The Edward Snowden Affair (19 page)

Having served 16 years in Soviet intelligence,
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Putin knew the value of a foreign intelligence worker. He was making it expressly clear that Russia had no intention of surrendering the American whistleblower. Russia’s leader was overtly declaring he was going to stand firm on international and national law. By referring to Snowden as a civil rights activist, Putin was also telling the world how his country perceived Snowden.

Whereas it could exert pressure upon nearly autonomous Hong Kong until Beijing stepped in, Washington had a stalwart political adversary in Russia. Shortly after Snowden arrived, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the offensive: “We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violation of U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable. There are no legal grounds for such conduct of U.S. officials, and we proceed from that.” The U.S. government had to change tactics. As White House Press Secretary Jay Carney lambasted Hong Kong for allowing Snowden to fly to Russia, “This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship,”
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the Capitol had decided it best to downplay Snowden’s importance. Washington was fearful it would be made a fool again and anxious that if it tried to flex its rhetorical muscles, it might incur political backlash. Four days after Snowden landed in Russia, Obama told reporters, “We’ve got a whole lot of business that we do with China and Russia and I’m not going to have one case of a suspect who we’re trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I’ve got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so that he can face the justice system here in the United States.”
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However, the U.S. government was discreetly offering Russia increased political cooperation in exchange for Snowden.

It was a wonderful drama, but what truly sold the world that Snowden’s association with the former Soviet Union was mere coincidence was Putin’s closing statement at a press conference following the first day of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum Summit. Russia’s leader declared, “He [Snowden] must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips.”
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Snowden had applied for Russian asylum the previous day, June 30.
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The day after Putin’s conditions were made public, Snowden rescinded his asylum application. It was a convincing ruse because it appeared as if Snowden’s odds were good that he would find a temporary home with one of the 18 other countries which he’d applied on July 1.

It took Norway, Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, India and Poland less than a day to turn Snowden down. The first eight countries promptly absolved themselves of responsibility by deferring to their legal technicality that asylum applicants must be on native ground to be considered. Even though a nation’s foreign ministry is considered to reside on the respective country’s soil, they denied Snowden’s application because he had been unable to present it in person. Contenting itself with already having done its share, Ecuador would use this alibi after American vice president Joe Biden called Correa.
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Ecuador’s president politely bowed out of the Snowden affair by allowing his previous declaration that Snowden’s safe passage document had been a “mistake”
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to speak for itself. India rejected his claim outright, as did Poland, but the latter reinforced its stance by citing an applicant’s need to be on Polish land. Brazil responded by stating it wouldn’t respond, a decision it would later regret.
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As the world awaited answers from Iceland, China, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, France and Italy,
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suspicions were immediately raised and conjectures made that the remaining countries’ hesitation signaled possible acceptance and admittance of Snowden.

Few thought France or Italy would humor him due to their ties to the U.S. It was obvious if China had wanted him, it would have kept him. Because the press had yet to account for why Snowden had not proceeded to Cuba, many suspected there was unvoiced reason for him not already being there. Only a handful of people were aware Iceland was a foregone conclusion before it was ever a consideration. France would later deny having received any paperwork before saying no, and Italy would use the well-worn excuse of needing him in the country to acknowledge his request. China stated it had no information to issue pertaining to Snowden.
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Cuba never responded. This left Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Four days later, WikiLeaks announced Snowden had applied for asylum in six more countries. The website refused to name them, citing potential American influence as seen with Ecuador and what was reasonably assumed to have taken place with other nations.
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An unnamed U.S. government official later confirmed this: “There is not a country in the hemisphere whose government does not understand our position at this point.”
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As with his theoretical flight to Cuba, many of Snowden’s asylum applications were meant to lend verisimilitude to the feigned proceedings. The other tip-off that Snowden’s applications were not sincere was that six days before, he had given the
SCMP
approval to run another exposé, the one which he obligated the newspaper to sit on until the U.S. had filed its charges against him. Only after Snowden had landed where he’d intended to stay did he give the news outlet permission to release incriminating information about him.

On June 24, the day after the whistleblower arrived in Russia, Los Angeles awoke to “Snowden sought Booz Allen job to gather evidence on NSA surveillance.”
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The article opens succinctly, “Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor for one reason alone—to obtain evidence of Washington’s cyberspying networks,” before adding, somewhat sardonically, “
the South China Morning Post
can reveal.” It quotes Snowden, “My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked. That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.” As before, due to scarcity of material, the
SCMP
inserted its new information between previous and current press reports. Yet it made sure to send a chill down Washington’s spine by quoting Snowden’s long-term intention: “[ … ] I would like to make it [confidential American intelligence disclosures] available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published.” It is highly doubtful Snowden would have made such a bold, incendiary declaration if Russia hadn’t guaranteed him a safe haven two days before he sat down to speak with the
SCMP
.

Pundits immediately began to speculate whether Greenwald, Poitras and Gellman had asked Snowden to get hired on at BAH in order to extract data.
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Greenwald and Poitras were too offended to hold their tongues. If proven true, the accusations could implicate the journalists in one or more of the charges put to Snowden. Poitras claimed
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she was unclear where Snowden had worked before meeting him in Hong Kong. To her credit, since the documents he had in his possession related to various facilities, operations and stations worldwide, it would be difficult for an untrained eye to determine where he had stolen the information. Regretting he’d hedged the details of his communication timeline with Snowden, Greenwald called the allegation “baseless innuendo.”
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Gellman kept characteristically silent. Snowden had revealed in his interview with Poitras that he’d worked for another intelligence agency, the CIA, and the Post reporter knew it would be revealed he’d been employed as a NSA contractor for another firm. Less than two months later, the press broke the news that Snowden had an extended tenure with Dell.
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Snowden was not worried he would not be permitted to continue his journalistic pursuits in Russia. He had already distributed a considerable amount of information to his chosen journalists, and, as he would declare on July 12, he “cannot control them [the writers and their decision to act upon the material].”
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During the week they’d spent with him in Hong Kong, Greenwald and Poitras had been briefed by Snowden over what the documents were, how to interpret them, their meaning and their implications. He was still in contact with Gellman.
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At this stage Snowden was merely acting as an advisor, permitting the press to do its work. He even admitted his role in the proceedings wasn’t vital. On June 17 he’d informed the world, “All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me.”
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The day after the
SCMP
released its jawdropping report regarding Snowden’s reasons for joining BAH,
The Daily Beast
published an interview with Greenwald which explained Snowden’s cryptic statement.
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It also served to increase the severity of Washington’s Snowden-induced migraine.

Greenwald relays that Snowden had made copies of all the purloined files and distributed them to several unnamed people, sealing the files’ contents under heavy encryption. However, as Greenwald reports, “If anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives.”
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Snowden had created a timed contact release program much like the ones used by outdoor enthusiasts. An account is created which specifies when the user will be departing, the individual’s destination and the latest time the person should return. If the user fails to log into the account before the slated deadline, an email is automatically sent to those placed on an emergency contact list with the relevant information. If Snowden missed resetting the account’s timer, the key to the encrypted files would be released to his chosen data bankers. It is characteristic of Snowden to want to control the files and explains his demand for Internet access while in exile.
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This also sheds light on Snowden’s statement, “The truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.” When he originally made the declaration during the June 17 Q & A session, it had ostentatious overtones. With Greenwald’s report, the statement is understood to be more literal than figurative.

Snowden had told the
SCMP
that he intended to release top secret disclosures to the nations to which the surveillance applied. The world didn’t have to wait long to see whether Snowden would keep his promise. Even though he was unable to reach Western Europe, he had associates that could.

Poitras had remained in Hong Kong on the off chance Snowden might request a follow-up interview atop wanting to get footage of the ensuing protests and support rallies for the NSA leaker. However, the day after her Snowden interview aired, she was forced out of her hotel room. She began receiving anonymous calls, and people were repeatedly knocking on her door. After being escorted by security through a back exit, she relocated and tried to meld into the city’s seven million people. She surrendered after a CNN reporter identified her on June 15. She summarily flew to Berlin. Her flight from recognition was an attempt to supersede authorities from intercepting the data Snowden had recently issued her. It was also a reprieve into the sanctuary of her German apartment, which she maintained to escape harassment by American intelligence. There she continued editing her interview footage and, in line with Snowden’s wishes, prepared her own series of disclosures that related to Europe and Germany for the German press.
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Europe took little notice of Snowden’s BAH admission because
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
, also known as North German Broadcasting (NGB),
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and Germany’s largest newspaper, the Munich-based periodical
Süddeutsche Zeitung
, broke another story an hour later.
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“Britain Draws from German Internet” reveals that GCHQ was using Tempora to wiretap transatlantic Telephone Cable No. 14 or “TAT-14.” TAT-14 is a major fiber-optic backbone connecting Germany with the United States through Britain. The hub is utilized by Denmark, France and the Netherlands and approximately 50 international companies route phone calls and Internet connections through the line. As with Greenwald’s Verizon exposé,
Süddeutsche Zeitung
reports English telecoms Vodafone and British Telecommunications were willful surveillance participants.

Vodafone reported it was within the legal confines of the countries in which it was operating. British Telecommunications offered no comment. German intelligence as well as Telekom, the primary German communication provider that uses TAT-14, claimed to have no knowledge of the surveillance practice.

Steffen Seibert, spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, demanded NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Association) allies answer “what legal basis and to which extent” the TAT-14 surveillance had been conducted. Albrecht stated, “We urge the Federal Government and the EU Commission to initiate infringement proceedings against the UK government.”
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It was the first of many revelations for Germany.

Another indication Snowden’s safety was never in doubt is that after June 17, Greenwald disappeared for 10 days. He had been busily preparing to lead yet another cavalcade of disclosures. He commenced with a before-and-after pair of reports which appeared 17 minutes apart, “How the NSA is still harvesting your online data”
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and “NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama.”
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The latter, poignantly opening with a picture of Obama alongside his predecessor, tells of a now-defunct, highly controversial surveillance program which originated in 2001 called Stellar Wind or “The Program” to NSA insiders.
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Initially the program permitted bulk collection of online metadata without the need for a court’s approval. As a consequence of internal complaints being ignored by then-president Bush—followed by threatened resignations from FBI Director Robert Mueller, acting Attorney General James Comey and bedridden Attorney General John Ashcroft
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—Stellar Wind was terminated in May 2004. The program was revived two months later by requiring an FISC judge sign-off on all operations. Judge Collen Kollar-Kotelly proceeded to rubber stamp blanket orders every 90 days. Greenwald reports after being goaded by the attorney general’s office, Bush restructured the program once again. Stellar Wind 3.0 allowed for more invasive procedures. The program ran under Obama before it “was discontinued in 2011 for operational and resource reasons and has not been restarted.”