| --- |
| title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020366)" |
| source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)" |
| sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein" |
| date: "2026-01-01" |
| category: "House Oversight" |
| eftaNumber: "HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020366" |
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| ocrChars: 3943 |
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| parseTier: "external-legacy" |
| engine: "engine undisclosed (ep-nov-12.greg.technology mirror)" |
| externalSource: "greg-ep-nov-12" |
| externalLicense: "not granted" |
| externalCredit: "ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| --- |
| |
| 214 |
| The third choice Snowden made, and the choice that most effectively defined him to the public, |
| was to reveal himself as the man behind the leak in a video in Hong Kong. He not only |
| identified himself as the person who stole the government documents published by the Guardian |
| and Washington Post, but he incriminated himself further on camera by allowing Poitras to film |
| him actually disclosing NSA's secret operations to Greenwald. By disclosing classified data to |
| Greenwald, an unauthorized person, he intentionally burned his bridges. |
| What makes this choice intriguing is that there was no evident need for him to expose himself |
| in this way. If he merely wanted to be a whistle-blower, he could have, as Bradley Manning did, |
| anonymously sent the documents to journalists as "Citizen 4." In fact, in late May 2013, that was |
| exactly what he did. He sent Barton Gellman the PRISM scoop anonymously which the |
| Washington Post published on June 6", 2013. In that scoop, Snowden's name was not revealed. |
| He also sent Greenwald and Poitras documents while he was still the anonymous source "Citizen |
| 4." Neither Gellman nor Greenwald had suggested the need for a face-to-face meeting with |
| Snowden. Even after he had revealed his true identity to Poitras and Greenwald on June 2nd |
| 2013, Guardian editor Ewen MacAskill offered him the option of remaining an unnamed source |
| for the stories. He said, as he later told Vanity Fair. "You should remain anonymous; the stories |
| are just as good without you." However, anonymity was not part of Snowden's long game. |
| The reason he gave Greenwald in Hong Kong for going public in this way was to avoid any |
| suspicion falling on his co-workers at the NSA. Yet, if merely wanted to take sole responsibility |
| for stealing state secrets, he did not need to be the subject of a documentary. He could have |
| simply allowed Greenwald to identify him by name as the source in the stories. That would not |
| present an issue since he had not been identified by either name or position in the initial stories |
| published on June 5'" and 6 by Greenwald, Poitras and Gellman. In short, he did not act to defect |
| suspicion from his co-workers for the initial investigation. Why now? |
| The one thing that Snowden could not accomplish by anonymously transferring the |
| documents to journalists was a starring role in the drama. If he had appeared digitally-masked |
| in Poitras' video with an altered voice, he would not achieve fame in the media. For that, he |
| needed to allow Poitras to film him committing the crime of turning over NSA documents to |
| Greenwald. This video was also the result of his advanced planning. Indeed, one reason he |
| chose Poitras was that she was a prize-winning/ documentary film-maker who had already made a |
| documentary about NSA whistle-blower William Binney. Snowden, while he was still working at |
| the NSA in March 2013, made it clear how he intended to use Poitras' film-making skills. He told |
| her: "My personal desire is that you paint the target directly on my back." |
| He chose to make himself the on-camera star of a 20-hour long reality show. This sensational |
| footage would transform him in the public's mind into a selfless hero. It would be a mistake to |
| assume that the central role he gave himself was an exercise in narcissism. It was an integral part |
| of his personal transformation. After this globally-watched video, he was no longer a near non- |
| entity servicing a computer system at a back-water NSA base in Hawaii. In the space of 12 |
| minutes on television, he had emerged from the shadowy world of electronic intelligence and |
| became one of the most famous whistle-blowers in modern history. It was a mantle that would |
| allow him to also become a leading advocate of privacy and encryption rights as well the leading |
| opponent of NSA spying. While this remarkable transformation may not have been his entire |
| motive, it certainly was the result of the choice he made to go public. |
| HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020366 |
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