Narrator with the story of the man who exposed it all. Snowden said he was risking his freedom and possibly his life. This was a stupendous intelligence breach. Narrator and the convergence of government surveillance and an information revolution. The googles, the facebooks collect as much of our Sensitive Data as possible. But anything you hand to a private company is potentially the governments. Narrator tonight on frontline. Corporate america and the National Security state know so much about us, and we know so little about them. Narrator privacy lost, part two of United States of secrets. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from and by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from john and Jo Ann Hagler and Additional Support from chris and lisa kaneb and bill and cile hicks. Narrator hong kong, may 2013. Nsa contractor Edward Snowden was holed up deep inside the crowded kowloon district. He chose hong kong, he would say later, because he trusted the chinese would not betray him to u. S. Authorities. Before leaving his home in hawaii, he had downloaded a huge store of top secret files from the nsas internal networks, and he had sent many of them through encrypted channels to a few journalists he trusted. Two of them, Glenn Greenwald of the guardian and documentary filmmaker laura poitras, came to the mira hotel to meet him. Greenwald and poitras wanted to be sure snowdens story was rock solid. And they needed to work fast. We knew that this was incredibly consequential and that it was super important that we get it right. Um. But also, there was always this kind of uncertainty, one might even say danger, hovering over the room. Because we didnt know what the nsa knew about what he was doing. We didnt know what the chinese and hong kong governments knew about him being there. So we thought it was very possible that the door could be barged down at any moment. Narrator the guardian also sent a Senior Correspondent to vet their source. I asked him, do you mind if i tape the interview on an iphone . And as soon as he saw the iphone, it was like bringing out a microphone direct into the nsa headquarters. He was totally appalled. And he said, get that out of the room as quickly as possible. Narrator even then, snowden still worried that someone might be recording them. He would often put a blanket over his head when he wanted to enter this Computer System to prevent overhead cameras from picking up the passwords to the encryption. Narrator as snowden explained more about the tens of thousands of documents, macaskill listened carefully. I was sort of warming to the idea that, you know, this guy was for real. Narrator one of the first files they discussed was this one. It directed Verizon Business services to turn customer phone records over to the nsa. The journalists were stunned. What this document revealed is that the nsa Surveillance System is not directed at very bad people or about terrorists. Its directed at the american citizenry and other citizenries around the world, indiscriminately, in bulk. Narrator the document directly contradicted what director of National Intelligence general James Clapper had said before Congress Just a few months earlier. Does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans . No, sir. It does not . Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly. I think for snowden, the clapper testimony was the final nail in the coffin. Watching president obamas top National Security official go before the Senate Intelligence committee and outright lie about what the nsa was doing convinced him, i think, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the only hope for public discussion and reform was for him to do what he was going to do. cars honking narrator at tguardians new york bureau, senior editors received a message from hong kong. phone ringing i sent a message saying the guinness is good, which meant snowden is for real. And one of the deputy editors in new york said when he saw those words come over, he just went, fantastic, weve got a real story. Narrator the guardian decided to publish the story as fast as possible. They called the white house and gave them four hours to comment. I remember well getting the phone call. And it was one of these situations where it almost took us a few minutes to get our minds around how big of a leak this was and how comprehensive the set of revelations were. We had very little time to react. Narrator they sounded the alarm and reached out to an nsa official, john delong. I have two computers on my desk a classified computer and an unclassified computer. And im used to seeing that document on the classified computer. And i did a real double take. I remember just sitting there for 30 seconds checking and rechecking to see what computer this classified document appeared on. The gravity of it was quite palpable, and i thought, this is going to be a really tough story as it comes out. Narrator at tguardian, editorinchief Janine Gibson took a return call from the white house. She has the deputy head of the nsa and the white house on the phone, and they essentially are trying to persuade her not to publish. The white house tactic was one of, okay, come and see us, lets talk about this, and you can chat to our officials and we can discuss what might be published and what might not. Janine has her own script, which is to say, look, if you have any significant objections, objections on the grounds of National Security, then tell us. Now is the moment to tell us. And of course, they dont. They just want to stall her. Narrator the guardian refused to wait. The british newspaper the guardian reports that verizon is providing phone records of some businesses to the u. S. Government. Narrator it was just the beginning. At the washington posreporter Barton Gellman the only other reporter to receive documents directly from snowden was working on another story. Before publishing, he contacted the nsa. I sent notes to two highranking people and a spokesperson in government and said, i have something very sensitive to talk to you about. Narrator the story concerned another nsa program called prism. Documents showed how beginning in 2007, nine Internet Companies were cooperating with the nsa. Gellman wanted to make sure his reporting wouldnt damage National Security. We very much did want to know what they thought would do concrete harm, and how, and why. And the u. S. Government asked me not to publish the names of the Nine Companies that were supplying information to the government in the Prism Program. And i said, why . Their argument was that if we publish the names, then the companies would be less inclined to cooperate. And i guess we agreed to disagree on that one. The Washington Post is reporting that the. Narrator the post went ahead. Narrator the prism revelations reached beyond the collection of phone records. This was about the acquisition of content from tens of thousands of nsa targets. Did you check your account on gmail . Secret spying program is. The Prism Program is not about metadata. Its about content. Its the photos and videos you send. Its the words of your emails. Its the sounds of your voice on a skype call. Its all the files you have stored on a cloud drive service. Its content, its everything. Narrator the president was on a fundraising trip in Silicon Valley. At a press conference, he agreed to take one question about the leaks. Good morning, everybody. Im going to take one question. I dont want the whole day to just be a bleeding press conference but im going to take Jackie Calmes question. Mr. President , could you please react to the reports of secret government surveillance of phone and internet, and can you also assure americans that your government doesnt have some massive secret database of all their personal online information and activities . Yeah. What the Intelligence Community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at peoples names and theyre not looking at content. Narrator the president tried to downplay the revelations. Now, with respect to the internet and emails, this does not apply to u. S. Citizens and it does not apply to People Living in the United States. In the abstract, you can complain about big brother and how this is a potential, you know. You know, program run amok. But when you actually look at the details. In hong kong, snowden was sitting with three people under contract with the guardian. They were sitting there on the bed watching the reaction on cnn. They are not looking at peoples names and theyre not looking at content. Obama was saying the nsa isnt listening to the telephone calls or reading the emails of americans, which is absolutely wrong. There were documents that we had that proved president obamas claims in that regard were false. And we just could tell, as well, that he at that moment didnt have any idea of the true magnitude of what was coming, given how dismissive and casual his tone was. Thank you very much, guys. Narrator snowden now decided to make a bold move. He would reveal his identity, posting a video he had recorded a few days earlier. Laura set up the camera. Glenn was asking the questions. And normally snowden wore a tshirt, and glenn says, can you not find a shirt . And snowden went off and found the grey shirt. My name is ed snowden. Im 29 years old. I worked for Booz Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure analyst for nsa in hawaii. What we see is someone who is calm, rational, persuasive. The nsa specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in its system and it filters them and it analyzes them and it measures them and it stores them. The language was clear, sympathetic. And when he did the interview it was as if he was a media natural. So we knew that when snowden went public it was going to be a huge story. Why should people care about surveillance . Because even if youre not doing anything wrong, youre being watched and recorded. And he sets out why hes done this thing, what his motives are, and basically sort of puts the ball in the court of the public and says, you make up your minds as to whether this is right or not. These things need to be determined by the public, not by somebody who is simply hired by the government. This is the truth. This is whats happening. You should decide whether we need to be doing this. Edward snowden, according to the guardian, is in hong kong. Who leaked the existence of nsa programs. woman speaking chinese three weeks ago after copying a last set of documents. We knew that the minute we unveiled his identity that he was going to have to go into hiding, because the media horde was about to descend onto hong kong and would be looking for him. And the u. S. Government would certainly be looking for him. At that point he knew it was untenable. Some enterprising journalist had put up on twitter the pictures of the hotel room and says, does anybody recognize these light fittings . And someone was able to establish it was the mira. Snowden is believed to. The mira hotel is just across the harbor. So snowden knew they were on their way, so about midday he left his hotel room. Um, and there was definitely a kind of air of sadness over our last meeting, because i assumed that the next time i saw him, he was going to be in u. S. Custody on a television screen. Narrator snowden left it to the journalists to decide which documents to publish, and then he disappeared into the crowded streets of hong kong. For two weeks, he managed to elude the worlds press corps. Hiding in hong kong. Apparently still in hong kong. Narrator and to avoid u. S. Authorities. Edward snowdens been charged with two counts of espionage. This guy is a traitor, hes a defector. Narrator on june 23, Edward Snowden set off for south america via russia. Transit through russia, supposedly hes headed for ecuador. He ended up in russia for one very simple reason, and that is that the United States government forced him to stay there by preventing him from leaving. Snowden is believed to be holed up inside moscows airport. He could no longer get a ticket and leave russia because his passport had been revoked by the u. S. Government. People may die as a consequence of what this man did, and anybody who wants to make him a hero is misjudging how they stay safe. The man on the run from u. S. Authorities. One of the greatest Security Breaches in american history. Russia has granted Edward Snowden asylum. Edward snowden was granted asylum in russia. Less likely he will ever see inside of a u. S. Courtroom. Narrator back in the u. S. , at nsa headquarters, the news hit hard. Headline, and it has grown bigger. It was hard to read in the press, nsa is lawless, nsa out of control. None of those resonate with us. Thats not us. Thats not what we are aiming towards. Thats not how we hold ourselves accountable. Our ultimate goal is to prevent things from. Bad things from happening to ensure the National Security. You want to draw the box differently . You want to have the Security Community work in a smaller box . I got it. But before you do that, you got to understand, you got to understand what the costs might be. I mean, we live inside a democracy. And, you know, the public will matters in a democracy. I just hope its informed public will. And frankly, when the decisions are made, you understand the costs. We have to strike the right balance between protecting our security and preserving our freedoms. Narrator the president did what executives in the midst of a controversy often do. Review of our surveillance programs. Narrator he appointed a panel. So i am tasking this independent group to step back. Narrator this one to review the nsas programs. And they will provide an interim report in 60 days and a final report by the end of this year, so that we can move forward with a better understanding. The president s directions were, go wherever you want. You can see any classified program. No one can deny you any information. You can go anywhere in the Intelligence Community. You can recommend anything. Except, realize that what i wont accept is any block between me and my constitutional oath of defending the United States. The highly classified program is codenamed prism. The guardiand the Washington Post both reporting that the National Security agency. Narrator on the other side of the country, in Silicon Valley, there was anger and confusion over just what kind of access major Internet Companies were giving the nsa. There was shock and disbelief and horror. A lot of people i know, Silicon Valleytype people, just felt, it cant be right. Its not possible google, facebook, these guys are collaborating. Its not just what they would do. The ceos of Internet Companies like facebook and google denied. Narrator the companies scrambled to respond to the news. Google denies that they have direct access. Whos right . They freaked out because theyd never heard of a program called prism. And they were not letting the nsa get direct access to their servers. They were cooperating with a secret program that they really couldnt describe in sufficient detail to their customers. These nsa folks are saying. They saw here a big threat to their image, to their business model, which relies on people to trust them with their communications. And they started issuing quite heated statements, taking issue with the idea that they would be just handing over free access to the nsa. Narrator but then there was more bad news. The Washington Post, citing documents stolen and released by Edward Snowden. Narrator prism was only part of what the nsa was up to. Narrator in a program called muscular, the nsa was secretly extracting data from fiber optic cables overseas, where intelligence operations are much less restrained by surveillance laws. Prism was a front door. Prism was the court saying, you have to cooperate with the nsa and give specific information when asked. Now, they find out that through the backdoor, the government is actually breaking into their infrastructure and taking whatever they want. They cant intentionally look for a u. S. Persons information unless they believe its a legitimate foreign target. But otherwise theyre free to collect it at. Pretty much unrestricted abroad. They can hack into companies internal networks and collect information in bulk. Narrator the nsa did this by invoking a reaganera president ial order, from a time long before the modern internet. The nsa decided it was okay under executive order 12333 and with the backing of the Justice Departm