that he “had been talking some of the more technical guys at work

56 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS that he “had been talking some of the more technical guys at work into setting up some additional fast servers” for Tor. His “work” place at the time was the NSA. So, if he was telling the truth, he had already attempted to find co-workers at the NSA who might be interested in attending an anti-NSA surveillance presentation. Sandvik not only agreed to be Snowden’s co-presenter but made the Oahu CryptoParty a Tor-sponsored event. Sandvik flew to Honolulu on December 6, 2012. It was a fourteen-hour flight and a relatively expensive one. She later told Wired magazine that the invitation from Snowden coincided with her plan to take a “vacation in Hawaii.” Whatever her reason, it brought her in direct contact with a Tor supporter with access to the computers of its main enemy, the NSA. On December 11, following Snowden’s instructions, Sandvik arrived shortly before 6:00 p.m. at the Fishcake gallery in downtown Honolulu. She proceeded through a maze of furniture display rooms to BoxJelly, a public space. She was then directed to a small back room in which there were folding chairs and worktables already set up for © the event. Rechung Fujihira, the owner of BoxfJelly, told me that Hi © Capacity, a “creative collective” of computer buffs, had arranged the logistics for the event. As he recalled, Snowden had requested their help for the CryptoParty. Sandvik found Snowden waiting for her with Lindsay Mills, whom he introduced to Sandvik as his girlfriend. He told Sandvik that Mills was there to make a video of the event. Mills did not men- tion the party in her blog. But that Snowden brought her and intro- duced her to Sandvik suggests that he did not keep secret from her his activities to further Tor. The event started at 6:00 p.m. sharp. By Sandvik’s count, about twenty people gradually filled the room. She reckoned that about half of the attendees were from Snowden’s workplace. Snowden began the presentation by giving reasons why Internet users needed to defend their privacy by using both encryption and Tor software. According to one attendee who asked not to be identified by name, Snowden, while not revealing that he worked for the NSA, spoke with such precise knowledge about government surveillance capa- bilities that the attendee suspected Snowden worked for the govern- | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 56 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019544