http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/greenwald-snowden-s-files-are-out-there-if-anything-happens-to-him.html
The Daily Beast
Greenwald: Snowden's Files Are Out There if 'Anything Happens' to Him
by Eli Lake Jun 25, 2013 1:36 PM EDT
Snowden has shared encoded copies of all the documents he took so that they
won't disappear if he does, Glenn Greenwald tells Eli Lake.
As the U.S. government presses Moscow to extradite former National Security
Agency contractor Edward Snowden, America's most wanted leaker has a plan B.
The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing
an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people. If
anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who Snowden first contacted in
February, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Snowden "has taken extreme
precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these
archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published." Greenwald added
that the people in possession of these files "cannot access them yet because
they are highly encrypted and they do not have the passwords." But, Greenwald
said, "if anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged
for them to get access to the full archives."
The fact that Snowden has made digital copies of the documents he accessed
while working at the NSA poses a new challenge to the U.S. intelligence
community that has scrambled in recent days to recover them and assess the full
damage of the breach. Even if U.S. authorities catch up with Snowden and the
four classified laptops the Guardian reported he brought with him to Hong Kong
the secrets Snowden hopes to expose will still likely be published.
A former U.S. counterintelligence officer following the Snowden saga closely
said his contacts inside the U.S. intelligence community "think Snowden has
been planning this for years and has stashed files all over the Internet." This
source added, "At this point there is very little anyone can do about this."
The arrangement to entrust encrypted archives of his files with others also
sheds light on a cryptic statement Snowden made on June 17 during a live chat
with The Guardian. In the online session he said, "All I can say right now is
the U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or
murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."
Last week NSA Director Keith Alexander told the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence that Snowden was able to access files inside the NSA
by fabricating digital keys that gave him access to areas he was not allowed to
visit as a low-level contractor and systems administrator. One of those areas
included a site he visited during his training that Alexander later told
reporters contained one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
Court orders published by The Guardian and The Washington Post earlier this
month.
[John here. Let's try some speculation about what this phrase,
"fabricating digital keys", might mean.]
John
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