EJE: The Snowden variations

Our friend Edward Jay Epstein is the author of several books on intelligence related matters including James Jesus Angleton: Was He Right? and Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA. Ed now wonders “Who helped Snowden steal state secrets?” We previewed Ed’s intriguing Wall Street Journal column here.

I wrote Ed this morning to ask him what he made of today’s story that the NSA was monitoring EU offices and other European sources. Ed writes:

It is further part of the orchestration. Is it news that NSA operates abroad? Isn’t that its job? What is news, in my view, is that there was a well-planned penetration of America’s most well-protected
intelligence service. The plan activated in January a temporarily unemployed IT worker who had a security clearance. The worker Snowden then selected an opening via Booz Allen in March, and downloaded more data than had ever before been stolen, and was exfiltrated to Hong Kong where he (wrongly) believed he would be protected.

Submitted for your consideration…

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