proved ineffective in hiding him from U.S. intelligence and presum

Prologue | 11 proved ineffective in hiding him from U.S. intelligence and presum- ably other intelligence services seeking the treasure trove of docu- ments he had taken from the NSA. As for his next destination, I could find no evidence that Snowden had made any arrangements during his monthlong stay in Hong Kong to go to any Latin American country. Before he went public on June 9, he could have easily gotten a visa in Hong Kong with his still-valid passport to go to almost any country in the world, includ- ing Cuba (for which a U.S. passport was not necessary), Bolivia, and Ecuador. Yet he did not apply for visas during this time period. Even as late as June 8, after meetings with Greenwald and Poitras, his name had still not been revealed, no criminal complaint had been issued against him, and there was no Interpol red alert for his deten- tion. He could have walked out of the Mira hotel, caught a taxi to the Hong Kong airport, and gone on Swiss International Air Lines via Zurich to any country in South America or to Iceland. But, as in the oft-cited Sherlock Holmes clue of the dog that did not bark, Snowden’s inaction in not obtaining visas during this thirty-day ® period suggests that he had no plans to go anyplace but where he © went: Moscow. However, the mystery that most concerned me was not where Snowden was housed in the interim between when he went pub- lic and when he went to Moscow. It was where, and in whose care, Snowden had been before he checked into the Mira on June 1. When I asked my source about this period, he said that as far as he knew, neither the FBI nor the Hong Kong police could find a trace of him during the period between May 20, when he passed through Hong Kong customs, and June 1, when he first used his credit card and passport to check into the Mira hotel. Other than those transac- tions, they could not find any credit card charges, ATM withdrawals, telephone calls, hotel registrations, subway pass purchases, or other clues to Snowden’s activities. As far as a paper trail was concerned, Snowden was a ghost during this period. “Could an American just vanish in Hong Kong for eleven days?” Lasked. “Apparently, he did just that,” my source replied. Snowden’s whereabouts during these eleven days was not a mys- | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 11 ® 9/29/16 5:51PM | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019499