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10 | HOW AMERICA LOST ITS SECRETS

Snowden's whereabouts are clouded—the period between the time he left the Mira hotel on June 10 and the day he left Hong Kong for Russia on June 23. When I asked my consulate source whether the U.S. mission took any action to track Snowden during these thirteen days, he explained that the FBI had long maintained a contingent of "legal attachés" based at the consulate to pursue many possible violations of U.S. law including video piracy. In addition, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had retained a handful of "China watchers" under diplomatic cover in Hong Kong. This group constituted the "intelligence mission," as he referred to it. It had developed informal relations with the Hong Kong police that, along with the NSA's electronic capabilities abroad, allowed it to track Snowden's movements after he had outed himself on the video. Because Snowden, his lawyers, and the journalists in his entourage frequently used their cell phones to text one another, it was fairly easy for the U.S. intelligence mission to follow Snowden's trail after he left the Mira hotel. He said that the Hong Kong police also knew where he was during this period. My source further suggested that the massive Chinese intelligence contingent in Hong Kong also knew, because it had close relations with the Hong Kong police.

"So everyone knew Snowden's whereabouts as he moved every few days from apartment to apartment," I interjected. He answered that it was no secret to anyone except the media and the public. "Of course we knew," he said, adding that there were also photographs of Snowden entering the office building that housed the Russian consulate. I mentioned that there was a report in a Russian newspaper that Snowden had visited the Russian consulate in late June in connection with the flight he later took to Moscow. "All we know is he entered the building," he answered, with a shrug.

That Russian consulate visit did not come as a complete surprise to U.S. intelligence. After Snowden left the Mira, his interactions with the Russian and Chinese intelligence services in Hong Kong had been closely monitored by "secret means," a term that in that context likely indicated electronic surveillance. A former top intelligence executive in Washington, D.C., subsequently confirmed this monitoring to me. All of Snowden's stealth in exiting from the Mira hotel, which included wearing a baseball cap and dark glasses, thus

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