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84 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS
sonal manifesto alongside its story. As he envisioned it, the media
event would also include a video component in which Greenwald
would interview him.
Greenwald agreed to this micromanaging, So Snowden said he
would send him what he called a “welcome package” of documents
to demonstrate his good faith. His plan also required a face-to-face
meeting. Snowden told him, “The first order of business is to get you
to Hong Kong.” The whole conversation lasted two hours, according
to Greenwald.
Snowden sent him twenty classified NSA documents labeled “Top
Secret.” He also included in the package his personal manifesto,
which asserted that the NSA was part of an international conspiracy
of intelligence agencies that were working to “inflict upon the world
a system of secret, pervasive surveillance from which there is no
refuge.”
Meanwhile, Snowden told Poitras he was sending her a number of
NSA documents, including a FISA warrant that had been issued less
than a month earlier. He wanted that FISA warrant to serve as the
® basis of Greenwald’s scoop. It was perfect whistle-blowing material ©
for The Guardian because it ordered Verizon to turn over all its bill-
ing records for ninety days to the NSA. It was as close to a smoking
gun as anything he had copied at the NSA. It would also get atten-
tion because James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, had
stated before Congress just two months earlier that the NSA did not
collect phone data in America. This warrant would allow The Guard-
ian, in the best tradition of gotcha journalism, to catch Clapper in an
apparent lie.
Continuing his string pulling, Snowden instructed Poitras not to
show the FISA warrant to Greenwald until they were safely aboard
a plane to Hong Kong. That would prevent Greenwald from releas-
ing the story previously. He also sent Poitras an entire encrypted
file of NSA documents, saying it would “include my true name and
details for the record, though it will be your decision as to whether
or how to declare my involvement.” He did not send her the key to
decipher the file, saying, “The key will follow when everything else
is done.” He further told her that he preferred that her new film
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