Chapter 1
The Man Holding the Rubik’s Cube
“If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.”
–Edward Snowden, online chat via The Guardian, June 17, 20131
EDWARD JOSEPH SNOWDEN ENTERED THE WORLD almost 30 years to the day before it would know his name. He was born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Lon and Elizabeth Snowden. His mother has worked as Chief Deputy Clerk for Administration and Information Technology at the federal court in Baltimore since 1998, while his father is a proud, retired Coast Guard warrant officer of over 30 years who resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania.2 His older sister, Jessica, is a research associate for the Federal Judicial Center in Washington.3 It is assumed he has two stepsiblings.4
Snowden attended Crofton Woods Elementary in Annapolis, Maryland. Then-classmate Dawn Whitmore, now a professional photographer based in Washington D.C., referred to him as “kind of sweet” but recalled that the articulate nature of his speech captured in The Guardian interviews was characteristic of him at an early age: “He was very well thought-out with what he was trying to say.” She added his visual trademark was his “nerdy glasses.”5
He took classes at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) in Arnold, Maryland, from 1999-2001. He did so not as a premature college student but in hopes of earning enough credits to merit a high school diploma.6 His father, a stout but by no means fat man who lends the impression of stern deliberation and intense focus and who shares the same clear speech patterns as his son, reported that Edward had contracted mononucleosis7 during the 1998-1999 academic year.8 His illness lasted “four or five months”9 and forced him out of high school as a sophomore. Rather than return to Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland, Snowden elected to study for the GED at AACC. Contrary to popular belief, he dropped out before receiving a diploma, which he would confirm on an online message board after having been hired to work for the CIA: “I don’t have a degree of ANY type. I don’t even have a high school diploma.”10
There is the possibility Lon is covering up for his son because Snowden would voice harsh disdain for educational institutions throughout his life. As he remarked on an online profile page in 2001, “[ … ] the public education system turned it’s (sic) wretched, spiked back on me.”11 However, if he had been expelled from Arundel High due to disciplinary reasons, few took notice. When his former teachers were asked about Snowden’s time in the classroom, none could remember him.12
In 2001, the Snowdens relocated to Ellicott City, located within the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region. After leaving AACC, Edward moved away from his parents and into a gray clapboard-sided, family-owned condo.13 Then-neighbor Joyce Kinsey remembered Snowden, who stayed in the condo only a few years. “He was a quiet guy,” she recalled, “kept to himself. He always dressed nice, was clean cut. He just reminded me of a brainiac.” She admitted Snowden “wasn’t really personable. He didn’t say much at all. He would say ‘Hi’ but he’d be looking down.”14 Kinsey remembered her neighbor cohabitated with a roommate and then a “kind of artsy” young woman with eccentrically dyed hair whose license plates read “ARTIST.”15 Snowden would later lament leaving this mysterious woman once he’d started his CIA training.16
When Snowden moved out of the condo circa 2004, Elizabeth—but not Lon—took up residence. Her only roommate was her dog. Kinsey commented the canine “knows how to get her [Elizabeth] help,” perhaps implying the dog served an emotional need for Elizabeth after her divorce three years prior. Kinsey added Elizabeth’s furry companion was never out of its owner’s sight and even accompanied her to work.17 Little else is known about Elizabeth.
Public records show Lon lived in Crofton, Maryland, from the early 1990s until 2007.18 Whether he was dividing time between career and family or had already separated from Elizabeth is unclear.19 Like many broken marriages involving children, it appears as if Lon and Elizabeth might have waited out their marriage until the kids were grown. What is certain is sometime after 2007, probably upon his retirement in 2009, he moved to the Lehigh Valley and married a 48-year-old woman named Karen Haberbosch.20
Interestingly, Snowden would cite having attended Catonsville Community College during this period, February to May 2002. However, the school changed its title to Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville in 1998 and has no record of a student by Snowden’s name. Ironically, negligible attendance at another name-changing educational institution followed.21 Snowden purportedly enrolled in a Windows systems engineering class at the Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Columbia, Maryland. At the supposed time of his attendance, the name of the for-profit affiliated entity was Advanced Career Technologies, but the university shut down the facility in 2012 after ending its relationship with the business three years before. The admissions office has no record of an Edward J. Snowden having ever gone to school at Johns Hopkins.22
The synchronicity of the two schools denying Snowden’s enrollment meant either Snowden was lying about his education in an attempt to compensate for his lack of having the minimal high school diploma, or in the midst of controversy the educational facilities were merely avoiding the limelight. It is hard to say; many of Snowden’s confidants and colleagues would repeat that he would downplay and overcompensate for his lack of formal education.23
With such little early information, constructing a psychological profile of young Snowden is difficult, yet it is arguable that his thin physicality, sickly nature and intelligence distanced him from people at an early age. As is often the case with such individuals, he retreated into a realm where social inadequacy was more readily accepted and tolerated. Somewhat stereotypically, he thrust himself into the world of computers, video games and Japanese popular culture.
It was during this time Snowden began appearing online. He and a group of friends tried their hand at creating a business rooted in love: Japanese comics and animation, commonly referred to as “manga” and “anime” respectively. Ryuhana Press was founded in 2001, and Snowden served as its web designer.24 Snowden’s Ryuhanan profile listed him as a 37year-old father of two, “Lashawnda and Tamiqua; Ages 11 and 12 respectively.”25 He went by the handles “Edowaado,” “Phish” and “True HOOHA.”26 His commentary reveals something about his attitude and mindset at the time. Of himself he stated, “I really am a nice guy. You see, I act arrogant and cruel because I was not hugged enough as a child.”27 Obviously Snowden’s sense of wit and sarcasm was already being used to veil his true as well as subconscious nature. But even at this formative stage, he was evidencing, however sardonically, an apprehension for authority: “I like Japanese, I like food, I like martial arts, I like ponies, I like guns, I like food, I like girls, I like my girlish figure that attracts girls, and I like my lamer friends. That’s the best biography you’ll get out of me, coppers!” Yet amid all the grandstanding, he never attempts to hide his interest in computers and technology, “I always wanted to write RPG [Role-Playing (video) Game] campaigns with my spare time, but I’ll get about three missions in and scrap the world for my next, better, powergamin’ build.”28 Snowden was already aware of his propensity to grow easily bored, even with something as complex as computer programming. He not only housed an interest in designing games but was an apt player. If the anonymous report by one of his former Ryuhana partners can be believed, Snowden reveled in the 1994 video game Tekken and was good enough to garner a crowd at the 2002 Anime USA Convention.29 Ryuhana ceased operations in 2004, but the website remained online until shortly after Snowden’s confidential government disclosures started appearing.30
Though there is no manner to confirm their authenticity, there exist hundreds of online posts under the pseudonym “The TrueHOOHA.” An account under that name on the Ars Technica message board matches Snowden’s age, and when the profile was updated five years after it was created, it listed its owner’s occupation as being a government
information technology (IT) employee after having previously read “Ryuhana Press.” In a post dated August 14, 2006, the account holder relays, “I have no degree, nor even a high school diploma.”31 Most would state that the capstone to the argument that the account was undeniably held by Snowden is pictures of a person who looks remarkably like him were downloaded to the site by The TrueHOOHA in 2006. However, in a world where online predation and identity theft is extremely common, especially with computer-savvy individuals such as those who would frequent a technology-themed website like Ars Technica, it is only best to assume.32 Yet the chronology of the posts and their content maintain a striking consistency with Snowden’s life.
For example, on May 19, 2006, in semi-sardonic reference to a strange clicking heard within another forum member’s Xbox360 gaming console, The TrueHOOHA commented, “NSA’s [National Security Agency] new surveillance program. That’s the sound of freedom, citizen!”33 If this is Snowden, what is perhaps most interesting is at the age of 20, he was already probing into the intricacies of Internet security. Under a thread titled, “In-depth thoery (sic) questions: How proxies WORK. (Difficulty: Guru),” he inquired, “Is it possible to reroute -all- traffic through a remote proxy? By all, I mean traffic such as SMTP [email] as opposed to the standard HTTP/FTP/SSH/Socks. How could you go about doing this (Is special software required)?” When asked why he wanted this fairly technical knowledge about how to surf the Internet anonymously, he responded, “I want to be protected, but I’m not sure where to draw the line” because of “[the] Patriot Act. If they misinterpret that (sic) actions I perform, I could be a cyb4r terrorist and that would be very fucking bad.”34
During this time, Snowden left the condo and did something characteristically atypical: He joined the military. He would report almost a decade later that he chose to enlist “[ … ] to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression”35 and “I enlisted in the army shortly after the invasion of Iraq and I believed in the goodness of what we were doing, I believed in the nobility of our intentions to free oppressed people overseas.”36 His justification for action would remain consistent throughout his life. History proves he was not fabricating the existence of a youthful patriotism. In a September 2003 Ars discussion about recently released French playing cards whose faces parodied the Bush administration, Snowden’s opinion was short and pithy, “Fuck the [F]rench and their bitchy little cards. They can’t even come up with decent rules for pronunciation. I certainly couldn’t care less what they think of our country’s politics.”37 However, the underlying motive for enlisting might have been unemployment. “Waiting for hiring to pick back up,” he would comment on Ars during this time, while announcing he spent “eight hours a day surfing [on the Internet], four doing Kung Fu (Tues-Sat), and two playing Tekken at [the dojo where he studied] Kung Fu.”38
From May 7 to September 28, 200439 he was part of the 198th Infantry Brigade in the Army Reserve’s 18-X program at Fort Benning, Georgia.40 The program is designed to fast-track recruits into the Special Forces. This is where Snowden reveals his agnosticism, because he was obligated to list Buddhism as his religion on his military paperwork in the wake of his true belief.41 (The TrueHOOHA discussed agnosticism a year before on the Ars message board with one of the website’s writers, Peter Bright, and its editor-in-chief, Ken Fisher.)42 But he didn’t make it very far in the military. Army spokesman Col. David H. Patterson Jr. stated, “He [Snowden] attempted to qualify to become a Special Forces soldier but did not complete the requisite training and was administratively discharged from the Army.” Snowden would later inform The Guardian he had been let go after suffering two broken legs in an advanced infantry training43 accident. This occurred in late July or early August.44 Since the 18-X program is comprised of 14 weeks of basic training, then airborne skills, followed by another month of training, given his release date, it is likely Snowden broke his legs in a parachuting mishap.
Considering Snowden would later rise through the highest ranks of America’s most secretive government agencies with no formal education, it is tempting to hypothesize whether this vague period in the military was early detection and subsequent espionage training by the government, especially since his discharge was inexplicably delayed for over a month. Moreover, to be admitted into the 18-X program, recruits have to pass a vocational aptitude test. Thus the military would have been privy to Snowden’s mental capabilities and might have sought to capitalize upon them. To add weight to this theory, Snowden did not post once on his beloved Ars message board during the whole of 2004. The next time such a comparable online absence would take place is after he’d begun work overseas for the CIA. Yet, since Snowden was willing to sacrifice a six-figure salary at a job located in a location getaway all for the sake of earnestness, it is unlikely he would continue to cloak this facet of his life if indeed his intelligence career had begun in 2004. It is more likely because of his temporary incapacitation and rehabilitation that he elected to return to AACC later that year. He took classes until 2005.45 Surprisingly, his AACC transcript does not cite him having enrolled in a single computer science course.46
As much as his academic record is a vague mirage cast in a foggy haze, many of the particulars of his life from this period until June 6, 2013 often fall under the same veil of uncertainty, especially what he did during the second half of 2005 until his employment with the CIA in November 2006. It leaves much to speculation.
A majority of press releases and exposés cites Snowden as having assumed the role of security guard for the NSA during the next six months. This is somewhat of a misnomer, because he worked at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) in College Park, Maryland.47 The reason most media report his first professional government position as being with the NSA is that the CASL, founded in 2003, is a joint enterprise between the U.S. government and the University of Maryland. It is the largest language research institute in America and is funded through the Department of Defense. It is tempting to humor whether his title of “security guard” was a cover, because when asked, University of Maryland spokesman Brian Ulmann listed Snowden’s official position as having been “security specialist.”48 Snowden himself does not help the situation. At one turn he reported via an April 2006 Ars post that he was “making twice the average income” before later announcing his CIA position “double[d] my salary.”49 Unless security guards at the CASL earn a lot more than the national average or the CIA hires computer technicians at pennies on the dollar, something is amiss. Further deepening the plot, a month later Snowden would be leading an Ars discussion on how to enter the IT industry. In the process he brags, “I make $70k, I just had to turn down offers for $83k and $180k,”50 yet, frustrating in its contradiction, in 2006 he would reflect, “I was unemployed for a full year and then had to work in a non-IT field for six months before I was able to get back in IT [my emphasis] and double my salary.”51
Even if his time at the CASL is credited as being with the NSA, a presumed biographical typo took place in June 2013 which went largely unnoticed. In a letter addressed to the president penned by Lon Snowden’s attorney, it is reported, “Since 2005, Mr. Snowden had been employed by the intelligence community.”52 Lon could have his dates incorrect, but 2005 predates Snowden’s CASL employment and follows his military discharge. To Lon’s discredit, he would later state his son started working in American intelligence in 2003.53
The most intriguing mystery about Snowden is how—regardless of whether he did so first for the CASL, NSA or CIA—he was hired to conduct classified IT work without being enlisted or having a college degree. By reverse engineering Snowden’s timeline from his November 2006 start date with the CIA, this would mean he held the position of security “guard” from April/May until almost the end of the year. Given his curiosity and the basic requisite skills required to even get a foot in the door with any national security agency, it is reasonable to assume Snowden
devoted the preceding 12 months to computer study. Later, another individual with a government cover who worked alongside Snowden would indirectly second this notion, stating she thought Snowden was “an IT whiz [ … ] who came by most of his skill and knowledge on his own.”54 Turning the biographical thumbscrews even more, though unemployed for almost a full year by that time, Snowden reported in July 2006 on Ars that he had “spen[t] some time in Ireland in February [of 2006].”55
Regardless of the how or why, by early 2007 he was stationed in Geneva, Switzerland. He was living in a four-bedroom apartment56 and working for the CIA as, in Snowden’s own words, a senior adviser.57 The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed he was in residence from March 2007 to February 2009, not as an intelligence officer but as a U.S. mission employee. This means he was given a cover or, in spy terms, a secret identity by the American government.58 Many in the press interpret this to mean he was conducting espionage work, and his job of “maintain[ing] computer network security”59 might not have been as benevolent as it sounds. Snowden confirmed he had received “classified technical training”60 before being deployed.
A fellow contractor who also possessed high-level clearance was stationed in Geneva with Snowden from 2007-2009. Mavanee Anderson, a Vanderbilt Law School graduate, worked as an intern alongside, in her words, “Ed.” She referred to him as an “incredibly smart, kind and sincere person,” a skilled martial artist and someone who, like herself, reveled in Chinese New Year parades. She also noted the moral weight of his position was apparent even at this time: “He was already experiencing a crisis of conscience of sorts.”61 Snowden would prove her right. He later informed The Guardian, “Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world.” Snowden added, “I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”62 These statements were made in (partial) reference to Snowden being privy to CIA operatives who were assigned to extract financial information concerning pending transparency legislation from a Swiss banker. The mission was accomplished by taking the banker out drinking, goading him to attempt to drive home in his impaired condition and waiting until he got pulled over before offering him understated legal assistance for a quid pro quo.63 The operation was in direct violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.64
The Edward Snowden Affair Page 2
