"I've been a spy almost all of my adult life." - Edward Snowden
“the most massive and most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history.” -Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper
The first principle of creating any cover story is to keep it simple: K.I.S.S. Include as much truth as possible. It is easier to remember and, if there are any minor discrepancies, they will be dismissed as that: minor discrepancies. That is often easier said then done for some subjects. Once the subject begins to embellish parts of the story, he might reveal actual details of his real intentions or parts of the operation.
Worse, having embellished the story, the subject often feels it necessary to continue to do so. Particularly if he believes he might have revealed information that he needs to obfuscate, if there is another incident that may come to light or if he believes that part of his story is receiving positive feed back.
This is the case of Edward Snowden, code name "VERAX". Had Mr. Snowden kept to the simple line of his story, that he had worked for a United States intelligence agency and contractors and realized that there was massive surveillance of it's own citizens, breaking the fourth and fifth amendments, he might have remained an enigma. His possible relationship with a foreign intelligence agency forever obscured behind the façade of a patriot whose life was at risk from his own government for telling "the truth". A heroic figure who had to sacrifice his life and freedom for that of others by escaping into enemy hands.
For some, that myth may remain inviolable to the bitter end. It will not be the first time that this has occurred. Neither is he the first to have claimed to have acted on principles while giving secrets to Russia.
But, Mr. Snowden, while competently carrying out the technical aspects of the operation, failed to maintain the first principle of creating and maintaining a cover story. He embellished, liberally and often. It may be due to the "catastrophic success" he achieved at Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) in Hawaii after long years of variable success at collecting intelligence. Having "accomplished his mission", he had to leave and quickly. It could have been stress, fear or any number of reasons.
In any case, Mr. Snowden provided an extensive interview and then went on with another, where his claims became increasingly paranoid and volumnous. One, which in hindsight, appears to have been poorly managed by his contacts as Mr. Snowden's actual personality, a young man who could not resist bragging or embellishing his escapades, bled through his scripted talking points. Fortunately, Mr. Snowden was whisked off to a private residence, guarded by Hong Kong police and then, per reports, the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong.
Finally arriving in Moscow, well insulated from the public, Mr. Snowden's interviews have become further and far between, almost all carried out through encrypted chat and only given to sympathetic reporters.
If it had not been for his statements regarding alleged events in Geneva, the key moment that Snowden claims to have "hardened him" to the decision to steal information, other events would have passed with little public notice. Snowden alleges:
After the many allegations about extensive United States surveillance programs that allegedly spy on everyone on the planet, this seems entirely plausible. He also claimed that Chinese Triads were likely being dispatched from the Hong Kong CIA consulate to kill him among other claims of possibly being "disappeared" or other wise harmed.
The problem with these claims is that Mr. Snowden has an untold number of documents either in his possession or given to other people and foreign agencies already, so killing him would be moot and likely counter productive to discovering the extent of the documentation and people involved. Second, he is a very public person now, so he must be aware that being "disappeared" would not go unnoticed and cause a worse scandal. Despite any hyperbolic and legitimately angry statements from anonymous intelligence and security "officials" who now had to fear that their names were known, their lives endangered and possibly those of many colleagues, contacts and military personnel around the world.
Before examining the reasons for Mr. Snowden's hyperbolic claims, it would seem important to discover where Mr. Snowden may have actually witnessed the "drunk driving banker" event. According to his girlfriend's now defunct blog, one of their favored past times was to watch film noir and classic spy movies. She is even featured in her self-portraits as the nearly naked spy and often referred to Snowden as her "Mystery Man" or simply "E". This love of everything "spy" probably accounts for the numerous behaviors Mr. Snowden attempts to show as his "spy craft" .
Among these include the use of a Rubik's Cube as a signal to reporters who are supposed to meet him in Hong Kong for the stolen documents. A scene most recently portrayed in the Clive Owens, Julia Roberts, 2009, romantic spy thriller, "Duplicity". The Chinese Triad and secret agents features in too many movies to determine it's origination. However, the drunken banker ploy was made most famous in the 1959, Alfred Hitchcock, classic spy movie, North by Northwest, featuring Carrie Grant.
This, of course, does not prove that Mr. Snowden did anything wrong besides embellish what would have been an already decent cover story of a man suffering a "crisis of conscience" as he performed his duties and realized the extent of "massive surveillance". Except that he didn't, even though his position as a communications officer exposed him to parts of the system, and he appears to have traveled throughout Europe in this capacity. He did not have any idea exactly how wide the surveillance was because he did not have complete access. That would require moving to another post and then another, becoming a system administrator and acquiring skills along the way.
Skills he honed at each station. Skills he used at each station to collect information. What he did with that earlier information is yet to be discovered.
Mr. Snowden had to tell this story about Geneva because he had to know a full investigation, back tracking each of his stations, would reveal his activities in Geneva, and his adventures in Japan. Geneva occurring fully four years before the 2013 heist of an estimated 1.7 million documents.
He stated that his time in Geneva had "hardened" him, claiming that he had already had documents he could have released in 2008, :
A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama's promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor.
Having called out this period of time to the public's attention and further imbued it with significance, embellishing what should have been a straight forward presentation of events, Mr. Snowden broke the first principles of a cover story and provided a clue where to begin looking for his actual motives: November, 2008.
This blog will show, Mr. Snowden, having worked approximately 1.5 years in the field with the CIA, gave the newly elected president less than four months from election and approximately four weeks from swearing in on January 20, 2009, to attempt to change these allegedly objectionable intelligence policies for the good of America. Four weeks before actively working to steal the first cache of intelligence and being sent back to the US, April 2009. Then Mr. Snowden spent the next three years going from one significant "listening post" to another, obtaining information, even though he allegedly does not approach any reporter or Wikileaks until December 2012.
Instead of a "crisis of conscience", Mr. Snowden may have had a much more mundane crisis on his hands.
“the most massive and most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history.” -Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper
The first principle of creating any cover story is to keep it simple: K.I.S.S. Include as much truth as possible. It is easier to remember and, if there are any minor discrepancies, they will be dismissed as that: minor discrepancies. That is often easier said then done for some subjects. Once the subject begins to embellish parts of the story, he might reveal actual details of his real intentions or parts of the operation.
Worse, having embellished the story, the subject often feels it necessary to continue to do so. Particularly if he believes he might have revealed information that he needs to obfuscate, if there is another incident that may come to light or if he believes that part of his story is receiving positive feed back.
This is the case of Edward Snowden, code name "VERAX". Had Mr. Snowden kept to the simple line of his story, that he had worked for a United States intelligence agency and contractors and realized that there was massive surveillance of it's own citizens, breaking the fourth and fifth amendments, he might have remained an enigma. His possible relationship with a foreign intelligence agency forever obscured behind the façade of a patriot whose life was at risk from his own government for telling "the truth". A heroic figure who had to sacrifice his life and freedom for that of others by escaping into enemy hands.
For some, that myth may remain inviolable to the bitter end. It will not be the first time that this has occurred. Neither is he the first to have claimed to have acted on principles while giving secrets to Russia.
But, Mr. Snowden, while competently carrying out the technical aspects of the operation, failed to maintain the first principle of creating and maintaining a cover story. He embellished, liberally and often. It may be due to the "catastrophic success" he achieved at Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) in Hawaii after long years of variable success at collecting intelligence. Having "accomplished his mission", he had to leave and quickly. It could have been stress, fear or any number of reasons.
In any case, Mr. Snowden provided an extensive interview and then went on with another, where his claims became increasingly paranoid and volumnous. One, which in hindsight, appears to have been poorly managed by his contacts as Mr. Snowden's actual personality, a young man who could not resist bragging or embellishing his escapades, bled through his scripted talking points. Fortunately, Mr. Snowden was whisked off to a private residence, guarded by Hong Kong police and then, per reports, the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong.
Finally arriving in Moscow, well insulated from the public, Mr. Snowden's interviews have become further and far between, almost all carried out through encrypted chat and only given to sympathetic reporters.
If it had not been for his statements regarding alleged events in Geneva, the key moment that Snowden claims to have "hardened him" to the decision to steal information, other events would have passed with little public notice. Snowden alleges:
In an attempt to learn secret financial information, Snowden alleged that undercover CIA agents would get the banker drunk and "encourage" him to drive home in his car. When the banker was eventually arrested for drunk driving, the CIA operatives offered to help him out of the jam, paving the way for recruitment as a source.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," Snowden told The Guardian. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
After the many allegations about extensive United States surveillance programs that allegedly spy on everyone on the planet, this seems entirely plausible. He also claimed that Chinese Triads were likely being dispatched from the Hong Kong CIA consulate to kill him among other claims of possibly being "disappeared" or other wise harmed.
The problem with these claims is that Mr. Snowden has an untold number of documents either in his possession or given to other people and foreign agencies already, so killing him would be moot and likely counter productive to discovering the extent of the documentation and people involved. Second, he is a very public person now, so he must be aware that being "disappeared" would not go unnoticed and cause a worse scandal. Despite any hyperbolic and legitimately angry statements from anonymous intelligence and security "officials" who now had to fear that their names were known, their lives endangered and possibly those of many colleagues, contacts and military personnel around the world.
Before examining the reasons for Mr. Snowden's hyperbolic claims, it would seem important to discover where Mr. Snowden may have actually witnessed the "drunk driving banker" event. According to his girlfriend's now defunct blog, one of their favored past times was to watch film noir and classic spy movies. She is even featured in her self-portraits as the nearly naked spy and often referred to Snowden as her "Mystery Man" or simply "E". This love of everything "spy" probably accounts for the numerous behaviors Mr. Snowden attempts to show as his "spy craft" .
Among these include the use of a Rubik's Cube as a signal to reporters who are supposed to meet him in Hong Kong for the stolen documents. A scene most recently portrayed in the Clive Owens, Julia Roberts, 2009, romantic spy thriller, "Duplicity". The Chinese Triad and secret agents features in too many movies to determine it's origination. However, the drunken banker ploy was made most famous in the 1959, Alfred Hitchcock, classic spy movie, North by Northwest, featuring Carrie Grant.
This, of course, does not prove that Mr. Snowden did anything wrong besides embellish what would have been an already decent cover story of a man suffering a "crisis of conscience" as he performed his duties and realized the extent of "massive surveillance". Except that he didn't, even though his position as a communications officer exposed him to parts of the system, and he appears to have traveled throughout Europe in this capacity. He did not have any idea exactly how wide the surveillance was because he did not have complete access. That would require moving to another post and then another, becoming a system administrator and acquiring skills along the way.
Skills he honed at each station. Skills he used at each station to collect information. What he did with that earlier information is yet to be discovered.
Mr. Snowden had to tell this story about Geneva because he had to know a full investigation, back tracking each of his stations, would reveal his activities in Geneva, and his adventures in Japan. Geneva occurring fully four years before the 2013 heist of an estimated 1.7 million documents.
He stated that his time in Geneva had "hardened" him, claiming that he had already had documents he could have released in 2008, :
A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama's promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor.
Having called out this period of time to the public's attention and further imbued it with significance, embellishing what should have been a straight forward presentation of events, Mr. Snowden broke the first principles of a cover story and provided a clue where to begin looking for his actual motives: November, 2008.
This blog will show, Mr. Snowden, having worked approximately 1.5 years in the field with the CIA, gave the newly elected president less than four months from election and approximately four weeks from swearing in on January 20, 2009, to attempt to change these allegedly objectionable intelligence policies for the good of America. Four weeks before actively working to steal the first cache of intelligence and being sent back to the US, April 2009. Then Mr. Snowden spent the next three years going from one significant "listening post" to another, obtaining information, even though he allegedly does not approach any reporter or Wikileaks until December 2012.
Old Ones, Sages, Great Minds of the Hive; I pray for your wisdom.
This seems like it should be a reasonably simple question, but I admit that I am ignorant of almost all things virtualized.
TL;DR: How do you launch a VM from a LiveCD? The goal here is to be able to bring a LiveCD (Virus/Malware/Keylogger-free VM-launching platform) and a USB drive (VM Image) to any given computer and be able to your work through the VM without leaving anything behind on the physical host machine.
Follow-on: Are there any software packages out there that support this functionality out of the box?
Thank you for your help.
-TTH
Instead of a "crisis of conscience", Mr. Snowden may have had a much more mundane crisis on his hands.
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