Summary
Highlights
In December 2012, Glenn Greenwald, a journalist, received a cryptic email from an unknown source offering sensitive information. After initial hesitation, the source, who later identified himself as Edward Snowden, contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and reporter Barton Gellman, leading to a planned meeting in Hong Kong.
Greenwald, Poitras, and veteran Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill traveled to Hong Kong. Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA employee and NSA contractor, met them and revealed thousands of top-secret NSA documents, exposing a surveillance program of unprecedented scale.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the NSA faced intense pressure to prevent future acts of terrorism. Director General Michael Hayden was tasked with developing an aggressive surveillance plan, leading to an extraordinary presidential order to collect massive amounts of data on American citizens without warrants, known as 'The Program.'
NSA insider Thomas Drake discovered 'ThinThread,' a program designed by Bill Binney with privacy protections, that could have prevented 9/11. However, agency leadership, including Maureen Baginski, opted for a different program that stripped out these protections, leading to Binney, Wiebe, and Loomis's resignations in protest.
Department of Justice attorney Thomas Tam uncovered evidence of warrantless electronic surveillance and became concerned about its legality. His attempts to raise these concerns internally were met with dismissal. Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel, also raised grave doubts about the program's legality, leading to a standoff with Vice President Cheney's office.
The conflict escalated when Attorney General John Ashcroft, hospitalized with pancreatitis, refused to reauthorize the program, considering it illegal. Deputy Attorney General James Comey and others threatened to resign, pushing President Bush to intervene and ultimately lead to the temporary shutdown of the warrantless email data collection.
General Hayden successfully convinced the secret FISA court to authorize the program again, using a controversial interpretation of law, and it resumed even bigger than before. President Bush publicly denied warrantless surveillance, misleading the American public, while internal dissenters like Thomas Tam struggled with their consciences.
After initial hesitation and pressure from the White House, James Risen of The New York Times, planning to publish the story in a book, forced the newspaper's hand. Despite attempts from the Bush administration to prevent its publication, arguing national security risks, The New York Times published a bombshell report revealing the NSA's secret surveillance program in December 2005.
President Bush publicly addressed the program, downplaying its scope and asserting its legality, while General Hayden echoed this sentiment. Thomas Drake, who knew the true extent of the program, realized the administration was lying, leading him to leak unclassified information to a Baltimore Sun reporter.
Vice President Cheney initiated a massive investigation to find the leakers, leading to FBI raids on Bill Binney, Kirk Wiebe, Ed Loomis, and Diane Roark. Thomas Tam also faced intense FBI scrutiny. Eventually, Thomas Drake was indicted under the Espionage Act, facing decades in prison, demonstrating the government's aggressive stance against whistleblowers.
Barack Obama, campaigning on transparency and protecting whistleblowers, voted for an expanded FISA law in 2008. Upon becoming president, he was briefed on the full scale of 'The Program' and, despite his earlier rhetoric, chose to keep it largely intact, disappointing those who hoped for a reform.
Edward Snowden, an NSA contractor, became increasingly disturbed by the program's scope. Witnessing the government's unaddressed wrongdoing and the aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers like Thomas Drake, Snowden decided to systematically collect and leak classified documents, opting to work with journalists who had previously shown a willingness to publish sensitive information without government interference.