Code Name "VERAX": Snowden Uncovered - Spy Wars and the Internet 2009

In the Beginning....

 

It was 2006.  Edward Snowden had just started his career as "a spy", landing a job with the CIA as a Communications Officer.  Laura Poitras was making a name as a controversial film maker, her film "My Country, My Country", a view from the other side of the Iraq War, had been nominated for an Academy Award.  Glenn Greenwald was still a vociferous and controversial blogger who took regular and virulent swings at American politics, politicians and policy, most particularly over the Iraq War.  Julian Assange had just organized Wikileaks, a site that was ostensibly created to expose corruption within any government, advocating for open societies. 

All of these actors come to the fore just as the first shots were being fired in what would be a long, hot and very visible war between Russian, American, British and Israeli intelligence agencies with the occasional appearance of the Chinese and Iranians.  The covert/overt war of diplomatic/intelligence officers would span across multiple countries and, at times, become deadly.


It appears to begin with the murders of two Russian citizens.  One, a journalist who had risked life and limb to expose the very ugly and less reported side of the second war in Chechnya as well as the general corruption that was eating at the core of Russia's teetering democracy.  Anna Politkovskaya was a crusader in every sense of the word.  Friends and colleagues called her "fearless".  She had created very powerful enemies who swore to see her dead and she had even predicted her own murder.

Politkovskaya was found shot to death in the lift of her apartments in Moscow, October 7, 2006 with one shot in the shoulder, two in the chest and one shot to the head.  The gun was left with her body, a known mark of Russian Mafia and KGB/FSB hits. 

The other, Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and defector from Russia that had publicly accused his superiors of ordering the assassination of a Russian oligarch as well as orchestrating the 1999 bombing of apartment buildings in order to bring Vladimir Putin to power.  The apartment bombings were the pretext for the Second War in Chechnya that effectively ended the brief independence of the once break away Soviet/Russian Federation state. 

After Politkovskaya's obvious assassination, Litvinenko went on to publicly accuse Putin of ordering the murder.  He was assassinated a short month later in London, England using Polonium 210, also a calling card of the once feared KGB/FSB. 
 

October 7, 2006 Moscow - Anna Politkovskaya, journalist, born 1958; died October 7 2006

November 2006 London - Death of a Defector, Alexander Litvinenko, Accused FSB of Complicity in 1999 Moscow Bombing and Politkovskaya's death

 

Russia was never going to let Chechnya go.  A brief glance at a map shows the small state that abuts Georgia, along with Ingushetia, also covers half of the relatively narrow southern egress into Russia, between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.  Any country that owns that or can claim a relationship with those countries, owns Russia's southern defense.  Any country that sits on that tuft of land also controls part of the access to Russia's major oil and natural gas fields along with refineries, railroads and pipelines.  Without those resources, without secure transit routes, the Russian economy, 50% or more of which rests on those resources, would be threatened or at risk constantly. 
 

June 24, 2007 Moscow- Hermitage Capital Hedge Fund Raided For Alleged Tax Evasion (The beginning of Magnitsky)

 

Hermitage Capital was a British owned company that, like many, had come into Russia to take advantage of its ongoing privatization program that also allowed greater foreign investment in Russian companies.  It is also one of many "foreign" organizations that came under attack in Russia for "tax evasion" that include NGOs and government sponsored programs like The British Council that ostensibly fosters cultural and educational exchanges between countries.  Many were forced to close their doors by order of the government under this pre-text.

 

The use of "tax evasion" as a legal weapon against foreign NGOs and foreign companies was the first major activity by the Russian government to rein in any potential opposition or interaction with "foreign agents" that might present a challenge to Putin and his allies growing strangle hold on the government, politics and economy of Russia. 

 

The British government alleged that this was in response to their continued efforts to have the alleged murderer of Litveninko extradited.
 

July 16, 2007 London- Britain Expels Russian Diplomats; Russia Refuses to Extradite Suspect in Litvinenko Murder

July 17, 2007 Moscow- Russia expels 4 British diplomats as row escalates

 

The Caucasus

 

The United States and allies support for the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the ongoing discussions of Georgia joining NATO was another thorn in Russia's bearish claw.  One that came to a head in 2008 when Saakashvili, for reasons that are still not well explained (provoked or provoking), began shelling Ossetia, a break away independent area of Georgia that had long been under Russia's patronage and protection.  

 

Ossetia and Abkhazia presented two areas where Russia was able to keep Georgia weak and divided.    Again, a quick look at a map shows why Russia would deem this a necessity.  The Black Sea.  Trade routes.  Resources.  Southern egress.  It's been Russia's bane since the first Muscovite Princes began imagining a country that extended beyond the environs of Moscow.

 

In the midst of this, the United States and Western allies were at war in Afghanistan and making deals with countries on Russia's flank at the intersection between Russia and China, ostensible allies in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), meant to be an off set to NATO in the east.  At the same time, the US and allies were in Iraq, having taken out one of Russia's long time clients in the Middle East while ostensibly threatening Iran's southern border.  Iran being a Russian strategic and trade partner just across, and sharing resources and security of, the Caspian Sea. 

 

For the Russians, especially Vladimir Putin, a student of the Cold War and last of the Cold Warrior class, this looked like a continuation of the old game.  Worse, after the fall of the Soviet Empire, a continuing humiliation and no offers of friendship, partnership, economic benefits or other wise  was going to make that sting go away.  Particularly for a nuclear country that had once been a large and relevant player on the international stage.  A Great Power, now relegated to playing not second, but third chair to even Russia's ostensible strategic partner China.

 

Russia's relationship with the West was slowly growing cooler and Putin, who had set himself a course to re-establish Russia's place among the Powers, would brook no challenge to his position or goals.  That meant sending a very public, bloody and direct message to the West and to any of his internal enemies that might present a challenge: the obvious assassinations of Politkovskaya, an internationally known reporter, in Moscow and Litvinenko on British soil.

Turning Cold

Edward Snowden, when viewed within the context of the bigger picture, becomes less of an enigma, less surprising and much less than the icon of freedom and privacy that his interlocutors presented him to be. 

By 2009, the relationship between the United States, its allies and Russia had greatly deteriorated.   President Obama, in remarks made July 2009, called for a "Re-set" to American-Russo relationship.  As President Obama was being sworn into office, January 2009, the United States was in negotiations with Kyrgyzstan regarding continuing the lease for Manas Air Base, a significant weigh point for US military personnel and supplies on the way to Afghanistan.  The United States had already been forced to abandon it's Uzbekistan transit point after the massacre of civilians by state forces at Andijan in 2005. 

The government of Kyrgyzstan, under apparent pressure from Moscow and China, had voted in February 2009 to close the Transit Center Manas.  February 6, 2009, Putin stated that Russia would allow the over flight of US military air planes, but only troops and non-lethal supplies.  On February 18, 2009, President Obama ordered the troop surge into Afghanistan that was planned as an effort to greatly improve security in Afghanistan and allow the US too increase the pace of training of Afghanistan security personnel in the police and army.  President Obama in his campaign speeches had made no secret that he planned to remove US forces from both Iraq and Afghanistan at the earliest opportunity.

By placing constraints on what the US military could fly in and out of Russian air space, Putin not only sought to insure Russia's own security, but effectively manage the pace and ability of US forces to succeed in Afghanistan.  The southern route through Peshawar, Pakistan was constantly under attack with supplies often destroyed while still in Pakistan.   Pakistan had closed the Khyber Pass route to Afghanistan several times due to political differences with the US over continued activities in Pakistan's air space and continuing security problems along the route. 

In January 2009, Pakistan had closed the Khyber Pass citing security issues and had only opened it for a few hours each day.  Pakistan's military conducted several operations in the area attempting to clear out Taliban and any local tribesmen who had been participating in the attacks.  The continued threat to that route as well as US military logistic planning for the Afghan operations demanded a second route, but, without the ability to move weapons and ammunition through both routes along with all other supplies, the closing of Khyber Pass could effectively halt or hold US and NATO operations hostage to the political whims of Karachi or the active operations of the Taliban along the pass.

In effect, Russia was holding the Afghanistan operation hostage, possibly with unknown relationships or collusion with the military government and intelligence forces in Pakistan.   The United States and Kyrgyzstan continued negotiations for the lease of the base until reaching an agreement for $200 million per year, three times more than the original lease agreement of $60 million. 

November 27, 2008 Moscow- Sergei Magnitsky, Russian Lawyer for UK Investment Firm, Arrested in Moscow after pushing an investigation into the tax fraud perpetrated by Russian officials after the Hermitage raid

December 28, 2008 Moscow- The British diplomat who ran over Russian spy in bizarre Moscow car accident

The accident threatens to reopen a simmering diplomatic row between London and Moscow which has seen British officials intimidated and institutions closed.

Andrew Sheridan, 35, told police he was driving his official Ford Mondeo on General Dorokhov Street in western Moscow when the pedestrian walked out from behind a parked car, giving him no time to stop.

The Russians later revealed that the man he hit, causing head injuries and a broken leg, was a colonel in the FSB, the successor to the KGB.

He was named as Alexander T, 38, apparently to help to hide his identity. He works for an elite academy training agents for frontline duties, including securing borders.

Mr Sheridan is deputy director of the British Council in Moscow, which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called a front for ‘a nest of spies’, something the Foreign Office denies.

Mr Sheridan also has diplomatic immunity and cannot be prosecuted. His wife Ekaterina, 31, also works for the British Council in Moscow. She went to a Red Army military school in Cuba and Manchester University.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘This was an unfortunate traffic accident. I don’t think you need to read more into it.’ The FSB yesterday refused to comment.

Meanwhile, In Geneva...

 

Meanwhile, back in Geneva, Snowden reported that he already had information that he "could have" released in 2008.  Based on his own reporting of activities in his Ars Technica posts, he may have began copying files as early as August 2007.  According to Lucas Harding's book, The Snowden Files, Snowden had reported several run ins with a senior supervisor over the period of 2008 for unspecified reasons.  During that period of time, Snowden had been speaking with an intern about the "stresses and burdens" of his job.  Snowden had also switched from passively investing in the stock market, something he reported as early as 2006 in his Ars Technica posts, to aggressively playing the Inverted Exchange Market. 

By October 2008, he was spending a great deal of time watching his investments, often reporting losses of up to $20,000 a day then returning to crow about his gains, reporting in December of 2008 "Money, BITCHES!". 

January 19, 2009 Moscow- Stanislav Markelov, human rights lawyer, who worked with Anna Politkovskaya, is shot dead in public leaving a press conference only blocks from the Kremlin

However, by January 2009, the stock market began a rapid recovery and the Inverted Markets began to rapidly lose value.  In early February 2009, Snowden's Ars Technica posts had taken on a more aggressive and angry tone, switching from actively defending US intelligence activities and angry at reported leaks, to exclaiming:

"Too bad the [Australian] government is luddite technophobes... USA FUCK YEAH... WE LOVE THAT TECHNOLOGY SHIT. HELPS US SPY ON OUR CITIZENS BETTER."

He had placed a request on Ars Technica, February 14, 2009, for information and assistance on creating a "Virtual Machine within a machine" and on February 16, 2009 he thanked people on Ars Technica for directing him to Sanbarrow for VMware On the Road. 

Some where during this time, according to Lucas Harding's book, The Snowden Files, Snowden received a "derogatory report" from the senior supervisor he had previous run ins with; this time because Snowden had reportedly placed "non-malicious code" in the CIA's online personnel file.  According to Snowden, this was to show that the personnel file had security weaknesses that could be easily exploited.  He reported that he had discovered this while filling out his own part of his yearly evaluation and that he had been given permission to explore this by his immediate supervisor (unnamed). 

The senior supervisor (also unnamed) reprimanded both Snowden and his immediate supervisor and, according to one report, Snowden was "sent home" although it was suggested by Snowden that he voluntarily resigned (The Snowden Files, Lucas Harding).  The same report that said Snowden was "sent home" said that the derogatory report was being put in his file just as Snowden was "preparing to leave Geneva".  The order of that process is yet to be clarified.  However, on February 17, 2009, Snowden enters a one word comment on Ars Technica: "FUCK!"

By the end of February 2009, Snowden is back in the United States, had applied for summer classes at the University of Maryland University College Asia and may have already had a position with Dell as a contractor for it's Japan site. 

His last post before a long dry spell on Ars Technica:

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:24 pm
Alright guys, it’s precisely that time of year (well, maybe a little late, but this is Ars) at which everyone gets insecure about being in summer shape.<BR><BR>Anybody want to commit to an Arsian round of P90X? Suggest a shared date window of ~May 1 – July 31, if there’s interest.

March 2009 Did Vladimir Putin meet Ronald Reagan as an undercover KGB man?

March 2009 Prague- Victory for Czech peace protesters over US military radar, part of global missile defense system (Czech Secret Service Report alleges Russian SVR Behind Protests)

April 11, 2009 Belgium- NATO expels Russian diplomats from HQ in spy row

May 6, 2009 Moscow- Russia to expel Canadian diplomats, retaliation after NATO expulsions

May 25, 2009 London- MI6 foil Russian plot to kill Akhmad Zakayev, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechnya Republic of Ichkeria, in UK

 

By June 2009, Snowden was in Japan and attending classes at UMUC Asia.  Based on reporting of his future job titles, he was likely in the computer sciences certificate program for Network Administrators that included interconnecting Cisco devices and installing and configuring Windows Servers.  Although his activity on Ars technical appears to be sparse during this period, he may have been on other IRC chats that have not been publicized or on other forums.  Snowden's handle, "TheTrueHOOHA" appears on LARP (live action role playing) games sites. 

 

Snowden's Dell contract placed him in Japan at a joint NSA/British GCHQ listening post, one of several major listening posts in Europe and Asia. 
 

Back in Moscow

On July 7, 2009, President Obama was in Moscow at the New School of Economics to give the keynote speech.  In it he called on Russia to move on from it's "Cold War" political mentality and give up interfering in neighboring countries' political affairs, a direct challenge after the events in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. 

"In 2009, the great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries. The days when empires could treat other sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over," he said.

President Obama made direct references to the Magnitsky incident by calling out the corruption and crime rampant in Russia's government and suggested that real democracies have remedies for this because it allows people to actually change their government and the people within. 

Somewhere in the Near East...

In Iran, the Green Movement had been protesting on the streets, bitterly opposing the June 12, 2009 presidential election that had President Ahmadinejad winning by a land slide.  Opposition that had supported Mousavi, considered the more moderate candidate, accused Ahmadinejad and associates of rigging the vote.  The largely peaceful protests were put down with extreme prejudice, violence carried out by both state authorities and irregular militia known as "The Basij", loyal to the Iranian government. 

June 21, 2009 Counterpunch issues an article listing previous articles and comments from anonymous and known US officials regarding "destabilization operations" by US against Iran in conjunction with sanctions.

 

The United States has not had an embassy in Iran since the 1979 hostage crisis.  Britain and Switzerland have been designated interlocutors for the United States for more than three decades.  The United States did not make any public remarks regarding Iran's protest movement.  President Obama was hesitant to give any impression that the US was involved with or outwardly supporting the movement.  The administration, for that matter, may have been surprised at the size and scope of the protests, larger than any seen since the 1979 revolution. 

June 22, 2009 Tehran- Iran expels British diplomats, refuses new election

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran expelled two British diplomats Tuesday after bitterly accusing Britain of meddling and spying. The government also dealt a fresh blow to the opposition by making clear it will not hold a new vote despite charges of fraud

 

June 23, 2009 London- Britain expels two Iranian diplomats in tit-for-tat response

Britain has ordered the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats, in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of two British diplomats from Tehran.

News of the expulsions came as Barack Obama for the first time condemned the violence in Iran, saying the international community was "appalled and outraged" by Tehran's crackdown on protesters.


The Green Movement in Iran was one of the first large scale protest movements in the Middle East to use social media as a tool to publish "citizen journalism", to inform the world of what was going on inside Iran where media and the internet were heavily censored and monitored.  Several methods were used to circumvent filters placed on the internet including dial up connections and VPNs.  As fast as the Iranian government could find these connections and shut them down, other connections, numbers, proxy portals and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) were floating through cyber-space. 

TOR and Psiphon, two encryption projects funded by the United States, were used by activists to by-pass filters, sending the information, videos and pictures out to other activists outside of Iran, including in Europe and the United States.  These became the window for the world into the Iranian protests and the violent repression that ensued.  Other programs like Haystack, that was released in beta format and soon floating free on the Iranian internet, were quickly being spun up to circumvent detection and censorship. 

Iranian dissidents used these programs to log onto Facebook, Twitter and blogs, send emails and other private chats that coordinated activities, warned dissidents about dangerous areas or events and helped motivate others to come into the streets.  Of course, these were only tools and not everyone who came into the streets protesting Iran's rigged elections were motivated by online activities, but the internet had become a force multiplier where every one user could share with one to a hundred others in the virtual spaces as well as real life. 

This was not the first protest organized by internet, but it was the largest to date in a country with a repressive regime.  It was also one of the first internet driven protests to threaten the stability of a repressive regime. 

A Hot Cold War

 

July 10, 2009 Moscow- British diplomat James Hudson resigns over Russian 'brothel' video (FSB "honey trap")

 

July 15, 2009 Chechnya- Natalya Estemirova, Human Rights Activists in Chechnya, abducted and found murdered in Ingushetia, three hours away at the village of Gazi-Yurt

 

Estemirova was occasionally printed in one of Russia's best known independent papers, Novaya Gazeta, and was known to have worked with Anna Politkovskaya and Stanislav Markelov reporting human rights abuses in Chechnya.  Gazi-Yurt in Ingushetia is a suspected weigh point for Islamist separatists who "go into the mountains" to join other militants.  On September 11, 2009, Russia used Estemirova's murder as a pretext to enforcing a "new counter-terror regime" in the area. 
 

July 24, 2009 Finland- MV Arctic Sea High Jacked En-route To Algeria, Suspect Cargo of Missiles for Iran

July 25, 2009 Moscow- The expulsion of Russian diplomats from Georgia and Ukraine will not go unanswered

August 11, 2009 Moscow- Kyle Hatcher, Third Secretary for the State Department, Identified on Russian Television as Diplomat Involved in Sex Scandal (FSB "Honey trap"); Russia Says He Is CIA, US Protests against 'fake video'

 

John Beyrle, US Ambassador to Russia claims the video is a faked montage of many different people and events that are not Kyle Hatcher.  Kyle Hatcher, as Third Secretary, works with many Russian charities and NGOs.  Most particularly, has met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and its related charities. 

 

Ambassador Beyrle was working on negotiations with Russia regarding the "global missile defense system" under President Bush and, under President Obama's "Russia Re-set", has begun preliminary negotiations on the new START treaty for nuclear disarmament.  He is also the first US ambassador to use his own blog, in Russian, to speak directly to the Russian people. 
 

August 17, 2009 Prague- Czech Republic expels two Russian diplomats (suspected SVR, agitation)

September 10, 2009 Moscow- Netanyahu visits Moscow in secret to obstruct Iran missile sale

 

September 11, 2009 Washington, D.C. - Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Remarks Upon Receipt of the Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Award at the Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Medals Gala Dinner

Freedom of expression, for example, is no longer just defined by whether citizens can go to the town square, or the town hall, and criticize their government without fear of retribution. Advances in technology, from email and blogs to Twitter and text messaging, have opened up new forums for exercising free speech, and created new targets for those who would suppress the open exchange of knowledge and ideas.

 

Often, as we deal with these problems in the State Department now, we see that human rights defenders, civil society advocates, bloggers, and journalists are now being targeted for harassment and prosecution, even murder.

We see the continuing imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi, the recipient in absentia of the Freedom from Fear Award in 2006. We see the murders of journalists in Russia who are trying to expose the truth of criminal activity and governmental misconduct. We see Iran using arbitrary arrests to detain nearly 4,000 people for voicing or reporting complaints about the conduct of recent elections. And then we see the consequences of what happens in Venezuela or China, or elsewhere, when people believe that they are just exercising the universal right to speak and be heard.
 

Just weeks ago, an award-winning journalist and human rights activist was abducted and shot to death while investigating human rights violations in Chechnya. And while I welcome Russian President Medvedev's pledge to foster independent media, actions speak louder than words. Dozens of journalists have been killed in Russia in the last decade. Most of the murders are unsolved. Those responsible for such crimes should be brought to justice. And we in the United States have to stand firmly on the side of those who speak out. (Applause.)
 

List of reporters killed in Russia since the first Putin administration.  2006, 2009, and 2010 are particularly deadly years.  Reporters and related staff reporting from or about Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia are among the highest casualties.  Other reporters or staff involved in investigating government corruption or crime are also targeted.  Of interest among the few outliers are reporters killed in Kalingrad, a Russian exclave cut out from between Poland and Lithuania that gives Russia one of its other few ice free ports to seas outside of its landlocked geography. 

 

Kalingrad became a point of controversy over proposed deployment of US missile defense system in Poland beginning 2007 with Russia suggesting such a move would see Russian missiles stationed in Kalingrad.  In November 2008, then President Medvedev said that installing missiles was almost certain.  The plan was suspended in January 2009.     

September 24, 2009 Moscow- Czech diplomats to be expelled (from Russia) in tit-for-tat action (post report on Russian SVR agitation in anti-radar protests and expulsion from Czechoslovakia)

 

October 2009 Wikileaks Posts Joint Services Protocol 440[edit] (GCHQ)

In October 2009, Joint Services Protocol 440, a 2,400-page restricted document written in 2001 by the British Ministry of Defence was leaked. It contained instructions for the security services on how to avoid leaks of information by hackers, journalists, and foreign spies.^[75][76

October 1, 2009 Moscow - Russia expels Israeli diplomat for "activities incompatible with his diplomatic status" (espionage; Israeli TV shows video of 3 "diplomats" caught in Russian "honey trap" including Kyle Hatcher and James Hudson)

October 8, 2009 London- Newly released book "In Defense of the Realm", details MI5 history including details of a British spy for the KGB, a well known public figure, Jack Jones, long time head of the British Labour Unions; interview with KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky.

October 18, 2009 Moscow - Sergei Magnitsky provides final testimony regarding criminal activity and abuse of Russian Officials; by some irony of Russian fate, the investigating prosecutor's name is Gordievsky.

October 27, 2009 Moscow- Russian Officials Predict Swift End to Diplomatic Crisis with Britain

 

On Thursday, President Putin called the diplomatic row with Britain a mini-crisis that should soon end.

 

The Russian leader says his country is interested in developing relations with Britain, but he says the two countries need to coordinate their actions based on common sense, respect for the law, and the interests of the partners.  He says that then everything will turn out for the best

October 27, 2009 United States- Jacob Appelbaum joins TOR Project as a researcher, advocate

November 3, 2009 Moscow- Ex-KGB spy killed in drive-by shooting; convicted of spying on Israel

MOSCOW - A Russian businessman who had been convicted in Israel of being a KGB spy was shot to death in Moscow yesterday, police said.

 

November 16, 2009 Moscow- Sergei Magnitsky is found dead in his cell after suffering numerous beatings, torture and untreated serious illnesses, held without trial. 

 

November 25, 2009 Wikileaks posts 570,000 pager messages intercepted on September 11, 2001.  (NSA Database)

 WikiLeaks released 570,000 intercepts of pager messages sent on the day of the September 11 attacks.^[77][78][79] Chelsea Manning (see below) commented that those were from an NSA database.^[80][81] Among the released messages are communications between Pentagon officials and New York City Police Department.^[82]

 

 

Meanwhile, in Japan, Snowden returns Ars Technica regular forums 

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:30 am

You’ve got to love how this guy doesn’t realize you can pirate console games even more easily than you can PC games. And if you pirate a console game, you get free multiplayer, as well (since there’s generally no CD key).<;BR>;<;BR>;Additionally: <;BR>;<;BR>;Gears of War? Halo? Are you serious? As if those …

Snowden may have, and was likely to have, been using other communication forums including IRC chats through other channels.  Many of his other activities reported while in Geneva were on Ars Technica IRC chat logs for #arsificial, a "backroom", unmoderated chat channel used by members.  Other chat logs may exist, but have not been brought forward and published publicly. 

What is known is that Snowden would have completed his certificate training at UMUC Asia by this time, either before or while already employed at Dell as a contractor at the joint NSA/GCHQ listening post. 

Somewhere in Baghdad

Late November Bradly (Chelsea) Manning, seeing the 570k leaked pager messages from 9/11 makes first contact with the person Manning believes to be Assange through IRC chat logs.  UPDATE:  Per comments below, Manning testified that he only began to "review" WLO website in November and later to monitor the chats, not make contact as the chat logs suggest.  See next update.

Beirut, Lebanon: Freedom and Anonymity

December 2, 2009 Jacob Appelbaum Presents TOR for Arab Bloggers

The second annual Arab Bloggers Workshop is currently taking place in Beirut, Lebanon (see other blog posts here); the Workshop consists of various presentations and smaller workshops on topics ranging from “Arab techies” to online campaigns to anonymity and circumvention technologies. Today, Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror on Twitter) of Tor gave a presentation on how to select the right circumvention tool, as well as specific information on the project for which he works.

Into 2010

On December 20, 2009 Bradley (Chelsea) Manning has a confrontation with his supervisors over his activities and behavior.  Less than a month later  Update:  Per comments below, February 21, 2009, Manning will leak tens of thousands of documents including a classified intelligence threat assessment report on Wikileaks by the DoD .  Documents not released by Wikileaks on their site will be transferred to Belarusian president Lukeshenko and sympathetic or government owned media that includes the names and connections of opposition leaders in the democracy movement. 

The United States is about to expose a Russian Spy Ring that has been operating in the United States for nearly ten years including notorious spy, Anna Chapman.  The spy ring includes "scouts" whose job is to locate potential marks that can be spied on or who may be turned in the future. 

Snowden, after long silences will post on Ars Technica, "Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types."

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, January 2010, Newseum: Internet Freedom

Special recognition to the website 4Law for several of the "spy" references re: Israel/Mossad and British MI6 in Moscow

Also, Catherine Fitzpatrick whose blog and work at the Interpreter, along with several twitter discussions, referencing the Magnitsky case as important to other separate events in Russia and the United States had brought my attention to his case.   

Read Also:

Code Name "VERAX": Snowden Uncovered - In Context (The Big Picture)

Code Name "VERAX": Snowden Uncovered - The Geneva Decision

Code Name "VERAX": Snowden Uncovered (the movie-esque quality of Snowden Spy Craft)

Code Name "VERAX": Snowden Uncovered - Administrative Discharge

Idiot Wind: A Compendium of Snowden, WikiLeaks, Greenwald, Poitras and Appelbaum Topics

Ed v. Ed or How to Think About the Snowden Operation

Russian Intelligence is Behind the Snowden Show: German Intelligence

On Snowden and Coincidences

The End of the Snowden Operation

Edward Lucas:  The New Cold War

Edward Lucas: The Snowden Operation

Catherine Fitzpatrick: Privacy For Me and Not For Thee (Wikileaks and the Snowden Operation)