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L2 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS tery I was going to solve on this first trip to Hong Kong. I needed to know more about his activities before he got there. After all, Snowden was not, as he himself pointed out from Moscow, an “angel descend- ing from the heavens.” He had been working for the U.S. govern- ment for the previous seven years. During that period, he had been part of America’s secret intelligence regime and held a clearance for sensitive compartmented information, or SCI. Such SCI material is considered so sensitive that it must be handled within formal access control systems established by the director of national intelligence. Nor did Snowden’s breach begin with his handing over classified documents to the Guardian reporters in Hong Kong in June 2013 or, for that matter, in the eleven days prior to his meeting with journal- ists. He had, as the NSA quickly determined, begun illicitly copying documents in the summer of 2012. Such a dangerous enterprise is not born of a sudden impulse. It was, as his actions suggested, nur- tured over many months. Even if he had managed to elude American intelligence from late May to early June 2013, he could not hide all the history that led to his decision to come to Hong Kong. There ® had to be an envelope of circumstances surrounding it, including © Snowden’s motivation, associates, movements, finances, and activi- ties prior to his fleeing to Hong Kong. What was missing was not just Snowden’s first eleven days in Hong Kong but the context of the alleged crime. I first needed to find out who Edward Snowden was. | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 12 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019500