I am grateful to Zachary Gresham for his meticulous fact-checking and proofreading, and to Ingrid Sterner for her immensely helpful copyediting skills. Because I perform all my own research, I alone am responsible for any errors that appear in this book.
Mort Janklow, who has represented me for three decades, did a superb job in arranging for Alfred A. Knopf to publish this book.
I am thankful to Julia Ringo and the team at Knopf for their help in preparing this book. Finally, I am deeply indebted to Jonathan Segal for meticulously editing this book. The manuscript gained immeasurably from both his keen eye and his wise judgment.
Notes
PROLOGUE Snowden’s Trail: Hong Kong, 2014
“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.
CHAPTER 1 Tinker
“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.
CHAPTER 2 Secret Agent
“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.”
CHAPTER 3 Contractor
“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.
/> CHAPTER 4 Thief
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.”
CHAPTER 5 Crossing the Rubicon
“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.
CHAPTER 6 Hacktivist
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.
CHAPTER 7 String Puller
“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.
CHAPTER 8 Raider of the Inner Sanctum
“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.
How America Lost Its Secrets Page 33
