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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 Edward Snowden: ‘I already won’

BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Edward Snowden, this month in Moscow. In an interview with The Post, the former NSA contractor spoke about his motives for — and the fallout from — his revelations. His leaks have fundamentally altered the U.S. government’s relationship with its citizens, the rest of the world

by Barton Gellman but Snowden remains a target of surpass- ing interest to the intelligence services MOSCOW — The familiar voice on the hotel whose secrets he spilled on an epic scale. room phone did not waste words. Late this spring, Snowden sup- “What time does your clock say, exact- plied three journalists, includ- ly?” he asked. ing this one, with caches of top- He checked the reply against his watch secret documents from the National Secu- and described a place to meet. rity Agency, where he worked as a contrac- “I’ll see you there,” he said. tor. Dozens of revelations followed, and then Edward Joseph Snowden emerged at hundreds, as news organizations around the the appointed hour, alone, blending into a world picked up the story. Congress pressed light crowd of locals and tourists. He cocked for explanations, new evidence revived old his arm for a handshake, then turned his lawsuits and the Obama administration was shoulder to indicate a path. Before long he obliged to declassify thousands of pages it had guided his visitor to a secure space out had fought for years to conceal. of public view. Taken together, the revelations have During more than 14 hours of inter- brought to light a global surveillance sys- views, the first he has conducted in person tem that cast off many of its historical re- since arriving here in June, Snowden did straints after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. not part the curtains or step outside. Russia Secret legal authorities empowered the granted him temporary asylum on Aug. 1, NSA to sweep in the telephone, Internet SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 2

and location records of whole populations. One of the leaked presentation slides described the agen- cy’s “collection philosophy” as “Order one of everything off the menu.” Six months after the first revelations appeared in The Washington Post and Britain’s Guardian newspa- per, Snowden agreed to re- flect at length on the roots and repercussions of his choice. He was relaxed and animated over two days of nearly unbroken conversa- tion, fueled by burgers, pas- ta, ice cream and Russian pastry. Snowden offered vi- gnettes from his intelli- gence career and from his recent life as “an indoor cat” in Russia. But he con- sistently steered the conver- sation back to surveillance, democracy and the mean- ing of the documents he ex- posed. “For me, in terms of BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST personal satisfaction, the Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, photographed this month in Moscow. Before releasing the secret documents, he said, he had overcome a “selfish fear” of the mission’s already accom- consequences for himself but still worried “that people won’t care, that they won’t want change.” plished,” he said. “I already won. As soon as the journal- ists were able to work, everything that I had unchecked. Closed-door oversight by Con- been trying to do was validated. Because, gress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveil- remember, I didn’t want to change society. lance Court was a “graveyard of judgment,” I wanted to give society a chance to deter- he said, manipulated by the agency it was mine if it should change itself.” supposed to keep in check. Classification “All I wanted was for the public to be rules erected walls to prevent public debate. able to have a say in how they are governed,” Toppling those walls would be a spec- he said. “That is a milestone we left a long tacular act of transgression against the time ago. Right now, all we are looking at norms that prevailed inside them. Some- are stretch goals.” one would have to bypass security, extract the secrets, make undetected contact with ‘Going in blind’ journalists and provide them with enough Snowden is an orderly thinker, with proof to tell the stories. an engineer’s approach to problem-solving. The NSA’s business is “information He had come to believe that a dangerous dominance,” the use of other people’s se- machine of mass surveillance was growing crets to shape events. At 29, Snowden up- SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 3

ended the agency on its own turf. “You recognize that you’re going in blind, that there’s no model,” Snowden said, acknowl- edging that he had no way to know whether the public would share his views. “But when you weigh that against the alternative, which is not to act,” he said, “you realize that some analysis is better than no analysis. Because even if your PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES Snowden had stayed at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong before flying to analysis proves to be wrong, the Moscow in June. He says he is sure China did not access his files. marketplace of ideas will bear that out. If you look at it from an engineering perspective, an iterative perspective, it’s clear that you have to try something rather than do nothing.” By his own terms, Snowden succeeded beyond plausible am- bition. The NSA, accustomed to watching without being watched, faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever. PAUL GYPTEAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES The cascading effects have Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where Snowden stayed for more than a month this summer before being granted asylum by Russia. made themselves felt in Con- gress, the courts, popular cul- ture, Silicon Valley and world capitals. The The next day, in the Roosevelt Room, basic structure of the Internet itself is now an unusual delegation of executives from in question, as Brazil and members of the old telephone companies and young Inter- European Union consider measures to keep net firms told President Obama that the their data away from U.S. territory and U.S. NSA’s intrusion into their networks was a technology giants including Google, Micro- threat to the U.S. information economy. The soft and Yahoo take extraordinary steps to following day, an advisory panel appointed block the collection of data by their govern- by Obama recommended substantial new ment. restrictions on the NSA, including an end For months, Obama administration to the domestic call-records program. officials attacked Snowden’s motives and “This week is a turning point,” said the said the work of the NSA was distorted by Government Accountability Project’s Jesse- selective leaks and misinterpretations. lyn Radack, who is one of Snowden’s legal On Dec. 16, in a lawsuit that could not advisers. “It has been just a cascade.” have gone forward without the disclosures made possible by Snowden, U.S. District ‘They elected me’ Judge Richard J. Leon described the NSA’s On June 22, the Justice Department capabilities as “almost Orwellian” and said unsealed a criminal complaint charging its bulk collection of U.S. domestic tele- Snowden with espionage and felony theft of phone records was probably unconstitu- government property. It was a dry enumer- tional. ation of statutes, without a trace of the an- SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 4

ger pulsing through Snowden’s former precincts. In the intelligence and na- tional security establishments, Snowden is widely viewed as a reckless saboteur, and journal- ists abetting him little less so. At the Aspen Security Fo- rum in July, a four-star military officer known for his even keel seethed through one meeting alongside a reporter he knew to be in contact with Snowden. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VIA REUTERS Snowden appeared before human rights activists at the Moscow Before walking away, he turned airport’s transit zone in July. Since leaving the airport Aug. 1, and pointed a finger. Snowden says, he has lived the life of “an indoor cat” in Russia. “We didn’t have another 9/11,” he said angrily, because intelligence Director of National Intelligence James enabled warfighters to find the enemy R. Clapper Jr., among many others, have first. “Until you’ve got to pull the trigger, used that formula. until you’ve had to bury your people, you In his interview with The Post, don’t have a clue.” Snowden noted matter-of-factly that Stan- It is commonly said of Snowden that dard Form 312, the classified-information­ he broke an oath of secrecy, a turn of nondisclosure agreement, is a civil con- phrase that captures a sense of betrayal. tract. He signed it, but he pledged his fealty NSA Director Keith B. Alexander and elsewhere.

Snowden’s 2013 timeline

EARLY 2013 JUNE 9 JUNE 19 JUNE 22 JUNE 25 DEC. 17 Edward Snowden worked for Booz Snowden reveals his identity and NSA Director Keith B. Alexander A criminal complaint against Russian President Vladimir Putin Snowden writes an “open letter to Allen Hamilton in Hawaii as an appears in an interview with the tells Congress the programs Snowden is unsealed, charging says that Snowden is in the the people of Brazil” saying that “infrastructure analyst” for the Guardian newspaper. Snowden revealed have helped to him under the Espionage Act. transit zone at a Moscow airport. he would be willing to help National Security Agency. thwart more than 50 terrorist Putin says he will not support investigate NSA spying but that he JUNE 10 plots, a claim he later abandons. JUNE 23 Snowden’s extradition to the needs political asylum. MAY 16 Snowden checks out of his Hong Snowden leaves Hong Kong for United States. — From staff and wire reports Snowden’s first direct exchange Kong hotel. JUNE 21 Moscow. with Washington Post reporter Snowden buys a ticket to travel on JULY 16 Barton Gellman. JUNE 14 Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, JUNE 24 Snowden applies for asylum in FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to Moscow. He planned to fly on to Snowden is rumored to be leaving Russia. MAY 20 tells Congress that Snowden has Latin America. He celebrates his for Cuba but is not on the flight Snowden tells his NSA caused the United States 30th birthday in Hong Kong. when it takes off. AUG. 1 supervisors that he needs time off “significant” harm and that the Snowden is granted a one-year for treatment for epilepsy and government will prosecute him for asylum. Snowden’s 2013 timeline arrives in Hong Kong. the leaks.

EARLY 2013 JUNE 9 JUNE 19 JUNE 22 JUNE 25 DEC. 17 Edward Snowden worked for Booz Snowden reveals his identity and NSA Director Keith B. Alexander A criminal complaint against Russian President Vladimir Putin Snowden writes an “open letter to Allen Hamilton in Hawaii as an appears in an interview with the tells Congress the programs Snowden is unsealed, charging says that Snowden is in the the people of Brazil” saying that “infrastructure analyst” for the Guardian newspaper. Snowden revealed have helped to him under the Espionage Act. transit zone at a Moscow airport. he would be willing to help National Security Agency. thwart more than 50 terrorist Putin says he will not support investigate NSA spying but that he JUNE 10 plots, a claim he later abandons. JUNE 23 Snowden’s extradition to the needs political asylum. MAY 16 Snowden checks out of his Hong Snowden leaves Hong Kong for United States. — From staff and wire reports Snowden’s first direct exchange Kong hotel. JUNE 21 Moscow. with Washington Post reporter Snowden buys a ticket to travel on JULY 16 Barton Gellman. JUNE 14 Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, JUNE 24 Snowden applies for asylum in FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to Moscow. He planned to fly on to Snowden is rumored to be leaving Russia. MAY 20 tells Congress that Snowden has Latin America. He celebrates his for Cuba but is not on the flight Snowden tells his NSA caused the United States 30th birthday in Hong Kong. when it takes off. AUG. 1 supervisors that he needs time off “significant” harm and that the Snowden is granted a one-year for treatment for epilepsy and government will prosecute him for asylum. arrives in Hong Kong. the leaks. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 5

“The oath of allegiance is not an oath He began to test that proposition more of secrecy,” he said. “That is an oath to the than a year ago, he said, in periodic conver- Constitution. That is the oath that I kept sations with co-workers and superiors that that Keith Alexander and James Clapper foreshadowed his emerging plan. did not.” Beginning in October 2012, he said, he People who accuse him of disloyalty, he brought his misgivings to two superiors in said, mistake his purpose. the NSA’s Technology Directorate and two “I am not trying to bring down the more in the NSA Threat Operations Cen- NSA, I am working to improve the NSA,” he ter’s regional base in Hawaii. For each of said. “I am still working for the NSA right them, and 15 other co-workers, Snowden now. They are the only ones who don’t real- said he opened a data query tool called ize it.” BOUNDLESSINFORMANT, which used What entitled Snowden, now 30, to color-coded “heat maps” to depict the vol- take on that responsibility? ume of data ingested by NSA taps. “That whole question — who elected His colleagues were often “astonished you? — inverts the model,” he said. “They to learn we are collecting more in the Unit- elected me. The overseers.” ed States on Americans than we are on Rus- He named the chairmen of the Senate sians in Russia,” he said. Many of them were and House intelligence committees. troubled, he said, and several said they did “Dianne Feinstein elected me when not want to know any more. she asked softball questions” in committee “I asked these people, ‘What do you hearings, he said. “Mike Rogers elected me think the public would do if this was on the when he kept these programs hidden. . . . front page?’ ” he said. He noted that crit- The FISA court elected me when they de- ics have accused him of bypassing internal cided to legislate from the bench on things channels of dissent. “How is that not re- that were far beyond the mandate of what porting it? How is that not raising it?” he that court was ever intended to do. The sys- said. tem failed comprehensively, and each level By last December, Snowden was con- of oversight, each level of responsibility that tacting reporters, although he had not yet should have addressed this, abdicated their passed along any classified information. He responsibility.” continued to give his colleagues the “front- “It wasn’t that they put it on me as an page test,” he said, until April. individual — that I’m uniquely qualified, Asked about those conversations, NSA an angel descending from the heavens — as spokeswoman Vanee Vines sent a prepared that they put it on someone, somewhere,” statement to The Post: “After extensive in- he said. “You have the capability, and you vestigation, including interviews with his realize every other [person] sitting around former NSA supervisors and co-workers, the table has the same capability but they we have not found any evidence to support don’t do it. So somebody has to be the first.” Mr. Snowden’s contention that he brought these matters to anyone’s attention.” ‘Front-page test’ Snowden recounted another set of Snowden grants that NSA employees conversations that he said took place three by and large believe in their mission and years earlier, when he was sent by the trust the agency to handle the secrets it NSA’s Technology Directorate to support takes from ordinary people — deliberately, operations at a listening post in Japan. As a in the case of bulk records collection, and system administrator, he had full access to “incidentally,” when the content of Ameri- security and auditing controls. He said he can phone calls and e-mails are swept into saw serious flaws with information security. NSA systems along with foreign targets. “I actually recommended they move to But Snowden also said acceptance of two-man control for administrative access the agency’s operations was not universal. back in 2009,” he said, first to his supervi- TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 6 Six months of revelations on the NSA The National Security Agency has been forced to respond to unprecedented disclosures about its surveillance programs. Those programs have been assailed as a violation of privacy rights by critics and defended as critical to U.S. national security by intelligence officials. The images below are a combination of slides from the NSA and Washington Post graphics.

JUNE 5-6 i JUNE 9 AUG. 15 AUG. 29 i SEPT. 17 OCT. 14 i The first revelations are published Snowden Audit: NSA broke The ‘black budget’ Decision on phone Address-book Documents leaked by Edward Snowden lead to the revealed privacy rules is revealed program declassified collection revealed exposure of a pair of secret NSA programs. The The former NSA The Post reveals an internal audit The 178-page budget summary for The gathering of “all call detail The Post reveals that the NSA is Guardian discloses that the agency is gathering the contractor that showed the agency had broken the National Intelligence Program records” for counterterrorism harvesting hundreds of millions of telephone records of millions of Americans from comes forward. privacy rules or overstepped its legal is revealed by The Post; it details purposes is justified, according to a contact lists from personal e-mail Verizon as part of what is later revealed to be an even He later travels authority thousands of times each the successes, failures and declassified decision from the and instant-messaging accounts, broader collection effort. A day later, The Washington from Hong year since Congress granted it broad objectives of the 16 spy agencies Foreign Intelligence Surveillance many belonging to Americans. Post and the Guardian report that the NSA is collecting Kong to Russia, new powers in 2008. Later, a that make up the U.S. intelligence Court. The court’s chief judge, U.S. a wide range of digital information from nine private where he was declassified court opinion revealed community. The budget also District Judge Reggie B. Walton, Internet firms as part of a program known as PRISM. granted one that, for almost three years, the NSA revealed that the NSA is paying U.S. conceded to The Post that judges year of asylum. searched a massive phone-record companies for access to their must depend on the government to database in violation of privacy rules. communications networks. report when it acts improperly. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 7 Six months of revelations on the NSA The National Security Agency has been forced to respond to unprecedented disclosures about its surveillance programs. Those programs have been assailed as a violation of privacy rights by critics and defended as critical to U.S. national security by intelligence officials. The images below are a combination of slides from the NSA and Washington Post graphics.

i i i JUNE 5-6 i JUNE 9 AUG. 15 AUG. 29 i SEPT. 17 OCT. 14 i OCT. 24 OCT. 30 DEC. 4 DEC. 8 DEC. 16 DEC. 18 The first revelations are published Snowden Audit: NSA broke The ‘black budget’ Decision on phone Address-book NSA’s surveillance of Post reveals tapping Collection of cellphone Tech companies call for Federal judge criticizes Review panel urges Documents leaked by Edward Snowden lead to the revealed privacy rules is revealed program declassified collection revealed world leaders disclosed of links to data centers location records revealed new surveillance limits massive data collection new surveillance curbs exposure of a pair of secret NSA programs. The The former NSA The Post reveals an internal audit The 178-page budget summary for The gathering of “all call detail The Post reveals that the NSA is After Der Spiegel reports that By infiltrating the networks of tech The NSA is gathering nearly The big firms’ requests that the In his ruling, Richard J. Leon, a judge The group, appointed by President Guardian discloses that the agency is gathering the contractor that showed the agency had broken the National Intelligence Program records” for counterterrorism harvesting hundreds of millions of German Chancellor Angela giants Yahoo and Google, the 5 billion records a day on the government allow them to be more on the U.S. District Court for the Obama in August in response to telephone records of millions of Americans from comes forward. privacy rules or overstepped its legal is revealed by The Post; it details purposes is justified, according to a contact lists from personal e-mail Merkel’s cellphone may have been agency is collecting at will from whereabouts of cellphones around transparent morph into a call for District of Columbia, says he cannot revelations about NSA programs, Verizon as part of what is later revealed to be an even He later travels authority thousands of times each the successes, failures and declassified decision from the and instant-messaging accounts, tapped, the Guardian reports that hundreds of millions of user the world, The Post reports, and strict new curbs on surveillance imagine “a more ‘indiscriminate’ and makes a host of recommendations, broader collection effort. A day later, The Washington from Hong year since Congress granted it broad objectives of the 16 spy agencies Foreign Intelligence Surveillance many belonging to Americans. the agency monitored the calls of accounts, many belonging to while it doesn’t target Americans’ that could reshape intelligence ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this including that the agency should Post and the Guardian report that the NSA is collecting Kong to Russia, new powers in 2008. Later, a that make up the U.S. intelligence Court. The court’s chief judge, U.S. scores of world leaders. European Americans, The Post reports. location data, it acquires a operations. The companies express systematic and high tech collection end the collection of virtually all a wide range of digital information from nine private where he was declassified court opinion revealed community. The budget also District Judge Reggie B. Walton, officials threaten to delay trade Several companies later embark substantial amount of data about concern over the future of their and retention of personal data on Americans’ phone records. The Internet firms as part of a program known as PRISM. granted one that, for almost three years, the NSA revealed that the NSA is paying U.S. conceded to The Post that judges negotiations, and Germans launch on initiatives to strengthen data their whereabouts “incidentally.” businesses, which rely at least in virtually every single citizen for administration says it will year of asylum. searched a massive phone-record companies for access to their must depend on the government to an investigation. The revelations encryption in hopes of thwarting part on user trust. purposes of querying and analyzing it announce in January how it will database in violation of privacy rules. communications networks. report when it acts improperly. also anger key U.S. lawmakers. government spying. without prior judicial approval.” respond to the recommendations. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 8

OCT. 24 OCT. 30 i DEC. 4 i DEC. 8 DEC. 16 i DEC. 18 NSA’s surveillance of Post reveals tapping Collection of cellphone Tech companies call for Federal judge criticizes Review panel urges world leaders disclosed of links to data centers location records revealed new surveillance limits massive data collection new surveillance curbs After Der Spiegel reports that By infiltrating the networks of tech The NSA is gathering nearly The big firms’ requests that the In his ruling, Richard J. Leon, a judge The group, appointed by President German Chancellor Angela giants Yahoo and Google, the 5 billion records a day on the government allow them to be more on the U.S. District Court for the Obama in August in response to Merkel’s cellphone may have been agency is collecting at will from whereabouts of cellphones around transparent morph into a call for District of Columbia, says he cannot revelations about NSA programs, tapped, the Guardian reports that hundreds of millions of user the world, The Post reports, and strict new curbs on surveillance imagine “a more ‘indiscriminate’ and makes a host of recommendations, the agency monitored the calls of accounts, many belonging to while it doesn’t target Americans’ that could reshape intelligence ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this including that the agency should scores of world leaders. European Americans, The Post reports. location data, it acquires a operations. The companies express systematic and high tech collection end the collection of virtually all officials threaten to delay trade Several companies later embark substantial amount of data about concern over the future of their and retention of personal data on Americans’ phone records. The negotiations, and Germans launch on initiatives to strengthen data their whereabouts “incidentally.” businesses, which rely at least in virtually every single citizen for administration says it will an investigation. The revelations encryption in hopes of thwarting part on user trust. purposes of querying and analyzing it announce in January how it will also anger key U.S. lawmakers. government spying. without prior judicial approval.” respond to the recommendations. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 9

sor in Japan and then to the directorate’s pected of nothing. But vast new storage chief of operations in the Pacific. “Sure, a capacity and processing tools enabled the whistleblower could use these things, but NSA to use the information to map human so could a spy.” relationships on a planetary scale. Only this That precaution, which requires a sec- way, its leadership believed, could the NSA ond set of credentials to perform risky op- reach beyond its universe of known intel- erations such as copying files onto a remov- ligence targets. able drive, has been among the principal In the view of the NSA, signals intel- security responses to the Snowden affair. ligence, or electronic eavesdropping, was Vines, the NSA spokeswoman, said a matter of life and death, “without which there was no record of those conversations, America would cease to exist as we know either. it,” according to an internal presentation in the first week of October 2001 as the agen- U.S. ‘would cease to exist’ cy ramped up its response to the al-Qaeda Just before releasing the documents attacks on the World Trade Center and the this spring, Snowden made a final review Pentagon. of the risks. He had overcome what he de- With stakes such as those, there was no scribed at the time as a “selfish fear” of the capability the NSA believed it should leave consequences for himself. on the table. The agency followed orders “I said to you the only fear [left] is from President George W. Bush to begin apathy — that people won’t care, that domestic collection without authority from they won’t want change,” he recalled this Congress and the courts. When the NSA month. won those authorities later, some of them The documents leaked by Snowden under secret interpretations of laws passed compelled attention because they revealed by Congress between 2007 and 2012, the to Americans a history they did not know Obama administration went further still. they had. Using PRISM, the cover name for col- Internal briefing documents reveled in lection of user data from Google, Yahoo, the “Golden Age of Electronic Surveillance.” Microsoft, Apple and five other U.S.-based Brawny cover names such as MUSCULAR, companies, the NSA could obtain all com- TUMULT and TURMOIL boasted of the munications to or from any specified target. agency’s prowess. The companies had no choice but to com- With assistance from private commu- ply with the government’s request for data. nications firms, the NSA had learned to But the NSA could not use PRISM, capture enormous flows of data at the speed which was overseen once a year by the sur- of light from fiber-optic cables that carried veillance court, for the collection of virtu- Internet and telephone traffic over con- ally all data handled by those companies. tinents and under seas. According to one To widen its access, it teamed up with its document in Snowden’s cache, the agency’s British counterpart, Government Com- Special Source Operations group, which as munications Headquarters, or GCHQ, to early as 2006 was said to be ingesting “one break into the private fiber- optic links that Library of Congress every 14.4 seconds,” connected Google and Yahoo data centers had an official seal that might have been around the world. parody: an eagle with all the world’s cables That operation, which used the cover in its grasp. name MUSCULAR, tapped into U.S. com- Each year, NSA systems collected hun- pany data from outside U.S. territory. The dreds of millions of e-mail address books, NSA, therefore, believed it did not need hundreds of billions of cellphone location permission from Congress or judicial over- records and trillions of domestic call logs. sight. Data from hundreds of millions of Most of that data, by definition and U.S. accounts flowed over those Google and intent, belonged to ordinary people sus- Yahoo links, but classified rules allowed the SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 10

NSA to presume that data ingested over- tion from the companies themselves.” seas belonged to foreigners. Led by Google and then Yahoo, one company after another announced expen- ‘Persistent threat’ sive plans to encrypt its data traffic over Disclosure of the MUSCULAR project tens of thousands of miles of cable. It was enraged and galvanized U.S. technology ex- a direct — in some cases, explicit — blow to ecutives. They believed the NSA had lawful NSA collection of user data in bulk. If the access to their front doors — and had bro- NSA wanted the information, it would have ken down the back doors anyway. to request it or circumvent the encryption Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith one target at a time. took to his company’s blog and called the As these projects are completed, the NSA an “advanced persistent threat” — the Internet will become a less friendly place worst of all fighting words in U.S. cyberse- for the NSA to work. The agency can still curity circles, generally reserved for Chi- collect data from virtually anyone, but col- nese state-sponsored hackers and sophisti- lecting from everyone will be harder. cated criminal enterprises. The industry’s response, Smith ac- “For the industry as a whole, it caused knowledged, was driven by a business everyone to ask whether we knew as much threat. U.S. companies could not afford to as we thought,” Smith recalled in an inter- be seen as candy stores for U.S. intelligence. view. “It underscored the fact that while But the principle of the thing, Smith said, people were confident that the U.S. gov- “is fundamentally about ensuring that cus- ernment was complying with U.S. laws for tomer data is turned over to governments activity within U.S. territory, perhaps there pursuant to valid legal orders and in accor- were things going on outside the United dance with constitutional principles.” States . . . that made this bigger and more complicated and more disconcerting than ‘Warheads on foreheads’ we knew.” Snowden has focused on much the They wondered, he said, whether the same point from the beginning: Individual NSA was “collecting proprietary informa- targeting would cure most of what he be-

BOBBY YIP/REUTERS Edward Snowden’s face appears on a TV screen on a Hong Kong train in June after he revealed himself as the NSA leaker. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 11

lieves is wrong with the NSA. ‘Everybody knows’ Six months ago, a reporter asked him On June 29, Gilles de Kerchove, the by encrypted e-mail why Americans would European Union’s counter­terrorism coor- want the NSA to give up bulk data collec- dinator, awoke to a report in Der Spiegel tion if that would limit a useful intelligence that U.S. intelligence had broken into E.U. tool. offices, including his, to implant surveil- “I believe the cost of frank public de- lance devices. bate about the powers of our government The 56-year-old Belgian, whose work is less than the danger posed by allowing is often classified, did not consider himself these powers to continue growing in secret,” naive. But he took the news personally, and he replied, calling them “a direct threat to more so when he heard unofficial explana- democratic governance.” tions from Washington. In the Moscow interview, Snowden “ ‘Everybody knows. Everybody does’ said, “What the government wants is some- — Keith Alexander said that,” de Kerchove thing they never had before,” adding: “They said in an interview. “I don’t like the idea want total awareness. The question is, is that the NSA will put bugs in my office. No. that something we should be allowing?” I don’t like it. No. Between allies? No. I’m Snowden likened the NSA’s powers to surprised that people find that noble.” those used by British authorities in Colonial Comparable reactions, expressed less America, when “general warrants” allowed politely in private, accompanied revelations for anyone to be searched. The FISA court, that the NSA had tapped the cellphones of Snowden said, “is authorizing general war- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and rants for the entire country’s metadata.” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The “The last time that happened, we blowback roiled relations with both allies, fought a war over it,” he said. among others. Rousseff canceled a state Technology, of course, has enabled a dinner with Obama in September. great deal of consumer surveillance by pri- When it comes to spying on allies, by vate companies, as well. The difference with Snowden’s lights, the news is not always the NSA’s possession of the data, Snowden about the target. said, is that government has the power to “It’s the deception of the government take away life or freedom. that’s revealed,” Snowden said, noting that At the NSA, he said, “there are people the Obama administration offered false in the office who joke about, ‘We put war- public assurances after the initial reports heads on foreheads.’ Twitter doesn’t put about NSA surveillance in Germany “The warheads on foreheads.” U.S. government said: ‘We follow German Privacy, as Snowden sees it, is a univer- laws in Germany. We never target German sal right, applicable to American and for- citizens.’ And then the story comes out and eign surveillance alike. it’s: ‘What are you talking about? You’re “I don’t care whether you’re the pope spying on the chancellor.’ You just lied to or Osama bin Laden,” he said. “As long as the entire country, in front of Congress.” there’s an individualized, articulable, prob- In private, U.S. intelligence officials able cause for targeting these people as le- still maintain that spying among friends gitimate foreign intelligence, that’s fine. I is routine for all concerned, but they are don’t think it’s imposing a ridiculous bur- giving greater weight to the risk of getting den by asking for probable cause. Because, caught. you have to understand, when you have “There are many things we do in intel- access to the tools the NSA does, probable ligence that, if revealed, would have the po- cause falls out of trees.” tential for all kinds of blowback,” Clapper SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 12

BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Edward Snowden says that those who see him as disloyal to the United States have it wrong. “I am not trying to bring down the NSA. I am working to improve the NSA,” he said. “I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.”

told a House panel in October. dire forecasts of harm were seldom borne out. ‘They will make mistakes’ “People must communicate,” he said, U.S. officials say it is obvious that according to one participant who described Snowden’s disclosures will do grave harm the confidential meeting on the condition to intelligence gathering, exposing meth- of anonymity. “They will make mistakes, ods that adversaries will learn to avoid. and we will exploit them.” “We’re seeing al-Qaeda and related According to senior intelligence offi- groups start to look for ways to adjust how cials, two uncertainties feed their greatest they communicate,” said Matthew Olsen, concerns. One is whether Russia or China director of the National Counterterrorism managed to take the Snowden archive from Center and a former general counsel at the his computer, a worst-case assumption for NSA. which three officials acknowledged there is Other officials, who declined to speak no evidence. on the record about particulars, said they In a previous assignment, Snowden had watched some of their surveillance taught U.S. intelligence personnel how to targets, in effect, changing channels. That operate securely in a “high-threat digital evidence can be read another way, they ac- environment,” using a training scenario in knowledged, given that the NSA managed which China was the designated threat. He to monitor the shift. declined to discuss the whereabouts of the Clapper has said repeatedly in public files, but he said that he is confident he did that the leaks did great damage, but in pri- not expose them to Chinese intelligence in vate he has taken a more nuanced stance. Hong Kong. And he said he did not bring A review of early damage assessments in them to Russia. previous espionage cases, he said in one “There’s nothing on it,” he said, turn- closed-door briefing this fall, found that ing his laptop screen toward his visitor. “My SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO PAGE 13

hard drive is completely blank.” library and a window on the progress of his The other big question is how many cause. documents Snowden took. The NSA’s in- “It has always been really difficult to coming deputy director, Rick Ledgett, said get me to leave the house,” he said. “I just on CBS’s “60 Minutes” recently that the don’t have a lot of needs. . . . Occasionally number may approach 1.7 million, a huge there’s things to go do, things to go see, peo- and unexplained spike over previous esti- ple to meet, tasks to accomplish. But it’s re- mates. Ledgett said he would favor trying ally got to be goal-oriented, you know. Oth- to negotiate an amnesty with Snowden in erwise, as long as I can sit down and think exchange for “assurances that the remain- and write and talk to somebody, that’s more der of the data could be secured.” meaningful to me than going out and look- Obama’s national security adviser, Su- ing at landmarks.” san E. Rice, later dismissed the possibility. In hope of keeping focus on the NSA, “The government knows where to find Snowden has ignored attacks on himself. us if they want to have a productive conver- “Let them say what they want,” he said. sation about resolutions that don’t involve “It’s not about me.” Edward Snowden behind bars,” said the Former NSA and CIA director Mi- American Civil Liberties Union’s Ben Wiz- chael V. Hayden predicted that Snowden ner, the central figure on Snowden’s legal will waste away in Moscow as an alcohol- team. ic, like other “defectors.” To this, Snowden Some news accounts have quoted U.S. shrugged. He does not drink at all. Never government officials as saying Snowden has. has arranged for the automated release But Snowden knows his presence here of sensitive documents if he is arrested or is easy ammunition for critics. He did not harmed. There are strong reasons to doubt choose refuge in Moscow as a final destina- that, beginning with Snowden’s insistence, tion. He said that once the U.S. government to this reporter and others, that he does not voided his passport as he tried to change want the documents published in bulk. planes en route to Latin America, he had If Snowden were fool enough to rig no other choice. a “dead man’s switch,” confidants said, he It would be odd if Russian authorities would be inviting anyone who wants the did not keep an eye on him, but no retinue documents to kill him. accompanied Snowden and his visitor saw Asked about such a mechanism in the no one else nearby. Snowden neither tried Moscow interview, Snowden made a face to communicate furtively nor asked that his and declined to reply. Later, he sent an en- visitor do so. He has had continuous Inter- crypted message. “That sounds more like a net access and has talked to his attorneys suicide switch,” he wrote. “It wouldn’t make and to journalists daily, from his first day in sense.” the transit lounge at Sheremetyevo airport. “There is no evidence at all for the ‘It’s not about me’ claim that I have loyalties to Russia or Chi- By temperament and circumstance, na or any country other than the United Snowden is a reticent man, reluctant to dis- States,” he said. “I have no relationship with cuss details about his personal life. the Russian government. I have not entered Over two days his guard never dropped, into any agreements with them.” but he allowed a few fragments to emerge. “If I defected at all,” Snowden said, He is an “ascetic,” he said. He lives off ra- “I defected from the government to the men noodles and chips. He has visitors, public.” and many of them bring books. The books [email protected] pile up, unread. The Internet is an endless Julie Tate contributed to this report. A10 EZ SU KLMNO TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 ABCDE Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. MD DC VA SU V1 V2 V3 V4 Leaker says his mission has been accomplished

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after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Secret legal authorities empow- ered the NSA to sweep in the ‘Barrel telephone, Internet and location records of whole populations. Edward Snowden: ‘I already won’ One of the leaked presentation slides described the agency’s “col- bombs’ lection philosophy” as “Order one of everything off the menu.” Six months after the first rev- elations appeared in The Wash- batter ington Post and Britain’s Guard- ian newspaper, Snowden agreed to reflect at length on the roots and repercussions of his choice. Aleppo He was relaxed and animated over two days of nearly unbroken conversation, fueled by burgers, pasta, ice cream and Russian PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES INTENSE AIR RAIDS pastry. Snowden had stayed at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong before flying to AHEAD OF TALKS Snowden offered vignettes Moscow in June. He says he is sure China did not access his files. from his intelligence career and from his recent life as “an indoor U.S., Britain protest cat” in Russia. But he consistent- Syrian civilian deaths ly steered the conversation back to surveillance, democracy and the meaning of the documents he BY ABIGAIL HAUSLOHNER exposed. AND AHMED RAMADAN “For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already beirut — Even as international accomplished,” he said. “I already powers are moving to destroy its won. As soon as the journalists chemical weapons, Syria’s gov- were able to work, everything ernment has turned to crude that I had been trying to do was “barrel bombs” in a concentrated validated. Because, remember, I attack on the country’s largest didn’t want to change society. I city and surrounding towns, ap- wanted to give society a chance to parently looking to press its ad- determine if it should change vantage ahead of planned peace itself.” talks. “All I wanted was for the public The aerial bombardment of to be able to have a say in how northern Syria continued for a they are governed,” he said. “That PAUL GYPTEAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES ninth day Monday, decimating is a milestone we left a long time Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where Snowden stayed for more buildings across the already rav- ago. Right now, all we are looking than a month this summer before being granted asylum by Russia. aged city of Aleppo and adding to at are stretch goals.” the province’s death toll, which by some activists’ tallies has grown ‘Going in blind’ by more than 300 in a week. The Snowden is an orderly thinker, White House, meanwhile, said with an engineer’s approach to the weekend airstrikes alone had problem-solving. He had come to killed 300 people, many of them believe that a dangerous machine children. of mass surveillance was growing BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST The barrel bombs are oil drums unchecked. Closed-door over- Edward Snowden, this month in Moscow. In an interview with The Post, the former NSA contractor spoke about his motives for — and the fallout from — his revelations. packed with explosives, nails and sight by Congress and the For- other shrapnel. They are dropped eign Intelligence Surveillance His leaks have fundamentally altered the U.S. government’s relationship with its citizens, the rest of the world by helicopters and are far simpler Court was a “graveyard of judg- than the chemical weapons that ment,” he said, manipulated by the United States and other West- the agency it was supposed to BY BARTON GELLMAN alone, blending into a light crowd asylum on Aug. 1, but Snowden around the world picked up the Months of disclosures ern powers are trying to ferry out keep in check. Classification of locals and tourists. He cocked remains a target of surpassing story. Congress pressed for expla- A timeline tracks the key of the country. But they are also rules erected walls to prevent moscow — The familiar voice on his arm for a handshake, then interest to the intelligence ser- nations, new evidence revived developments since June among imprecise, killing rebel forces and public debate. the hotel room phone did not turned his shoulder to indicate a vices whose secrets he spilled on old lawsuits and the Obama ad- the revelations about the NSA’s civilians alike, and the fear they Toppling those walls would be waste words. path. Before long he had guided an epic scale. ministration was obliged to de- secret surveillance programs. A11 provoke is almost as intense, ac- a spectacular act of transgression “What time does your clock his visitor to a secure space out of Late this spring, Snowden sup- classify thousands of pages it had tivists and rebel fighters say. against the norms that prevailed say, exactly?” he asked. public view. plied three journalists, including fought for years to conceal. “The helicopters haven’t left 6 Follow the coverage inside them. Someone would He checked the reply against During more than 14 hours of this one, with caches of top- Taken together, the revelations the skies of Aleppo for the last 10 have to bypass security, extract BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VIA REUTERS Explore the extent of The Post’s his watch and described a place interviews, the first he has con- secret documents from the Na- have brought to light a global days,” said Yasser al-Ahmed, a the secrets, make undetected must-read series, including the Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, photographed this month in Snowden appeared before human rights activists at the Moscow to meet. ducted in person since arriving tional Security Agency, where he surveillance system that cast off fighter with the rebel Free Syrian contact with journalists and pro- Moscow. Before releasing the secret documents, he said, he had overcome a “selfish fear” of the airport’s transit zone in July. Since leaving the airport Aug. 1, original reporting, interactive “I’ll see you there,” he said. here in June, Snowden did not worked as a contractor. Dozens of many of its historical restraints Army, who spoke Monday via vide them with enough proof to consequences for himself but still worried “that people won’t care, that they won’t want change.” Snowden says, he has lived the life of “an indoor cat” in Russia. Edward Joseph Snowden part the curtains or step outside. revelations followed, and then graphics and photo galleries. tell the stories. emerged at the appointed hour, Russia granted him temporary hundreds, as news organizations snowden continued on A10 washingtonpost.com/nsa-secrets syria continued on A9 The NSA’s business is “infor- mation dominance,” the use of other people’s secrets to shape For months, Obama adminis- espionage and felony theft of his fealty elsewhere. “It wasn’t that they put it on BOUNDLESSINFORMANT, events. At 29, Snowden upended tration officials attacked government property. It was a “The oath of allegiance is not me as an individual — that I’m which used color-coded “heat ’Twas two days before Christmas the agency on its own turf. Snowden’s motives and said the dry enumeration of statutes, an oath of secrecy,” he said. “That uniquely qualified, an angel de- maps” to depict the volume of Obama Stores’ last mad dash “You recognize that you’re go- work of the NSA was distorted by without a trace of the anger is an oath to the Constitution. scending from the heavens — as data ingested by NSA taps. ing in blind, that there’s no mod- selective leaks and misinterpre- pulsing through Snowden’s for- That is the oath that I kept that that they put it on someone, His colleagues were often “as- An hour passed in the wee hours el,” Snowden said, acknowledg- tations. mer precincts. Keith Alexander and James Clap- somewhere,” he said. “You have tonished to learn we are collect- enrolls in The deals get better, of Sunday morning; still nobody. ing that he had no way to know On Dec. 16, in a lawsuit that In the intelligence and nation- per did not.” the capability, and you realize ing more in the United States on Meanwhile, the drive-through at whether the public would share could not have gone forward al security establishments, People who accuse him of dis- every other [person] sitting Americans than we are on Rus- and one retailer is the McDonald’s across the parking his views. without the disclosures made Snowden is widely viewed as a loyalty, he said, mistake his pur- around the table has the same sians in Russia,” he said. Many of Obamacare pulling four all-nighters lotattractedasteadystreamofcars. “But when you weigh that possible by Snowden, U.S. Dis- reckless saboteur, and journalists pose. capability but they don’t do it. So them were troubled, he said, and In a holiday season marked by against the alternative, which is trict Judge Richard J. Leon de- abetting him little less so. “I am not trying to bring down somebody has to be the first.” several said they did not want to BY PHILIP RUCKER large-scale discounts, seemingly not to act,” he said, “you realize scribed the NSA’s capabilities as At the Aspen Security Forum the NSA, I am working to im- know any more. AND ZACHARY A. GOLDFARB BY ABHA BHATTARAI never-ending Black Friday deals that some analysis is better than “almost Orwellian” and said its in July, a four-star military officer prove the NSA,”he said. “I am still ‘Front-page test’ “I asked these people, ‘What do and free overnight shipping, Kohl’s no analysis. Because even if your bulk collection of U.S. domestic known for his even keel seethed working for the NSA right now. Snowden grants that NSA em- you think the public would do if honolulu — He doesn’t need it At 3 a.m., Christmas carols is taking its efforts to an extreme, analysis proves to be wrong, the telephone records was probably through one meeting alongside a They are the only ones who don’t ployees by and large believe in this was on the front page?’” he and will never use it, but Presi- played through the loudspeaker at keeping stores open around the marketplace of ideas will bear unconstitutional. reporter he knew to be in contact realize it.” their mission and trust the agen- said. He noted that critics have dent Obama signed up for Oba- the Kohl’s in Silver Spring. “Duck clock from 6 a.m. Friday until 6 p.m. that out. If you look at it from an The next day, in the Roosevelt with Snowden. Before walking What entitled Snowdent, now cy to handle the secrets it takes accused him of bypassing inter- macare anyway. Dynasty” doormats were marked Christmas Eve. Like many retailers, engineering perspective, an itera- Room, an unusual delegation of away, he turned and pointed a 30, to take on that responsibility? from ordinary people — deliber- nal channels of dissent. “How is The political maneuver, an- down 80 percent, and candles were Kohl’s is battling sagging profits tive perspective, it’s clear that executives from old telephone finger. “That whole question — who ately, in the case of bulk records that not reporting it? How is that nounced Monday by the White discounted 50 percent. About a with a frantic attempt to draw in you have to try something rather companies and young Internet “We didn’t have another 9/11,” elected you? — inverts the mod- collection, and “incidentally,” not raising it?” he said. House, was aimed at showing dozen employees stocked hand- last-minute customers and avert a than do nothing.” firms told President Obama that he said angrily, because intelli- el,” he said. “They elected me. The when the content of American By last December, Snowden solidarity with hundreds of bags and children’s clothing. By his own terms, Snowden the NSA’s intrusion into their gence enabled warfighters to find overseers.” phone calls and e-mails are swept was contacting reporters, al- thousands of Americans enroll- But there were no shoppers. shopping continued on A15 succeeded beyond plausible am- networks was a threat to the U.S. the enemy first. “Until you’ve got He named the chairmen of the into NSA systems along with though he had not yet passed ing in the new fed- bition. The NSA, accustomed to information economy. The fol- to pull the trigger, until you’ve Senate and House intelligence foreign targets. along any classified information. Buyers get eral and state watching without being watched, lowing day, an advisory panel had to bury your people, you committees. But Snowden also said accep- He continued to give his col- more time health-care ex- faces scrutiny it has not endured appointed by Obama recom- don’t have a clue.” “Dianne Feinstein elected me tance of the agency’s operations leagues the “front-page test,” he The sign-up changes. The move since the 1970s, or perhaps ever. mended substantial new restric- It is commonly said of when she asked softball ques- was not universal. He began to said, until April. deadline came after months Gay marriage in Utah could The cascading effects have tions on the NSA, including an Snowden that he broke an oath of tions” in committee hearings, he test that proposition more than a Asked about those conversa- for health of prodding from coverage is made themselves felt in Con- end to the domestic call-records secrecy, a turn of phrase that said. “Mike Rogers elected me year ago, he said, in periodic tions, NSA spokeswoman Vanee extended. Republicans, who gress, the courts, popular culture, program. captures a sense of betrayal. NSA when he kept these programs conversations with co-workers Vines sent a prepared statement A4 argued that the be movement’s watershed Silicon Valley and world capitals. “This week is a turning point,” Director Keith B. Alexander and hidden. . . . The FISA court elect- and superiors that foreshadowed to The Post: “After extensive in- president should The basic structure of the Inter- said the Government Account- Director of National Intelligence ed me when they decided to his emerging plan. vestigation, including interviews participateTUESDAY, in his signature DECEMBER 24, 2013 KLMNO BY NIRAJEZC SUHOKSHI lenge in two days to his Friday A11 net itself is now in question, as ability Project’s Jesselyn Radack, James R. Clapper Jr., among legislate from the bench on Beginning in October 2012, he with his former NSA supervisors health-care law — although the AND CAROL MORELLO ruling declaring the state’s ban Brazil and members of the Euro- who is one of Snowden’s legal many others, have used that for- things that were far beyond the said, he brought his misgivings to and co-workers, we have not exchanges are designed primari- unconstitutional. Utah is expect- pean Union consider measures to advisers. “It has been just a mula. mandate of what that court was two superiors in the NSA’s Tech- found any evidence to support ly for those who don’t have or A fresh battle over same-sex ed to take its appeal to the U.S. keep their data away from U.S. cascade.” In his interview with The Post, ever intended to do. The system nology Directorate and two more Mr. Snowden’s contention that he can’t afford coverage. JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES marriage in conservative Utah, Court of Appeals for the 10th territory and U.S. technology gi- Snowden noted matter-of-factly failed comprehensively, and each in the NSA Threat Operations brought these matters to any- Obama was enrolled in the the heart of Mormon country, has Circuit in Denver, but in the ants including Google, Microsoft ‘They elected me’ that Standard Form 312, the level of oversight, each level of Center’s regional base in Hawaii. one’s attention.” D.C. exchange over the weekend, Reindeer gather around herder Eve Grayson, carrying a sack full of goodies — in offered gay-rights advocates hope meantime hundreds of same-sex and Yahoo take extraordinary On June 22, the Justice Depart- classified-information nondis- responsibility that should have For each of them, and 15 other Snowden recounted another aides said, purchasing a this case feed — on Monday in Aviemore, Scotland. A Swedish herder introduced that their effort has reached a couples continued to get married steps to block the collection of ment unsealed a criminal com- closure agreement, is a civil con- addressed this, abdicated their co-workers, Snowden said he set of conversations that he said “bronze”-level plan that will set national tipping point. at Salt Lake City’s county court- data by their government. plaint charging Snowden with tract. He signed it, but he pledged responsibility.” opened a data query tool called took place three years earlier, him back aboutSix $400 months a month a of few revelations of the Cairngorm reindeer on to the Scotland NSA in 1952. Since then, the herd has The judge who struck down the house. (with a salary of $400,000, the grown to as many as 150, a number held steady by controlled breeding. state’s same-sex marriage ban re- Judge Robert J. Shelby’s ruling The National Security Agency has been forced to respond to unprecedented disclosures about its surveillance programs. Those programs have beenfused assa to stayiled ashis a own violation ruling ofMon- privacy rights by critics and obama continueddefended as on criticalA4 to U.S. nationalI To see security more by intelligenceimages, go officials. to washingtonpost.com. The images below are a combination of slides from the NSA and Washingtonday, Pos beatingt graphics. back the third chal- utah continued on A2 Snowden’s 2013 timeline U.S. funeral business, nounced a $20,000 IN THE NEWS EARLY 2013 JUNE 9 JUNE 19 JUNE 22 JUNE 25 DEC. 17 will sell 91 properties to bachelor’s degree for INSIDE Edward Snowden worked for Booz Snowden reveals his identity and NSA Director Keith B. Alexander A criminal complaint against Russian President Vladimir Putin Snowden writes an “open letter to resolve FTC concerns some students of its on­ Allen Hamilton in Hawaii as an appears in an interview with the tells Congress the programs Snowden is unsealed, charging says that Snowden is in the the people of Brazil” saying that THE WORLD and New Jersey are still about its acquisition of line college. B3, B4 HEALTH & SCIENCE “infrastructure analyst” for the Guardian newspaper. Snowden revealed have helped to him under the Espionage Act. transit zone at a Moscow airport. he would be willing to help Israel’s spy agency un­ A13 awaiting federal aid. A3 the No. 2 provider. A mystery solved, eventually National Security Agency. thwart more than 50 terrorist Putin says he will not support investigate NSA spying but that he knowingly trained a Interior Secretary Christmas Day has be­ THE REGION A diagnosis appeared to be the answer to a woman’s JUNE 10 plots, a claim he later abandons. JUNE 23 Snowden’s extradition to the needs political asylum. young Nelson Mandela, Sally Jewell rejected a come a Black Friday of Prince George’s Coun- years of misery. But the story didn’t end there. E1 MAY 16 Snowden checks out of his Hong Snowden leaves Hong Kong for United States. — From staff and wire reports a 1962 memo says. A8 land swap with Alaska sorts for makers of mo­ ty schools chief Kevin Snowden’s first direct exchange Kong hotel. JUNE 21 Moscow. A Dubai court sen­ that would have given bile applications. A14 M. Maxwell has added BUSINESS NEWS...... A13 with Washington Post reporter Snowden buys a ticket to travel on JULY 16 tenced two Americans the state a swath of four new executive­level CLASSIFIEDS...... D8 Barton Gellman. JUNE 14 Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, JUNE 24 Snowden applies for asylum in and six others to prison COMICS...... C6 wildlife refuge to build a EDUCATION positions to his admin­ (DETAILS, B2) FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to Moscow. He planned to fly on to Snowden is rumored to be leaving Russia. for “defaming” the Unit­ road for medical evacu­ George Washington istration. B1 LOTTERIES...... B3 OBITUARIES...... B5 MAY 20 tells Congress that Snowden has Latin America. He celebrates his for Cuba but is not on the flight ed Arab Emirates with a DAILY CODE 3 4 3 3 ation access. A4 University will debut Capt. Stacey Kincaid, OPINION PAGES...... A16 Snowden tells his NSA caused the United States 30th birthday in Hong Kong. when it takes off. AUG. 1 satirical video. A9 its first free Web­only whose election as Fair­ TELEVISION...... C4 VLADIMIR VYATKIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS supervisors that he needs time off “significant” harm and that the Snowden is granted a one-year THE ECONOMY course, covering the fax’s sheriff ended a 271­ CONTENT © 2013 AK-47’s designer dies Mikhail Kalashnikov, The Washington Post / Year 137, No. 19 for treatment for epilepsy and government will prosecute him for asylum. THE NATION Service Corporation Federal Reserve, in fall year hold on the posi­ arrives in Hong Kong. the leaks. whose assault rifle is still one of the world’s Many victims of Hurri­ International, the 2014, while the Univer­ tion by men, aims to cane Sandy in New York sity of Maryland an­ bring more change. B1 most ubiquitous weapons, was 94. B5 dominant player in the Printed using recycled fiber JUNE 5-6 i JUNE 9 AUG. 15 AUG. 29 i SEPT. 17 OCT. 14 i The first revelations are published Snowden Audit: NSA broke The ‘black budget’ Decision on phone Address-book Documents leaked by Edward Snowden lead to the revealed privacy rules is revealed program declassified collection revealed exposure of a pair of secret NSA programs. The The former NSA The Post reveals an internal audit The 178-page budget summary for The gathering of “all call detail The Post reveals that the NSA is Guardian discloses that the agency is gathering the contractor that showed the agency had broken the National Intelligence Program records” for counterterrorism harvesting hundreds of millions of A12 EZ SU KLMNO TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2013 telephone records of millions of Americans from comes forward. privacy rules or overstepped its legal is revealed by The Post; it details purposes is justified, according to a contact lists from personal e-mail Verizon as part of what is later revealed to be an even He later travels authority thousands of times each the successes, failures and declassified decision from the and instant-messaging accounts, broader collection effort. A day later, The Washington from Hong year since Congress granted it broad objectives of the 16 spy agencies Foreign Intelligence Surveillance many belonging to Americans. Post and the Guardian report that the NSA is collecting Kong to Russia, new powers in 2008. Later, a that make up the U.S. intelligence Court. The court’s chief judge, U.S. a wide range of digital information from nine private where he was declassified court opinion revealed community. The budget also District Judge Reggie B. Walton, Internet firms as part of a program known as PRISM. granted one that, for almost three years, the NSA revealed that the NSA is paying U.S. conceded to The Post that judges year of asylum. searched a massive phone-record companies for access to their must depend on the government to database in violation of privacy rules. communications networks. report when it acts improperly. ‘All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say’

snowden from A11 nism in the Moscow interview, Snowden made a face and de- ning: Individual targeting would clined to reply. Later, he sent an cure most of what he believes is encrypted message. “That sounds wrong with the NSA. more like a suicide switch,” he Six months ago, a reporter wrote. “It wouldn’t make sense.” asked him by encrypted e-mail why Americans would want the ‘It’s not about me’ NSA to give up bulk data collec- By temperament and circum- tion if that would limit a useful stance, Snowden is a reticent intelligence tool. man, reluctant to discuss details “I believe the cost of frank about his personal life. public debate about the powers Over two days his guard never of our government is less than dropped, but he allowed a few the danger posed by allowing fragments to emerge. He is an these powers to continue grow- “ascetic,” he said. He lives off ing in secret,” he replied, calling ramen noodles and chips. He has them “a direct threat to demo- visitors, and many of them bring OCT. 24 OCT. 30 i DEC. 4 i DEC. 8 DEC. 16 i DEC. 18 cratic governance.” books. The books pile up, unread. In the Moscow interview, The Internet is an endless library NSA’s surveillance of Post reveals tapping Collection of cellphone Tech companies call for Federal judge criticizes Review panel urges Snowden said, “What the govern- and a window on the progress of world leaders disclosed of links to data centers location records revealed new surveillance limits massive data collection new surveillance curbs ment wants is something they his cause. After Der Spiegel reports that By infiltrating the networks of tech The NSA is gathering nearly The big firms’ requests that the In his ruling, Richard J. Leon, a judge The group, appointed by President never had before,” adding: “They “It has always been really diffi- German Chancellor Angela giants Yahoo and Google, the 5 billion records a day on the government allow them to be more on the U.S. District Court for the Obama in August in response to want total awareness. The ques- cult to get me to leave the house,” tion is, is that something we he said. “I just don’t have a lot of Merkel’s cellphone may have been agency is collecting at will from whereabouts of cellphones around transparent morph into a call for District of Columbia, says he cannot revelations about NSA programs, should be allowing?” needs. ... Occasionally there’s tapped, the Guardian reports that hundreds of millions of user the world, The Post reports, and strict new curbs on surveillance imagine “a more ‘indiscriminate’ and makes a host of recommendations, Snowden likened the NSA’s things to go do, things to go see, the agency monitored the calls of accounts, many belonging to while it doesn’t target Americans’ that could reshape intelligence ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this including that the agency should powers to those used by British people to meet, tasks to accom- scores of world leaders. European Americans, The Post reports. location data, it acquires a operations. The companies express systematic and high tech collection end the collection of virtually all authorities in Colonial America, plish. But it’s really got to be officials threaten to delay trade Several companies later embark substantial amount of data about concern over the future of their and retention of personal data on Americans’ phone records. The when “general warrants” allowed goal-oriented, you know. Other- negotiations, and Germans launch on initiatives to strengthen data their whereabouts “incidentally.” businesses, which rely at least in virtually every single citizen for administration says it will for anyone to be searched. The wise, as long as I can sit down and an investigation. The revelations encryption in hopes of thwarting part on user trust. purposes of querying and analyzing it announce in January how it will FISA court, Snowden said, “is think and write and talk to some- also anger key U.S. lawmakers. government spying. without prior judicial approval.” respond to the recommendations. authorizing general warrants for body, that’s more meaningful to the entire country’s metadata.” me than going out and looking at “The last time that happened, landmarks.” we fought a war over it,” he said. In hope of keeping focus on the when he was sent by the NSA’s parody: an eagle with all the death, “without which America Using PRISM, the cover name the world. anyway. Technology, of course, has en- NSA, Snowden has ignored at- Technology Directorate to sup- world’s cables in its grasp. would cease to exist as we know for collection of user data from That operation, which used the Microsoft general counsel abled a great deal of consumer port operations at a listening Each year, NSA systems col- it,” according to an internal pre- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple cover name MUSCULAR, tapped Brad Smith took to his company’s tacks on himself. surveillance by private compa- “Let them say what they want,” post in Japan. As a system admin- lected hundreds of millions of sentation in the first week of and five other U.S.-based compa- into U.S. company data from blog and called the NSA an “ad- BARTON GELLMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST istrator, he had full access to e-mail address books, hundreds October 2001 as the agency nies, the NSA could obtain all outside U.S. territory. The NSA, vanced persistent threat” — the nies, as well. The difference with he said. “It’s not about me.” security and auditing controls. of billions of cellphone location ramped up its response to the communications to or from any therefore, believed it did not worst of all fighting words in U.S. the NSA’s possession of the data, Edward Snowden says that those who see him as disloyal to the United States have it wrong. “I am not trying to bring down the NSA. Former NSA and CIA director He said he saw serious flaws with records and trillions of domestic al-Qaeda attacks on the World specified target. The companies need permission from Congress cybersecurity circles, generally Snowden said, is that govern- I am working to improve the NSA,” he said. “I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.” Michael V. Hayden predicted that information security. call logs. Trade Center and the Pentagon. had no choice but to comply with or judicial oversight. Data from reserved for Chinese state-spon- ment has the power to take away Snowden will waste away in Mos- “I actually recommended they Most of that data, by definition With stakes such as those, the government's request for hundreds of millions of U.S. ac- sored hackers and sophisticated life or freedom. cow as an alcoholic, like other move to two-man control for and intent, belonged to ordinary there was no capability the NSA data. counts flowed over those Google criminal enterprises. At the NSA, he said, “there are body does’ — Keith Alexander among friends is routine for all es, he said in one closed-door rector, Rick Ledgett, said on “defectors.” To this, Snowden administrative access back in people suspected of nothing. But believed it should leave on the But the NSA could not use and Yahoo links, but classified “For the industry as a whole, it people in the office who joke said that,” de Kerchove said in an concerned, but they are giving briefing this fall, found that dire CBS’s “60 Minutes” recently that shrugged. He does not drink at 2009,” he said, first to his supervi- vast new storage capacity and table. The agency followed orders PRISM, which was overseen once rules allowed the NSA to pre- caused everyone to ask whether about, ‘We put warheads on fore- interview. “I don’t like the idea greater weight to the risk of forecasts of harm were seldom the number may approach all. Never has. sor in Japan and then to the processing tools enabled the NSA from President George W. Bush a year by the surveillance court, sume that data ingested overseas we knew as much as we thought,” heads.’ Twitter doesn’t put war- that the NSA will put bugs in my getting caught. borne out. 1.7 million, a huge and unex- But Snowden knows his pres- directorate’s chief of operations to use the information to map to begin domestic collection for the collection of virtually all belonged to foreigners. Smith recalled in an interview. “It heads on foreheads.” office. No. I don’t like it. No. “There are many things we do “People must communicate,” plained spike over previous esti- ence here is easy ammunition for in the Pacific. “Sure, a whistle- human relationships on a plan- without authority from Congress data handled by those compa- underscored the fact that while Privacy, as Snowden sees it, is a Between allies? No. I’m surprised in intelligence that, if revealed, he said, according to one partici- mates. Ledgett said he would critics. He did not choose refuge blower could use these things, etary scale. Only this way, its and the courts. When the NSA nies. To widen its access, it ‘Persistent threat’ people were confident that the universal right, applicable to that people find that noble.” would have the potential for all pant who described the confiden- favor trying to negotiate an am- in Moscow as a final destination. but so could a spy.” leadership believed, could the won those authorities later, some teamed up with its British coun- Disclosure of the MUSCULAR U.S. government was complying American and foreign surveil- Comparable reactions, ex- kinds of blowback,” Clapper told tial meeting on the condition of nesty with Snowden in exchange He said that once the U.S. govern- That precaution, which re- NSA reach beyond its universe of of them under secret interpreta- terpart, Government Communi- project enraged and galvanized with U.S. laws for activity within lance alike. pressed less politely in private, a House panel in October. anonymity. “They will make mis- for “assurances that the remain- ment voided his passport as he “I don’t care whether you’re accompanied revelations that the takes, and we will exploit them.” der of the data could be secured.” tried to change planes en route to quires a second set of credentials known intelligence targets. tions of laws passed by Congress cations Headquarters, or GCHQ, U.S. technology executives. They U.S. territory, perhaps there were ‘They will make mistakes’ to perform risky operations such In the view of the NSA, signals between 2007 and 2012, the to break into the private fiber- believed the NSA had lawful ac- things going on outside the Unit- the pope or Osama bin Laden,” he NSA had tapped the cellphones of According to senior intelli- Obama’s national security ad- Latin America, he had no other as copying files onto a removable intelligence, or electronic eaves- Obama administration went fur- optic links that connected Google cess to their front doors — and ed States . . . that made this said. “As long as there’s an indi- German Chancellor Angela U.S. officials say it is obvious gence officials, two uncertainties viser, Susan E. Rice, later dis- choice. drive, has been among the princi- dropping, was a matter of life and ther still. and Yahoo data centers around had broken down the back doors bigger and more complicated and vidualized, articulable, probable Merkel and Brazilian President that Snowden’s disclosures will feed their greatest concerns. One missed the possibility. It would be odd if Russian pal security responses to the more disconcerting than we cause for targeting these people Dilma Rousseff. The blowback do grave harm to intelligence is whether Russia or China man- “The government knows authorities did not keep an eye Snowden affair. knew.” as legitimate foreign intelligence, roiled relations with both allies, gathering, exposing methods aged to take the Snowden archive where to find us if they want to on him, but no retinue accompa- Vines, the NSA spokeswoman, They wondered, he said, that’s fine. I don’t think it’s im- among others. Rousseff canceled that adversaries will learn to from his computer, a worst-case have a productive conversation nied Snowden and his visitor saw said there was no record of those whether the NSA was “collecting posing a ridiculous burden by a state dinner with Obama in avoid. assumption for which three offi- about resolutions that don’t in- no one else nearby. Snowden conversations, either. proprietary information from the asking for probable cause. Be- September. “We’re seeing al-Qaeda and cials acknowledged there is no volve Edward Snowden behind neither tried to communicate companies themselves.” cause, you have to understand, When it comes to spying on related groups start to look for evidence. bars,” said the American Civil furtively nor asked that a visitor U.S. ‘would cease to exist’ Led by Google and then Yahoo, when you have access to the tools allies, by Snowden’s lights, the ways to adjust how they commu- In a previous assignment, Liberties Union’s Ben Wizner, the do so. He has had continuous Just before releasing the docu- one company after another an- the NSA does, probable cause news is not always about the nicate,” said Matthew Olsen, di- Snowden taught U.S. intelligence central figure on Snowden’s legal Internet access and has talked to ments this spring, Snowden nounced expensive plans to en- falls out of trees.” target. rector of the National Counter- personnel how to operate secure- team. his attorneys and to journalists “It’s the deception of the gov- terrorism Center and a former ly in a “high-threat digital envi- Some news accounts have daily, from his first day in the made a final review of the risks. crypt its data traffic over tens of ‘Everybody knows’ He had overcome what he de- thousands of miles of cable. It ernment that’s revealed,” general counsel at the NSA. ronment,” using a training sce- quoted U.S. government officials transit lounge at Sheremetyevo scribed at the time as a “selfish was a direct — in some cases, On June 29, Gilles de Kercho- Snowden said, noting that the Other officials, who declined nario in which China was the as saying Snowden has arranged airport. fear” of the consequences for explicit — blow to NSA collection ve, the European Union’s Obama administration offered to speak on the record about designated threat. He declined to for the automated release of sen- “There is no evidence at all for himself. of user data in bulk. If the NSA counterterrorism coordinator, false public assurances after the particulars, said they had discuss the whereabouts of the sitive documents if he is arrested the claim that I have loyalties to “I said to you the only fear wanted the information, it would awoke to a report in Der Spiegel initial reports about NSA surveil- watched some of their surveil- files, but he said that he is or harmed. There are strong rea- Russia or China or any country [left] is apathy — that people have to request it or circumvent that U.S. intelligence had broken lance in Germany “The U.S. gov- lance targets, in effect, changing confident he did not expose them sons to doubt that, beginning other than the United States,” he won’t care, that they won’t want the encryption one target at a into E.U. offices, including his, to ernment said: ‘We follow German channels. That evidence can be to Chinese intelligence in Hong with Snowden’s insistence, to this said. “I have no relationship with change,” he recalled this month. time. implant surveillance devices. laws in Germany. We never target read another way, they acknowl- Kong and that he did not bring reporter and others, that he does the Russian government. I have The documents leaked by As these projects are complet- The 56-year-old Belgian, German citizens.’ And then the edged, given that the NSA man- them to Russia. not want the documents pub- not entered into any agreements Snowden compelled attention ed, the Internet will become a less whose work is often classified, story comes out and it’s: ‘What aged to monitor the shift. “There’s nothing on it,” he said, lished in bulk. with them.” because they revealed to Ameri- friendly place for the NSA to did not consider himself naive. are you talking about? You’re Clapper has said repeatedly in turning his laptop screen toward If Snowden were fool enough “If I defected at all,” Snowden cans a history they did not know work. The agency can still collect But he took the news personally, spying on the chancellor.’ You just public that the leaks did great his visitor. “My hard drive is to rig a “dead man’s switch,” said, “I defected from the govern- they had. data from virtually anyone, but and more so when he heard lied to the entire country, in front damage, but in private he has completely blank.” confidants said, he would be ment to the public.” Internal briefing documents collecting from everyone will be unofficial explanations from of Congress.” taken a more nuanced stance. A The other big question is how inviting anyone who wants the [email protected] reveled in the “Golden Age of harder. Washington. In private, U.S. intelligence of- review of early damage assess- many documents Snowden took. documents to kill him. Electronic Surveillance.” Brawny The industry’s response, Smith “‘Everybody knows. Every- ficials still maintain that spying ments in previous espionage cas- The NSA’s incoming deputy di- Asked about such a mecha- Julie Tate contributed to this report. cover names such as MUSCU- acknowledged, was driven by a LAR, TUMULT and TURMOIL business threat. U.S. companies boasted of the agency’s prowess. could not afford to be seen as With assistance from private candy stores for U.S. intelligence. communications firms, the NSA But the principle of the thing, had learned to capture enormous Smith said, “is fundamentally flows of data at the speed of light about ensuring that customer from fiber-optic cables that car- data is turned over to govern- Marines in position to help with possible South Sudan evacuation ried Internet and telephone traf- ments pursuant to valid legal fic over continents and under orders and in accordance with seas. According to one document constitutional principles.” personnel and property, includ- seized control of Bentiu, the capi- in Snowden’s cache, the agency’s Troops on standby ing our Embassy, in South Sudan.” tal of the oil-producing Unity Special Source Operations group, ‘Warheads on foreheads’ The arrival of the Marines on state. On Monday, clashes erupt- which as early as 2006 was said to Snowden has focused on much to provide protection for the African continent coincided ed in another oil-producing re- be ingesting “one Library of Con- the same point from the begin- U.S. citizens, property with a decision by U.N. Secretary gion, Upper Nile state, adding to gress every 14.4 seconds,” had an BOBBY YIP/REUTERS General Ban Ki-moon to ask the growing instability across the official seal that might have been Edward Snowden’s face appears on a TV screen on a Hong Kong train in June after he revealed himself as the NSA leaker. snowden continued on A12 members of the United Nations nation. BY KAREN DEYOUNG for additional troops to bolster a A senior U.N. official on Mon- AND SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN 7,000-strong peacekeeping mis- day called upon international do- sion in South Sudan. nors to continue providing mon- About 150 U.S. Marines, along “The situation is of mounting ey and resources to help save lives with transport and refueling air- urgency,” Ban said at U.N. head- in a crisis that could grow to affect craft, arrived Monday in Djibouti quarters in New York on Monday hundreds of thousands of people on the Horn of Africa to aid in morning. “I am especially wor- in the coming months. possible evacuation and protec- ried by reports of ethnically tar- “As the year comes to a close, tion missions in strife-torn South geted killings.” He is expected to South Sudan today, and for the Sudan, the Pentagon said. ask for as many as 5,000 addition- past few days, has seen its great- “One of the lessons learned al troops in a request that the U.N. est test since becoming an inde- from the tragic events in Ben- Security Council is likely to con- pendent country and perhaps one ghazi was that we needed to be sider Tuesday. of its greatest tests ever,” Toby better postured in order to re- The peacekeeping mission is Lanzer, the deputy special repre- spond to developing or crisis situ- one of three U.N. forces in South sentative of the U.N. mission in ations, if needed,” said Rear Adm. Sudan and its neighbor, Sudan, the country, told reporters. “We John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press from which it became independ- are now faced with one of the secretary. ent in 2011. Nearly 20,000 U.N. largest emerging humanitarian The Defense Department was and African Union troops are in crises, which comes on top of criticized by many in Congress for violence-plagued Darfur, a region what was already a large humani- its response time after last year’s on Sudan’s western border. A tarian program here in South terrorist attack in Benghazi, Lib- 4,000-strong U.N. Interim Secu- JAMES AKENA/REUTERS Sudan.” ya, which left a U.S. ambassador rity Force is based in Abyei, the People displaced by fighting in South Sudan wait at a camp on the outskirts of the capital to get registered Lanzer added that although and three other Americans dead. oil-rich territory along the border to receive food rations. Clashes between army factions erupted a week ago in Juba and have since spread. the focus has been on Juba, Bor The newly deployed Marines of the two countries. and Bentiu, he expects other are part of a Marine Air-Ground Although fighting between the quested nearly $400 million in inside U.N. bases that, in some In interviews with news or- parts of South Sudan affected by TaskForce based in Morón, Spain. north and the south has gone on assistance for humanitarian and cases, have been surrounded by ganizations, Machar has made the crisis to need more humani- Defense officials emphasized that for years, and led to a U.S.-backed governance programs in South hostile forces. About 380 Ameri- similar statements about partici- tarian assistance. they have not yet been ordered to peace treaty that in 2005 ended Sudan in its 2014 budget. cans have been evacuated. pating in talks. “We are hearing harrowing South Sudan but were on standby Africa’s longest-running civil war, Fighting that broke out more The Obama administration’s But even as Kiir promised a tales from our colleagues who are in case they need to be deployed. the outbreak of internal hostili- than a week ago has pitted South special envoy to Sudan and South rapprochement, he told South Su- hiding in the bush in different Four U.S. troops were wounded ties in South Sudan has disrupted Sudanese troops loyal to Presi- Sudan, Donald Booth, on Monday dan’s parliament that govern- parts of the country, who are Saturday when an air mission to one of the largest U.S. aid pro- dent Salva Kiir against followers visited Juba, the South Sudanese ment troops would be dispatched calling us and are saying that evacuate American citizens was grams in Africa. The United of his former deputy, Riek capital, where he said he had “a to retake Bor, the capital of cen- their communities are being af- fired upon in the city of Bor. That States has long been deeply en- Machar, who was fired in July. frank and open discussion with tral Jonglei state, which is under fected and they need help,” he mission was aborted, leading to a gaged in the region, supporting Thousands of civilians, includ- President Kiir.” The envoy said the control of Machar loyalists. said. letter to Congress on Sunday from the separation of the two states ing an unknown number of Kiir “committed to me that he was The impending offensive threat- [email protected] President Obama saying that he with massive attention and assis- Americans and other expatriates, ready to begin talks with Machar ens to worsen the political crisis [email protected] “may take further action to sup- tance. most of them working with aid to end the crisis without precon- and the humanitarian situation. port the security of U.S. citizens, The Obama administration re- organizations, have sought refuge ditions.” Machar loyalists also have Ragavan reported from Juba.