Snowden: An Enemy of the State? | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] [Music] [Music] Edward Sten is a coward he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country [Music] the man who leaks details of a secret telephone and internet surveillance program in the USA has disappeared in Hong Kong if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music he can do so they should use every legal Avenue we have to bring him back to the United States [Music] I want to get him uh caught and brought back for trial I don't know how anybody can view uh this person as anything other than a criminal we' been telling him get out get out get out get out [Music] you're going along with someone's life literally in your hands either our plan had worked and we would get on that flight or it wouldn't [Music] [Music] just 3 weeks earlier Edward Snowden a 29-year-old analyst for the National Security Agency in the USA was waiting for journalists he thought he could trust in his backpack he had nearly a million top secret NSA documents the journalists were traveling across the world from New York to a hotel in Hong Kong for a secret meeting whose outcome they couldn't predict 105 52 because I knew that what was waiting there was vitally important but because we didn't know what really was going on we thought there was even a chance I mean every step of the way kind of had all sorts of Hazards thank you the question mark that hung over us more than anything else was the fact that we had no idea who the person was that we were about to meet so we were really just kind of rushing into this huge unknown the documents Snowden had with him was so sensitive he could be in prisoned for decades for removing them for all he knew the US authorities could have intercepted the communications of the journalists and he was about to fall into a trap i' had cross the Rubicon at that point actually you know I think uh I don't think anybody can reach such a clear turning point in their life without thinking aliia yaka EST to them to themsel you know the die is cast I had to expect that the most likely scenario was that I would be led out in handcuffs how would we know that we weren't talking to some agent or somebody else so the quite ingenious method that he invented was to hold this Rubik's Cube and that was the first thing I looked [Music] for after getting top secret documents from Snowden the two Guardian journalists published their first stories they did not name their Source Edward snowden's identity remained a secret at the time I thought he was [Music] paranoid once we were in the room He piled pillows up against the door jam uh up high along the sides and along the bottom so if there was like somebody passing in the hallway just Eaves dropping uh it would make it more difficult for them the stories began to appear and then there was a period of time before he then self-identifies in that Gap there it's my understanding that NSA had a very good idea who that was what he had done and then it's it's a simple step from there to begin to use all the tools available to the US government as to where he might be [Music] when he wanted to access his laptops um he had a big red hood uh that he would put over his head and over his uh computer so that when he was put in these passwords he who's scared that somebody might be able to see him through the window or or maybe there's a hidden camera in the room it's the greatest loss of secrets in our nation's history and so that certainly was energizing the other parts of the US government to do everything they could to get him and especially the materials back before there was any more harm how far was the US willing to go based on your professional experience in the intelligence Community for me it was a question of could the government feel every copy of this material could be stopped at a single point and if that point had presented itself uh I don't know what they would have done that it was even possible that they might try to kill me he was incredbly edgy he was nervous um I remember uh there's a fire alarm went off uh and he wondered was this a tactic to get him out of his room always hovering above everything we were over everything we were doing was the possibility that at any given moment there could be a knock on the door that would put an end to our [Music] interaction the time it was extremely tense um every day myself and Glenn would see Snowden at the mirror we didn't expect him to be to be there we assumed that this guy there must be hunting for him what would you do if you were the director of the Central Intelligence Agency the director of the National Security Agency and you knew there was an individual out there who was about to expose evidence that you had committed serious crimes and you had the resources available to stop this person even if it meant using lethal Force what would you do so I know for a fact that the US government was uh very angry at Mr Snowden his his safety and also his life was uh was put at risk but you know that I do know the idea that he could somehow um evade the US for very much longer seemed inconceivable to us and every time we interviewed him we thought well that's the last time we'll see him we've got to make the most of this because we won't get the chance to speak to him tomorrow he won't be [Music] there for many years Edward Snowden worked at NSA headquarters near Washington DC just miles from where he grew up I saw him in the shadow of the National Security Agency literally was in the area of Fort me uh he was there I picked him up we went out to dinner the Snowden family has a long history of military service dating back to Colonial [Music] times Edward Snowden had an impressive career in America's intelligence Community by the age of 27 he'd gained access to its deepest Secrets he just seemed almost depressed and I was very concerned about him it was not the Ed that I knew what Snowden couldn't tell his father during that dinner was that he discovered NSA documents that Disturbed him one of the key things that actually motivated me was the growing realization that we in the United States government um were increasingly making decisions that departed from the rule of law I assumed that maybe there was something going on between him and his long-term partner uh Lindsay Mills which really concerned me because I knew that he loved her very much and I gave him a hug you it was you know I love your dad I love your son what Snowden disclosed wasn't information he disclosed how we collected information in other words he didn't reveal a bucket of water he revealed the plumbing he revealed How We Gather process and distribute water and therefore that's going to have a really harmful effect on American intelligence for a very long time Mr President thank you for those kind words and for the confidence that you and Ambassador Negron no one played a more important role in creating the NSA we know today than General Michael Hayden he was given the job by George W bush with a mandate to stop at nothing to stop terrorism when I returned from Korea in 1999 to take the position at NSA Michael Hayden former director of the NSA and CIA uh ran a program called Stellar Wind where the communications of anyone America uh could be collected on mass under the pretext of preventing terrorism if you're asking me to to to delve into my deepest emotions it it was the arrogance of an individual who looked upon the activity of the National Security Agency and believed that his legal and ethical judgment trumped the Judgment of his co-workers his leadership the American president the American Congress and the American system I thought to myself what kind of man is this how can someone justify the violation of the rights of an entire nation without even a law to lean on how do we come back from a situation in which the most senior officials in a democracy are acting against the interests of the public in secret Snowden would have to have believed his judgment trumped all of those in order to create the kind of moral righteousness that he claims that's pretty arrogant my name is Ed Snowden I'm uh 29 years old I work for Booze Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure anal for NSA revealed massive NSA surveillance programs that collect phone records and internet data on a scale that many people never imagined I don't I don't welcome leaks journalists have been searching far and wide across the territory where is he it's almost certain that he is still here in Hong Kong hid from the US intelligence [Music] services this is the most serious hemorrhaging of legitimate American Secrets in the history of my country we've never seen anything like this before in for us in Hong Kong it was about 3:00 or 4: in the morning uh so we was a couple hours sleep and then we woke up and it was pandemonium where in the world is Edward Snowden so my boss called me but she said something urgent happened linia come to the office immediately as soon as Edward Snowden revealed himself as the whistle blow he set off a Catch Me If You Can hunt by the US government and where is he now guess in game for the media the whole world now had a name and face to attach to the revelations but so did the FBI and I'm sure they're going to be uh very busy for the next week uh I've been in the interview Snowden posted on the guardian website there was a clue as to where he might be staying a view out of a hotel window from this video we can tell there were two pons of chi Bridge so from this view this one is the the one on the left is bigger than the one on the right so I went to um Google Map and used the Google Earth trying to figure out from which perspective Can Chi bridge look like that the consequences of uh if if the media had known where Mr Snowden was from that time on Ward um it would have been a a direct link for the NSA the US government uh any any of the US government agencies to identify where my client was at the time he was alarmed he was upset that any time the cie could come uh crashing through that door everyone was chasing after this story everyone was so desperate everyone was desperately hoping to find Snowden I want to get him uh caught and brought back for trial I think the chase is on to leak that amount of material that sensitive and then stand up in front of the whole world and say this is who I am and here's what I did is a virtual guarantee that you're going to end up in in a cage for the next several decades if not longer you can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies at and uh be completely free from risk because they're such powerful adversaries that this was the biggest media story on the planet at the time there's the likelihood that media would arrive there he needs to leave the hotel immediately and just to leave everything behind when I went to Hong Kong I didn't intend to get out of this safely you know this wasn't about me I didn't care what happened to me my part of the job was finished the journalists were probably going to be there in a matter of minutes and they just occupied the lobby and they were hunting saying where was snow and where was Snow a bit like a bright siren you know declaring to everybody oh here's here's the man uh of Interest 10,000 kilomet away in London there was one thing the US government might be happy about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was not involved in the Snowden Revelations but I sitting my desk uh certainly had the authorities to to wiretap anyone from you or your Assange has been confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 the US government saw him as out of commission let's look at the situation with Edward Snowden 29-year-old young man in a foreign jurisdiction that he had no experience with the subject of the largest intelligence man hunt the world has ever seen and the realities were for Edward Snowden knew he was going to be smashed our other news today and the man who leaked details of a secret telephone and internet surveillance program in the USA has disappeared in Hong Kong Snowden had fled the hotel and was now hiding in the apartment of local supporters the whereabouts are now unknown of Edward Snowden who was a contract worker for the CIA he's not been seen since he checked out and at that moment he reached out and asked us for help with Wikileaks Snowden hoped he had found a team that was a match for the NSA he knew the US was investigating Wikileaks for Espionage and terrorism years of surveillance had left Wikileaks no option but to protect their Communications through encryption something Snowden considered vital Assange and his colleagues only agreed to appear in this film on condition Wikileaks lawyers be permitted to vet their interviews Sarah Harrison a journalist at Wikileaks was busy running an election campaign in Australia when she got a call from London I spoke to people from work and they said have you seen this thing about Snowden and I was like what's wrong with the mountain and w s and then they're like look online look online so I looked and yeah um he he'd gone public uh at that stage a video had gone out on the guardian at that moment when when I first heard his name I didn't for a moment imagine I would be spending four months with him although to the outside world it looked like a hurricane with statements uh from the White House and stories appearing in the newspaper and a lot of interest about what he was doing in Hong Kong I knew that that actually this was the calm moment um and the the real storm was just about to come and he would be sucked into this Vortex within two weeks uh of imprisonment arrest I'd seen Chelsea Manning go through a similar experience after 3 years of solitary confinement without trial the US military's most famous whistleblower private first class Bradley Manning finally until Snowden Chelsea Manning's leak of American government doc doents had been the biggest loss of secrets in American history Wikileaks had published the documents but had to Stand By and Watch as Manning was caught and held in conditions characterized by the UN as cruel inhuman and degrading the US tried very hard to make Chelsea Manning a general deterent uh in its incredibly abusive treatment of him psychological torture in simply for communicating to the media I knew about Chelsea Manning you know going into but there was there was never any question about how that case was going to be settled and you were willing to put yourself in the same position that's tough to vocalize um Cod 105th 52 3 days after snowed and went underground Sarah Harrison landed in Hong Kong she took charge of what was to become operation Asylum mentioned that there was a person by the name of Edward Snowden who had checked in and out but it's still not clear whether what was particularly extraordinary I think was while all of these news organizations around the world all of these Publishers were trying to get a piece of the story there was only one publisher that actually said we want to help the source we want to make sure he's okay we want to make sure that no matter what happens you know he has somebody on his side and that was Wikileaks if there was one thing I could change um it would have been whether we could have done more for Snowden I did have a discussion with the editor Alan Roser and the essor Janine Gibson about what we could do for Snowden whether we should be paying his hotel bills and whether we should be getting them legal advice I I wish we thought it through and maybe if we had had more time we could have come up with something you know it was the US government versus Wikileaks and not just in the grand jury court but right there on the ground in Hong Kong blew the whistle on American efforts to spy on innocent citizens today we all blow the whistle prot support privacy of Internet the US government has filed criminal charges against Edward Snowden I think it was probably on my birthday when the presence I got from the government was that they unsealed an indictment against me Edward Snowden has been charged with espion theft and conversion of government property and what was extraordinary about the indictment was the fact that they included Espionage charges now they knew that I wasn't working for any foreign government that was clear from the beginning uh they knew that I was working with journalists uh and the recipient of the information was the public at large Washington now wants help from Hong Kong officials because snowden's been hiding in the Chinese territory since unleashing the revelations about the national Security Agency the charge of Espionage increased the pressure on the Hong Kong authorities to act and made snowden's position even more dangerous it meant that if Snowden was caught he could face the death penalty back home in the US Snowden took the risk of leaving his Hideout and met his lawyer who warned him sooner or later Hong Kong would hand him over to the US where he could expect the same treatment as private Manning in terms of private Manning situation uh clearly he'd been subjected to cruel and inhuman degrading treatment or punishment as such this raised grave concerns about what would happen to Mr Snowden if he was returned to uh the United States Snowden could not be sure if the Hong Kong authorities would do as the US was demanding and arrest him right away Hong Kong citizens were on the streets calling him a hero but the Hong Kong authorities were in an unpredictable situation Snowden knew there was always the possibility the central government in Beijing would intervene and sacrifice him in a deal with the US the things that was told to us was that the feeling within the government was that they just wanted it the Hong Kong government was that they just wanted it gone was a hot potato they just didn't want to have to deal with it they were either going to upset the people of Hong Kong or they were going to upset Beijing and it was just too problematic the Hong Kong government decided to play for time rather than arrest Snowden they decided to wait for the proper paperwork to arrive but Snowden was still in danger with the the nature of the disclosures he made um there was a a real an immediate risk that uh he could be arrested in Hong Kong one of the reasons Snowden was so vulnerable was that a White House task force was working the phones and putting pressure on decision makers in Hong Kong since we learned that Mr Snowden was in Hong Kong us authorities have been in continual contact with their Hong Kong counterparts at the working and Senior levels [Music] the US was certain if the Hong Kong government decided to arrest Snowden they would not have problems locating him look the Chinese have a wonderful intelligence service I would lose all respect for my Chinese colleagues if they did not have very good knowledge as to what was going on Although our analysis was that ited would face serious consequences and should immediately leave Hong Kong he was reluctant to do that until it seemed like there was no other choice because he wanted to explore different options and so on and this was driving us mad weix had been working out various options of where he would be safe where he could go different people's opinions around the world but I mean it was his decision it's his life the border is open we got to go now now's a chance the border is open could close you know at any [Music] time then something happened that narrowed the options for Snowden the request for his extradition arrived from the United States on a Friday night would the Hong Kong Justice Ministry wait until Monday to issue a warrant who could know they would make a decision and then they would act upon that decision we needed to move time the the Clock Was ticking very definitely then you Mr Snowden um was in a difficult position where he could be arrested at any time what Edward was concerned about is knowing the exact status of the border so he he agreed that he should leave but as soon as he went to passport control maybe he would be arrested so he was very reluctant to actually leave because that would cut short his last time his last hours of Freedom Attorney General Eric Holder placed a phone call stressing the importance of the matter and urging Hong Kong to honor our request for snowden's arrest it was the end it's he couldn't wait to continue to assess the situation he had to make a decision [Music] that was the moment where it all came together or it didn't either our plan worked our negotiations had worked and we would get on that flight or it wouldn't we over the weekend the United States uh has been in touch via diplomatic and law enforcement Channels with a number of countries uh which Mr Snowden might transit or that could serve as final destinations this was the largest intelligence man hunt the world has ever seen so the US was throwing everything all its resources at this thing uh so we needed some way of splitting those resources because we didn't want them all focused on on his flight [Music] out well he bought a ticket to India as cover was booked using his credit card for 2 days after the actual Asylum flight in all Wikileaks bought more than a dozen tickets in snowden's name on flights leaving Hong Kong they hoped the US wouldn't figure out which flight he and Harrison were aiming for I was worried about missing the flight we were running late basically due to the fact that I had been printing all of our airline tickets and there was an issue with the printer and just sort of these stupid things we're advising these governments that Mr ston is wanted on serious felony charges and as such he should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel uh other than is necessary I spoke to Edward the day before and I told him that the the highest risk is in the airport he was getting very nervous and his lawyer kept calling I think he worried too that the whole thing would collapse I don't think the US would assassinate him in the airport I don't think that would happen but that they might kind of make a fuss um and lean on Airport authorities to hold him and detain him and then the state department could bring all its assets to Bear there have been repeated engagements by the US Department of State and US Consulate General in Hong Kong there have been repeated engagements by the FBI with their law enforcement counterpart [Music] you could also be racing to getting captured right I mean you're also yeah running towards them yeah yeah I mean I'm quite sure that that airport was being watched so ultimately as I walked up to the uh the checkpoint counter um the only thing I was thinking is that I should remember to smile the guy took have passports which is obviously the normal thing to do so mine was sort of fine and then snowden's one sort of took a while and again reaching for the phone and um little bit confused and the computer made a funny sound and um so yeah so again I'm not quite sure what was going on there but I was getting very nervous his lawyer did sort of start stepping forward sort of see what was going on on June 17th Hong Kong authorities acknowledged receipt of our request despite repeated inquiries Hong Kong authorities did not respond with any requests for additional documents or information stating only that the matter was under review and refusing to elaborate what was under review was that there was a mistake in the American paperwork in the rush to prevent him from leaving Hong Kong the state department got Edward snowden's middle name wrong it is not Edward James Snowden it is Edward Joseph Snowden our people are meticulous in processing legal documents they had to double check the spelling make sure that um they are catching the right person sought by the US authorities I don't think our our authorities deliberately held up uh the arrest but um we need to take maybe a few days but a few days was not good enough for the US you know and apparently Snowden made use of the the the the the few days available to uh work out his Escape as it happened we were rushing our paperwork forward as snowden's trying to leave Hong Kong to to fly onto Russia we made it easier for the Chinese and the people in Hong Kong to make the decision they made because of the delay cuz you know we've now done everything you know you've checked in you've got through security you've done the bag check the passport check you know you boarded onto the plane and then I was like you're still not okay I knew the schedule of the flight was meant to leave and I was just watching the Hong Kong airport register to see has the flight left has the flight has a play left and it was late it was 20 minutes late so I was quite concerned well then the other thing that made me very nervous was when we were um waiting to take off uh we came from the gate and then we go up a bit and then we just stop and we're just waiting and we're waiting and we're [Music] waiting and a straight to our breaking news for you this hour Chinese sources have alleged that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is on route to Moscow from Hong Kong if so the Whistleblower would have departed hours after Washington threatened the Chinese city state with repercussions if it didn't arrest him Hong Kong authorities requested additional information concerning the US charges and evidence the US had been in communication with Hong Kong and we were in the process of responding when we learned that Hong Kong had allowed The Fugitive to leave what is uh clear is that um at the time he left the state department did not cancel his passport maybe he should have canceled they should have canceled his passports they cancel his passport after his departure then so when he left Hong Kong he was holding a valid US Passport it is very clear to me that the Hong Kong authorities knew the United States wanted to exate Snowden from Hong Kong to the United States when Snowden is trying to leave the country and on some madeup pretext misspelling of his middle name or something in the documents that we gave to the Hong Kong police they allowed him to leave and to fly on to Russia is the administration embarrassed now that you can't track him down that he's this cat and mouse game that's going on for all the world to see I think we I've been very clear about uh the actions we've taken we have known where he is and uh believe we know where he is now and uh there are ongoing conversations about that we both sort of just sat there like we really didn't say much until that moment where it actually we were out of the airspace and there was a visible and then that's when we first like sort of had like any real conversation and what did he he asked what did he ask you what uh pretty much his first question was why did you do this why did you risk everything just to help me um I was sort of saying um yeah but you were you were wanting help or something and he said yeah I was wanting help and advice I didn't think that Wikileaks would send like a ninja in to get me out um which was funny enough but then about 2 minutes later like a fly buzzes passed and I just never done it before in my life and I'll probably never do it again but I just went oh that's annoying and literally plucked it out of the air he was like you really are a ninja Sarah's probably the most incredibly Brave woman I know she's somebody who was there through the hardest times uh in a period of incredible risk and she put her life on the line for somebody who was a complete stranger to her there's a lot of information floating around here organize it all for us tell us what's exactly going on we're led to believe that Edward has safely left Hong Kong and is currently in the sky Somewhere over the Russian city of Omsk in an A330 he's du to arrive here we are led to believe at Sher airport later on Sunday that's uh that's all rumor in his at the moment but it's thought that his final destination will not be Moscow at that moment there was a race for the interpretation of what had happened uh so had he left as a fugitive busted through the Hong Kong airport whatever so you had a fugitive on an aane um that was one possible spin that we would see from the media machine uh and it was very important to counter that spin because his whole flight path would have been closed down because countries and Airlines would go oh we can't accept this fugitive on our flight uh so we put out as soon as he was in safe airspace that no uh he had left Hong Kong he left Hong Kong legally uh that he was accompanied by uh legal advisers uh so this uh flight path wouldn't be closed down you can see on this map the flight that has reportedly has snowed in abort has almost reached its destination here in Moscow scheduled to land in the Russian Capital within minutes the plane believed to be carrying Edward Snow touching down in Moscow he's on the run but where will he end up he's not thought to have permission to stay the expectation is that tomorrow he'll get on a plane to Latin America the exact route he'll take is unclear breaking news this hour Wikileaks claims one of its legal advisers accompanying Snowden after the whistleblowing organization secured papers a safe exit an asylum quote in an unnamed Democratic state even if he does find a country willing to offer him Asylum there's no guarantee he'll actually arrive at his desired destination you know the first woman she's just some normal check-in woman you know she's like your passport doesn't work sorry I can't issue your boarding pass we managed to get him out of Hong Kong uh but when he landed in the Moscow airport the um American government had cancelled uh his passport and now they now the Americans make a lot of pressure uh on other countries to stop him you know it was actually really surprising to me to discover that the US cancelled my passport they tried to freeze me in place um when I was in jurisdictions which wouldn't be considered particularly friendly to the United States government that always puzzled me canceling snowden's passport was the first step in an FBI Plan B now they would just need to pick him up in a small Airfield in Manasses Virginia far from prying eyes a former CIA rendition plane prepared for takeoff its mission to transport a fugitive back to the United States but at Moscow airport snowden's escape to Cuba still seemed possible the gate had not yet closed Julian Assange had asked a diplomat from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to accompany Snowden on the flight and protect him on route to secure Asylum the Diplomat just needed to find Snowden at the gate and explained that he now enjoyed diplomatic protection from Ecuador the Ecuadorian Ambassador visited the Sho airport on Sunday and but at Terminal F the presence of hundreds of media people had created Pandemonium the Diplomat couldn't find Snowden Julian Assange began to play switchboard he tried to bring Snowden and Sarah Harrison together with the Diplomat without alerting the Press go to the uh information desk or help desk and asked them to put out an announcement uh asking that Sarah Harrison uh come come to see you though they finally managed to meet the Diplomat could not help Edward Snowden without a valid passport he was not allowed to board the plane the flight to Cuba left without him [Music] um is that a positive sign as far as the US government's concerned that Mr snow did not get on has not gotten on any any airplane we have communicated to the Russians um our hope that they will look at all options available to them to expel Mr Snowden back to the United States just a few hours after Edward Snowden landed in Moscow the US Prisoner Transportation plane landed in Copenhagen waiting on standby was its mission to transport Edward Snowden back to America uh almost as soon as he arrived in Moscow the FBI contacted me I chose to speak to them for for 4 hours as a matter of one of the agents were starting to dose uh I you know nothing you know I I I shared everything I I possibly could I wanted to help back in terminal F the Russian authorities offered Snowden a secret deal he could leave the airport right away on one condition that he agreed to work with the FSB the Russian intelligence service they asked once they had approach I mean it's kind of unimaginable to think that they wouldn't he didn't give anything to the Russians at all and he certainly didn't cooperate with them or give them anything in any way whatsoever um and how do you know I was with him the whole time so I would stake my entire life on the fact that he did not give anything to anybody Russian President Vladimir Putin refused Snowden entry into Russia he and Harrison would have to fend for themselves in the airport's Transit [Music] Zone and then we were in this room for a month she didn't have a window or a [Music] shower uh uh these were representatives from the FBI from the DC area who I I suspect were working very closely at that point with the state department and uh uh you know they they just wanted to talk and they said would you be interested in uh would you consider traveling to Moscow flying to Moscow to meet with your son and I said absolutely they ad mentioned at one point when we were talking about the details and I'm not going to get into too far into specifics uh they had mentioned to me that well you you understand that uh once we get there uh we're going to need to check your son out to make sure he's okay medically and I laughed I said you've got to be kidding it concerns me to hear the things that I've heard about the activities of the FBI at that time uh whether it was their plan to get my father onto an airplane at the Moscow Airport and then use him to sort of lure me onto the plane in this wacky strategy and then sort of Slam shut the door of the airplane and you know fly back to [Applause] DC New Revelations based on snowden's documents were appearing every day throughout Western Europe there was popular support for Edward Snowden and the drama of his flight was on the Nightly News guess if you the answer this one you will be the subject of for many in Europe Snowden deserved protection not a prison cell hopeful that he could harness public opinion and get out of Russia Snowden filed Asylum applications to Western European Democracies 21 of them the state department was making the phones ring in every government office and every European government uh agency um where they had a phone number you know anywhere they had a business card that was sitting in a Rolodex that person got a call and they said this man will not receive asylum in Europe but you would not deny that there have been um conversations and discussions about Mr Snowden his whereabouts and the consequences of I don't think we've at all denied that we've been in contact through a range of diplomatic channels so I think Poland was the first to deny uh followed by France uh Italy said they weren't likely to respond or simply didn't respond the vast majority of European governments did something which I think was particularly illustrative which is they took no position at all all right but so but you you would just object to the characterization that it's bullying or arm twisting is that that is correct yes I think that's clear [Music] a glimmer of hope after living in limbo for weeks Venezuela and Bolivia offered the NSA leaker Asylum after European countries rejected His official request Venezuela came out very strongly we couldn't actually get there because all the Western countries were saying no and not offering any help there was no possibility for safe passage um or to like physically get to Latin America safely [Music] there were several plans to get him out of Moscow we looked at private jets we looked at presidential Jets we had a tip off inside the US Administration that they would be fairly confident about taking down the private jet they'd be a little bit less confident in relation to commercial airliners and they were not very confident at all in relation to a presidential jet with Snowden still stuck in the transit Zone he watched on Russian TV as one of the few presidents of the world prepared to offer him Asylum landed in Moscow president AO Morales of Bolivia had arrived for an international Summit of gas exporting countries just before leaving Moscow evil Morales left no doubt that his country would welcome Snowden if Snowden asks for political Asylum will you give it to him why not given what president Morales had said there is a strong suspicion in within my government that there was at least a possibility that Morales would be happy to take Snowden with him when President Morales left for the airport the FBI thought Snowden might be with him they believe Snowden was was escaping on the presidential [Music] jet according to the Vienna convention a presidential plane enjoys a special diplomatic status it's like a flying piece of territory from the Home Country Bolivian officials said friends in Portugal wouldn't let the Bolivian president's plane land and Refuel on their territories because of rumors that Snowden could have been on board that plane government to government express your concern express your belief why you think this man may be on that plane uh express that to a friend how serious you view the situation and then you ask a friend to take a course of action and apparently they did 19687 well they they said that you don't have permission to enter a French airspace and we tell the control and this is the Diplomatic clear cleanest number and they said well yeah that one was cancelled my government went to other European governments and because of their control over airspace forced the president's plane to land [Music] now again this is absolutely unprecedented I was in my room I was looking at my laptop and I was reading the news and at first I didn't believe it his jet was ultimately forced to land and underwent a sge over rumors whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard I couldn't believe that the United States government would go so far as to ground The Diplomatic jet carrying a head of state to search it for for somebody like me Latin America United with their condemnation social media erupted with claims the US was behind the move and Europe a puppet and that was something was so physical and so obvious it was like the tide going out on the power relations between Western Europe and the United States you could see the underlying power structure the rocks on this Shore that represented the true nature of the relationship because you could see that actually Western Europe wasn't going into B for him at all in fact Western Europe was playing on the other on the other side [Music] [Music] we consciously laid false trails in relation to the Morales flight sometimes there would be you know there would be calls to ambassadors on open telephone lines for example including from this Embassy you know we're trying to split up the surveillance resources uh forc the United States to consider the Morales flight do you think that one could imagine disinformation that's that's that's an in that's an interesting question and I must admit I hadn't considered it before but it's always always a possibility [Music] sure I didn't know that that diversion would end up in such a extraordinary outcome the whole Morales flight also kind of helped the Russian giving him Asylum and it did and it it reinforced the U the image of Snowden as victim Snowden as the pursued yeah so if you were sitting on the other side of the fence to trap the Americans would that have been a wise move I again I hadn't thought of it until you raised it but it's incredibly clever yeah yeah it was I think a crystallizing moment where for everybody even those people like myself who are inclined to believe that the United States government is a fundamentally good Force but when we saw that happen I think everybody went is this the kind of action that good guys take it ended up to be a huge embarrassment yes not as big as the original embarrassment losing all the secrets but yes [Music] Federal migration service has confirmed publicly that they have issued Mr Snowden temporary Asylum for one year and allowed him to leave the airport we are extremely the light physically hurt my eyes and I remember actually standing and staring out of the window there and being like um almost tearful to see the sky you know and it seemed sort of suddenly extraordinarily amazing and beautiful to see all of the sky we are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr Snowden expelled to the United States states to face the charges against him Mr Snowden is not a whistleblower Russian and American relations already strained dropped to their lowest level in years the lack of cooperation between the two great Powers haunts the world until today so many people like me would not contemplate amnesty or plea bargaining or anything else to bring Snowden back there are 100,000 people in the American intelligence Community who didn't violate their oath of office if my government participates in any kind of Welcome Home for Mr Snowden that even even smells of that kind of approach it would alienate this body of people on whom both the safety and the liberty of my nation depends that's not a good [Music] idea anybody who's ever embarrassed a great power is never going to be safe I mean as long as people feel a sense of retaliation as long as people feel like they have to send messages and set examples not to mess with us um denters are going to be at risk to be leaving the airport under those circumstances to have seen everything that had transpired in those two months uh and then just to be struck with what was a completely perfect warm and bright day you know a seasonable day normal life outside you know you you hear uh the birds you know simple things like that um insects traffic it's like stepping into a a larger world [Music] I want to get him uh caught and brought back for trial [Music]

Channel: SLICE Full Doc

Views: 241,885

Keywords: documentary, free documentary, raw, politics, informatics, internet, portrait, information, exile, wikileaks, snowden, julian assange, CIA, espionnage, united states, USA

Id: i4eVRPwq-XI

Length: 57min 53sec (3473 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2024