Booz Allen test-system proposal of, 62–63
on changing targets of national security, 345
character and personality of, xiii
childhood and adolescence of, 38–45
Churchyard code name of, 54
as CIA employee, 51–57
CIA methods as troubling to, 55–56
CIA tradecraft training of, 52–54
as contractor at CIA headquarters, 49–50
in conversation with NSA intern about Tor vulnerabilities, 80–81
costs vs. benefits of leaks by, xv, 21
as cyber security conference instructor, 57–59
cyber security tradecraft of, 2–4
“dead man’s switch” and, 64, 256–58, 328, 332
as Dell liaison with CIA, 61–62
Ecuador as intended destination of, 307
Ellsberg compared with, 295–96
Ellsberg’s online conversation with, 289–95
encrypted NSA files sent to BG without keys by, 328, 332
EPICSHELTER system designed by, 59–60, 61
epilepsy diagnosed in, 34, 64, 370
on Espionage Act, 292
exaggerated claims of, 63–64
in flight to Hong Kong, 27, 88, 307
in flight to Moscow, xi
on foreigners’ right to privacy, 291–92
gaming of tests as talent of, 42
GED diploma of, 40–41
government disparagement of, 40, 51–52, 86–87, 134
government’s standoff with, 352–53
Greenwald and, see Greenwald, Glenn
hacker mindset of, 40
as having accomplished his goals, 255–56, 308
Heartbeat program of, see Heartbeat
identity disclosed by, 28–29
importance of cryptographic signature to, 105–6, 128–30, 137, 386–87
importance of leaks by, xii
instrumental approach to truth by, 324–26, 332–33
IQ score of, 38–39
on journalists’ overdedication to provable facts, 324–26
Kunia assignment of, see Kunia Regional Security Operations Center
leaks to Poitras and BG by, see Pandora archive
libertarian politics of, 55, 64–65
marriage of Mills and, 353
memoir of, 50–51
Microsoft systems engineer certification of, 42
in Moscow, see Moscow
motives of, 28, 290–91, 304, 335–36
on NSA penetration of Google cloud, 285
on NSA’s latent power as inherent threat, 345–46
on NSA’s sexual metaphors, 204
personal attacks anticipated by, 19
Poitras and, see Poitras, Laura
on political use of hacked documents, 322
possible harm from publication of Pandora files dismissed by, 265–66
PRISM slide show files uncovered by, 120
public announcement of identity of, 148–49
quick publication of NSA documents sought by, 105, 127–28, 306, 327
on revealing secrets, 259
revoked passport of, 227, 307
role-playing and fantasy interests of, 43–44
Russian relationship denied by, xiv–xv, 292–94
security credentials of, 67–68
security guard job of, 48–49
as self-taught polymath, 40, 41
Sheremetyevo Airport detention of, 226–27, 293
size of data leaks by, 73
TAO job offer rejected by, 82–83, 204
Tekken obsession of, 44–45
Tor used by, 79–81
treason charges against, 334
TS/SCI clearance of, 48
Verax as cover name of, xvii, 226
in virtual chat with Homeland cast and crew, 303–9, 320
virtual TED Talk given by, 321
Washington Post distrusted by, 11
wiretapping of Congress and Supreme Court claimed by, 326–32
Snowden, Elizabeth, 38
Snowden, Jessica, 39
Snowden, Lonnie G., Jr., 38, 57, 251
Snowden archive, see Pandora archive
social graphs, 159, 163
social justice, 345
social media, memes on, 192, 210
social networks, mapping of, MAINWAY as tool for, 170–77
Soghoian, Christopher, 319
Soltani, Ashkan:
background of, 195–96
as BG’s guide to hacking culture, 191
digital privacy as specialty of, 196–98
in E.O. 12333 investigations, 315, 318, 324
Google cloud story and, 279–81, 297–300
hacker background of, 189–90
on hacker culture, 208
Pandora archive and, 189–91, 198–99, 238–39, 340
Pandora security and, 238–39
suspected attempt at honey trapping of, 236–37
South China Morning Post, 84
Special Forces, U.S., 212
Special Operations Command, U.S., 151
Special Source Operations, 191
spiders (tools in networked computing), 76
Spiegel, Der, 182
Spotlight (film), 104
SSL (secure sockets layers), 280, 297
STARBURST, 70
Star Trek (TV series), 210
State Department, U.S., ES’s passport revoked by, 227, 307
STELLARWIND (domestic surveillance program), 26, 122, 170
as illegal domestic surveillance, 169, 175
NSA inspector general’s report on, 70–71
STRAWHORSE, 216–20
Suitable Tech Inc., 320
Supreme Court, U.S., ES’s claims of having wiretapped, 326–32
surveillance:
authority (legal basis) for, 86–88
BG’s increasing preoccupation with, 234–35, 238–42, 255
Church on inherent threat of, 346
cryptography as counterforce to, 350–52
difficulty in scaling back technology of, 349–50
NSA’s ability to unmask names in, 342–43
possible misuse of, 347–49, 350
post-9/11 expansion of, xi
secrecy as inherent in, xii, xv, 28
surveillance, domestic:
breakdown of divide between foreign and, xii, 338–39
mass, 143
NSA as banned from, 125
warrantless, 9, 26, 70, 97, 122–23, 142, 156, 157, 169, 263
surveillance, foreign:
breakdown of distinction between domestic and, xii, 338–39
data on U.S. persons collected by, 287–88, 335–36, 337–46
“Surveillance Self-Defense” (Electronic Frontier Foundation), 365
Swartz, Aaron, 234
Taguba, Antonio, 262
Tailored Access Operations (TAO), 81–83, 200, 204, 214
cover support for, 201–2
Tate, Julie, 107, 190, 269, 271, 340
TECHEXPO Top Secret, 49
TED Talk, ES’s virtual, 321
Tekken, 44–45
Tekserve, 233–34
telecommunications companies:
NSA given access to data by, 111–12, 142, 199, 310
NSA’s relations with, 311
see also internet companies
Terminator films, 322
“terrorist,” definition of, 113
TheTrueHOOHA (ES’s Ars Technica handle), 37
Thompson, Ken, 217
Time, 8
NSA story declined by, 93–97
; Time Inc., 94–95
Tisinger, Jeanne, 62
Top Secret classification, 25, 67
legal standard for, 265
Top Secret clearance, 67
Tor Project, 65
ES’s use of, 79–81
NSA’s breaking of anonymity protection of, 79–81
traffic shaping, 200
Travis, Debra, 233
“treason,” constitutional definition of, 334
Trump, Donald, 162, 181, 205, 246, 247, 249
Clapper attacked by, 349
espionage charges brought against Assange by, 261
governing norms ignored by, 347–48
trust:
government and, 180–84
NSA data collection and, 164
TS/SCI (Top Secret/sensitive compartmented information) clearance, 25, 36
TS/SCI networks, 77
Tu, Alan, 193–94, 265
in NSA hacker culture, 194
on NSA’s sexual metaphors, 204
TURMOIL, 299
Turner, Shawn, 142, 144, 246, 270
Underground Railroad, 345
Unified Targeting Tool, 124–25
United Kingdom, Official Secrets Act of, 275
United States v. Edward J. Snowden, 242
UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), 224
used as cover for NSA spying, 223
Upstream, 84, 148
USA Patriot Act (2001), 143, 166
Vanity Fair, 56
Verax, see Snowden, Edward
Verizon, FBI’s collection of metadata from, 142
Vietnam War, 288
Vines, Vanee, 270, 271
BG’s meeting with, 323–24
volume problem, contact chaining and, 172–73
VOYEUR, 206
Wall Street Journal, 196, 205
warrantless surveillance, 9, 26, 70, 97, 122–23, 142, 156, 157, 169, 263
Washington Post, 16, 253, 288, 324
BG’s career at, 91–93
BG’s decision to offer NSA story to, 89, 98
BG’s departure from, xiii, 4
BG’s NSA story meetings at, 103–16
Clapper’s meeting with, 228–29
cryptographic signature issue and, 131, 132–33
in decision not to publish some Pandora material, 269
ES as suspicious of, 11
Greenwald’s denigration of, 139, 390
NSA stories published by, 77, 146–49, 198
Pentagon Papers published by, 92, 379–80
PRISM slides shown to, 109–13
publication of legitimate intelligence data rejected by, 145–46
Pulitzer Prize for NSA coverage won by, 277
security measures for NSA story at, 105–9, 239–40
Soltani hired by, 189–91, 198–99
Washington Times, 273
Watergate scandal, 92
weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), 223, 238, 263, 368, 405
Weaver, Nicholas, 240
Weiss, Baruch, 95–96
Weymouth, Katharine, 380
WHIPGENIE, 70, 122, 385
whistleblowers, whistleblowing:
Ellsberg’s lifelong preoccupation with, 294–95
espionage vs., 275–76
in intelligence community, 368
need for action as core value of, 296
and public’s right to know, 334–35
rarity of, 295–96
WikiLeaks, 25, 256
Williams, Pete, 186
Williams & Connolly, 100, 102, 185
Wizner, Ben, 321–22
Wyden, Ron, NSA hearings of, 164–65
XKEYSCORE (NSA targeting interface), 86, 87, 332
Yahoo, 299–300, 337
Zarqawi, Abu Musab, killing of, 212
Zero Day cyber attacks, 58
Zimmerman, Phil, 365
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barton Gellman is a critically honored author, journalist and blogger based at the Century Foundation in New York. A longtime writer for The Washington Post, Gellman has led multiple teams to a Pulitzer Prize and was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer for National Reporting for coverage of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. Author of the bestselling Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, he is also a Lecturer and Author in Residence at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
*Barton Gellman and Sam Adler-Bell, “The Disparate Impact of Surveillance,” Century Foundation, December 21, 2017, at http://perma.cc/WV8A-ZMV3.
Dark Mirror Page 51