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Snowden also performed his security procedures on camera, including stuffing bed pillows
under the door to block any eaves-droppers, throwing a red blanket over his head, which he called
jokingly his “magical cloak of power.” He explained to Greenwald that his donned his “cloak”
when he turned on his laptop to prevent any hidden cameras in the room from spotting his
password. He also checked the hotel phone for bugs. It was not without irony that he went
through these security rituals to protect his data as he allowed Poitras to film NSA data on his
computer screen. Since he planned to use these journalists as his outlets to go public in a few
days, the security measures he did while on camera would only serve a temporary purpose.
The centerpiece of the planned video would take the form of an interview with Greenwald.
Snowden himself provided the talking points. The filming would eventually provide Poitras with
a feature-length movie, CitizenFour, which would be commercially released in October 2014 and
win an Academy Award for her.
The next day, Wednesday June 4", Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian editor, joined Poitras
and Greenwald in Snowden’s room. Snowden insisted that he also go through the ritual of
stowing his cell phone in the mini-bar refrigerator. Not without irony, Snowden’s own phone can
be seen on his bed recharging. Although MacAskill was sent by Gibson to the event to verify the
source’s bona fides, he apparently had not been well briefed. The questioning went as follows:
MacAskill: Sorry, I don’t know anything about you.
Snowden: OK, I work for—
MacAskill: Sorry, I don’t know even your name.
Snowden: Oh, sorry, my name is Edward Snowden. I go by Ed
MacAskill went on to ask him to enumerate the various positions he held during his career in
intelligence. Snowden was not entirely truthful in describing himself. He said that he had been a
senior adviser to the CIA, when he had been just a telecommunications support officer in the CIA.
He also said he had been a senior adviser at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) even though,
according to that intelligence service, he was not actually ever employed there. (He merely spoke
at an interagency counterintelligence course the DIA had sponsored.) He said he had a $200,000
a year salary from Booz Allen when, according to Booz Allen, it was $133,000. It is
understandable that he wanted to impress these Guardian journalists in light of his young age and
boyish appearance, even to the extent of meretriciously claiming in the video that he personally
had been given the “authority” at the NSA to intercept President Obama’s private
communications, which, according to a NSA spokeswoman, was not true. No NSA employee,
and certainly not a civilian contract worker, was given the authority to soy on the President of the
United States, she insisted. Such career enhancements suggest that Snowden altered factual
reality when it suits his purpose with journalists.
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