In June 2013, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old National Security Agency contract employee, surfaced in Hong Kong with the sensational announcement that he was the source of top-secret American intelligence documents already being published in the Guardian and the Washington Post. The information he was bringing to light, he claimed, reflected systematic violation of individual privacy by the omniscient surveillance machinery of the U.S. government: "Even if you're not doing anything wrong, you're being watched and recorded," Snowden warned in a recorded video in which he explained his decision to steal the documents and go public.

In many quarters, Snowden was hailed as a courageous whistleblower, a man willing to risk his entire future to bring wrongdoing to light. Inside the intelligence community, a different set of views prevailed: Snowden was regarded as a defector, possibly under the control or direction of a foreign power. Whatever his motives, one thing was clear to insiders as they began to assess what Snowden had taken and what he had exposed: A huge volume of precious secrets had been lost, intelligence methods had been compromised, and valuable sources of intelligence had been shut down around the world.

Today, Snowden remains in Moscow, where he sought asylum after departing from Hong Kong and from where he occasionally chimes into America's debates by way of tweets and streamed video appearances. The controversy over his role continues unabated, breaking along more or less predictable left/right lines. In Oliver Stone's Snowden he is presented as a hero who discovers that "there's something going on in the government that's really wrong, and I can't ignore it. I just want to get this data to the world." In the intelligence communityand not only therehe continues to be regarded as a traitor, responsible for the greatest loss of intelligence secrets in our history.

What's striking about the affair, now almost four years on, is how many unanswered questions remain: What, exactly, were Snowden's motives? What did he steal? How did he do it? Did he act alone or with accomplices? With this book, we begin to get some answersand when answers are not ascertainable, well-informed speculation clearly and responsibly labeled as such. Edward Jay Epstein is a veteran of this territory, having written a number of notable books illuminating the inner workings of secret agencies, including Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA (1989) and Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978). In this searching inquiry, based upon careful study of documents and interviews with many of the key players, including in Hong Kong and Moscow, Epstein has produced not a whodunit but an important and compelling "howdunit."

One of the most enduring mysteries is also one of the most important and basic: Why, exactly, did Snowden end up in Moscow? Snowden and his supporters have consistently maintained that Snowden was essentially trapped there by the U.S. government when it revoked his passport while he was in transit. Epstein successfully demolishes this confabulation. He produces a timeline of Snowden's comings and goings in Hong Kong, including his visits to the Russian consulate and an 11-day period in which Snowden simply vanished from public view after a warrant had been issued for him, his whereabouts unknown to the FBI and the Hong Kong police. Snowden evidently relied upon Julian Assange, proprietor of WikiLeaks, for guidance on how to escape from Hong Kong to a safe haven.

In a phone call Snowden placed to Assangethen as now, holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in LondonSnowden was advised to go to Russia, despite what Assange called the "negative PR consequences." WikiLeaks then used its resources to help Snowden do exactly that. Russian "special services," evidently operating under the instructions of no less a figure than Vladimir Putin himself, enabled Snowden to board an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, despite his lack (at this juncture) of a valid passport.

Does the Russian connection make Snowden more of a spy than a whistleblower? Part of the case for his being a spy rests not only on Snowden's choice of Moscow as a place of refuge, but on the nature of the material he lifted. Only a small portion of the material provided by Snowden and published by journalists was devoted to the domestic surveillance that Snowden was denouncing. A larger portion concerned the overseas locations of NSA bases, along with NSA sources and methods, including (among other things) what Epstein describes as "ingenious technology ... for tapping into computers abroad that had been 'air-gapped,' or intentionally isolated from any network to protect highly sensitive information, such as missile telemetry, nuclear bomb development, and cyber-warfare capabilities."

This is not the kind of material a whistleblower would ever disclose. It is exactly the kind of material that a spy would steal.

Yet in the end, Epstein does not settle on a characterization of Snowden as a spy. In one of the most intriguing portions of this book, he examines the possibility that Snowden is something of a hybrid, someone who blurs the distinction between traditional spy and whistleblower. In this analysis, Snowden is an idealist who possibly "became entangled in the plots of others," presumably Russian intelligence. It is not a criticism of Epstein to observe that How America Lost Its Secrets does not provide a definitive answer; indeed, it is a virtue that his book is careful not to step beyond what the evidence allows.

Even as he navigates in the confines of uncertainty, however, Epstein performs the important public service of toppling the myths that Edward Snowden and his acolytes have spun to justify conduct that, as this book persuasively documents, had devastating consequences for American security.

Gabriel Schoenfeld is the author, most recently, of Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law.

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Edward Snowden: Spy or Useful Idiot Savant? | The Weekly Standard - The Weekly Standard

As his face appeared on the projectors huge screen, overlooking a cheering room of Pitt students, Edward Snowden smiled sheepishly.

Its good to be home, he said, to a big laugh from the fully packed William Pitt Union Assembly Room.

Facing federal charges for espionage and theft, Snowden couldnt speak in person. The whistleblower and transparency advocate has not visited the United States in four years.

Instead, Pitt Program Council hosted Snowden through Google Hangouts Wednesday night. From an undisclosed location in Russia, he answered pre-selected questions from the audience and praised activism as a virtue to meet the challenge of our generation battling against attacks on privacy from government surveillance.

Andrew Lotz, a senior political science lecturer at Pitt known for his class on the politics of Game of Thrones, introduced Snowden by referencing his controversial position in modern American politics.

The University is the place to ask hard questions of the complex people who shape the world, Lotz said.

Students questioned Snowdens commitment to his transparent ideals considering his asylum in Russia and why privacy rights deserve respect in an age of terrorism and cyber crimes. Snowden replied with his support for personal liberty and government accountability.

Despite the media storm surrounding hacking in the 2016 election, and President Donald Trumps proclaimed emphasis on cyber security, Snowden stuck mainly to his own history Wednesday. The former National Security Agency contractor became famous in 2013 when he stole 1.7 million classified U.S. documents, then leaked them to the press.

The documents revealed the NSAs massive effort to gather Americans personal information a violation of the 4th Amendment. They also sparked new debates over government surveillance in the United States, as well as new legislation limiting the NSAs ability to collect information on private individuals phone calls.

That constitutional controversy is the main reason why senior finance major Brian Miller attended the event Wednesday.

When I vote, a big part of my voting choice is my 4th Amendment rights, Miller said. He voted for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the 2016 election.

Snowden left the United States for the last time in May 2013 to travel to Hong Kong with two journalists, where he then began to release some of his files. Snowden then traveled to Russia in June 2013 looking for asylum, where he has stayed to this day.

One question asked Snowden why he chose to stay in Russia as a privacy activist, a nation whose surveillance laws he criticized in his presentation and has a poor civil rights record overall.

His current residence has more to do with necessity, Snowden said. He applied for asylum in 21 countries, all of whom rejected his plea.

People seem to think I showed up [in Russia] and said Hey, Im good here, he said, to the audiences amusement.

Snowdens faith in the government was near ironclad when he started doing intelligence work with the Central Intelligence Agency in 2006. He had family members strewn throughout the government, in the military, intelligence agencies and courts.

Snowden shows the audience a heatmap displaying levels of NSA surveillance worldwide. He noted that the United States is under more surveillance than Russia. John Hamilton | Visual Editor

But as Snowden moved into the NSA as a contractor, and evidence of the governments misuse and abuse of its surveillance apparatus grew, his early faith in government was destroyed.

The government lies, Snowden said. That was something that was very difficult for me to accept.

His disillusionment continued after the election of former-President Barack Obama in 2008, who promised throughout his campaign to cut down on NSA surveillance and instead expanded the NSAs capabilities.

Snowden also expressed concern about the governments ability to withhold information to control citizens opinion of the government. He also criticized terms like national security, which he said government officials use to hide the danger of their increasing power.

To fight misinformation, he praised journalists for their dedication to publishing the truth and educating the public.

If we only knew what the government wanted us to know, we wouldnt know much at all, Snowden said.

Snowden said constitutional rights cannot be preserved by one person, and urged the public to resist passivity and continue to fight to create influence in society.

While some critics worry the release of sensitive documents might endanger American lives and interests, Snowden said the U.S. government has never proven that a leak caused any death or destruction.

Alessandra Roberto, a senior psychology, communication and linguistics major, said Snowdens revelations matter far more than any security concerns.

Even if you dont agree with his beliefs and actions you have to admire the battle hes fighting and the actions hes still taking today, Roberto said.

His final question addressed the transparency activists feelings on Trump.

In response, Snowden referenced a document he found particularly troubling: a report describing the United States and other nations intelligence agencies sharing methods to discredit and break up protest movements.

Noting that nobodys gonna save us, the whistleblower ended his speech with encouragement for the street activism hes seen in response to the election, and a call to not give up the fight.

Lets not complain about the times we live in, Snowden said. Lets get ready.

Zoe Pawliczek contributed reporting.

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Edward Snowden weighs in on objectivity - University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

A secret court authorization allows the NSA to spy on all of the worlds countries except four, one of them being Canada, according to U.S. government documents obtained by the Washington Post.

The NSA automatically filters out phone calls from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Post reports, essentially making those the only countries in the world the U.S.s electronic spy agency isn't authorized to monitor.

The documents came by way of a leak from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. They show the U.S.s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorized NSA surveillance of 193 countries. Only those four countries are missing from the list.

But that doesnt mean Canadians are immune from mass surveillance. The reason the NSA skips over these four countries is that they, along with the U.S., are members of the Five Eyes, a Cold War-era alliance that allows the five countries to share signals intelligence amongst themselves.

Critics of the program say the Five Eyes alliance is essentially a runaround of these countries privacy laws, which forbid warrantless surveillance of their own citizens. Surveillance on a given country is carried out by one of the other partner countries, they allege.

In an interview with German media, Snowden described the Five Eyes as something that has evolved into a supra-national intelligence organization that doesnt answer to the laws of its own countries.

An earlier leak of NSA documents from Snowden indicated Canadas electronic spy agency, CSEC, helped monitor communications during the G20 conference in London in 2009.

CSEC says its mandate is foreign surveillance and it only incidentally spies on Canadians. It argues a lot of its spying, often at the request of the U.S., is necessary for government to have a clear idea of what is going in the world, in order to make proper decisions.

But John Adams, who headed up CSEC from 2005 until 2011, said in media interviews he shut down a dragnet surveillance program that appeared to be targeting Canadians, among others.

The same year Adams stepped down, then-Defence Minister Peter MacKay authorized the re-start of a program that, according to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail, allows CSEC to monitor electronic communications, including those of Canadians, for patterns of suspicious activity.

Its not clear if the restarted program is the same as the one Adams shut down.

The Harper government has significantly ramped up spending on electronic communications, nearly doubling CSECs funding in just the most recent budget. The agency is slated to receive $829 million in 2014-15, up from around $444 million the year before.

The feds are also spending some $1.2 billion on CSECs new headquarters in Ottawa, a state-of-the-art "spy palace" believed to be the most expensive government building ever built in Canada.

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Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency, CSEC, is getting a new $1.2-billion headquarters in Ottawa, the most expensive government building ever built. Here are some illustrations of the finished building.

NEXT ON HUFFPOST: 24 SUSSEX DRIVE, THE PRIME MINISTER'S RESIDENCE

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This newly-built home just northwest of downtown Calgary not only looks cool and has excellent views of the city, it features some pretty slick amenities, such as built-in kitchen appliances, a 1,500-bottle wine cellar and five bedrooms across 5,300 square feet of living space.

This house in Montreal's old-money Westmount area was built in 1857 and, with its awesome wrap-around porch, may be the coolest heritage residential building for sale in Canada right now. It's actually three units -- a main house, a townhouse in the back and what's referred to as the "well house." Three bedrooms and two baths in the main house.

Can you say house with a view? This four-bedroom property features not only one of the best views out of anyone's living room window in the country, it also has an outdoor pool, sunk slightly below house level, with views all its own. Four bedrooms and an elevator in this house the realtor describes as an "amazing entertainment home."

Located in Vancouver's (now) prestigious neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, this house is described by the realtor as "an expression of West Coast Modernism." We're not sure what that means, but this house's situation next to an elegant outdoor pool is certainly eye-catching. Four bedrooms on 5,200 square feet of living space.

The coolest thing about this house is the location -- look at where it's sitting! Not for the faint of heart, this eight-year-old house sits perched 90 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on the Nova Scotia coast. Five bedrooms in this property that sits on 16 acres of land.

This house may look like a remade 19th-century train station, but look carefully: There's a two-car garage on one side. The house is actually only four years, and situated in pleasant Bedford, outside Halifax. The house features an elevator to the second floor, and a master bedroom with fireplace and six-piece ensuite bathroom.

Designed by Ottawa architect Barry Hobin, this 3,300-square-foot house near the city's ritzy Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood features a sixty-foot-high domed skylight and some pretty non-standard layouts.

From above, this house is shaped almost like a hexagon, but that's not the only cool thing about -- it's also located on an outer beach not far from St. John's. Dubbed "Burnt Island," the property is made of red cedar log and features three bedrooms in 3,100 square feet of living space.

This house's a unique take on the Roman column look is certainly controversial, but for those who do like the look, the home is a winner. Twelve thousand square feet of living space in this house with seven bedrooms, including two loft bedrooms, a rec room, an exercise room, a sauna and a wet bar.

The realtor describes this as a "modern day Mad Men entertainer's home," and there is definitely something "retro-modern" about this three-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot bungalow. The house has a "covered outdoor living room" -- only in Vancouver could you find that in Canada -- that features a pool with a hardtop.

This house that the realtor boasts was featured in Architectural Digest is something increasingly seen in the dense inner cores of Canadian cities -- modern architecture reflecting the traditional houses nearby. Promos for the house promise a "New York Upper East Side feel" in this five-bedroom property.

It may not look it from its industrial-modern design, but this house is, according to the realtor, a ravine oasis. Located in the city's upscale Lawrence Ave. area, the house features a 23-foot ceiling in the foyer, a glass spiral staircase, an indoor squash court and a sauna on 5,100 square feet of living space.

Not many pictures available of the exterior of this house, but just look at this pool! Possibly the awesomest indoor pool in a private residence in Canada. The rest of the house ain't bad, either: 12,000 square feet of living space, with nine bedrooms and 10 baths, a 25-foot-high ceiling at the main entrance, and underground car parking.

This is a huge house -- more than 8,500 square feet of living space. Besides the eye-catching front entrance, the house features a 22-foot barrel vaulted entrance and more than 500 feet of private waterfront. There's also a three-car garage.

The realtor promises an "indoor and outdoor lifestyle" in this oceanfront house in West Van. The house's three levels overlook a central atrium and the lower level features a heated swimming pool and jacuzzi. The house has an elevator, naturally, and a boat ramp.

Located about 100 kilometres outside Montreal, this summer "cottage" is located on a private peninsula on Lac du Nord. The house features an infinity pool, a wine cellar, and a movie theatre. And oh yeah, there are bedrooms too, six of them.

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NSA Not Spying On Canadians, But The 'Five Eyes' Are

MOSCOW -- Russian authorities have extended a residence permit for U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of secret documents from the National Security Agency.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a post on Facebook late Tuesday that Snowdens residence permit has been extended for a couple of years.

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Former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information on government surveillance, made his case to President Obama for a p...

Snowden has been living in Russia -- and in contact with Russian intelligence serivces, according to a U.S. congressional report -- since 2013 when he got stuck in the transit area at a Moscow airport after the United States canceled his passport.

The announcement comes as President Obama has commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 U.S. documents.

But there has been no pardon from Mr. Obama for Snowden, whom the U.S. has been unable to extradite from Russia. Snowden tweeted on Tuesday his congratulations to Manning, and his thanks to Mr. Obama for commuting her sentence.

Snowden hasnt formally applied for clemency, though his supporters have called for it.

The White House has drawn a distinction between the unapologetic Snowden and Manning, whom officials noted has expressed remorse and served several years already for her crime.

Reporters asked presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday whether Snowden was planning to return to the United States in reaction to the Manning pardon. Peskov said the Kremlin is not aware what Snowdens plans are.

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President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to slam U.S. intelligence officials over their investigation of Russian hacking during the 2016 pres...

Mr. Obamas commutation for Manning also raised fresh questions about the future of another figure involved in Mannings case: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks had earlier pledged, via tweet, that its founder would agree to U.S. extradition if Mr. Obama granted clemency to Manning. Holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where hes wanted on a rape allegation, fearing he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves the embassy.

But the Justice Department has never announced any indictment of Assange. WikiLeaks lawyer Melinda Taylor said U.S. and British authorities refuse to say whether the U.S. has requested extradition. Though she praised the commutation for Manning, Taylor made no mention of Assanges earlier promise to agree to extradition.

White House officials said neither Assanges fate nor separate concerns about WikiLeaks role in Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election factored into the decision to commute Mannings sentence. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Any action that Justice Department officials may take regarding Assange is something that they would do independent of the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest told CNN.

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Russia says Edward Snowden can stay "a couple of years ...

How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft. By Edward Jay Epstein. Knopf; 350 pages; $27.95.

THE effects of Edward Snowdens heist of secrets from Americas National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly, writes Edward Jay Epstein in a meticulous and devastating account of the worst intelligence disaster in the countrys history, How America Lost Its Secrets.

Even that categorisation is contentious. Mr Snowdens fans do not believe he did anything wrong at all: he simply lifted the lid on a rogue agency, risking his liberty on behalf of privacy everywhere. For their part, his foes believe his actions lack any justification: he is a traitor masquerading as a whistle-blower, who exposed no wrongdoing but did colossal damage.

These stances rest more on faith than facts. Their adherents regard as secondary the details of Mr Snowdens career, and the means by which he took millions of pieces of top-secret information from the NSAs computers. More important for such people is whether you trust American and other Western institutions, or regard them as inherently corrupt and oppressive.

Mr Snowdens fans believe that the authorities, especially intelligence agencies, lie about everything. Nothing they say about the case can be believed. Any peculiaritiessuch as inconsistencies in Mr Snowdens public statements, or the fact that he now lives in Moscow as a guest of Russias security service, the FSB, are mere side-issues, easily explicable by exigency and urgency. For his foes, nothing Mr Snowden says is trustworthy, whereas statements made by officials are true.

Mr Epstein is a formidable investigative journalist and his quarry is worthy of his talents. He has unearthed many new details and assembles them, with the publicly known information, into a coherent and largely damning account.

The first part of the book examines Mr Snowdens rather patchy professional career. He was neither (as many believe, and he has claimed) a successful and senior intelligence officer, nor was he a computer wizard. Mysteriously, possibly through his familys extensive connections with the spy world, he joined the CIA, but proved untrustworthy and incompetent. On leaving, he kept his security clearance, making him eligible for a good job in the private sector, where computer-literate ex-spooks are at a premium. But secrecy rules meant that nobody could check on his past.

The author agrees that Mr Snowden performed a salutary service in alerting both the public and the government to the potential danger of a surveillance leviathan. The bureaucratic mission creep, he argues, badly needed to be brought under closer oversight by Congress. He also notes that Mr Snowden inadvertently highlighted the security consequences of contractorisationoutsourcing spook work to the private sector.

But he also shows that the vast majority of stolen documents had nothing to do with Mr Snowdens purported concerns about privacy and government surveillance. He switched jobs in order to have access to much bigger secrets. He gave away American technical capabilitiessuch as the ability to snoop on computers that are not connected to the internetwhich are of real value in tracking criminals, terrorists and enemies. To believe that was justified, you have to regard America as being no better than Russia, China or al-Qaeda. He also stoked an ugly, misplaced cynicism about the trustworthiness of government.

Mr Epstein is cautious on the biggest question: whether Mr Snowden was acting alone, or under the control of Russian intelligence. The crucial evidence, he says, is Mr Snowdens contact with digital-privacy activists such as Glenn Greenwald. No Russian handler would allow a well-placed and valuable spy to make such a risky move, Mr Epstein argues. Better to keep him in place, to steal yet more secrets.

That may be too categorical. The intelligence world is full of bluffs and double-bluffsand errors. Agents misbehave. Aims change over time. But certainly nobody reading this book will easily retain faith in the Hollywood fable of Mr Snowdens bravery and brilliance.

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How Edward Snowden changed history - economist.com

Snowden is a 2016 biographical political thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald, based on the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena. The cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character, Edward Snowden, with Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage also starring. Filming began on February 16, 2015 in Munich, Germany.

Snowden screened at Comic-Con on July 21, 2016, before premiering at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016. The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 16, 2016, by Open Road Films and on September 22 in Germany.[5] It received mixed reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing $34.3 million worldwide[4] against its $40 million budget.[2]

In 2013, Edward Snowden arranges a clandestine meet in Hong Kong with documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. They discuss releasing the classified information in the formers possession regarding illegal mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

In 2004, Snowden is undergoing basic training, having enlisted in the U.S. Army with intentions of matriculating to the Special Forces. He eventually fractures his tibia, and is informed that he will be receiving an administrative discharge and that he may serve his country in other ways.

Snowden applies for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and subsequently undergoes the screening process. Initially his answers to the screening questions are insufficient, but Deputy Director Corbin O'Brian decides to take a chance on him, given the demands of such extraordinary times. Snowden is then brought to "The Hill" where he is educated and tested on cyberwarfare. He learns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which circumvents the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens by allowing warrant requests to be approved by a panel of judges that were appointed by the chief justice. Snowden and his peers are each tasked with building a covert communications network in their hometown, deleting it, and then rebuilding it in eight hours or less, with five being the average time taken. Snowden impresses O'Brian when he completes the exercise in 38 minutes.

Meanwhile, Snowden meets Lindsay Mills via a dating website. The two bond, despite sharply contrasting political ideologies. Snowden acquires his first post abroad working with diplomatic cover in Geneva in 2007, taking Mills with him. He meets Gabriel Sol, who has ample experience in electronic surveillance. Snowden begins questioning the ethical implications of their assignment. After his superior decides to set up their target on a DUI charge in order to leverage information from him, Snowden resigns from the CIA.

Snowden later takes a position with the NSA in Japan, initially under the pretense of building a program that would allow the government to back up all critical data from the Middle East in an emergency, a program which he names "Epic Shelter". Snowden learns of the practices the NSA and other U.S. Government agencies are using not just in Japan, but in most countries the U.S. is currently allied with, which include planting malware in different computers that manage government, infrastructure and financial sectors so that, in the event that any allies turn against the US, that country can effectively be shut down in retaliation. The stress associated with the job results in the end of his relationship with Mills, who moves back with her family in Maryland.

Three months later, Snowden has left his post with the NSA and returned to Maryland where he and Mills resume their relationship and he takes a position consulting for the CIA. During a hunting trip, O'Brian reveals an operation in Oahu that revolves around counterattacking Chinese hackers. After Snowden is diagnosed with epilepsy, Mills agrees that he should join the operation for she believes the environment in Hawaii may be beneficial for him. Upon beginning his new job in "The Tunnel", an underground World War II bunker that has been repurposed for massive electronic surveillance and SIGINT operations, Snowden learns that Epic Shelter is actually providing real-time data that assists U.S. drone pilots in launching lethal strikes against terror suspects in Afghanistan.

Snowden ultimately becomes disillusioned with what he is a part of. It culminates in Snowden smuggling a microSD card into his office by way of a Rubik's Cube, and loading all relevant data. He then tells his colleagues he is feeling ill and departs. He advises Mills to fly home to Maryland, after which he contacts Poitras and Greenwald to schedule the meet.

With the help of journalist Ewen MacAskill, the information is disseminated to the press on June 5, 2013, with additional leaks published in the following days. In the aftermath, with the help of MacAskill, Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden is smuggled out of Hong Kong on a flight bound for Latin America by way of Russia. However, the U.S. Government revokes his passport, forcing him to remain in Moscow indefinitely. He is eventually granted asylum for three years, with Mills joining him at a later date. Snowden continues his activism.

When Oliver Stone was first approached to helm the film, he was hesitant. At the time, he was working on another controversial subject, about the last few years in the life of Martin Luther King Jr., with Jamie Foxx attached to star, and did not immediately wish to tackle a project as incendiary again.[6] He had been previously criticized for being too apathetic towards George W. Bush despite calling him the second worst President in U.S. history only after Richard Nixon in his film, W. (2008).[7] Nonetheless,[8] a series of events and persuasion prompted him to finally agree to direct it. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Laura Poitras to break the Snowden story, asked him for some advice; a couple of months later, Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, contacted Stone via his producer asking to meet him.[6] Wanting to sell his book about Snowden, Kucherena arranged a meeting in Moscow, in a secure place that Stone would not reveal. It was a fictional book, but Stone developed an interest towards it and called it "very [Fyodor] Dostoyevsky", in the sense that none of it is realistic. Stone, who did not know if Snowden would cooperate, was undecided whether to make a fictional film with an unnamed character or a story as realistic as possible.[7]

Stone began meeting Edward Snowden on January 2014.[9] At first, Snowden was wary about the idea of turning his life into a film. Stone went to meet Snowden two more times then in late May of that year,[9] and Snowden finally agreed to the idea and even decided to take part. Although he became involved in the project, he was given no script approval, nor did he receive any payment for the film. Payment was instead given to The Guardian.[7] Snowden had seen a piece of Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States and was fascinated by it.[7] Columbia Pictures already had the rights to Greenwald's book on the case.[8]

On June 2, 2014, it was announced that Stone and Moritz Borman had acquired the rights to the nonfiction book The Snowden Files by Luke Harding, and that Stone would write and direct a film based on it.[10] The film on Martin Luther King Jr. was scrapped since Stone was committed to direct Snowden instead.[11] Eight days later, on June 10, 2014, Stone acquired the rights to another book, Time of the Octopus, by Kucherena. (In April 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that Stone paid $700,000 for the rights to Harding's book and $1 million for the rights to Kucherena's novel.)[12] Stone used both books as the sources for his screenplay.[13] On November 6, 2014, Open Road Films acquired the U.S. rights to the film, while Wild Bunch was set to handle foreign sales.[14]Deadline.com confirmed on November 10, 2014, that Endgame Entertainment had come on board to produce the film.[15]

"It's a very strange thing to do [a story about] an American man, and not be able to finance this movie in America. And that's very disturbing, if you think about its implications on any subject that is not overtly pro-American. They say we have freedom of expression; but thought is financed, and thought is controlled, and the media is controlled. This country is very tight on that, and there's no criticism allowed at a certain level. You can make movies about civil rights leaders who are dead, but it's not easy to make one about a current man."

Before production began, Stone and Gordon-Levitt personally met Snowden in 2015 in Moscow, where he had been living in exile with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, since evading the U.S. government's attempts to arrest him for espionage. The U.S. government had revoked his passport while Snowden was trying to reach South America.[6] Gordon-Levitt described Snowden as a person who is akin to Philippe Petit, whom Gordon-Levitt played in the 2015 film The Walk.[16] Problems arose in Russia, however, as companies that were affiliated with the U.S. refused to become involved in the project,[6] and no studio was ready to support it. It became extremely difficult for Stone, who had to finance everything along with the producer.[6] Eventually, financing came through from France and Germany, and the film ended up being shot in Germany as a German production, with contracts being signed eight days before production began.[6][8] Since the budget was too tight, Stone had to miss the funeral of his mother, who had died in America while filming was occurring in Germany. Going back to America would have meant that Stone would have had to cut four days of work, which he said he could not afford to do.[7]

On September 21, 2014, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in talks to play Edward Snowden, the American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the mainstream media starting in June 2013.[17] On November 10, 2014, news confirmed that Gordon-Levitt would be starring in the lead role.[18] On November 14, 2014, Shailene Woodley was in final talks to join the film, to play Snowden's girlfriend, Lindsay Mills.[19] On February 2, 2015, Scott Eastwood joined the cast to play an NSA agent.[20] On February 4, 2015, three more actors joined the cast; Melissa Leo played documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, who filmed the most famous recording of Snowden, Zachary Quinto played Glenn Greenwald, the journalist chosen by Snowden to leak sensitive information, and Tom Wilkinson played Ewen MacAskill, defense and intelligence correspondent for The Guardian, who helped report the Snowden story.[21] On February 13, 2015, Variety reported that Ben Schnetzer had also joined the film.[22] On February 19, 2015, Timothy Olyphant joined the film to star as a CIA agent who befriended Snowden before he left for Russia,[23] and Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson were added to the cast of the film on February 20, 2015.[24] On February 23, 2015, Nicolas Cage also signed on to play the role of a former US Intelligence official.[25]Keith Stanfield was added to the cast on February 25, 2015, to play an NSA co-worker and a close friend to Snowden.[26]

For his role as Snowden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt pledged to donate his entire salary from the film to "help facilitate the conversation" about the relationship between technology and democracy.[27]

Principal photography began on February 16, 2015 in Munich, Germany.[28] Shooting was underway in Washington, D.C. in early April,[29] and shooting in Hawaii began on April 15 and lasted until April 18. The house used to film is on the same street Snowden lived on. At the end of April, Hong Kong press reported that crews started filming in The Mira Hong Kong, followed by outdoor filming in some old buildings in To Kwa Wan.[30] Shooting lasted until mid-May.[24]

Due to fear of interference by the National Security Agency, Stone decided to shoot the film mostly outside of the United States.[6] "We felt like we were at risk here. We didnt know what the NSA might do, so we ended up in Munich, which was a beautiful experience," Stone said.[6] Due to fears of the film leaking, Stone employed self-described ethical hacker Ralph Echemendia as a technical supervisor, and made sure all cast and crew used a secure chat-and-file-sharing program.[31]

Peter Gabriel's song "The Veil"[32] was composed especially for the film.[33]

On February 20, 2015, Open Road Films set the film for a December 25, 2015 domestic release date.[24]Path would release the film in France on December 30, 2015, and Universum Film would release it in Germany on January 7, 2016.[24] However, in September 2015, Open Road moved the film from its December release date to 2016. The studio did not give reasons for the delay; however, The Hollywood Reporter reported that maybe it was because the film was not finished yet.[34] On October 7, 2015, the film was set for a May 13, 2016 release.[35] On February 19, 2016, the release date was again pushed back to September 16, at the forefront of awards season.[36] The official trailer was published on April 27, 2016.[37]

The film was invited to compete at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, as the festival's director, Thierry Frmaux, saw the film, and praised it, calling it a "really good film. It complements Citizenfour marvelously. It helps understand a lot of things". Frmaux said he wanted the film to screen at Cannes, but explained that the film's producers "want to aim for the Oscars, so for them a Cannes premiere was a little too early".[38] It was shown at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival,[39] and had its European premiere at the 64th San Sebastin Film Festival.[40]

Stone held a private screening of Snowden at the former home of Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley, for an invited audience of around two dozen, including actress Melissa Leo, who portrayed documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. Guests were required to sign non-disclosure agreements. The film received critical praise from the attendees, and one audience member was quoted saying, "What he did that's so brilliant is, he gave this kid's whole back story, so you really like him."[6]

The film had an invitation-only screening at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016.[41] A second trailer for the film was released at the event.[42]

Snowden grossed $21.6 million in the United States and Canada and $12.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $34.3 million,[4] against a production budget of $40 million.[2]

The film was released on September 16, 2016, alongside Blair Witch, Bridget Jones's Baby and Hillsong: Let Hope Rise, and was projected to gross around $10 million from 2,443 theaters in its opening weekend.[43] It went on to open to $8 million, finishing 4th at the box office. It marked the lowest opening of Oliver Stone's career for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters.[44]

Snowden received mixed reviews from critics, although Gordon-Levitt's performance garnered critical praise. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 61%, based on 221 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Snowden boasts a thrilling fact-based tale and a solid lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, even if director Oliver Stone saps the story of some of its impact by playing it safe."[45] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[46] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average "A" grade, on an A+ to F scale.[47]

Richard Roeper gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "Snowden works best when it's just Edward and the three journalists in that hotel room, sweating it out, or when we see the pattern of events that led him to commit acts that exposed the shocking practices of our own government but also quite possibly created serious security breaches."[48]

On 19 November 2016, during the Camerimage festival, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle received the Bronze Frog award for his work on this film.[49][50]

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Snowden (film) - Wikipedia

Michael Wolff, Special to USA TODAY 7:02 p.m. ET Jan. 8, 2017

In this Feb. 14, 2015 file photo, former National Security Administration contractor Edward Snowden appears on a live video feed broadcast from Moscow at an event sponsored by ACLU Hawaii in Honolulu.(Photo: AP)

The Edward Snowden story wont go away. One reason for its persistence is that everybody who has given it a seconds further thought surely sees something astonishingly weird about it: For goodness sake, Snowden, the mastermind of the greatest theft of U.S. intelligence in history lives in comfort and security in Russia where hes protected from pursuit by the U.S. government. This is a tear in our heros tale that, in liberal society, we aren't supposed to pay attention to.

This heroism, it is important to note, derives from Snowdens own version of his story. The Guardian and The Washington Post effectively partnered with Snowden in publishing his documents and telling his tale (the Guardian, making a big financial bet on Snowden in its expansion into the American market, overtly went into the Snowden promotion business), with The New York Times joining later. Citizen 4,the Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden made by Laura Poitras, one of Snowdens collaborators in the release of the documents, puts Snowden at the center of the film with him as the single source of his heroic narrative. Snowden,the feature film made by Oliver Stone, basically dramatizes the making of that documentary as well as Snowdens own telling of the events. Current media sources for information about Snowden are almost exclusively limited to Snowdens circle of advisers and defenders and to Snowdens own tweets.

Nobody, except the federal government which arrived at the exact opposite conclusion from the media regarding Snowdens actions and motives has meticulously scrutinized the Snowden tale, and the federal government is seen not as the rightful protector of the nations secrets, but as the party exposed by them.

But thats the rub. While the government might be fairly tarred for its surveillance overreach by a few of the Snowden documents, there are yet millions more documents in the Snowden heist, according to the government, with secrets that are now in unknown hands. Its the fate of those secrets thats at the heart of Edward Jay Epsteins new book, How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, The Man and the Theft,the first independent investigation of the Snowden affair, to be published by Knopf next week.

Epstein is a legend in the world of secrets in his own right. His first book Inquest,featuring an exclusive set of interviews with most of the players on the Warren Commission, shattered confidence in the commissions report and opened the door for decades of conspiracy theory. Hes the biographer of the CIAs legendary counter-intelligence chief, James Angleton, and, too, of the Russian-connected billionaire and businessman, Armand Hammer.

Epstein in his new book retraces Snowdens route around the world, deconstructing each of the key, and widely accepted, givens in his account: 1) that he acted alone in his extraordinary theft of NSA documents; 2) that his flight to Hong Kong was happenstance; 3) that his escape to Russia and sanctuary there were more happenstance; 4) that he somehow dispatched his millions of documents before his flight to Moscow and that the Russians were gentlemenenough to allow him to arrive empty handed.

At the heart of the book is not only the finding that Snowden gave his secrets to Putins Russia is it possible to imagine a scenario in which Putin and Russian intelligence would not have wrangled the greatest cache of U.S. secrets ever available to them? but that, in every epistemological sense, Snowdens actions and motivations, idealistic or not, track the long history of men and women we regard as having betrayed their countries.

It is, as Epstein vividly shows, a story seen through the topsy-turvy politics of this particular moment. Snowden is a hero to liberals everywhere, except to the liberals who have the maximum amount of information about his actions: almost all members of the Obama administration and every liberal Democrat involved in congressional intelligence oversight, see Snowden as a dangerous national security malefactor (there is, among Snowden defenders, a tacit belief that the intelligence establishment has brainwashed everybody in the Obama administration and all Democrats in Congress).

Trumps election provides an even more peculiar development. The same liberal media that now decries Trump for his purported friendliness toward Putin has been perfectly sanguine about Snowden residing comfortably in Moscow. As confusing, the so-called Kremlin-directed interference by Russian hackers in the U.S. election aided by Wikileaks, now a core liberal media point of outrage, exists side by side with a worshipful acceptance of Snowden, likely Russias greatest hacker, one also assisted by Wikileaks. (In the moral universe of hacking, even without the implicit connection, how are Snowdens hacks different from Russian hacks?)

Snowden has served several intersecting agendas the big-data industrys battle over government interference, the lefts decades-long fight with the national security establishment, and the medias love of leaks and look-the-part heroes without anyone wanting to dig too far into his bona fides.

But then there is Edward Epstein. Throughout his long career his specialty has been to rescue facts obscured or tangled by political bias, self-interest, or plain incompetence (and often all three). The enemy of journalism is journalism, that collection of conventional wisdom, easy log-rolling, popular prejudice, and controlled sources. Epstein, not only exposes Snowden as a callow self-aggrandizer who, in the interests of his own liberal virtue, has made a Faustian deal, but the media as his protector.

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Wolff: The curious case of Edward Snowden and Russian hacks

If you still have any doubts as to how the American intelligence community could be so certain that Russia is behind the hacking, just ask Edward Snowden.

Back in July, the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower sent out a pair of tweets explaining not only how the NSA could have evidence proving that the Russian government orchestrated the attacks, but also why they wouldnt want to come forward about it.

In addition to discussing how his firsthand knowledge of NSA tracking of hacks, one of Snowdens leaked documents also identified how the NSA had traced Russian hacks in the past.

When American citizen Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in her Moscow apartment in 2006 after writing articles critical of Vladimir Putin, five men were convicted of her murder. But the mystery is who ordered her killing, according to The Huffington Post. Snowden revealedthatPolitkovskayas email had been hacked by Russian intelligence with malicious software. Using intercept signals that identified the source of the attack, the NSA was able to demonstrate not only that it knew Russian intelligence was responsible for the hacking, but that it could in general track cyberattacks perpetrated by the Russian government.

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Edward Snowden says U.S. intelligence probably knows that ...

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, center speaks via video conference to people in the Johns Hopkins University auditorium. | AP Photo

By Eric Geller

12/22/16 10:47 AM EST

Updated 12/22/16 11:30 AM EST

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been in contact with Russian intelligence agents since he stole troves of classified documents, a House committee alleged on Thursday.

Since Snowdens arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services, the House Intelligence Committee said in a report on the Snowden leaks released Thursday.

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The declassified report, which is heavily redacted, did not offer proof of its serious accusation. It follows the committee's release in September of an executive summary of the then-classified document.

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said in a statement that the report offers a fuller account of Edward Snowdens crimes and the reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security, including the safety of American servicemen and women.

The document casts Snowden as a dishonest miscreant and attempts to refute the portrayal of him as a duty-minded whistleblower.

The House panels report says there is no evidence that Snowden took any official effort to express concerns about U.S. intelligence activities to any oversight officials within the U.S. government, despite numerous avenues for him to do so.

Snowden and his defenders claim that he feared reprisal and have pointed to numerous instances of the intelligence community retaliating against employees who complain about secret programs.

Ben Wizner, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing Snowden, blasted the report. In a statement, he said it "wholly ignores Snowdens repeated and courageous criticism of Russian surveillance and censorship laws" and "combines demonstrable falsehoods with deceptive inferences to paint an entirely fictional portrait of an American whistleblower."

Snowden himself weighed in on Twitter, arguing that the report relied on weak evidence to allege Russian collusion.

"After three years of investigation and millions of dollars," he wrote, "they can present no evidence of harmful intent, foreign influence, or harm. Wow."

The famous government leaker is now living in Moscow under a 2013 asylum deal granted after Snowden gave the media troves of classified documents that revealed the extent of the U.S. surveillance state. The incident touched off a global debate about personal privacy and eventually led to Congress passing surveillance reform legislation in 2015.

But the report argues that Snowden's disclosures went far beyond documents related to potential invasions of Americans' privacy. Instead, many exposed "secrets that provide vital defenses against terrorists and nation-states."

Specifically, the panel said the Pentagon uncovered 13 "high-risk issues" caused by these leaks.

"If the Russian or Chinese governments have access to this information, American troops will be at greater risk in any future conflict," the committee wrote.

House Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in September joined his committee colleagues in writing a letter to President Barack Obama urging the outgoing commander in chief not to pardon Snowden.

"Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans privacy," Schiff said on Thursday. "Its compromise has been of great value to America's adversaries and those who mean to do America harm."

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House report: Edward Snowden in contact with Russian agents

WASHINGTON Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services, according to a bipartisan congressional report released at a time when Russia is considered a top national security concern.

The two-year inquiry focused on Snowdens 2013 leak of classified U.S. material about Americas surveillance programs. It concluded that Snowden compromised national security by these disclosures and is avoiding prosecution while living in a country that is considered one of the top U.S. adversaries. In recent months, U.S. intelligence agencies have been outspoken about their beliefs that Russia actively interfered in the U.S. political process by hacking into private email accounts.

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Former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information on government surveillance, made his case to President Obama for a p...

The report sends a strong message to President Barack Obama during his final days in office: Do not pardon Edward Snowden.

Mr. Obama has not offered any indication that he is considering pardoning Snowden for the leaks that embarrassed the U.S. and angered allies. Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obamas adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, said last year that Snowden should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers - not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime.

However, there has been a push by privacy advocacy groups to pardon the former NSA contractor who they herald as a whistleblower for leaking documents that disclosed the extent of the data the U.S. collects on Americans in its efforts to fight terrorism. After the disclosures, Mr. Obama reined in some of the surveillance authorities and put in place additional measures to provide more transparency to the classified programs.

The House intelligence committee released the report to provide what the panels chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., called a fuller account of Edward Snowdens crimes and the reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security.

The 33-page unclassified report pointed to statements in June 2016 by the deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the Russian parliaments upper house, who asserted that Snowden did share intelligence with the Russian government.

The report said, Since Snowdens arrival in Moscow, he has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services. The following sentence was redacted, and there is nothing in the unclassified report that explains why the committee believes Snowden is still sharing intelligence with the Russians.

The committees top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Snowden isnt a whistleblower as he and his defenders claim. Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to Americas adversaries and those who mean to do America harm, Schiff said.

Ben Wizner, Snowdens lawyer, dismissed the report and insisted that Snowden acted to inform the public.

The House committee spent three years and millions of dollars in a failed attempt to discredit Edward Snowden, whose actions led to the most significant intelligence reforms in a generation, Wizner said. The report wholly ignores Snowdens repeated and courageous criticism of Russian surveillance and censorship laws. It combines demonstrable falsehoods with deceptive inferences to paint an entirely fictional portrait of an American whistleblower.

The Congressional report has also come under fire from Barton Gellman, one of the four reporters who originally met Snowden and received the leaked material in 2013.

The report is not only one-sided, not only incurious, not only contemptuous of fact. It is trifling, Gellman wrote back in September after reading a three-page executive summary of the report.

Gellman, who is now a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, challenged multiple claims in the report, including the fact that Snowden fled to Russia (he tried to fly to Ecuador, but the U.S. government trapped him in Moscow when they revoked his passport) and that Snowden exaggerated his duties as an entry-level computer technician (he had multiple information security roles with the CIA, including one that deployed him to Geneva under diplomatic cover and another that involved regular meetings with the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the CIAs technical branches, Gellman said.)

Three years later, the Snowden leaks continue to reverberate. One of the programs that came under great scrutiny is set to expire in a year, and it will be a top priority for the House committee, among others in Congress, to get it renewed. Under that program, the NSA sweeps up communications of non-Americans outside the U.S., and it can also capture the domestic communications of any American in contact with the terror suspect, even if those contacts have nothing to do with terrorism. The resulting sweeps are likely to have included emails and other data from tens of thousands of Americans over the past decade, experts have said.

Three years ago, Snowden revealed U.S. government efforts to hack into the data pipelines used by U.S. companies to serve customers overseas. The programs collected the telephone metadata records of millions of Americans and examined emails from overseas.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia to avoid prosecution.

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Congressional report charges Edward Snowden is in contact ...