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282 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS on-camera star of a twenty-hour-long reality show, edited first into a video and then a full-length documentary, transformed him in the public’s mind into a hero. It would be a mistake to assume that the central role he gave himself was simply an exercise in narcissism. After the video was released, he was no longer a near nonentity servicing a computer system at a backwater NSA base in Hawaii. He had emerged from the shadowy world of electronic intelligence to become one of the most famous whistle-blowers in modern history. It was a mantle that would allow him to also become a leading advocate of privacy and encryption rights, as well as the leading opponent of NSA spy- ing. While this remarkable transformation might not have been his entire motive, it was certainly the result of the choice he made to go public. The Fourth Decision ) The final choice he made was to board a nonstop flight to Moscow ® on June 23. Once the U.S. criminal complaint was unsealed on June 21, he needed to leave Hong Kong; his continued presence would have been a complication for the Chinese president, Xi, scheduled soon to meet President Obama. His only route out of Hong Kong went through two adversaries of the United States: China and Rus- sia. China, as far as is known, did not offer him sanctuary. According to one U.S. diplomat cited by The New York Times, China might have already obtained copies of Snowden’s NSA files and did not want the problem of having Snowden defect to Beijing. In any case, if it had not already acquired the files, it could assume it would receive that intelligence data from its Russian ally in the intelligence war. What- ever its reason, China did not use its considerable power in Hong Kong to block Snowden’s exit. Nor did Snowden obtain a visa to any country in Latin America or elsewhere during his monthlong stay in Hong Kong. As in the oft- cited Sherlock Holmes clue of the dog that did not bark, Snowden’s lack of any visas in his passport strongly suggests that he had not made plans to go anyplace but where he actually went: Moscow. His | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.indd 282 ® 9/3016 8:13AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019770