They elected me. The overseers ... The [American] system failed

CHAPTER 10 Whistle-blower They elected me. The overseers ... The [American] system failed comprehensively, and each level of oversight, each level of re- sponsibility that should have addressed this, abdicated their re- sponsibility. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2013 Wi SNOWDEN in Hong Kong was attempting to reel in the journalists, Lindsay Mills returned to Honolulu from her “island-hopping” trip to find their house partially flooded and Snowden nowhere to be found. In a brief note Snowden left her, he said he was away on a business trip and indicated that, at least tem- porarily, their eight-year relationship was on hold. “T feel alone, lost, overwhelmed, and desperate for a reprieve from the bipolar nature of my current situation,” she wrote in her journal on June 2 (which would be June 3 across the international timeline in Hong Kong). “I’ve nearly lost my mind, family, and house over the past few weeks.” She also noted in her online journal, “Oh and I physically lost my memory [SIM] card with nearly all my adven- ture photos,” as well as other personal data. The loss would make it difficult to reconstruct her past activities with Snowden. In Hong Kong, if Snowden were following Lindsay’s online jour- nal, he would have read that his girlfriend had returned home, lost her data, and needed a “reprieve” from the situation in which he had | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 89 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019577