...The NSA, it seemed, had not told the public the whole story about Snowden's contacts with oversight authorities before he became the most celebrated and vilified whistleblower in US history....
The trove of more than 800 pages [pdf at the end of this story (at the link)], along with several interviews conducted by VICE News, offer unprecedented insight into the NSA during this time of crisis within the agency. And they call into question aspects of the US government's long-running narrative about Snowden's time at the NSA....
On April 5, 2013 — a year before the Vanity Fair story came out — Snowden clicked the "email us" link on the internal website of the NSA's Office of General Counsel (OGC) and wrote, "I have a question regarding the mandatory USSID 18 training."
United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) encompasses rules by which the NSA is supposed to abide in order to protect the privacy of the communications of people in the United States. Snowden was taking this and other training courses in Maryland while working to transition from a Sysadmin to an analyst position. Referring to a slide from the training program that seemed to indicate federal statutes and presidential Executive Orders (EOs) carry equal legal weight, Snowden wrote, "this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply Executive Orders have the same precedence as law. My understanding is that EOs may be superseded by federal statute, but EOs may not override statute."...
"[With] its story done, NBC is asking us to fact-check. Incredible," Vines wrote. "We'll get more info soon from the producer. In the meantime, there's apparently a fresh claim about email the leaker [Snowden] allegedly sent to OGC or a compliance official."
De, a staunch advocate for releasing Snowden's email, informed Vines that the NSA had already been speaking to the White House about Snowden's claims. He asked Vines to see if she could ferret out additional details from Cole about the interview.
Later that day, Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent word over to the NSA that she expected a "forceful NSA response" to Snowden's claims.
"You can help temper expectations by making clear [to Feinstein] that we were not aware of this story before it was publicly advertised and until yesterday had not been contacted to respond to any issues," the person wrote. "We have not been and don't expect to be given much if any detail beyond the public 'teaser.' We can only crystal ball so much, especially when the protagonist is not bound by facts or the truth."....
