Snowden’s instructions to Laura Poitras to recruit Glenn Greenwald and manage encrypted document handoff

String Puller | 69 nese intelligence services, were not monitoring his communications with her. It was, however, a chance Snowden was willing to take. Snowden, in any case, did not intend to conceal his identity for more than a few months. He told Poitras he had a specific purpose in allowing her to name him in her ongoing film project. Indeed, he said it was essential in his plan to prevent others, including pre- sumably his “most trusted confidante,” from being suspected by law enforcement of helping him in his enterprise. He prevailed on her to accommodate his plan, saying, “You may be the only one who can prevent that, and that is by immediately nailing me to the cross rather than trying to protect me as a source.” His choice of the imag- ery of crucifixion suggested that like Jesus Christ he was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. In keeping with their operational security arrangement, Snowden said that he would first send her an encrypted file of documents that she would not be able to read. Only after his conditions were met and “everything else is done,” he said, “the key will follow.” He was now pulling the strings. To get that key, she had to follow his instructions. © One of his conditions was that she help him recruit Greenwald © and other outlets for his disclosures. “The material provided and the investigative effort required will be too much for any one per- son,” he wrote to Poitras. He next directed her to contact Greenwald. “T recommend that at the very minimum you involve Greenwald. I believe you know him.” (Snowden apparently did not tell her that he had unsuccessfully attempted to reach out to Greenwald before he had contacted her.) His continued interest in Greenwald was understandable. Aside from Greenwald’s opposition to what he called the “Surveillance State,” he was a gateway to The Guardian. That publication had become an important player in the business of disclosing govern- ment documents by publishing a large part of the U.S. documents supplied to WikiLeaks, as we have seen. By breaking whistle- blowing stories about U.S. intelligence, it had also greatly increased the circulation of its website. As an establishment newspaper, it also gave these WikiLeaks stories credibility with the media. So despite Greenwald’s inability to create an encrypted channel, Snowden still needed him. He had no reason to believe that Greenwald would turn | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 69 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019557