Terminal F: Chasing Edward Snowden
In late June of 2013, as United States leaders were publicly labeling him as a "coward" and a "traitor", Edward Snowden was hiding from authorities in Hong Kong. Terminal F: Chasing Edward Snowden dramatizes the pulse pounding moments prior to and in the aftermath of this moment.
Just three weeks earlier, he nervously handed over nearly a million top secret documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) to journalists from the world's most renowned newspapers. These classified materials painted a frightening picture of a U.S. government whose surveillance activities far exceeded constitutional boundaries, and whose efforts worked to sabotage the interests of ordinary citizens they were sworn to protect. Once the documents were revealed to the world and Snowden's identity was exposed, a massive global manhunt ensued.
Around every corner, Snowden never knew when he might be arrested or even killed. He was an enemy of the state now. The United States government - made weak and hostile from the revelations revealed in the leaked documents - was diligent in their attempts to arrange extradition back to their country so Snowden could face the legal consequences of his actions. In the end, a simple clerical error might have been the only factor that helped him evade harm or capture.
Strikingly photographed and sharply edited, Terminal F: Chasing Edward Snowden presents a solid primer on his position at the NSA, his motivations for exposing sensitive and potentially damaging materials, and the reality of living as one of the most notorious whistleblowers in American history. It's well-trodden territory, but the film provides fresh and revealing insights along the way, thanks to interviews with his father, his co-workers, former NSA Director Michael Hayden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, reporter Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden himself.
Whether you believe Snowden to be a sinner or a saint, the film will likely prove most enlightening in its minutia. Benefiting from the moment by moment perspectives of figures from both sides of the story, the narrative plays out like an all-too-real game of cat and mouse. We're given a tangible sense of what it must feel like to be a hunted man.
Directed by: John Goetz, Poul-Erik Heilbuth
Just three weeks earlier, he nervously handed over nearly a million top secret documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) to journalists from the world's most renowned newspapers. These classified materials painted a frightening picture of a U.S. government whose surveillance activities far exceeded constitutional boundaries, and whose efforts worked to sabotage the interests of ordinary citizens they were sworn to protect. Once the documents were revealed to the world and Snowden's identity was exposed, a massive global manhunt ensued.
Around every corner, Snowden never knew when he might be arrested or even killed. He was an enemy of the state now. The United States government - made weak and hostile from the revelations revealed in the leaked documents - was diligent in their attempts to arrange extradition back to their country so Snowden could face the legal consequences of his actions. In the end, a simple clerical error might have been the only factor that helped him evade harm or capture.
Strikingly photographed and sharply edited, Terminal F: Chasing Edward Snowden presents a solid primer on his position at the NSA, his motivations for exposing sensitive and potentially damaging materials, and the reality of living as one of the most notorious whistleblowers in American history. It's well-trodden territory, but the film provides fresh and revealing insights along the way, thanks to interviews with his father, his co-workers, former NSA Director Michael Hayden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, reporter Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden himself.
Whether you believe Snowden to be a sinner or a saint, the film will likely prove most enlightening in its minutia. Benefiting from the moment by moment perspectives of figures from both sides of the story, the narrative plays out like an all-too-real game of cat and mouse. We're given a tangible sense of what it must feel like to be a hunted man.
Directed by: John Goetz, Poul-Erik Heilbuth
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TVTranscript
00:00Edward Snowden is a coward, he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country.
00:23The man who leaked details of a secret telephone and internet surveillance program in the USA
00:29has disappeared in Hong Kong.
00:31If he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so.
00:44They should use every legal avenue we have to bring him back to the United States.
00:58I want to get him caught and brought back for trial.
01:09I don't know how anybody can view this person as anything other than a criminal.
01:16We've been telling him, get out, get out, get out, get out.
01:24You're going along with someone's life, literally, in your hands.
01:34Either our plan had worked and we would get on that flight or it wouldn't.
01:53Just three weeks earlier, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old analyst for the National Security Agency in the USA,
02:13was waiting for journalists he thought he could trust.
02:18In his backpack, he had nearly a million top-secret NSA documents.
02:26The journalists were traveling across the world, from New York to a hotel in Hong Kong,
02:32for a secret meeting whose outcome they couldn't predict.
02:39Because I knew that what was waiting there was vitally important,
02:43because we didn't know what really was going on, we thought there was even a chance.
02:48I mean, every step of the way kind of had all sorts of hazards.
02:52The 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.
02:59So we were really just kind of rushing into this huge unknown.
03:06The documents Snowden had with him were so sensitive, he could be in prison for decades for removing them.
03:13For all he knew, the U.S. authorities could have intercepted the communications of the journalists,
03:18and he was about to fall into a trap.
03:21I'd crossed the Rubicon at that point, actually.
03:25I don't think anybody can reach such a clear turning point in their life
03:31without thinking alia iacta est to them, to themselves, you know, to die as cast.
03:38I had to expect that the most likely scenario was that I would be led out in handcuffs.
03:45How would we know that we weren't talking to some agent or somebody else?
03:48So the quite ingenious method that he invented was to hold this Rubik's Cube, and that was the first thing I looked for.
04:01After getting top-secret documents from Snowden, the two Guardian journalists published their first stories.
04:15They did not name their source.
04:18Edward Snowden's identity remained a secret.
04:23At the time, I thought he was paranoid.
04:31Once we were in the room, he piled pillows up against the doorjamb, up high along the sides and along the bottom,
04:39so if there was somebody passing in the hallway, just eavesdropping, it would make it more difficult for them.
04:48The stories began to appear, and then there was a period of time before he then self-identifies.
04:53In that gap there, it's my understanding that NSA had a very good idea who that was, what he had done,
05:03and then it's a simple step from there to begin to use all the tools available to the U.S. government as to where he might be.
05:23When he wanted to access his laptops, he had a big red hood that he would put over his head and over his computer,
05:44so that when he was putting in his passwords, he was scared that somebody might be able to see him through the window,
05:51or maybe there was a hidden camera in the room.
05:56This is the greatest loss of secrets in our nation's history,
05:59and so that certainly was energizing the other parts of the U.S. government to do everything they could to get him,
06:05and especially the materials, back before there was any more harm.
06:12How far was the U.S. willing to go, based on your professional experience in the intelligence community?
06:18For me it was a question of, could the government feel every copy of this material could be stopped at a single point?
06:26And if that point had presented itself, I don't know what they would have done.
06:30That it was even possible that they might try to kill me.
06:33He was incredibly edgy, he was nervous, and I remember there was a fire alarm went off,
06:44and he wondered, was this a tactic to get him out of his room?
06:49Always hovering over everything we were doing,
06:52was the possibility that at any given moment there could be a knock on the door that would put an end to our interaction.
07:02At the time it was extremely tense.
07:05Every day, myself and Glenn would see Snowden at the Mirror.
07:10We didn't expect him to be there. We assumed that this guy, they must be hunting for him.
07:16What would you do if you were the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the director of the National Security Agency,
07:21and you knew there was an individual out there who was about to expose evidence that you had committed serious crimes,
07:28and you had the resources available to stop this person, even if it meant using lethal force, what would you do?
07:36So I know for a fact that the US government was very angry at Mr Snowden.
07:40His safety and also his life was put at risk.
07:45But do you know then?
07:47I do know.
07:49The idea that he could somehow evade the US for very much longer seemed inconceivable to us.
07:58And every time we interviewed him we thought, well that's the last time we'll see him.
08:02We've got to make the most of this because we won't get the chance to speak to him tomorrow. He won't be there.
08:14For many years, Edward Snowden worked at NSA headquarters near Washington, D.C., just miles from where he grew up.
08:22I saw him in the shadow of the National Security Agency, literally in the area of Fort Meade.
08:28He was there. I picked him up and we went out to dinner.
08:33The Snowden family has a long history of military service dating back to colonial times.
08:43Edward Snowden had an impressive career in America's intelligence community.
08:48By the age of 27, he'd gained access to its deepest secrets.
08:55He just seemed almost depressed and I was very concerned about him.
09:01It was not the Ed that I knew.
09:06What Snowden couldn't tell his father during that dinner was that he'd discovered NSA documents that disturbed him.
09:14One of the key things that actually motivated me was the growing realization that we, in the United States government,
09:23were increasingly making decisions that departed from the rule of law.
09:30I assumed that maybe there was something going on between him and his long-term partner, Lindsay Mills,
09:38which really concerned me because I knew that he loved her very much.
09:43And I gave him a hug. It was, you know, I love you, Dad. I love you, son.
09:55What Snowden disclosed wasn't information. He disclosed how we collected information.
10:01In other words, he didn't reveal a bucket of water. He revealed the plumbing.
10:08He revealed how we gather, process, and distribute water.
10:14And therefore, that's going to have a really harmful effect on American intelligence for a very long time.
10:21Mr. President, thank you for those kind words and for the confidence that you and Ambassador Negroponte...
10:26No one played a more important role in creating the NSA we know today than General Michael Hayden.
10:33He was given the job by George W. Bush with a mandate to stop at nothing to stop terrorism.
10:44Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and CIA, ran a program called Stellar Wind,
10:49where the communications of anyone in America could be collected en masse under the pretext of preventing terrorism.
10:58If you're asking me to delve into my deepest emotions, it was the arrogance of an individual
11:05who looked upon the activity of the National Security Agency and believed that his legal and ethical judgment
11:13trumped the judgment of his co-workers, his leadership, the American president, the American Congress, and the American court system.
11:22I thought to myself, what kind of man is this?
11:25How can someone justify the violation of the rights of an entire nation without even a law to lean on?
11:37How do we come back from a situation in which the most senior officials in a democracy
11:45are acting against the interests of the public in secret?
11:51Snowden would have to have believed his judgment trumped all of those
11:56in order to create the kind of moral righteousness that he claims.
12:01That's pretty arrogant.
12:09My name's Ed Snowden. I'm 29 years old.
12:12I work for Booz Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure analyst for NSA.
12:20He revealed massive NSA surveillance programs that collect phone records and Internet data on a scale that many people never imagined.
12:27I don't welcome leaks.
12:29Journalists have been searching far and wide across the territory.
12:32Where is he?
12:33It's almost certain that he is still here in Hong Kong.
12:35We've heard from the U.S. intelligence services.
12:38This is the most serious hemorrhaging of legitimate American secrets in the history of my country.
12:50We've never seen anything like this before.
12:53For us in Hong Kong, it was about 3 or 4 in the morning.
12:57So we had a couple of hours sleep and then we woke up and there was pandemonium.
13:01Where in the world is Edward Snowden?
13:05So my boss called me and she said,
13:07Something urgent happened, Lavinia. Come to the office immediately.
13:11As soon as Edward Snowden revealed himself as the whistleblower,
13:15he set off a catch-me-if-you-can hunt by the U.S. government.
13:19And where is he now guessing game for the media?
13:22The whole world now had a name and face to attach to the revelations.
13:27But so did the FBI.
13:29I'm sure they're going to be very busy for the next week.
13:34I've been...
13:36In the interview Snowden posted on the Guardian website,
13:39there was a clue as to where he might be staying.
13:42A view out of a hotel window.
13:45From this video, we can tell there were two pylons of Tsing Yi Bridge.
13:50So from this view, this one is...
13:55The one on the left is bigger than the one on the right.
14:01So I went to Google Maps and used Google Earth,
14:05trying to figure out from which perspective can Tsing Yi Bridge look like that.
14:15The consequences of if the media had known where Mr. Snowden was
14:20from that time onward,
14:22it would have been a direct link for the NSA, the U.S. government,
14:27any of the U.S. government agencies,
14:30to identify where my client was at the time.
14:34He was alarmed, he was upset,
14:36that any time the CIA could come crashing through that door.
14:42Everyone was chasing after this story.
14:45Everyone was so desperate.
14:47Everyone was desperately hoping to find Snowden.
14:52I want to get him caught
14:55and brought back for trial.
14:57I think the chase is on.
14:59To leak that amount of material, that sensitive,
15:03and then stand up in front of the whole world and say,
15:06this is who I am and here's what I did,
15:08is a virtual guarantee that you're going to end up in a cage
15:12for the next several decades, if not longer.
15:15You can't come forward against the world's most powerful
15:18intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk
15:23because they're such powerful adversaries.
15:26This was the biggest media story on the planet at the time.
15:30There's a likelihood that media would arrive there.
15:33He needs to leave the hotel immediately
15:35and just to leave everything behind.
15:38When I went to Hong Kong, I didn't intend to get out of this safely.
15:43You know, this wasn't about me. I didn't care what happened to me.
15:47My part of the job was finished.
15:50The journalists were probably going to be there in a matter of minutes.
15:53And they just occupied the lobby and they were hunting.
15:57Saying, where was Snowden? Where was Snowden?
16:00A bit like a bright siren, you know, declaring to everybody,
16:04oh, here's the man of interest.
16:2110,000 kilometers away, in London,
16:25there was one thing the U.S. government might be happy about.
16:29WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was not involved in the Snowden revelations.
16:34While I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities
16:37to wiretap anyone from you or your...
16:41Assange has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London
16:44since June 2020.
16:47The U.S. government saw him as out of commission.
16:50Let's look at the situation for Edward Snowden.
16:5329-year-old young man, in a foreign jurisdiction that he had no experience with,
16:57the subject of the largest intelligence manhunt the world has ever seen.
17:01And the realities were, for Edward Snowden, he was going to be smashed.
17:05Our other news today, and the man who leaked details
17:09of a secret telephone and Internet surveillance program in the USA
17:13has disappeared in Hong Kong.
17:16Snowden had fled the hotel and was now hiding
17:19in the apartment of local supporters.
17:22The whereabouts are now unknown of Edward Snowden,
17:25who was a contract worker for the CIA.
17:28He's not been seen since he checked out...
17:31And at that moment, he reached out and asked us for help.
17:35With WikiLeaks, Snowden hoped he had found a team
17:38that was a match for the NSA.
17:41He knew the U.S. was investigating WikiLeaks for espionage and terrorism.
17:45Years of surveillance had left WikiLeaks no option
17:48but to protect their communications through encryption,
17:51something Snowden considered vital.
17:54Assange and his colleagues only agreed to appear in this film on condition
17:58WikiLeaks lawyers be permitted to vet their interviews.
18:02Sarah Harrison, a journalist at WikiLeaks,
18:05was busy running an election campaign in Australia
18:08when she got a call from London.
18:11I spoke to people from work and they said,
18:14have you seen this thing about Snowden?
18:17And I was like, what's wrong with the mountain in Wales?
18:20And then they're like, look online, look online.
18:23So I looked and, yeah, he'd gone public at that stage.
18:26A video had gone out on The Guardian.
18:29At that moment when I first heard his name,
18:32I didn't for a moment imagine I would be spending four months with him.
18:37Although to the outside world it looked like a hurricane
18:40with statements from the White House
18:42and stories appearing in the newspaper
18:44and a lot of interest about what he was doing in Hong Kong,
18:47I knew that actually this was the calm moment
18:51and that the real storm was just about to come
18:55and he would be sucked into this vortex within two weeks
18:59of imprisonment, arrest and, you know,
19:04I'd seen Chelsea Manning go through a similar experience.
19:08After three years of solitary confinement without trial,
19:11the U.S. military's most famous whistleblower,
19:14Private First Class Bradley Manning...
19:16Until Snowden, Chelsea Manning's leak of American government documents
19:20had been the biggest loss of secrets in American history.
19:23WikiLeaks had published the documents
19:26but had to stand by and watch as Manning was caught
19:30and held in conditions characterized by the U.N.
19:33as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
19:36The U.S. tried very hard to make Chelsea Manning a general deterrent
19:40in its incredibly abusive treatment of him,
19:43psychological torture and simply for communicating to the media.
19:47I knew about Chelsea Manning, you know, going into it.
19:50There was never any question about how that case was going to be settled.
19:55And you were willing to put yourself in the same position
19:58in the same position.
20:10That's tough to vocalize.
20:23Three days after Snowden went underground,
20:26Sarah Harrison landed in Hong Kong.
20:29She took charge of what was to become Operation Asylum.
20:45What was particularly extraordinary, I think,
20:47was while all of these news organizations around the world,
20:50all of these publishers were trying to get a piece of the story,
20:54there was only one publisher that actually said,
20:57we want to help the source, we want to make sure he's OK,
21:00we want to make sure that no matter what happens,
21:04he has somebody on his side, and that was WikiLeaks.
21:08If there was one thing I could change,
21:11it would have been whether we could have done more for Snowden.
21:16I did have a discussion with the editor, Alan Rusbridger,
21:20and the US editor, Jeanine Gibson, about what we could do for Snowden,
21:24whether we should be paying his hotel bills
21:27and whether we should be getting him legal advice.
21:30I wish we'd thought it through
21:32and maybe if we'd had more time, we could have come up with something.
21:40You know, it was the US government versus WikiLeaks,
21:44and not just in the grand jury court,
21:46but right there on the ground in Hong Kong.
21:48Protest Snowden!
21:50Snowden blew the whistle on American efforts to spy on innocent citizens.
21:55Today, we all blow the whistle.
21:58Protest Snowden!
21:59Protest Snowden!
22:01We support privacy of individuals!
22:04The US government has filed criminal charges against Edward Snowden.
22:08I think it was probably on my birthday,
22:11when the presence I got from the government
22:14was that they unsealed an indictment against me.
22:18Edward Snowden has been charged with espionage,
22:21theft and conversion of government property.
22:24And what was extraordinary about the indictment
22:27was the fact that they included espionage charges.
22:30Now, they knew that I wasn't working for any foreign government,
22:33that was clear from the beginning.
22:35They knew that I was working with journalists
22:38and that the recipient of the information was the public at large.
22:43Washington now wants help from Hong Kong officials
22:46Snowden's been hiding in the Chinese territory
22:48since unleashing the revelations about the National Security Agency.
22:54The charge of espionage increased the pressure on the Hong Kong authorities to act
22:58and made Snowden's position even more dangerous.
23:03It meant that if Snowden was caught,
23:05he could face the death penalty back home in the US.
23:10Snowden took the risk of leaving his hideout
23:13and met his lawyer who warned him.
23:15Sooner or later, Hong Kong would hand him over to the US
23:19where he could expect the same treatment as Private Manning.
23:24In terms of Private Manning's situation,
23:27clearly he'd been subjected to cruel and inhuman degrading treatment or punishment.
23:33As such, this raised grave concerns about what would happen to Mr. Snowden
23:41if he was returned to the United States.
23:46Snowden could not be sure if the Hong Kong authorities would do as the US was demanding
23:52and arrest him right away.
23:55Hong Kong citizens were on the streets calling him a hero,
23:58but the Hong Kong authorities were in an unpredictable situation.
24:03Snowden knew there was always the possibility
24:06the central government in Beijing would intervene
24:09and sacrifice him in a deal with the US.
24:13The things that were told to us was that the feeling within the government
24:16was that they just wanted...
24:17The Hong Kong government was that they just wanted it gone.
24:20It was a hot potato.
24:21They just didn't want to have to deal with it.
24:23They were either going to upset the people of Hong Kong
24:25or they were going to upset Beijing and it was just too problematic.
24:30The Hong Kong government decided to play for time.
24:33Rather than arrest Snowden,
24:35they decided to wait for the proper paperwork to arrive.
24:39But Snowden was still in danger.
24:42With the nature of the disclosures he made,
24:46there was a real and immediate risk that he could be arrested in Hong Kong.
24:57One of the reasons Snowden was so vulnerable
25:00was that a White House task force was working the phones
25:03and putting pressure on decision makers in Hong Kong.
25:07Since we learned that Mr. Snowden was in Hong Kong,
25:09the U.S. authorities have been in continual contact
25:11with their Hong Kong counterparts at the working and senior levels.
25:27The U.S. was certain,
25:28if the Hong Kong government decided to arrest Snowden,
25:31they would not have problems locating him.
25:35Look, the Chinese have a wonderful intelligence service.
25:38I would lose all respect for my Chinese colleagues
25:43if they did not have very good knowledge as to what was going on.
25:49Although our analysis was that Edward faced serious consequences
25:53and should immediately leave Hong Kong,
25:55he was reluctant to do that
25:57until it seemed like there was no other choice
26:00because he wanted to explore different options and so on.
26:03This was driving us mad.
26:06Well, Helix had been working out various options
26:08of where he would be safe, where he could go,
26:10different people's opinions around the world.
26:13But, I mean, it was his decision. It's his life.
26:21The border is open. We've got to go.
26:24Now's our chance. The border is open.
26:26We could close, you know, at any time.
26:36Then something happened that narrowed the options for Snowden.
26:40The request for his extradition arrived from the United States
26:44on a Friday night.
26:46Would the Hong Kong Justice Ministry wait until Monday
26:49to issue a warrant? Who could know?
26:52They would make a decision and then they would act upon that decision.
26:55We needed to move.
26:57The time, the clock was ticking, very definitely then.
27:02Mr Snowden was in a difficult position
27:05where he could be arrested at any time.
27:09What Edward was concerned about
27:11is knowing the exact status of the border.
27:15So he agreed that he should leave,
27:18but as soon as he went to passport control,
27:21maybe he would be arrested.
27:23So he was very reluctant to actually leave
27:25because that would cut short his last time,
27:28his last hours of freedom.
27:30Attorney General Eric Holder placed a phone call
27:33stressing the importance of the matter
27:35and urging Hong Kong to honour our request for Snowden's arrest.
27:40It was the end.
27:42He couldn't wait to continue to assess the situation.
27:45He had to make a decision.
27:59That was the moment where it all came together or it didn't.
28:04Either our plan worked, our negotiations had worked,
28:09and we would get on that flight, or it wouldn't.
28:13We, over the weekend, the United States,
28:15has been in touch via diplomatic and law enforcement channels
28:18with a number of countries which Mr Snowden might transit
28:21or that could serve as final destinations.
28:24This was the largest intelligence manhunt the world has ever seen,
28:27so the US was throwing everything, all its resources at this thing.
28:31So we needed some way of splitting those resources
28:34because we didn't want them all focused on his flight out.
28:46Well, he bought a ticket to India as cover.
28:49It was booked using his credit card
28:51for two days after the actual asylum flight.
28:57In all, WikiLeaks bought more than a dozen tickets in Snowden's name
29:02on flights leaving Hong Kong.
29:05They hoped the US wouldn't figure out
29:07which flight he and Harrison were aiming for.
29:10I was worried about missing the flight.
29:12We were running late, basically,
29:14due to the fact that I had been printing all of our airline tickets
29:19and there was an issue with the printer
29:22and just sort of these stupid things.
29:27We're advising these governments that Mr Snowden
29:29is wanted on serious felony charges
29:31and as such he should not be allowed to proceed
29:33in any further international travel.
29:36I spoke to Edward the day before and I told him
29:38that the highest risk is in the airport.
29:41He was getting very nervous
29:43and his lawyer kept calling.
29:49I think he worried too that the whole thing would collapse.
29:53I don't think the US would assassinate him in the airport.
29:56I don't think that would happen.
29:58But that they might kind of make a fuss
30:00and lean on airport authorities to hold him and detain him.
30:05And then the State Department could bring all its assets to bear.
30:09There have been repeated engagements
30:11by the US Department of State and US Consulate General in Hong Kong.
30:14There have been repeated engagements by the FBI
30:16with their law enforcement counterpart.
30:27You could also be racing to getting captured, right?
30:32I mean, you're also...
30:34Yeah, running towards them.
30:36Yeah.
30:39Yeah, I mean, I'm quite sure that that airport was being watched.
30:42So...
30:46Ultimately, as I walked up to the checkpoint counter,
30:51the only thing I was thinking is that I should remember to smile.
31:05The guy took our passports,
31:07which is obviously the normal thing to do, so mine was sort of fine.
31:10And then Nathan's one sort of took a while,
31:13and again, reaching for the phone and a little bit confused
31:18and the computer made a funny sound.
31:23So, yeah, so again, I'm not quite sure what was going on there,
31:26but I was getting very nervous.
31:28His lawyer did sort of start stepping forward
31:30to sort of see what was going on.
31:36On June 17th, Hong Kong authorities acknowledged receipt of our request.
31:40Despite repeated inquiries, Hong Kong authorities did not respond
31:43with any requests for additional documents or information.
31:47Stating only that the matter was under review
31:49and refusing to elaborate.
31:53What was under review
31:55was that there was a mistake in the American paperwork.
31:58In the rush to prevent him from leaving Hong Kong,
32:01the State Department got Edward Snowden's middle name wrong.
32:04It is not Edward James Snowden, it is Edward Joseph Snowden.
32:10Our people are meticulous in processing legal documents.
32:15They had to double-check the spelling,
32:17make sure that they are catching the right person
32:20sought by the US authorities.
32:23I don't think our authorities deliberately held up the arrest,
32:28but we needed to take maybe a few days,
32:31but a few days was not good enough for the US, you know.
32:35And apparently Snowden made use of the few days available
32:41to work out his escape.
32:45As it happened, we were rushing our paperwork forward
32:48as Snowden was trying to leave Hong Kong to fly on to Russia.
32:52We made it easier for the Chinese and the people in Hong Kong
32:56to make the decision they made because of the delay.
33:02Because, you know, we've now done everything, you know,
33:04you've checked in, you've got through security,
33:06you've done the bag check, the passport check, you know,
33:08you've boarded onto the plane and then I was like,
33:10you're still not OK.
33:12The schedule of the flight was meant to leave
33:14and I was just watching the Hong Kong airport register
33:18to see has the flight left, has the flight left, has the flight left
33:21and it was late, it was 20 minutes late,
33:24so I was quite concerned.
33:26Well, then the other thing that made me very nervous
33:28was when we were waiting to take off.
33:32We came from the gate and then we go up a bit
33:35and then we just stop and we're just waiting
33:38and we're waiting and we're waiting.
33:43And a straight to our breaking news for you this hour,
33:46Chinese sources have alleged that NSA whistleblower
33:49Edward Snowden is en route to Moscow from Hong Kong.
33:54If so, the whistleblower would have departed hours
33:56after Washington threatened the Chinese city-state
33:59with repercussions if it didn't arrest him.
34:05Hong Kong authorities requested additional information
34:07concerning the US charges and evidence
34:09The US had been in communication with Hong Kong
34:11and we were in the process of responding
34:13when we learned that Hong Kong had allowed the fugitive to leave.
34:18What is clear is that at the time he left,
34:23the State Department did not cancel his passport.
34:26Maybe he should have cancelled,
34:28they should have cancelled his passports.
34:30They cancelled his passport after his departure.
34:33So when he left Hong Kong, he was holding
34:36It is very clear to me that the Hong Kong authorities
34:40knew the United States wanted to extradite Snowden
34:44from Hong Kong to the United States
34:46when Snowden is trying to leave the country.
34:48And on some made-up pretext,
34:50a misspelling of his middle name or something
34:53in the documents that we gave to the Hong Kong police,
34:56they allowed him to leave and to fly on to Russia.
35:01Is the administration embarrassed by this?
35:04Is the administration embarrassed now
35:06that you can't track him down,
35:08that he's this cat-and-mouse game that's going on
35:10for all the world to see?
35:11I think I've been very clear about the actions we've taken.
35:16We have known where he is and believe we know where he is now
35:20and there are ongoing conversations about that.
35:28We both sort of just sat there.
35:30We really didn't say much until that moment
35:32where actually we were out of the airspace
35:35and there was a visible...
35:36And then that's when we first had any real conversation.
35:41And what did he ask you?
35:45Pretty much his first question was,
35:47why did you do this?
35:48Why did you risk everything just to help me?
35:56I was sort of saying...
35:59Yeah, but you were wanting help or something,
36:01and he said, yeah, I was wanting help and advice.
36:03I didn't think that WikiLeaks would send, like,
36:05a ninja in to get me out, which was funny enough,
36:08but then about two minutes later, like, a fly buzzes past
36:11and I just have never done it before in my life
36:14and I'll probably never do it again,
36:15but I just went, oh, that's annoying,
36:16and literally plucked it out of the air.
36:18He was like, you really are a ninja!
36:22Sarah's probably the most incredibly brave woman I know.
36:27She's somebody who was there through the hardest times,
36:35in a period of incredible risk,
36:37and she put her life on the line for somebody
36:39who was a complete stranger to her.
36:40There's a lot of information floating around here.
36:43Organize it all for us.
36:44Tell us what's exactly going on.
36:46We're led to believe that Edward Snowden
36:49has safely left Hong Kong
36:50and is currently in the sky somewhere
36:53over the Russian city of Omsk in an A330.
36:56He's due to arrive here.
36:57We are led to believe at Sheremetyevo Airport
37:00later on Sunday.
37:01That's all rumour and hearsay at the moment,
37:03but it's thought that his final destination will not be Moscow.
37:12At that moment, there was a race
37:13for the interpretation of what had happened.
37:17Had he left as a fugitive,
37:19busted through the Hong Kong airport,
37:21so you had a fugitive on an aeroplane,
37:25that was one possible spin
37:27that we would see from the media machine.
37:30It was very important to counter that spin
37:32because his whole flight path would have been closed down
37:35because countries and airlines would go,
37:37oh, we can't accept this fugitive on our flight.
37:41So we put out, as soon as he was in safe airspace,
37:45to know he had left Hong Kong,
37:47that he had left Hong Kong legally,
37:50that he was accompanied by legal advisers,
37:54so this flight path wouldn't be closed down.
38:05As you can see on this map,
38:06the flight that has reportedly snowed in a boy
38:09has almost reached its destination here in Moscow,
38:12scheduled to land in the Russian capital within minutes.
38:17The plane believed to be carrying Edward Snowden
38:20touching down in Moscow.
38:22He's on the run, but where will he end up?
38:27He's not thought to have permission to stay.
38:29The expectation is that tomorrow
38:31he'll get on a plane to Latin America.
38:33The exact route he'll take is unclear.
38:39Breaking news this hour.
38:40WikiLeaks claims one of its legal advisers accompanying Snowden
38:43after the whistleblowing organisation secured papers,
38:45a safe exit and asylum, quote, in an unnamed democratic state.
38:49Even if he does find a country willing to offer him asylum,
38:52there's no guarantee he'll actually arrive
38:54at his desired destination.
38:59The first woman, she's just some normal check-in woman, you know?
39:02She's like, your passport doesn't work,
39:04sorry, I can't issue you a boarding pass.
39:07We managed to get him out of Hong Kong,
39:10but when he landed in the Moscow airport,
39:13the American government had cancelled his passport.
39:21And now they...
39:23Now the Americans make a lot of pressure
39:26on other countries to stop him.
39:29You know, it was actually really surprising to me
39:33to discover that the US cancelled my passport.
39:36They tried to freeze me in place when I was in jurisdictions
39:39which wouldn't be considered particularly friendly
39:42to the United States government.
39:43That always puzzled me.
39:47Cancelling Snowden's passport was the first step in an FBI plan B.
39:52Now they would just need to pick him up.
39:57In a small airfield in Manassas, Virginia,
40:00far from prying eyes,
40:02a former CIA rendition plane prepared for takeoff.
40:07Its mission?
40:08To transport a fugitive back to the United States.
40:20But at Moscow airport,
40:21Snowden's escape to Cuba still seemed possible.
40:25The gate had not yet closed.
40:28Julian Assange had asked a diplomat
40:31from the Ecuadorian embassy in London
40:33to accompany Snowden on the flight
40:35and protect him en route to secure asylum.
40:41The diplomat just needed to find Snowden at the gate
40:45and explain that he now enjoyed diplomatic protection from Ecuador.
40:54But at Terminal F,
40:56the presence of hundreds of media people had created pandemonium.
41:03The diplomat couldn't find Snowden.
41:07Julian Assange began to play switchboard.
41:10He tried to bring Snowden and Sarah Harrison together
41:13with the diplomat without alerting the press.
41:18Go to the information desk or help desk
41:21and ask them to put out an announcement
41:25asking that Sarah Harrison come to see you.
41:31Though they finally managed to meet,
41:34the diplomat could not help Edward Snowden.
41:37Without a valid passport,
41:39he was not allowed to board the plane.
41:43The flight to Cuba left without him.
41:54The U.S. government has not given Snowden an airplane.
41:59Is that a positive sign as far as the U.S. government is concerned
42:03that Mr. Snowden did not get on, has not gotten on any airplane?
42:07We have communicated to the Russians
42:10our hope that they will look at all options available
42:13to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States.
42:18Just a few hours after Edward Snowden landed in Moscow,
42:22the U.S. prisoner transportation plane landed in Copenhagen,
42:26waiting on standby.
42:29Was its mission to transport Edward Snowden back to America?
42:34Almost as soon as he arrived in Moscow,
42:37the FBI contacted me.
42:40I chose to speak to them first.
42:44I chose to speak to them for four hours.
42:47As a matter of fact, one of the agents was starting to dose.
42:50I shared everything I possibly could.
42:57I wanted to help.
43:01Back in Terminal F,
43:03the Russian authorities offered Snowden a secret deal.
43:07He could leave the airport right away on one condition,
43:11that he agreed to work with the FSB,
43:14the Russian intelligence service.
43:17They asked once, they had approached.
43:19I mean, it's kind of unimaginable to think that they wouldn't.
43:23He didn't give anything to the Russians at all,
43:26and he certainly didn't cooperate with them
43:28or give them anything in any way whatsoever.
43:31How do you know?
43:33I was with him the whole time,
43:35so I would stake my entire life on the fact
43:38that he did not give anything to anybody.
43:44Russian President Vladimir Putin
43:47refused Snowden entry into Russia.
43:52He and Harrison would have to fend for themselves
43:55in the airport's transit zone.
44:03And then we were in this room for a month.
44:08We didn't have a window...
44:12..or a shower.
44:19These were representatives from the FBI from the DC area
44:23who I suspect were working very closely at that point
44:26with the State Department.
44:28And...
44:31..you know, they just wanted to talk,
44:33and they said, would you be interested in...
44:36..would you consider travelling to Moscow,
44:39flying to Moscow to meet with your son?
44:41And I said, absolutely.
44:48They had mentioned at one point,
44:50when we were talking about the details,
44:52and I'm not going to get too far into specifics,
44:55they had mentioned to me that,
44:57well, you understand that once we get there,
45:00we're going to need to check your son out
45:03to make sure he's OK medically.
45:05And I laughed. I said, you've got to be kidding.
45:08It concerns me to hear the things that I've heard
45:11about the activities of the FBI at that time,
45:14whether it was their plan
45:16to get my father onto an airplane at the Moscow airport
45:19and then use him to sort of lure me onto the plane
45:22in this wacky strategy,
45:24and then sort of slam shut the door of the airplane
45:27and, you know, fly back to DC.
45:36New revelations based on Snowden's documents
45:39were appearing every day.
45:42Throughout Western Europe,
45:44there was popular support for Edward Snowden,
45:46and the drama of his flight was on the nightly news.
45:51For many in Europe, Snowden deserved protection,
45:54not a prison cell.
45:59Hopeful that he could harness public opinion
46:02and get out of Russia,
46:04Snowden filed asylum applications
46:06to Western European democracies,
46:0821 of them.
46:11The State Department was making the phones ring
46:14in every government office,
46:16in every European government agency,
46:18where they had a phone number.
46:20You know, anywhere they had a business card
46:22that was sitting in a Rolodex, that person got a call.
46:25And they said, this man will not receive asylum in Europe.
46:28But you would not deny that there have been
46:31conversations and discussions about Mr. Snowden,
46:34his whereabouts and the consequences of hosting him?
46:37I don't think we've at all denied that we've been in contact
46:40through a range of diplomatic channels.
46:42I think Poland was the first to deny,
46:45followed by France.
46:47Italy said they weren't likely to respond
46:50or simply didn't respond.
46:52The vast majority of European governments
46:54did something which I think was particularly illustrative,
46:57which is they took no position at all.
47:00All right, but you would just object to the characterization
47:03that it's bullying or arm-twisting.
47:05That is correct, yes?
47:07I think that's clear.
47:22A glimmer of hope after living in limbo for weeks,
47:25Venezuela and Bolivia offered the NSA leaker asylum
47:29after European countries rejected his official request.
47:34Venezuela came out very strongly.
47:36We couldn't actually get there because all the Western countries
47:39were saying no and not offering any help.
47:41There was no possibility for safe passage
47:43or to, like, physically get to Latin America safely.
47:50There were several plans to get him out of Moscow.
47:52We looked at private jets, we looked at presidential jets.
47:55We had a tip-off inside the US administration.
47:59That they would be fairly confident
48:02about taking down the private jet.
48:04They'd be a little bit less confident
48:06in relation to commercial airliners.
48:08And they were not very confident at all
48:10in relation to a presidential jet.
48:14With Snowden still stuck in the transit zone,
48:17he watched on Russian TV as one of the few presidents of the world
48:21prepared to offer him asylum landed in Moscow.
48:26President Evo Morales of Bolivia
48:28had arrived for an international summit of gas-exporting countries.
48:34Just before leaving Moscow, Evo Morales left no doubt
48:38that his country would welcome Snowden.
48:44If Snowden asks for political asylum, will you give it to him?
48:50Yes. Why not?
48:54Given what President Morales had said,
48:57there was a strong suspicion within my government
49:00that there was at least a possibility
49:03that Morales would be happy to take Snowden with him.
49:10When President Morales left for the airport,
49:13the FBI thought Snowden might be with him.
49:17They believed Snowden was escaping on the presidential jet.
49:28According to the Vienna Convention,
49:30a presidential plane enjoys a special diplomatic status.
49:36It's like a flying piece of territory from the home country.
49:42Bolivian officials said France and Portugal
49:44wouldn't let the Bolivian president's plane land and refuel
49:48on their territories because of rumors
49:51that Snowden could have been on board that plane.
49:55Government to government, express your concern,
49:58express your belief, why you think this man may be on that plane,
50:02express that to a friend, how serious you view the situation,
50:05and then you ask a friend to take a course of action,
50:08and apparently they did.
50:14Well, they said that you don't have permission
50:16to enter a French airspace, and we tell the control,
50:19and this is the French airspace,
50:21and we tell the control, and this is the diplomatic clearance number.
50:24And they said, well, yeah, that one was cancelled.
50:30My government went to other European governments,
50:33and because of their control over airspace,
50:35forced the president's plane to land.
50:39Now, again, this is absolutely unprecedented.
50:42I was in my room.
50:44I was looking at my laptop, and I was reading the news,
50:47and at first I didn't believe it.
50:50His jet was ultimately forced to land and underwent a search
50:54over rumors whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard.
50:58It was a surprise.
50:59It was a surprise.
51:00It was a surprise.
51:01It was a surprise.
51:02It was a surprise.
51:03It was a surprise.
51:04It was a surprise.
51:05Under rumors whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard.
51:09I couldn't believe that the United States government
51:14would go so far as to ground the diplomatic jet
51:19carrying a head of state to search it for somebody like me.
51:25Latin America united with their condemnation.
51:28Social media erupted with claims the US was behind the move
51:32and Europe a puppet.
51:36And that was something that was so physical and so obvious.
51:40It was like the tide going out on the power relations
51:43between Western Europe and the United States.
51:46You could see the underlying power structure,
51:49the rocks on this shore that represented
51:51the true nature of the relationship
51:53because you could see that actually Western Europe
51:56wasn't going into battle for him at all.
51:58In fact, Western Europe was playing on the other side.
52:05We consciously laid false trails in relation to the Morales flight.
52:34Sometimes there would be calls to ambassadors
52:37on open telephone lines, for example,
52:39including from this embassy.
52:41We were trying to split up the surveillance resources,
52:44force the United States to consider the Morales flight.
52:49Do you think that one could imagine disinformation?
52:55That's an interesting question.
52:58I must admit I hadn't considered it before,
53:02but it's always a possibility, sure.
53:07I didn't know that that diversion would end up
53:10in such an extraordinary outcome.
53:13The whole Morales flight also kind of helped
53:17the Russian giving him asylum.
53:20And it did, and it reinforced the image of Snowden as victim,
53:26Snowden as the pursued.
53:28Yeah.
53:30So if he was sitting on the other side of the fence
53:36to trap the Americans, would that have been a wise move?
53:40Again, I hadn't thought of it until you raised it,
53:43but it's incredibly clever.
53:45Yeah. Yeah.
53:49It was, I think, a crystallizing moment where for everybody,
53:53even those people like myself who are inclined to believe
53:56that the United States government is a fundamentally good force,
53:59but when we saw that happen, I think everybody went,
54:04is this the kind of action that good guys take?
54:08It ended up to be a huge embarrassment.
54:11Yes.
54:13Not as big as the original embarrassment,
54:15losing all the secrets, but yes.
54:30Federal Migration Service has confirmed publicly
54:33that they have issued Mr Snowden temporary asylum for one year
54:37and allowed him to leave the airport.
54:40We are extremely...
54:42The light physically hurt my eyes,
54:44and I remember actually standing and staring out of the window there
54:47and being, like, almost tearful to see the sky, you know?
54:54And it seemed sort of suddenly extraordinarily amazing and beautiful
54:59to see all of the sky.
55:03We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government
55:06would take this step, despite our very clear and lawful requests
55:10in public and in private,
55:12to have Mr Snowden expelled to the United States
55:14to face the charges against him.
55:17Mr Snowden is not a good person.
55:21Russian and American relations, already strained,
55:24dropped to their lowest level in years.
55:27The lack of cooperation between the two great powers
55:30haunts the world until today.
55:37So many people like me would not contemplate amnesty
55:42or plea bargaining or amnesty.
55:45I would not contemplate amnesty or plea bargaining
55:50or anything else to bring Snowden back.
55:54There are 100,000 people in the American intelligence community
55:58who didn't violate their oath of office.
56:02If my government participates in any kind of welcome home
56:06for Mr Snowden that even smells of that kind of approach,
56:11it would alienate this body of people
56:14on whom both the safety and the liberty of my nation depends.
56:18That's not a good idea.
56:26Anybody who's ever embarrassed a great power
56:29is never going to be safe.
56:31I mean, as long as people feel a sense of retaliation,
56:34as long as people feel like they have to send messages
56:37and set examples not to mess with us,
56:40dissenters are going to be at risk.
56:45To be leaving the airport under those circumstances,
56:48to have seen everything that had transpired in those two months,
56:52and then just to be struck with what was a completely perfect,
56:56warm, and bright day, you know, a seasonable day,
56:59normal life outside, you know, you hear the birds,
57:04you know, simple things like that,
57:07insects, traffic.
57:10It's like stepping into a larger world.
57:27I want to get him caught and brought back for trial.
57:37I want to get him caught and brought back for trial.
58:07I want to get him caught and brought back for trial.