden on Cyber Warfare.”
Before flying to Moscow: Stone, interview with author.
$1 million: Mike Fleming Jr., “Oliver Stone Buys Edward Snowden Russian Lawyer’s ‘Novel’ About Asylum-Seeking Whistleblower,” Deadline, June 10, 2014.
“I have been trying”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“There is only one door”: Gotta, e-mail exchange with author.
“A special operation”: Gridasov, Yavlyansky, and Gorkovskaya, “Secret Services in Moscow with WikiLeaks Conducted Operation Snowden.”
“If they [the U.S. government]”: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.”
Over a hundred reporters: Irina Galushka, interview with author.
A statement posted: “Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow,” https://WikiLeaks.org/Statement-from-Edward-Snowden-in.html.
Sarah Harrison, Snowden’s companion: Corbett, “How a Snowdenista Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport.”
So either the rule: The maximum stay is listed on the hotel’s website, http://www.v-exp.ru/en/price/.
“It was a total vanishing act”: Piskunov, interview with author.
“There’s definitely a deep state”: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.”
according to Cherkashin: Cherkashin, interview with author.
Pelton had left the NSA: George E. Curry, “Ex-intelligence Expert Guilty of Espionage,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1986.
“As for [Snowden’s] communication”: Kucherena interview, Shevardnadze, “Snowden Believes He Did Everything Right.”
learned from a Russian researcher: Vassili Sonkine, interview with author.
When I had been investigating: Edward Jay Epstein, The Annals of Unsolved Crime (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2013), 209–40.
“I don’t know him”: Lugovoy, interview with author.
It was rare: The vast majority of the fifteen American defectors to the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including Joel Barr, Morris and Lona Cohen, Victor Hamilton, Edward Lee Howard, George Koval, Bernon Mitchell, William Martin, Isaiah Oggins, Alfred Sarant, Robert E. Webster, and Flora Wovschin, were involved in espionage. The remaining three, Harold M. Koch, a Catholic priest protesting the Vietnam War; Arnold Lockshin, a Communist Party organizer; and Lee Harvey Oswald, a U.S. marine, defected for idealistic principles. All were given asylum, and two, Webster and Oswald, redefected to the United States.
“It was totally bizarre”: Lokshina, interview with author. Also, “Meeting Edward Snowden,” Dispatches, July 13, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/12/dispatches-meeting-edward-snowden.
“I will be submitting”: “Statement by Edward Snowden,” July 12, 2013, https://WikiLeaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html.
“When I accepted the case”: Kucherena, interview with author.
Kucherena had personally approved: Shevardnadze, interview with author.
Presidential Policy Directive 20: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 75.
to trace the theft: Michael Hayden, interview with author.
“For our enemies”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 294.
“I had a special level”: Snowden and Taylor, “Are You a Traitor?”
“You should remain anonymous”: Burrough, Ellison, and Andrews, “Snowden Saga.”
He was also willing: Snowden and Taylor, “Are You a Traitor?”
“The mission’s already accomplished”: Gellman, “Edward Snowden, After Months of NSA Revelations, Says His Mission’s Accomplished.”
“The government’s investigation failed”: Bamford, “Edward Snowden.”
“If I were providing information”: Transcript of interview with Snowden in Moscow, Rusbridger and MacAskill, “I, Spy.”
Pelton, for example: Victor Cherkashin, interview with author.
“This debriefing could not”: Intelligence source who requested anonymity, interview with author.
Mike Rogers, the chairman: “Congressman Says Snowden Planned Escape to China,” UPI, June 16, 2013.
“a known unknown”: Donald Rumsfeld, press conference at NATO headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002.
“Because of a number”: Amy Davidson, “Don’t Blame Edward Snowden for the Paris Attacks,” New Yorker, Nov. 19, 2015.
On the evening of: David Gauthier-Villars, “Paris Attacks Show Cracks in France’s Counterterrorism Effort,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 23, 2015.
According to a declassified: Charlie Savage, “NSA Discloses Inspector General Report,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 2016.
“the number one source”: “NSA Slides Explain the PRISM Data-Collection Program,” Washington Post, June 6, 2013.
according to the testimony: Ellen Nakashima, “Officials: Surveillance Programs Foiled More Than 50 Terrorist Plots,” Washington Post, June 18, 2013. Details of four of the plots were then released by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, http://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/50attacks.pdf.
Grand Central station: Mark Hosenball, “U.S. NSA Internet Spying Foiled Plot to Attack New York Subways: Sources,” Reuters, June 7, 2013.
provided the “critical lead”: Marshall Erwin, “Connecting the Dots,” U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Jan. 13, 2014,.
“I can tell you”: Rogers quoted in Ed Pilkington and Nicholas Watt, “NSA Surveillance Played Little Role in Foiling Terror Plots, Experts Say,” Guardian, June 12, 2013.
The third NSA program: Glenn Greenwald, “XKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects ‘Nearly Everything a User Does on the Internet,’ ” Guardian, July 31, 2013.
Further enabling furtive Internet: Appelbaum, “Edward Snowden Interview.”
These precise tips: Joseph Menn, “Exclusive: Secret Contract Tied NSA and Security Industry Pioneer,” Reuters, Dec. 20, 2013.
as Greenwald writes: Greenwald, No Place to Hide, 2.
“We can’t penetrate”: Rebecca Savransky, “Head Prosecutor of Paris Attacks Encryption Program,” Hill, March 13, 2016.
“Terrorist organizations”: Morell, Great War of Our Time, 294.
What further heightened Morell’s concern: Ibid., 315.
In addition, evidence: Milan Schreuer and Alissa J. Rubin, “Video Found in Belgium May Point to a Bigger Plot,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2016.
“saw one after another”: Mary Louise Kelly, “NSA: Fallout from Snowden Leaks Isn’t Over, but Info Is Getting Old,” NPR, March 16, 2016.
“Have I lost capability”: Bill Gertz, “NSA Director: Snowden’s Leaks Helped Terrorists Avoid Tracking,” Washington Free Beacon, Feb. 24, 2015.
“Governments can reduce our dignity”: Edward Snowden, “Governments Can Reduce Our Dignity to That of Tagged Animals,” Guardian, May 3, 2016.
published in The New York Times: David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, “N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway into Computers,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 2014.
“Snowden has compromised more”: McConnell interview, King, “Ex-NSA Chief Details Snowden’s Hiring at Agency, Booz Allen.”
a distrustful press: Pilkington and Watt, “NSA Surveillance Played Little Role in Foiling Terror Plots, Experts Say.” The first “expert” was Michael Dowling, a Denver-based attorney who acted as Zazi’s defense counsel. He said he had no access to the undisclosed basis of the government position because Zazi pleaded guilty in 2011. The second expert was David Davis, a British MP, who was in the shadow government of the Conservative Party. He resigned from the shadow government in June 2008, more than a year before the Zazi arrest. In any case, because the PRISM program was a closely held secret, he would not have had, and does not claim to have had, access to it.
Snowden speaks “truth to power”: Vanden Heuvel and Cohen, “Snowden Speaks.”