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8 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS ings but Ho would not identify him beyond saying that he was a “well-connected resident” of Hong Kong. I called Ho’s law office in Hong Kong. He politely declined to be interviewed by me, saying he had said all he was going to say about the Snowden case. I was able, though, to make an appointment with Robert Tibbo, a Canadian-born barrister specializing in civil liberties cases. Tibbo had worked closely with Ho on the Snowden case. I met Tibbo in the tearoom at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Hong Kong Island. Tibbo, in his early fifties, was tall, with a round face and thinning hair. He talked freely about his remarkable career. After earning a degree in chemical engineering from McGill Univer- sity and working in Asia as an engineer for a decade, he went to law school in New Zealand and became a barrister in Hong Kong special- izing in cases involving the legal status of refugees. Over a leisurely tea, Tibbo made it clear that he had played a far more active role than Ho in the Snowden case. He had even per- sonally escorted Snowden from the Mira hotel to a safe house on June to. He did not dispute what Ho had told Bradsher. When I asked © him if he could give me the name of the “carer,” he said that he was ® bound by a lawyer-client privilege that prevented him from provid- ing me with any details that might reveal the identity of the person who had made arrangements for Snowden. When I asked the date that he was officially retained by Snowden, he said that Snowden had signed an agreement hiring him and Ho’s law firm as his legal adviser on June 10, 2013 (which was a matter of public record). “T understand that,” I said, “but I am inquiring about something that had happened before you became his legal adviser.” He shook his head, as if getting rid of a pesky fly, and said that his oath pre- cluded him from saying anything at all that might do damage to the credibility of his client. “Not even where he was staying in May in Hong Kong?” I persisted. He leaned forward and, after a brief hesitation, said, jokingly I assumed, that he would not divulge that information, “even if you held a gun to my head.” We met two more times, but true to his word Tibbo would not say if he even knew the identity of the “carer.” Meanwhile, Joyce Xu, a very resourceful Chinese journalist who was assisting me in Hong Kong, had filed the equivalent of a Freedom | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_rt.zindd 8 ® 929N6 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019496