Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London

 LAURA

A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR LIVING

UNDER TOTAL SURVEILLANCE

W ith an introduction by Jay Sanders and contributions by

Ai Weiwei, Jacob Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumediene, Kate Crawford,
Alex Danchev, Cory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, Jill Magid,
Trevor Paglen, Edward Snowden, and H ito Steyerl
 CONTENTS

20 Foreword Adam D. Weinberg

24 Introduction Jay Sanders

38 The Adventure of the Extraordinary Rendition Cory Doctorow

60 We Were the Other Lakhdar Boumediene
70 Surveillance Ai Weiwei
80 Berlin Journal Laura Poitras
104 Listening to the Moons Trevor Paglen
120 Astro Noise Edward Snowden
126 Circle Democracy Dave Eggers
138 Asking the Oracle Kate Crawford
154 Letter to a Young Selector Jacob Appelbaum
162 Medya: Autonomy of Images Hito Steyerl
180 Glossary Jill Magid
192 18 USC § 371 Federal Bureau of Investigation

204 Troublemakers: Laura Poitras and the Problem of Dissent Alex Danchev

226 Acknowledgments
236 “Anarchist” Image Index
20

FOREWORD

Adam D. Weinberg

I T SEEMS IN C O N G R U O U S T H A T Gertrude Vanderbilt W hitney

(1875-1942), one o f the wealthiest Americans o f her day, helped to sup­
port some o f the most socially and politically engaged artists o f her
time. Through the establishment o f the W hitney Studio Club and
its successor, the W hitney Museum o f American Art, Mrs. W hitney’s
early commitment to radical realist artists and her profound belief
in the democracy o f American art positioned her (and Juliana Force,
the Museum’s first director) as a champion o f free expression and the
W hitney as a site for potential controversy.
In 1908, in one o f her first and most audacious acts, Mrs. W hitney
purchased four o f the seven paintings from the historic Macbeth Gallery
exhibition o f “The Eight,” artists who challenged and ultimately broke
the stranglehold o f the conservative and exclusive National Academy.
These works by Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, and
Everett Shinn, today cornerstones o f the Museum’s collection, were
largely disparaged for their distasteful subject matter: the gritty life of
the urban lower classes. Given her own academic training as an artist
and her penchant for realist work, it is not surprising that Mrs. W hitney
favored figurative art; nevertheless, she decisively aligned herself with
progressive artists committed to revealing an unflinching view o f con­
temporary life. I t is worth noting that a number o f these Ashcan School
artists, such as Henri and John Sloan, worked as newspaper illustrators,
were contributors to the socialist magazine The Masses, and attended
lectures by renowned anarchist Emma Goldman and other activities
associated with leftist causes. As Avis Berman wrote in her biography
o f Mrs. Force, Rebels on Eighth Street, “ Buying those canvases . . . was,
consciously or unconsciously, a statement o f class rebellion. Gertrude
understood that these were the paintings o f democrats, and collecting
them was an act of engagement.”
W hile Mrs. W hitney and Mrs. Force were hardly radicals, their
 21

willingness to engage charged artistic and political issues, particularly

from an interpretive documentary perspective, became a hallmark o f their
nearly four-decade partnership. This was manifested in the thematic
exhibitions they organized such as The Immigrant in America (1915)
and America Genre: The Social Scene in Paintings and Prints (1800-1935)
(1935), with their selections o f the social realists W illiam Gropper,
George Grosz, Robert Gwathmey, and Reginald Marsh for Annual
and Biennial exhibitions, and in the numerous, provocative acquisitions
they made.
For a time in the post-Whitney/Force era, the Museum’s com­
mitment to the reportorial tradition in art primarily took the form
o f exhibitions by artists it had shown in previous decades, including
Jack Levine (1955), Philip Evergood (1960), Alice Neel (1974), and
Jacob Lawrence (1974). In subsequent years, in tune with political
developments o f the time and in response to the investigation o f the
fundamental nature o f representation itself, the W hitney’s interest in
social documentary work—broadly speaking—exploded. Profound and
urgent philosophical questions about art-making were being interro­
gated: How do cultural biases shape the language o f representation?
Who has the right to speak for or about the individuals being repre­
sented? Is it appropriate to make art based on the victimization o f oth­
ers? How do commercial interests and the government determine or
lim it what we can create? Diverse and numerous exhibitions attack­
ing these questions from multiple positions ranged from The Prison
Show: Realities and Representations (1981) to Black Male: Representations
o f Masculinity in Contemporary American A rt (1994-5), and asserted the
critical need for socially engaged art while concurrently questioning
its effectiveness. And in recent years, W hitney exhibitions related to
questions o f surveillance and systems o f social control have come in the
form o f solo exhibitions by artists including Taryn Simon (2007), Jenny
Holzer (2009), Omer Fast (2009-10), and Jill Magid (2010).

* * ★

Laura Poitras is a documentary filmmaker best known for her works

M y Country, M y Country (2006), The Oath (2010), and CITIZENFOUR
(2014), a trilogy o f reports on the “ war on terror” and its consequences
22

for all people, everywhere. For some time, Poitras had wanted to depart
from her filmic practice to create an installation that would possess both
the urgency o f fact and the visceral and emotional qualities o f “ real”
space. In 2013, she wrote in her journal (an excerpt o f which appears
in this volume): “ I should think about using NSA material in the exhi­
bition. To draw people in and break news. To m irror the themes o f the
surveillance mechanism. Maybe an art exhibition could do that—both
create an aesthetic experience and reveal information that evokes an
emotional response.” Her desire, I believe, is to deliver a wake-up call,
making real the threats omnipresent in a surveillance society.
Poitras’s approach in Astro Noise involves a sequence o f installa­
tions utilizing projections, real-time video, the architecture o f space,
and meaningful artifacts; she uses the artwork as a vehicle to create
an empathetic situation that provokes individual moral and ethical
responses among viewers. The subject o f each work, however, is not so
much the other— the hooded prisoner held captive for unknown rea­
sons; the potential targets o f drone strikes lying unaware under the star-
filled skies o f the Middle East; the artist herself, who has been the target
o f numerous governmental investigations— but rather the public who
pass through the installation; that is, us. Poitras has framed a series of
sequential experiences that make us keenly and threateningly aware that
we are the ones watching and being watched. As we travel through a
narrative dreamscape composed entirely o f fact, we are made cognizant
o f the many types o f watching: looking, seeing, observing, contemplat­
ing, staring, studying, gazing, peering, spying.
In Astro Noise, the artist poses acute and devastating personal, p oliti­
cal, aesthetic, and metaphysical questions: Does privacy exist in a world
where the real story o f your life is an aggregation o f data points? W ho
has the right to this information and how it is used? Given the ava­
lanche o f data collected around the world and around the clock, how
can we hope to understand the use o f this information, no less man­
age, regulate, and legislate it? W hat are the existential repercussions o f
living in a world where it is impossible to be alone, ever? And then
there are the enduring questions that face all artists who produce social
critique: W hat does it mean to manipulate fact for the “ greater good” of
an art experience? How does the notion o f beauty factor into the moral
calculus regarding art o f this sort?
 23

Poitras is a risk taker, and I don’t refer here solely to the personal,
physical, and political risks she has taken working in a war zone or
trading in national-security documents. In Astro Noise, she takes artis­
tic risks, pushing beyond her familiar territory o f narrative filmmaking
and mining new and seemingly incongruous ground: the intersection
o f big data, surveillance, and art. Interestingly enough, when Edward
Snowden chose to reveal his secrets to Poitras, he selected her because,
as he is quoted herein, “The combination o f her experience and her
exacting focus on detail and process gave her a natural talent for secu­
rity.” These words, exacting,, detail, and process, are critical to the vocab­
ulary o f all great art. But, more important, art is a possible response
to total surveillance itself, and not merely by unmasking it; art’s ran­
domness, ambiguity, illogic, anarchy, unpredictability, and chance
operations themselves challenge oppressive and insidious systems of
structure and control. As catalogue contributor Jacob Appelbaum puts
it, in a rousing exhortation, “ Only in ephemerality are we free and only
in that freedom we w ill be at liberty. Your task is to create that ephem­
erality for everyone, without exception, and to make that space as large
as is possible. A world without gods or masters!”

* * *

I would like to thank Laura Poitras for her courage and for placing her
trust in the W hitney to help realize her vision for Astro Noise. And, great
kudos to Jay Sanders for having the foresight and perseverance to bring
this demanding and complex project to fruition.
Ambitious projects are impossible to realize alone, and we are for­
tunate to have an exceptional group o f supporters for this exhibition.
We owe a tremendous debt o f thanks to The Andy Warhol Foundation
and its president, Joel Wachs, for their consistent commitment to art­
ists who push the envelope and for their recognition o f the importance
o f Laura Poitras’s work at this moment. The Teiger Foundation has
been a visionary supporter from the very beginning, offering an early
leadership gift for exhibition research. The Keith Haring Foundation
Exhibition Fund and The Reva and David Logan Foundation also made
generous contributions to ensure that this work could be realized to its
full potential and shared with a diverse audience at the Whitney.
 25

INTRODUCTION

Jay S anders

ARTIST, FILM M A K E R , A N D JO U R N A LIS T Laura Poitras com­

pels us to rethink how an artist can explore and convey the nature o f
power, expand our understanding o f the larger world, and shape our
sense o f responsibility. Despite her fundamental desire to sidestep per­
sonal visibility, and in the face o f considerable adversity and personal
risk amid dangerously unknown conditions, she has relied on the power
o f art and storytelling as a means o f communicating the complexities o f
life today. It is no coincidence that Poitras calls her production com­
pany Praxis Films. Praxis is philosophical thought taking form as con­
crete action in the world. Political theorist Hannah Arendt, who viewed
Western thought as too weighted toward the contemplative, argued
that praxis in the form o f everyday political action is the true realization
o f human freedom. Poitras shows us the lives o f specific individuals
confronting their historical circumstances and state power, just as she
has confronted these circumstances herself.
Poitras entered the orbit o f the W hitney Museum o f American A rt
four years ago with her inclusion in the 2012 W hitney Biennial. The
urgency o f her work—its complex, intimate, and real-time depiction o f
the global effects o f the post-September 11, 2001 world on individuals’
lives—was vitally clear to all o f us who organized that exhibition. In
the Biennial, Poitras presented The Oath (2010), the second film in her
then-in-process “ 9/11 Trilogy.” In the Biennial’s exhibition catalogue,
participating artists were invited to represent themselves or their work in
any way they chose. Poitras opted to publish four pages o f Department
o f Homeland Security documents that she had obtained through a
Freedom o f Information Act request. They detailed her treatment at
U.S. airports on returning from travels abroad— repeated detainment
and questioning as well as searches o f her camera equipment and per­
sonal belongings. The documents recount firsthand the extent to which
the American government is able to search, seize, copy, and hold one’s
26

property, including data, without a warrant or suspicion o f a crime. At

the time, Poitras was in the process o f shooting footage and gathering
materials for her third and final post-9/11 film, which would follow
the “ war on terror” back to the United States, in the form o f massive,
top-secret National Security Agency programs o f global surveillance.
As part o f the Biennial, Poitras organized a public event at the
Whitney, the Surveillance Teach-In. Foretelling what we were soon
to learn via the revelations o f Edward Snowden and through Poitras’s
film CITIZENFOUR (2014), the Teach-In brought together W illiam
Binney, a former NSA technical director turned whistleblower, and
Jacob Appelbaum, a computer-security expert, privacy advocate, jour­
nalist, and hacker, for the two to meet for the first time, onstage at
the museum. Appelbaum questioned Binney about how technologies
he had helped develop to enable the United States to spy on poten­
tial foreign enemies had, unbeknownst to him, been repurposed for
domestic surveillance. Among the audience, these revelations created
a palpable sense o f a reality unmoored, an atmosphere o f conspiracy

Jacob Appelbaum and William Binney (center left and right) speaking at the Surveillance
Teach-In, organized by Laura Poitras for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York, April 20, 2012
 27

theories, paranoia, and disbelief. The disorientation and duress were

enhanced by another aspect o f the evening, Poitras’s collaboration
with the performance group Stimulate, whereby a portion o f the vis­
itors to the W hitney were temporarily detained on arrival and taken
to the museum’s courtyard. They were released after several minutes,
but they experienced, at least briefly, being snagged in an unexpected
structure o f control. By the end o f the evening, inkjet-printed canvas
photographs o f WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange— another subject of
Poitras’s work— had found their way onto the walls o f the museum’s
galleries upstairs, a renegade gesture that remains a mystery to this day.
Soon thereafter, fearing that, in the United States, she could not com­
plete the film on which she was at work, Poitras relocated to Berlin. W ith
the unexpected emergence o f Snowden in her life in early 2013—via
email contact from a mysterious “ Citizen Four”—the focus o f this third
film in the “ 9/11 Trilogy” radically shifted as she became a protagonist
in the narrative, documenting his story in real time and playing a key
role in its unfolding on the world stage. The result, CITIZENFOUR, was
an astonishing cinematic feat, one undertaken as Snowden’s revelations
and Poitras’s reporting ricocheted around the globe and sparked a far-
reaching debate on the ethics o f an empire based on democratic princi­
ples monitoring entire populations in the name o f protecting them.
During the period after Snowden had contacted her, Poitras began
examining ideas for expanding her cinematic practice into installations
and media environments, considering the moving image beyond long-
form films, and looking toward other ways o f addressing and engaging
an audience. As CITIZENFOUR began to take shape, she realized that
the nature o f what she was attempting to convey—a vast, often-invisible
infrastructure that affected every individual around the world—also
lent itself to other kinds o f artistic expression. Poitras contacted me,
describing her ideas for presenting the culture and mechanisms o f sur­
veillance in a very different way, through structured visual experiences
that might embody and express the course o f American foreign policy
and operations in the post-9/11 world. Such an approach would provide
much more than journalistic information or a single cinematic narra­
tive and would compel an audience to enter into a visceral, dialectical
relationship with the way those around the world endure the effects o f
America’s response to the attacks o f September 2001.
28

Snowden’s first revelations hit the news in June 2013. As the watershed
reporting based on the Snowden archive fueled public debate internation­
ally, we invited Laura Poitras to create an exhibition o f work as one o f the
first shows at the new Whitney Museum. After nearly a year o f avoiding
travel to the United States, Poitras returned to New York in April 2014,
in part to receive the prestigious George Polk Award for her national-
security journalism, and began planning her first museum exhibition.
The resulting exhibition’s tide, Astro Noise, echoes with associations.
Discovered accidentally by astronomers in 1964 and initially thought
to be a technical error, astro noise refers to the faint background dis­
turbance o f thermal radiation left over after the big bang; it is
most evident to earthbound observers in the form o f microwaves
that seem to pervade the universe, unaffiliated with any specific
source. Measurements o f the energy o f these waves have been used
to determine the age o f the universe and are one o f the firmest pieces
o f evidence for the big bang hypothesis. More pointedly, Astro Noise
is the name Edward Snowden gave to an encrypted file containing
evidence o f NSA mass surveillance that he shared with Poitras in 2013.
In the exhibition Astro Noise, Poitras expands on her project to
document post-9/11 America through a series o f interrelated installa­
tions that incorporate documentary footage, primary documents, and
narrative structure. The works builds on subjects she has examined
in her films: mass surveillance, the war on terror, the U.S. drone pro­
gram, Guantanamo Bay prison, m ilitary occupation, and torture. The
opening work, a double-sided projection, situates visitors directly in the
aftermath o f the events o f September 2001. On one side is projected
Poitras’s short film O'Say Can You See (2001/2011), the only previously
realized component o f the exhibition, which features slow-motion
images o f onlookers gazing at the remains o f the W orld Trade Center.
On the reverse appears formerly classified footage o f the U.S. m ilitary’s
interrogation o f prisoners captured in Afghanistan in November 2001
and later sent to Guantanamo Bay.
In the second gallery, the projection environment Bed Down Location
fast-forwards fifteen years, siting the viewer within the present-
day war on terror, under night skies where the United States carries out
drone strikes and “ targeted killing.” W ith a name taken from the m ili­
tary term used to describe the sleeping coordinates o f people targeted
 29

for assassination by drones, the work consists o f video o f the night sky
from countries such as Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia projected onto the
gallery ceiling. Bed Down Location leads to Disposition M a trix, a wind­
ing corridor perforated on either side with peephole slits cut into the
walls. Beams o f light emanating from the openings provide the sole
source o f illumination in the dark passageway. Each slit allows a view
into the secret state— but only a partial, cutaway one— in the form o f
documents, videos, and still images. These and other works in Astro
Noise plumb the realities o f detainment and the visual manifestations o f
surveillance in provocative, confrontational ways.
In place o f a traditional exhibition catalogue, Astro Noise: A Survival
Guide fo r Living Under Total Surveillance presents a collection o f texts at
once subversive and matter-of-fact concerning life in a surveillance state.
Poitras invited artists, novelists, technologists, a data journalist, and a
former Guantanamo Bay prisoner to contribute in ways that, whether
playful, ardent, or theoretical, extend beyond both journalism and art
writing. The aim o f the book is to create an imaginative yet useful field

Laura Poitras and Jay Sanders touring the Whitney's new building during construction, New York,
April 14, 2014
30

guide o f critical perspectives and responses to contemporary political

reality. Some writers worked directly with Poitras, drawing from the
archive o f documents leaked by Snowden: Kate Crawford relays the
metaphorical potential for how the archive can speak, while Jill Magid
was tasked with compiling a glossary o f intelligence terminology.
Others contributed fiction: Cory Doctorow pens a Sherlock Holmes
story on mass surveillance, and Dave Eggers excerpts the screenplay for
his novel The Circle (2013), imagining corporate social media obtrud­
ing on government functions. Collectively, the many authors’ inventive
contributions express much more than simply the facts at hand.
And the facts themselves can have a powerful aura o f their own.
Opening and closing the book are image spreads culled from the
Snowden archive from a program called Anarchist, an operation run by
the British intelligence service G C H Q in which intercepted signals from
radar systems, satellites, and drones are processed and analyzed. Too, in
the days before sending this book to print, Poitras received a number
o f redacted documents obtained through a Freedom o f Information
Act lawsuit she filed against the Department o f Homeland Security,
the Department o f Justice, and the Office o f the Director o f National
Intelligence. Presented in part here, these newly released documents
reveal the alarming extent to which she has been under investigation for
her work: she has not only been placed on a watch list but has also been
the target o f classified FBI and grand-jury investigations.
In mid-September 2015, as the book neared its final stages o f pro­
duction, Poitras and I sat down to speak about the impending exhibition.

JAY SANDERS: I know you’re always reluctant to describe the work

you make before it ’s completed. You also once told me that you don’t
like to repeatedly tell the same story because it hardens into a definitive
account in your own mind—you lose the complicated sensorial aspects
o f an experience when it becomes an anecdote.

LAU RA POITRAS: I ’m not a fan o f talking about my work, particularly

about work in progress. The work is visual and not verbal for a reason.

JS: I have strong memories o f first contacting you about doing this exhi­
bition, at a time when you couldn’t safely enter the U.S., and then later
 31

when you finally came to see the W hitney’s new building while it was
still under construction. Over the last year, as the work for Astro Noise
has been quietly taking form in your New York studio, have you found
your artistic process different as it pertains to making installations and
an exhibition as opposed to films?

LP: In many ways it’s not different. I ’m interested in installation work

that has a narrative experience. To have a clear beginning, middle, and
end, with reveals and twists: all those things happen in a plot, but they
are mapped more abstractly when the museum viewer is the protag­
onist. I want to draw viewers into the narrative o f the work so that
they leave it in a different mind-set from when they entered. I ’m also
interested in having bodies in spaces and asking them to make choices,
which is not something you get to do in a movie theater.

JS: I ’m always interested in issues o f audience, o f who experiences art

and to whom it ’s addressed. In contemporary visual art, it’s an interest­
ing question, because it ’s most often made for the network o f artists,
collectors, scholars, writers, and curators who make up the art world.
Museums are the place where the broadest public is invited into that
dialogue, where the access points are much wider. How do you think
about the relationship between the museum context and the public,
particularly concerning the political content o f the work, and how is it
different from that o f a movie theater?

LP: There are two questions here— one about audience, the other
about institutional context. In terms o f audience, there is something
really great about the populist medium o f cinema. I t ’s seductive;
most people can engage with it. I want to bring that kind o f narra­
tive engagement into the installation work. H ow the context o f the
museum impacts the work is a separate question. I obviously don’t
want to sanitize the political content. But there is always a risk o f
having work co-opted by the institution— that’s a risk every artist or
filmmaker confronts when making decisions about publication or dis­
tribution. In the end I hope the work I ’m doing, no matter the form
it takes, expresses an emotional and political urgency that connects
to audiences.
32

JS: Your work is exemplary, in the films o f course but especially with
this exhibition, in intensely considering the interaction o f viewers as
a fundamental component. The audience becomes a primary factor in
how each work occurs.

LP: There’s a detached quality I often see in museum and gallery spaces
that I want to avoid. W hat I connect to in the work o f an artist like
Christian Boltanski is the journey it takes you on.

JS: The first work viewers w ill see is your film O ’Say Can You See. It
represents a turning point in your work as an artist, as it was the first
film you made in response to the events o f September 11, a central sub­
ject ever since. You shot it near the W orld Trade Center site just days
later. I remember you curated a film program as part o f the Rencontres
Internationales du Documentaire de Montreal (R ID M ) in 2012 that
included Andy W arhol’s infamous Blow Job (1964). You wrote a short
text that characterized Blow Job as a very extended reaction shot and
spoke too about the lim its o f representation, about revealing instead
through reaction. I t ’s striking that O ’Say Can You See consists entirely o f
reaction shots, on a scale that’s both intimate and massive. I rewatched
it again today, and the film took me back to the much more raw feeling
o f that moment, a more open-ended state.

LP: I love cinematic language. There’s probably nothing more exciting

than the reaction shot because it is a moment o f transference where
viewers project what they think someone is thinking and feeling.
Reaction shots also, as you say, reveal the limits o f representation. I
don’t know if it ’s possible to represent the tragedy and destruction o f
what happened at Ground Zero. By staying with the reaction shot, I felt
I could “ see” things better than if I had pointed the camera at some­
thing no longer there. O ’Say Can You See is a documentary even though
it provides very little exposition. I t ’s a primary document o f people try­
ing to make sense o f the unimaginable. The film itself is also about the
limits o f seeing—both the desire to see and the limits o f seeing.

JS: Right. And you now make it part o f a new work by recontextual­
izing it in the form o f a two-sided projection, sharing a screen with
 33

interrogation videos from 2001. H istory’s course has become clear.

So when a viewer comes around the back o f O'Say, it begins the dra­
matic reveal o f the exhibition, as that two-sidedness signals the onset
o f the dialectical nature o f each work. And this careful staging o f mov­
ing images in situ prompts dramatic engagements that change one’s
relationship to an image. You start to open your eyes to things that as
American citizens we might not otherwise see. The night sky in Bed
Down Location is populated with unseen drones yet visually calls to mind
a planetarium or James TurrelPs skyspaces: the celestial reveal.

LP: The entire exhibition is about die post-9/11 era, but it is also very
much about cinema itself, with the use of reaction shots, planetarium-
style ceiling projections, peepholes, narrative loops, and reveals. Already
in the time o f the Lumieres and Melies, cinema contained the tension
between documenting cold, hard reality (people leaving a factory, trains
arriving) and creating magic and fantasies. By asking people to lie down
in Bed Down Location, I want them to enter an empathetic space and
imagine drone warfare—not simply to understand it from news arti­
cles but to ponder the sky and imagine that there is a machine flying
above you that could end your life at any moment. W hat does that
feel like? Many people in the world are living under skies where that
is a reality. There’s a lot o f conceptual art that talks about violence or
power in an intellectual way, but I want to expand people’s understand­
ing emotionally.

JS: The potency o f the gesture lies in the particularities o f how the gal­
lery is arranged, so that viewing the sky occurs in a calm, contemplative
space that creates a dissonance with its more ominous overtones. W ith
the next piece, Disposition M a trix, there’s a different kind o f emotional
resonance for viewers, one o f being confronted with all these windows,
or peepholes, onto secrets that appear not as a totality but in slivers—
brief, partial views.

LP: In both o f those spaces I ’m interested not just in the experience o f

the viewer as protagonist moving through a narrative journey but in
how other bodies create that narrative experience. And I very much like
the idea o f creating a space that challenges the viewer as to whether to
34

venture in or not. My documentaries are about these kinds o f questions.

We live life not knowing what w ill happen next. W hat do people do
when they’re confronted with choices and risks?

JS: These ideas set up challenges for the museum too. Art asks a lot o f
viewers, but within the museum context, there’s often the sense that the
explanations are at hand as well. Maybe one o f the tensions Astro Noise
w ill create w ill lie in taking away a little bit o f that ease.

LP: It w ill be confrontational. There w ill be echoes o f the Surveillance

Teach-In, where we detained people at the museum and interrogated
them before they could enter.

JS: You see in art the struggle o f how to represent an incredibly com­
plex situation and how to respond artistically or creatively to it. In your
work you find ways to reveal the complexity o f geopolitical affairs in
how they affect individual lives. By tracing people’s lives, larger, highly
complicated machinations come into focus.

LP: I t ’s not just that I ’m tracing people’s lives and relating their com­
pelling narratives. They’re real people who are navigating real risks.
There’s a very direct connection between the films and what people are
actually experiencing. They’re people who are putting their lives on the
line for a set o f beliefs.

JS: W hat then are some o f the tactics that go into making your docu­
mentary work?

LP: M y films rely on access, which is a kind o f tactic. Those tactics

are not always visible in the stories you see on screen. To get access to
Guantanamo for The Oath, for example, I approached This American
Life, explained I was making a documentary, and asked if I could pro­
duce something for them as well, so we could travel to Guantanamo
under their umbrella. M y editor Jonathan Oppenheim and cinematog­
rapher Kirsten Johnson went and filmed the first m ilitary tribunal at
the prison. I was in Yemen filming. I didn't try to go to Guantanamo
because I was on a watch list, and I assumed the request would be denied
 35

if my name was on it. We didn’t break any media rules, but I wasn’t
fully transparent with the m ilitary about the full scope o f the project.
At some point they became suspicious and said they looked like a docu­
mentary crew and tried to have them removed from the island, but the
other media covering the trial protested. We made a tactical and ethical
decision that the benefits o f documenting a prison that exists outside
the rule o f law, where people are being imprisoned without charge, out-
weighed our obligation to be fully transparent.

JS: I was struck that you had a very immediate vision for this book, that
it wouldn’t be a monograph on your work or an attempt at approxi­
mating the exhibition. It was refreshing to link the exhibition and the
publication intrinsically and create them together but to decide that in
a certain way they were on separate missions. The book can be self-
sufficient; it can live as an independent entity outside the show.

LP: The reification o f the artist doesn’t interest me. Instead, I wanted to
do something about practice and political realities that I hope w ill work
on its own terms and w ill also make a statement against art theory or
theory for theory’s sake. The idea o f collaborating with artists and w rit­
ers, and in some cases asking them to write about the Snowden archive,
was very compelling.
I was also interested in juxtaposing fiction and nonfiction. There are
so many stories from the war on terror that are unbelievable but true. For
instance, there’s the case of Khaled El-Masri, who was kidnapped by the
CIA because they got his name wrong, sent to a black site in Afghanistan
where he was tortured, and months later, when the CIA realized they
had abducted the wrong person, they released him alone at night on an
isolated road in Albania. When El-Masri tried to sue the CIA, the U.S.
government denied him the right to do so on the grounds that a trial
would reveal state secrets. I hope the Survival Guide provides a practical
and metaphorical road map to understanding and navigating this kind of
landscape, of total surveillance and the “ war on terror.”
A Survival Guide for Living Under Total Surveillance
THE ADVENTURE OF THE
EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

Cory Doctorow

0 " yk
Three examples of information cascades. From HI MR
Data Mining Research Problem Book, GCHQ, 2011
H O LM E S B U ZZE D M E IN T O his mansion flat above Baker Street
station without a word, as was his custom, but the human subconscious
is a curious instrument. It can detect minute signals so fine that the
conscious mind would dismiss them as trivialities. M y subconscious
picked up on some cue— the presence o f a full stop in his text, perhaps:
“ Watson, I must see you at once.” O r perhaps he held down the door
admission buzzer for an infinitesimence longer than was customary.
I endured unaccountable nerves on the ride up in the lift, whose
smell reminded me as ever of Changi airport, hinting at both luxury and
industry. O r perhaps I felt no nerves at all—I may be fooled by one of
my memory’s many expert lies, its seamless insertion o f the present day’s
facts into my recollections o f the past. That easy facility with untruth
is the reason for empiricism. N o one, not even the storied Sherlock
Holmes himself, can claim to have perfect recollection. I t ’s a matter of
neuroanatomy. W hy would your brain waste its precious, finite neurons
on precise recall o f the crunch o f this morning’s toast when there are
matters o f real import that it must also store and track?
I had barely touched the polished brass knocker on flat 221 when the
handle turned and the door flew open. I caught a momentary glimpse o f
Holmes’s aquiline features in the light from the hallway sconce before
he turned on his heel and stalked back into the gloom o f his vestibule,
the tails o f his mouse-colored dressing gown swirling behind him as he
disappeared into his study. I followed him, resisting the temptation to
switch on a light to guide me through the long, dark corridor.
The remains o f a fire were in the grate, and its homey smell warred
with the actinic stink o f stale tobacco smoke and the gamy smell of
Holmes himself, who was overdue for a shower. He was in a bad way.
“ Watson, grateful as I am for your chronicles o f my little ‘adven­
tures,’ it is sometimes the case that I cannot recognize myself in their
annals.” He gestured around him and I saw, in the half-light, a number
o f the first editions I had gifted to him, fluttering with Post-it tabs stuck
to their pages. “ Moreover, some days I wish I could be that literary
creation o f yours, with all his glittering intellect and cool reason, rather
than the imperfection you see before you.”
It was not the first time I ’d seen my friend in the midst o f a visit by
the black dog. Seeing that man—yes, that creature o f glittering intel­
lect and cool reason— so affected never failed to shake me. This was
40 CORY DOCTOROW

certainly the most serious episode Fd witnessed— if, that is, my mem­
ory is not tricking me with its penchant for drama again. His hands,
normally so steady and sure, shook visibly as he put match to pipe and
exhaled a cloud o f choking smoke to hover in the yellow fog staining
the ceiling and the books in the highest cases.
“ Holmes, whatever it is, you know FU help in any way I can.”
He glared fiercely, then looked away. “ I t ’s M ycroft,” he said.
I knew better than to say anything, so I waited.
“ I t ’s not anything so crass as sibling rivalry. M ycroft is my supe­
rio r in abductive reasoning and I admit it freely and without rancor.
His prodigious gifts come at the expense o f his physical abilities.” I
repressed a smile. The Holmes brothers were a binary set, with Holmes
as the vertical, whip-thin O NE, and M ycroft as a perfectly round O H
in all directions. Holmes, for all his cerebral nature, possessed an animal
strength and was a fearsome boxer, all vibrating reflex and devastat­
ing “ scientific” technique. M ycroft might have been one o f the most
important men in W hitehall, but he would have been hard pressed to
fight o ff a stroppy schoolboy, let alone some of the villains Sherlock had
laid out in the deadly back ways o f London.
“ I f my brother and I have fallen out, it is over principle, not pet­
tiness.” He clenched his hands. “ I am aware that insisting that one’s
grievance is not personal is often a sure indicator that it is absolutely
personal, but I assure you that in my case, it is true.”
“ I don’t doubt it, Holmes, but perhaps it would help if you filled me
in on the nature o f your dispute?”
Abruptly, he levered himself out o f his chair and crossed to stand
at the drawn curtains. He seemed to be listening for something, head
cocked, eyes burning fiercely into the middle distance. Then, as if he’d
heard it, he walked back to me and stood close enough that I could
smell the stale sweat and tobacco again. His hand darted to my jacket
pocket and came out holding my phone. He wedged it deliberately into
the crack between the cushion and chair.
“ Give me a moment to change into walking clothes, would you?”
he said, his voice projecting just a little louder than was normal. He left
the room then, and I tapped my coat pocket where my phone had been,
bewildered at my friend’s behavior, which was odd even by his extraor­
dinary standards.
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION 41

I contemplated digging into the cushions to retrieve my phone—

my practice’s partners were covering the emergency calls, but it wasn’t
unusual for me to get an urgent page all the same. Private practice
meant that I was liberated from the tyranny o f the N H S ’s endless
“ accountability” audits and fearsome paperwork, but I was deliv­
ered into the impatient attentions o f the Harley Street clientele, who
expected to be ministered to (and fawned over) as customers first and
patients second.
M y fingers were just on its corner when Holmes bounded in again,
dressed in his usual grey man mufti: Primark loafers, nondescript char­
coal slacks, canary shirt with a calculated w ilt at the collar, blue tie
with a sloppy knot. He covered it with a suit jacket that looked to all
appearances like something bought three for eighty pounds at an end-
of-season closeout at a discounter’s. As I watched, he underwent his
customary, remarkable transformation, his body language and habits o f
facial expression shifting in a thousand minute ways, somehow disguis­
ing his extraordinary height, his patrician features, his harrowing gaze.
He was now so utterly forgettable— a sales clerk in a mobile-phone
shop, a security guard on a construction site, even a charity mugger
trying to get passersby to sign up for the RSPCA—that he could blend
in anywhere in the UK. I ’d seen him do the trick innumerable times,
with and without props, but it never failed to thrill.
“ Holmes— ” I began, and he stopped me with a hand, and his burn­
ing stare emerged from his disguise. Not now, Watson, he said, without
words. We took our leave from the Baker Street mansion flats, blending
in with the crowds streaming out o f the train station. He led me down
the Marylebone Road and then into the backstreets where the perpetual
K ing’s Cross St. Pancras building sites were, ringed with faded wooden
hoardings. The groaning o f heavy machinery blended with the belching
thunder o f lorries’ diesel engines and the tooting o f black cabs fighting
their way around the snarl.
Holmes fitted a Bluetooth earpiece and spoke into it. I t took me
a moment to realize he was speaking to me. “ You understand why
we’re here?”
“ I believe I do.” I spoke at a normal tone, and kept my gaze ahead.
The earpiece on the other side left Holmes’s near ear unplugged.
“ You believe that we are under surveillance, and given the mention o f
CORY DOCTOROW

Mycroft, T presume you believe that this surveillance is being conducted

by one o f the security services.”
He cocked his head in perfect pantomime o f someone listening to an
interlocutor in an earpiece, then said, “ Precisely. Watson, you are an apt
pupil. I have said on more than one occasion that M ycroft is the British
government, the analyst without portfolio who knows the secrets from
every branch, who serves to synthesize that raw intelligence into what
the spying classes call ‘actionable.’ ”
We turned the corner and dodged two builders in hi-viz, smoking
and scowling at their phones. Holmes neither lowered his tone nor
paused, as either o f those things would have excited suspicion.
“ Naturally, as those agencies have commanded more ministerial
attention, more freedom o f action, and more strings-free allocations
with which to practice their dark arts, M ycroft’s star has only risen.
As keen a reasoner as my brother is, he is not impervious to certain
common human failings, such as the fallacy that if one does good, then
whatever one does in the service o f that good cannot be bad.”
I turned this over in my mind for a moment before getting its sense.
“ H e’s defending his turf.”
“T hat is a very genteel way o f putting it. A more accurate, if less
charitable characterization would be that he’s building a little empire
through a tangle o f favor trading, generous procurements, and, when
all else fails, character assassination.”
I thought o f the elder Holmes, corpulent, with deep-sunk eyes
and protruding brow. He could be stern and even impatient, but . . .
“ Holmes, I can’t believe that your brother would— ”
“ W hether you believe it or not is irrelevant, James.” He only called
me by the old pet name o f my departed Mary when he was really in
knots. M y breath quickened. “ For it’s true. Ah, here we are.”
“ Here” turned out to be a shuttered cabinetmaker’s workshop, its
old-fashioned, hand-painted sign faded to near illegibility. Holmes pro­
duced a key from a pocket and smoothly unlocked the heavy padlock
and let us both in, fingers going quickly to a new-looking alarm panel
to one side o f the door and tapping in a code.
“ Had an estate agent show me around last week,” he said. “ Snapped
a quick photo o f the key and made my own, and o f course it was trivial
to watch her fingers on the keypad. This place was in one family for
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

over a century, but their building was sold out from under them and
now they’ve gone bust. The new freeholder is waiting for planning per­
mission to build a high-rise and only considering the shortest o f leases.”
The lights came on, revealing a sad scene o f an old family firm gone
to ash in the property wars, worktables and tools worn by the passing
o f generations o f skilled hands. Holmes perched on a workbench next
to a cast-iron vise with a huge steel lever. He puffed his pipe alight and
bade me sit in the only chair, a broken ladder-back thing with a tapestry
cushion that emitted a puff o f ancient dust when T settled.
“ I was deep in my researches when the young man knocked. I may
have been a little short with him, for he was apologetic as I led him into
my study and sat him by the fire. I told him that no apologies were nec­
essary. I have, after all, hung out my shingle— I ’ve no business snapping
at prospective clients who interrupt my day.”
Holmes spoke in his normal tones, the raconteur’s humblebrag,
without any hint o f the nervousness I ’d detected in him from the
moment I ’d stepped through his door. We might have been in his study
ourselves.
“ I knew straightaway that he was a soldier, military intelligence, and
recently suspended. I could see that he was a recently single man, strong
willed and trying to give up cigarettes. I don’t get many visitors from
the signals-intelligence side o f the world, and my heart quickened at the
thought o f a spot o f real intrigue for a change.”
Holmes folded his hands at his breast and I knew the tale was begun.

“ I understand that you are a man who can keep his confidences,
Mr. Holmes,” my visitor said.
“ I have held Strap 3 clearance on nine separate occa­
sions, though at the moment I hold no clearances whatso­
ever. Nevertheless, you may be assured that Her Majesty’s
Government has given me its imprimatur as to my discretion.”
He barked a humorless laugh then. “ Here stands before
you proof that H M G is no judge o f character.”
“ I had assumed as much. You’ve brought me a document,
1 expect.”
He looked abashed, then defiant. “Yes, indeed I have,” and
he drew this from out his pocket and thrust it upon me.
CORY DOCTOROW

Holmes drew a neatly folded sheet o f A4 from his inside pocket and
passed it to me. I unfolded it and studied it.
“ Apart from the U K TO P SECRET STRAP1 C O M IN T markings
at the top, I can make neither head nor tail,” I admitted.
“ I t ’s rather specialized,” Holmes said. “ But it might help if I told you
that this document, headed ‘H IM R Data M ining Research Problem
Book,’ relates to malware implantation by G C H Q .”
“ I know that malware is the latest in a series o f names for computer
viruses, and I suppose that ‘malware implantation’ is the practice o f
infecting your adversaries with malicious computer code.”
“ Quite so. You may have heard, furthermore, o f Edgehill, the top
secret Strap 1 program whose existence was revealed in one o f the
Snowden documents?”
“ I t rings a bell, but to be honest, I got a sort o f fatigue from the
Snowden news— it was all so technical, and so dismal.”
“Tedium and dismalness are powerful weapons— far more powerful
than secrecy in many cases. Any bit o f business that can be made suffi­
ciently tedious and overcomplexified naturally repels public attention
and all but the most diligent o f investigators. T h in k o f the allegedly
public hearings that demand their attendees sit through seven or eight
hours o f monotonic formalities before the main business is tabled— or o f
the lengthy, tedious documents our friends in Brussels and Westminster
are so fond of. I f you want to do something genuinely evil, it is best for
you that it also be fantastically dull.”
“ Well, this document certainly qualifies.” I passed it back.
“ Only because you can’t see through the lines. Edgehill— and its
American cousin at the NSA, Bullm n— is, quite simply, a sabotage
program. Its mission is to introduce or discover programmer errors
in everyday software in computers, mobile devices, network switches,
and firmware— the nebulous code that has crept into everything from
insulin pumps to automobiles to thermostats— and weaponize them. All
code w ill have errors for the same reason that all books, no matter how
carefully edited, have typos, and those errors are discoverable by any­
one who puts his mind to it. Even you, John.”
“ I sincerely doubt it.”
“Nonsense. A nine-year-old girl discovered a critical flaw in the iPhone
operating system not so many years ago. The systems have not grown
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

less complex and error prone since then— the only thing that’s changed
is the stakes, which keep getting higher. The latest towers erected by our
offshore friends in the formerly unfashionable parts o f London rely upon
tuned seismic dampers whose firmware is no more or less robust than the
iPhone I made you leave under a cushion in my flat. The human errors in
our skyscrapers and pacemakers are festering because the jolly lads in sig­
nals intelligence want to be able to turn your phone into a roving wiretap.”
“ You make it sound terribly irresponsible.”
“That’s a rather mild way o f putting it. But o f course, we’re discuss­
ing the unintended consequences of all this business, and my visitor had
come about the intended consequences: malware implantation. Watson,
allow me to draw your attention to the very bottom o f the deceptively
dull document in your hand.”
I read: “ Could anyone take action on it without our agreement; e.g.,
could we be enabling the U.S. to conduct a detention op which we
would not consider permissable?” A cold grue ran down my spine.
Holmes nodded sharply and took the paper back from me. “ I see
from your color and demeanor that you’ve alighted upon the key phrase,
‘detention op.’ I apologize for the discomfort this thought brings to
mind, but I assure you it is germane to our present predicament.”
M y hands were shaking. Feigning a chill, I stuck them under my
armpits, wrapping myself in a hug. M y service in Afghanistan had left
many scars, and not all o f them showed. But the deepest one, the one
that sometimes had me sitting bolt upright in the dead o f night, scream­
ing whilst tears coursed down my cheeks, could be triggered by those
two words: detention op. I did not sign up to be an Army doctor expect­
ing a pleasant enlistment. What I saw in Kandahar, though, was beyond
my worst imaginings.
“ Take your time.” There was a rare and gentle note in my compan­
ion’s voice. I t made me ashamed o f my weakness.
I cleared my throat, clasped my hands in my lap. “ I ’m fine, Holmes.
Do go on.”
After a significant look that left me even more ashamed, he did. “ ‘I
presume that you are here to discuss something related to this very last
point?’ I asked him. For as you no doubt perceived, Watson, the page
there is wrinkled and has been smoothed again, as though a thumb had
been driven into it by someone holding it tightly there.”
CORY DOCTOROW

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

“ I had done many o f these insertions,” the man said, looking

away from my eyes. “ And the checklist had been something
o f a joke. O f course we knew that we could break something
critical and tip o ff an alert systems administrator. Likewise, it
was obvious that exposure would cause diplomatic embarrass­
ment and could compromise our relationships with the tech
companies who turned a blind eye to what we were doing. As to
this last one, the business about detention ops, well, we always
joked that the NSA was inside our decision loop, which is how
the fourth-gen warfare types talk about leaks. Christ knows we
spent enough time trying to get inside their decision loop. The
special relationship is all well and good, but at the end o f the
day, they’re them and we’re us and there’s plenty o f room in
that hyphen between Anglo and American.
“ But the truth was that there was always the chance that
the Americans would act on our intel in a way that would
make us all want to hide our faces. Don’t get me wrong, Mr.
Holmes, we’re no paragons o f virtue. I ’ve read the files on
Sami al-Saadi and his wife, I know that we were in on that,
supervising Gaddafi’s torturers. I don’t like that. But since the
Troubles ended, we’ve done our evil retail, and the Americans
deal wholesale. Whole air fleets devoted to ferrying people to
torture camps that’re more like torture cities.
“ Have you ever read an intercept from a jihadi chatroom,
Mr. Holmes?”
“ N o t recently.” He gave me a look to check if I was joking.
1 let him know 1 wasn’t.
“The kids don’t have much by way o f operational security.
Loads o f ’em use the same chat software they use with their
mates, all in the clear, all ingested and indexed on XKeyscore.
Reading the intercepts is like being forced to listen to teenagers
gossiping on a crowded bus: dirty jokes about mullahs whose
dicks are so short they break their nose when they walk into a
wall with a stiffie, trash talk about who’s a real hard jihadi and
who’s a jihobbyist, complaints about their parents and lovesick
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

notes about their girlfriends and boyfriends, and loads o f flirt­

ing. I t ’s no different to what we talked about when I was a boy,
all bravado and rubbish.”
“ When you were a boy, you presumably didn’t talk about
the necessity o f wiping out all the kaffirs and establishing a
caliphate, though.”
“ Fair point. Plenty o f times, though, we fantasized about
blowing up the old comprehensive, especially come exams, and
some o f my mates would honestly have left a pipe bomb under
the stands when their teams were playing their archrivals, if
they thought they’d have got away with it. Reading those tran­
scripts, all I can think is, ‘There but for the grace o f God . . .’
“ But they’re them and I ’m me, and maybe one o f ’em
will get some truly bad ideas in his foolish head, and if I can
catch him before then— ” My visitor broke o ff then, staring at
the fire. He opened and shut his mouth several times, clearly
unable to find the words.
I gave him a moment and then prompted, “ But you found
something?”
He returned from whatever distant mental plain he’d
been slogging over. “They wanted a big corpus to do infor­
mation-cascade analysis on. Part o f a research project with one
o f the big unis, I won’t say which, but you can guess, I ’m sure.
They’d done a new rev on the stream analysis, they were able
to detect a single user across multiple streams and signals from
the upstream intercepts— I mean to say, they could tell which
clicks and messages on the fiber-taps came from a given user,
even i f he was switching computers or IP addresses— they had a
new tool for linking mobile data streams to intercepts from lap­
tops, which gives us location. They were marking it for long­
term retention, indefinite retention, really.

Here the fellow had to stop and look away again, and it
was plain that he was reliving some difficult issue that he’d
wrestled with his conscience over. “ I was in charge o f review­
ing the truthed social graphs, sanity checking the way that the
algorithm believed their chain o f command went against what
CORY DOCTOROW

I could see in the intercepts. But the reality is that those inter­
cepts came from teenagers in a chatroom. They didn’t have
a chain o f command—what the algorithm fingered as a com­
mand structure was really just the fact that some o f them were
better at arguing than others. One supposed lieutenant in the
bunch was really the best comedian, the one who told the jokes
they all repeated. To the algorithm, though, it looked like a
command structure: subject emits a comm, timing shows that
the comm cascades through an inner circle— his mates— to a
wider circle. 'lo a half-smart computer, this teenager in Leeds
looked like Osama Jr.
“ I told them, o f course. These were children with some bad
ideas and too much braggadocio. Wannabes. I f they were guilty
o f something, it was o f being idiots. But for the researchers,
this was even more exciting. The fact that their algorithm had
detected an information cascade where there was no actual com­
mand structure meant that it had found a latent structure. It was
like they set out knowing what they were going to find, and then
whatever they found, they twisted until it fit their expectations.
“ Once we have the command structures all mapped out,
everything becomes maths. You have a chart, neat circles and
arrows pointing at each other, showing the information cas­
cade. W ho can argue with maths? Numbers don’t lie. Having
figured out their command structures from their chatrooms,
we were able to map them over to their mobile communica­
tions, using the session identifiers the algorithm worked out.
“ These twerps were half smart, just enough to be prop­
erly stupid. They’d bought burner phones from newsagents
with prepaid SIMs and they only used them to call each other.
People who try that sort o f thing, they just don’t understand
how data mining works. When I ’ve got a visualization o f all
the calls in a country, they’re mostly clustered in the middle,
all tangled up with one another. You m ight call your mum
and your girlfriend regular, might call a taxi company or the
office a few times a week, make the odd call to a takeaway. Just
looking at the vis, it ’s really obvious what sort o f number any
number is: there’s the ‘pizza nodes,’ connected to hundreds o f
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION 49

other nodes, obviously takeaways or minicabs. T h e re ’s T K s,

telephone kiosks, which is what we call payphones, they’ve
got th e ir own signature pattern— lots o f overseas calls, calls
to hotels, maybe a wom en’s shelter o r A & E , the kinds o f calls
you make when you don’t have a m obile phone o f your own.
“ I t makes detecting anomalies dead easy. I f a group o f peo­
ple converge on a site, turn o ff their phones, wait an hour and
then turn ’em on again, well, that shows up. You don’t have to
even be looking fo r that pattern. Just graph call activity, that
sort o f thing just leaps straight out at you. M ig h t as well go to
your secret meeting w ith a brass band and a banner marked up

TO NO GOOD.
“ So think o f the network graph now, all these nodes, most
w ith a few lines going in and out, some pizza nodes w ith m illions
coming in and none going out, some T K s w ith loads going out
and none coming in. And over here, o ff to the edge, where you
couldn’t possibly miss it, all on its own, a fairy ring o f six nodes,
connected to each other and no one else. Practically a bullseye.
“ You don’t need to be looking fo r that pattern to spot it, but
the lads from the uni and their G C H Q minders, they knew all
about that pattern. Soon as they saw one that the persistence
algorithm mapped onto the same accounts we’d seen in the
chatrooms, they started to look at its inform ation cascades.
Those mapped rig h t onto the cascade analysis from the chat
intercepts, same flows, perfect. ’Course they did— because the
kid who told the best jokes was the most sociable o f the lot, he
was the one called the others when they weren’t in the chat,
desperate for a natter.”
I stopped him . “ T h in k in g o f your example o f a group o f
phones that converge on a single location and all switch o ff
together,” I said, “ what about a group o f friends who have a
pact to turn o ff their phones w hilst at dinner, to avoid distrac­
tio n and interruption?”
He nodded. “ Happens. I t ’s rare, but ’course not as rare
as your actual terrorists. O u r policy is, hard drives are cheap,
add ’em all to long-term retention, have a human being look at
their comms later and see whether we caught some dolphins in
CORY DOCTOROW

the tuna net.”

“ I see.”
“ We have th e ir ‘command structure,’ we have their secret
phone numbers, so the next step is to have a little listen, which
isn’t very hard, as I ’m sure you can appreciate, M r. Holm es.”
“ I make it a policy never to say anything over a telephone
that I would regret seeing on the cover o f the Times the next
m orning.”

“ A good policy, though one that I th in k I m ight have a hard time keep­
ing myself,” I said, th in kin g o f the number o f times my poor M ary and
I had indulged ourselves in a little playful, romantic talk when no one
could hear.
“ Watson, i f you find yourself tempted to have a breathy conversation
w ith a ladyfriend over your mobile, I suggest you cool your ardor by
contem plating the number o f my brother’s young and impressionable
associates who doubtlessly personally review every call you make.
You’ve met my brother on a few occasions. Imagine what sort o f man
he would surround him self w ith .”
I shuddered. I had no interest in women at that time, and mem­
ory o f M a ry was so fresh and painful that I couldn’t conceive o f a time
when that interest would return. But I had cherished the memories o f
those silly, loving, personal calls, times when it had felt like we were
tru ly ourselves, lettin g the pretence fall away and showing each other
the tru th behind our habitual masks. T he thought that those calls had
been recorded, that someone m ight have listened in on them— “ just to
check” and make sure that we weren’t up to no good . . . I t cast those
cherished memories in a new light. I w ouldn’t ever be able to th in k o f
them in the same way again.
I was sure that Holmes had intuited m y train o f thought. H e always
could read me at a glance. H e held my eye fo r a long moment and I
sensed his sympathy. Somehow that made it worse.

M y guest began to pace, though I don’t think he realized he was

doing it, so far away in memory was he.
“ T he problem for the brain boys was that these kids never
said anything on their secret phones o f any kind o f interest. I t
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION 51

was just a continuation o f their online chat: talking trash, telling

jokes, making fun o f whoever wasn’t on the call. I wasn’t sur­
prised, o f course. I ’d been reading their chat logs for months.
They were just id io t kids. But for the spooks, this was just proof
that they were doing their evil w ork using their apps. Damned if
they do and i f they didn’t: since it was all dirty jokes and messin’
on the voice chat, the bad stuff had to be in text.
“ These boys were playing secret agent. T hey bought their
burner phones follow ing a recipe they found online and the
next step in the recipe was to download custom ROM s that
only used encrypted filesystems and encrypted messaging and
w ouldn’t talk to the Google Play store or any other app store
whose apps weren’t secure from the ground up. T h a t meant
that all their mobile comms were a black box to the smart boys.”
“ I imagine that’s where your checklist came in, then?”
He grimaced. “ Yeah. T h a t OS they were using was good,
and it updated itself all the time, trying to keep itself up to
date as new bugs were discovered. But we knew that the NSA’s
Tailored Access Operations group had some exploits for it that
we could im plant through their mobile carrier, which was a
B T M o b ile reseller, which meant they were running on E E ’s
network, which meant we could go in through T -M obile.
T he NSA’s well inside o f Deutsche Telekom. By m an-in-the-
m iddling their traffic, we could push an update that was signed
by a certificate in their root o f trust, one that Symantec had
made before the Certificate Transparency days, that let us
impersonate one o f the trusted app vendors. From there, we
owned their phones, took their mics and cameras, took their
keystrokes, took all their comms.”
“ I suppose you discovered that they were actually plotting
some heinous act o f terror?”
M y visitor startled, then began to pace again. “ H ow did you
know?”
“ I know it because you told me. You came here, you
handed me that extraordinary document. You would not have
been here had the whole th in g ended there. I can only infer
that you exfiltrated data from th e ir phones that caused our
CORY DOCTOROW

American cousins to take some rather rash action.”

H e slumped down on m y sofa and put his face in his hands.
“ T h in g was, it was just larking. I could tell. I ’d been there. One
o f these boys had cousins in Pakistan who’d send him all sorts
o f bad ideas, talk to him about his jihad. It was the sort o f thing
that they could natter about endlessly, the thing they’d do,
when they worked themselves up to it. I ’d done the same, you
understand, when I was that age, played at Jason Bourne, tried
to figure out the perfect crime.
“ T h e y ’d found their target, couple o f U.S. servicemen
w ho’d had the bad sense to commute from the embassy to their
places in the East End in uniform , passing through Liverpool
Street station every day. I suppose you know the station, M r.
Holmes, i t ’s practically a C all o f D u ty level, all those balconies
and escalators and crisscrossing rail and tube lines. I can’t tell
you how much time my friends and I spent planning assaults on
places like that. T h a t’s the thing, I recognized myself in them. I
knew what they were about.
“ We must have been terrors when we were boys. The things
we planned. T he bombs. T he carnage. W e’d spend hours—
days— debating the very best shrapnel, what would rip in a way
that would make woimds that you couldn’t suture closed. W e’d
try and top each other, like kids telling h o rro r stories to each
other around the fire. But I know fo r an iron-clad fa c t that my
best friend Lawrence went faint at the sight o f actual blood.
“ T he exploit we used to own their phones was American— it
came from the NSA, from Tailored Access Operations. We had
our own stuff, but the N S A were, you know, prolific. We have a
toolbox, they’ve got a whole D IY store.
“ D o you know what’s meant by fourth-party collection?”
“ O f course.”

“ W ell, I don’t, Holm es.”

“ Watson, you need to read your papers more closely. First- and
second-party collection is data hoovered up by G C H Q and the NSA,
and the Anglo-Saxon club known as the Five Eyes. T h ird -p a rty col­
lection is what’s done by all the other nations G C H Q /N S A have
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION 53

partnerships w ith. Fourth-party collection is data that one security ser­

vice takes by stealth from another security service. T here’s fifth-party
collection— one security service hacks another security service that’s
hacked a th ird — and sixth-party collection, and so forth and so on.
Wheels w ith in wheels.”
“ T h a t all seems somehow perverse,” I said.
“ But i t ’s undeniably efficient. W h y stalk your own prey when you
can merely eat some other predator’s dinner out from under his nose,
w ithout him ever knowing it?”

M y visitor spoke o f fourth-party collection, and I saw im m edi­

ately where this was going. “ T hey saw what you saw, they read
what you read.”
“ T h e y did. Worse luck: they read what we wrote, what the
analysts above my pay grade concluded about these id io t chil­
dren, and then— ”
Here he rattled that paper again.
“ I see,” I said. “ W hat, I wonder, do you suppose I m ight do
for you at this juncture?”
“ I t ’s life in prison i f I go public, M r. Holmes. These kids,
their parents are in the long-term XKeyscore retention, all
their communications, and they’re frantic. I read their emails
to their relatives and each other, and I can only think o f how I ’d
feel i f my son had gone missing w ith o u t a trace. These parents,
they’re thinking that their kids have been snatched by pedos
and are getting the D a ily M a il front-page treatment. T he truth,
i f they knew it, m ight te rrify them even more. Far as I can work
out, the NS A sent them to a C IA black site, the kind o f place
you w ouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. T he kind o f place you
build for revenge, not for intelligence.
“ I t ’s life in prison for me, or worse. But I can’t sit by and let
this happen. I have this checklist and it told me that my job was
to consider this very eventuality, and I did, and it came to pass
anyway, and as far as I ’m concerned, I have to do something
now or I ’m just as culpable as anyone. So I ’ve come to you, M r.
Holmes, because before I go to prison for the rest o f my life,
before I deprive my own sons o f their dad, forever, I want to
CORY DOCTOROW

know i f there’s something I ’m missing, some other way I can

do the rig h t thing here. Because I was brought up right, M r.
Holmes, and that means I don’t believe that my kids’ rig h t to
their father trumps those parents’ rights to their sons.”

“ W h a t an extraordinary fellow,” I said. Holmes was never one for the

storyteller’s flourish, but he had an eidetic memory for dialogue, and I
knew he was giving it word fo r word— beat for beat and tone fo r tone.
I t was as i f I was in the room w ith the tormented soul. T he hair on my
neck sprang up.
“ ‘Leave it with me,’ 1 told him, and showed him out. When I returned
to my study, I found that I was curiously reluctant to do what I knew I
must do. I found myself delaying. Smoking a pipe. Tidying my notebooks.
Cleaning up my cross-references. Finally I could delay no further, and I
went down to the station taxi rank and had a black cab take me to M ycroft.”
“ M y c ro ft!”
“ O f course. W hen it comes to signals intelligence, my dear brother
sits at the centre o f a global web, a po in t o f contact between M I5 , M I6,
G C F IQ , and the highest ministers and civil servants in W hitehall.
N o th in g happens but that he knows about it. Including, it seemed,
my visitor.”

“ Sherlock,” he said to me, once I had been ushered into his pres­
ence, “ as unfortunate as this is, there’s really nothing to be done.”
T h e boom years since the 9/11 attacks have not been
kind to my brother, I ’m afraid. As his m ethodology has come
in to vogue and his power in the security services has grown,
he has found him self at more unavoidable state dinners, more
booze-ups at a m ilita ry contra cto r’s expense, more high-level
interagency junkets in exotic locales. H aw aii seems a favorite
w ith his set, and I ’ve heard him com plain more than once
about the inevitable pig roast and luau.
Always heavy, but now he has grown corpulent. Always
grim , but now he has grown stern and im patient. Watson, my
brother and I were never close, but I have always said that he
was m y superior in his a b ility to reason. T h e most disturbing
change to come over my b rother in the past fifteen years is in
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

that keen reasoner’s faculty. By d in t o f circumstance and pres­

sure, he has developed the kind o f arrogant blindness he once
loathed in others— a capacity fo r self-deception, or rather,
self-justification, when it comes to excusing fo r the sort o f
surveillance he oversees and the consequences o f it.
“ There is something obvious that can be done,” I told him.
“ Simply tell the Americans to let those boys go. Apologize.
Investigate the circumstances that led to this regrettable error
and see to it that it doesn’t happen again. I f you care about
excellence, about making the country secure, you should be
just as concerned w ith learning from your failures as you are
w ith building on your successes.”
“ W h a t makes you say that this is a failure?” M ycro ft said.
“ Oh, that’s simple. These boys are a false positive. They
lack both the w it and the savagery to be a threat to the nation.
A t most, they are a threat to themselves.”
“ And what o f it? Are these six fools worth jeopardizing the
entire war on terror, the special relationship, the very practices
at the heart o f our signals-intelligence operation?”
“ Yes,” I said.
M y brother colored, and I watched as that great mind o f
his went to w ork mastering his passions. “ I ’m afraid you don’t
know what you’re talking about. I t comes o f being too close to
the trees, too far from the forest. Hum an intelligence is fine as
it goes, but when you conduct your investigations retail, you
miss the patterns that we find in the wholesale end o f things.”
“ W hen one conducts one’s affairs at the retail level, one
must attend to the individual, human stories and costs that van­
ish when considered from the remove o f algorithm ic analysis o f
great mountains o f data.”
H e sighed and made a show o f being put upon by his
brother. I expect that there are W hitehall mandarins who
quake in their boots at such a sign from such a personage. I, o f
course, stood my ground and ignored his theatrics.
“ Come now,” I said. “ T here’s nothing to discuss, really. One
way or another, the truth w ill out. T h a t young man w ill not sit
on his hands, whether or not I offer him a safer route to his
CORY DOCTOROW

disclosure. I t ’s not in his nature.”

“ And it is not in mine to have my hand forced by some
ju n io r intelligence officer w ith a case o f the collywobbles.”
M y c ro ft’s voice was cold. “ Sherlock, your client is hardly an
innocent lamb. There are many things about his life that he
would rather not have come out, and I assure you they would
come out.” H e made a show o f checking his watch. “ H e ’s
already been told as much, and I ’m certain that you’ll be hear­
ing from him shortly to let you know that your services are no
longer required.”
N o w I confess it was my turn to wrestle w ith my passions.
But I mastered them, and I fancy I did a better job o f it than
M ycro ft had.
“ And me?”
He laughed. “ You w ill not betray a client’s confidence. Once
he cries off, your w ork is done. Done it is. Sherlock, I have
another appointment in a few moments. Is there anything fur­
ther we need to discuss?”

“ 1 took my leave, and you have found me now in a fury and a conun­
drum, confronting my own future, and that o f my brother, and o f the
way that I failed my client, who trusted me. For as you’ve seen, I kept
m y erstwhile client’s b it o f paper, and the names o f the boys he feared
so much for, and have made inquiries w ith a lady o f the press o f whom I
have a long and fru itfu l acquaintance. I have been most careful, but as I
have said on more than one occasion, my brother M ycro ft has the finer
m ind o f the two o f us.”
H e filled his pipe and struck a match. There was a sound at the door.
“ I fancy that’s him now,” he said and puffed at his pipe. Someone
who did not know him as well as I did may have missed the trem or in
his hand as he shook the match out.
T h e door opened. M y c ro ft H olm es’s face was almost green in the
b rig h t lig h t that lit it like the moon.
“ You brought him in to it,” he said, sighing.
“ I ’m afraid 1 did. H e ’s always been so diligent when it comes to te ll­
ing my story.”
“ He is a veteran, and has sworn an oath,” M y c ro ft said, stepping
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION 57

inside, speaking w ith the air o f a merchant weighing an unknown quan­

tity in his scales.
“ H e is a friend,” Holmes said. “ Sorry, James.”
“ Q uite all rig h t,” I said, and looked at M ycroft. “ W h a t’s it to be,
then?” I was— and am— proud o f how steady m y voice was, though my
heart trembled.
“T h a t is to be seen,” he said, and then the police came in behind him.
60

WE WERE THE OTHER

Lakhdar Boumediene

FO UO

Force-feeding restraint chair sketched by Guantanamo detainee and hunger striker

Moath al-AIwi, 2013
BY M O S T M EASURES, my early life was not remarkable. M y child­
hood in Algeria in the 1970s was pleasant. I performed my national
service as a border guard and then hoped to build my life. The time was
d ifficu lt in Algeria, however, and like many o f my countrymen, I left
home, in 1990, seeking a future o f service, w ith more security, stability,
and opportunity. And so, beginning in 1997, I found myself working
for the Red Crescent o f the U nited Arab Emirates, serving the widows
and orphans o f Bosnia’s recently ended civil violence. 1 was happy. I had
friends, my fam ily was safe, and the work provided meaningful assis­
tance to a population in need.
W hen we saw the images o f the destruction on September 11, we
were saddened and shocked. H ow could something like this happen? O f
course, I had no idea how much those events would change the course
o f my life and those o f my wife and little girls. By October 20, 2001, I
was jailed in Sarajevo and would not be w ith my fam ily again for more
than seven and a half years.
I w ill not revisit here the horrors o f my seizure and illegal turnover
to the U nited States m ilita ry or many o f the details about the abuse I
suffered and observed others suffering at the hands o f American sol­
diers. In truth, those are parts o f my life that I wish I could forget. W hat
remains w ith me every day, however, is the disappointment, almost dis­
belief, that America, which we had believed was such a special place,
could make so many mistakes and create the place I was experiencing,
Guantanamo Bay prison. I t was that disparity in part that at last awak­
ened in me the need to protest, to stand up and take the few steps avail­
able to me to ensure I would be treated as a man.
W h ile there were many sad stories among those o f us imprisoned
at Guantanamo, my situation, and that o f the other five men seized
in Bosnia in October 2001, was somewhat unique. I had been living
w ith my fam ily and w orking at a regular job in a country that had just
recently been saved by America from a convulsive episode o f violence.
W hen I was seized, Bosnian officials made clear it was at the insistence
o f U.S. officials, and I was certain that the mistake would be cleared up.
O f course, it was not. A fter ninety days o f investigation, the Bosnians
were prepared to release us. T h e chief national prosecutor agreed, a
decision supported by an order from the Bosnian Supreme C ourt. But
the weeks after September 11 were extraordinary times. A cloud o f fear
62 LAKHDAR BOUMEDIENE

was cast over many decisions. Because o f that, my family, along w ith
those o f others held in Sarajevo, went to the Hum an Rights Chamber
fo r Bosnia-Herzegovina to seek help. T h e y prevailed; by mid-January
2002, n o t only had the chief prosecutor, supported by the Supreme
C ourt, ordered m y release, but the Hum an Rights Chamber forbade
the Bosnian government from delivering us to the custody o f the
U nited States. Those wonderful legal protections were no match for
the insistent demands o f the most powerful nation on the planet. And
so, after General David Petraeus relayed his government’s position to
Bosnian authorities, my fate was sealed.
O u r jailors did as the Bosnian courts had directed. Late on the night
o f January 17, the other men and I were “ released” from the central jail.
Rather than sending us to our waiting families and friends, however,
we were handed our release papers and delivered to soldiers, including
American soldiers, who shackled our wrists and ankles and put thick
hoods over our heads. W e were loaded in pairs into three vans. For
hours, hundreds o f protesters filled the cold Sarajevo streets and tried
to stop the illegal handover. I t was a noble effort, but in vain.
I arrived at Guantanamo on January 20, 2002. I t was a terrifying
place, filled w ith fear, anger, pain, and suspicion. There soon were hun­
dreds o f us who had been torn away from our families and out o f our
lives. T h e atmosphere was something none o f us had ever experienced
or even imagined possible. I t was as though this was a place for a new
species, a subhuman species. And there was nothing we could do to
cause our captors to see who we were or to treat us like human beings
w ith feelings and dignity.
I should say that I do not blame the individual soldiers who mis­
treated us so completely. W h ile many o f their actions were horrible,
often carried out in a cruel manner guaranteed to in flic t discomfort
and pain, I came to understand that they were carrying out the instruc­
tions o f those above them. And unfortunately for the six o f us seized in
Bosnia, our cases had received more attention than we had expected.
President George W. Bush him self had mentioned us in his 2002 State
o f the U n io n address. W h ile what he said about me, like many other
parts o f that speech, ultim ately proved false, the fact that such a pow­
erful man had spoken against me would make it impossible to persuade
m y captors that I was innocent.
 WE WERE THE OTHER 63

The period o f imprisonment passed with slow, dreadful monotony. For

years, there was no contact w ith the world. I heard nothing about the
safety o f my family and did not know what information they had about my
plight. We were treated like dangerous, vile creatures who did not deserve
even a modicum o f human dignity. W hat we did, what we ate, whether
and when we slept, whether we received medical attention, even our basic
human functions: all these were subject to the control o f others. We had
no rights, no ombudsman who m ight listen to our plight. We were the
other— it was palpable— and it was constantly degrading and humiliating.
In 2004, a glim m er o f hope appeared. T he U.S. Supreme C ourt
issued a decision on our legal representation, and now we would be
given American lawyers to help us. I hoped this development would
lead to a change and that we soon would be treated w ith respect. Sadly,
despite the good w ork and intentions o f our new advocates, there was
no improvement. Indeed, in many instances, as time passed, things
became worse, and even more arbitrary. Now, I observed, our captors
were intent on managing our lawyers just as they managed us.
By 2006, it was clear our situation would not improve, even though
the president continued to lose im portant cases before the Supreme
Court. T hro u g h o u t all o f this, the surreal environment o f Guantanamo
endured. I continued to experience denigrating and inhumane treat­
ment. Like others, I was subjected to each new variety o f interrogation
technique. Loud music, b rig h t lights, days w ith o u t sleep, insults and
intim idation, high temperatures, low temperatures: the options were
endless. Guantanamo was like a test tube, available for experiments. It
did not matter that I was innocent; it did not matter that I told the truth;
nothing seemed to matter. M a il sent by my wife and daughters rarely
reached me. Indeed, except for the bits o f inform ation my lawyers were
able to relay, we were more isolated than ever. I was depressed; every
day felt as dark as the last.
And so, late in 2006,1 decided to stop eating. I knew others had par­
ticipated in hunger strikes to make bigger points. M y m otivation was
personal. I was a man, an innocent man, imprisoned thousands o f miles
from m y family. I was subjected to continuous dehumanizing treatment,
and I had no ability to influence my circumstances. T he only control I
could exercise, in fact, was whether I put food into my mouth. I f I was
not to be treated as a human being, I would not eat.
LAKHDAR BOUMEDIENE

A t first, no one seemed to notice. As the days passed, however, things

changed. Soldiers tried to press me to eat, sometimes in intim idating
ways. U ltim ately, though, this had the effect o f reinforcing my decision.
For the first time, I was able to influence my own fate. Now, officers and
medical personnel came forward to persuade and m onitor me. I t was a
transformation o f sorts.
Physically, my hunger strike required some adjustment. In the
beginning, the longing fo r food was almost unbearable. I wanted noth­
ing more than to resume normal meals. M y body was accustomed to the
regular food schedule and expected meals. I felt nearly constant long­
ings; I became weak more quickly than I had expected. Yet I endured.
Soon the guards were insisting that 1 accept nourishment. I f
I would not eat, I was told, I would be fed through a tube inserted
in to my nose and through my throat to my stomach. I refused— and
then began a new chapter in the abuse and inhumanity. You see,
force-feeding at Guantanamo is not done w ith a fork and spoon. The
description o f inserting a tube did not do justice to the misery and dis­
com fort I would experience. As luck would have it, only one o f my nos­
trils was capable o f accepting a tube. As a result, twice a day, through
2007 and 2008,1 was taken from my cell by guards who forcibly pumped
food in to m y stomach.
Like so much else at Guantanamo, the feeding ritual had been refined
to incorporate elements o f punishment and degradation. Feeding took
place on a rigid wooden chair. Straps were used to stretch my neck back
and secure my head so that my nostrils faced slightly up. A ll other parts of
my body— my arms, hands, legs, feet, and torso— were also secured. W hile
“ safe feeding” was the inevitable justification for die process given by any
soldier who would offer more than “ following orders,” the securing and
feeding process afforded more opportunities to inflict discomfort and pain.
For example, while most guards were attentive to not causing injury,
some were clearly pleased whenever some aspect o f feeding caused pain
or discomfort. The shackles required in moving me to the feeding sta­
tion could be adjusted, and each strap that affixed me to the chair offered
yet another opportunity for excessive tightening. I suffered on numerous
occasions when soldiers pumped my stomach w ith air after impatiendy
dispensing my meal in only a few minutes rather than the forty-five to sixty
required for my shrunken stomach to accept the liquid without discomfort.
 WE WERE THE OTHER 65

But for me, this change, for all the abuse and punishment, was trans­
formative. Although I was not able to reject the forced feedings, I was
able to refuse normal meals and, in an imperceptible but significant
way, reclaim m y individual ability to influence some aspect o f my fate.
I was moved to a segregated area, w ith other hunger strikers. N o t all o f
our motivations were identical, but our day-to-day circumstances were
similar. Each o f us was in a small way imposing our own w ill, our own
individuality, and requiring the camp commander to respond to us. I
was no closer to freedom, but I had the satisfaction o f knowing that I
would be fed— albeit forcibly— because that was my choice.
M any o f us who were forced to endure the horrors and deprivations
o f Guantanamo found mechanisms to sustain and support us. A ll o f
us prayed, when we were allowed to do so. Some inmates were disre­
spectful, others violent, some simply collapsed internally as they tried
to reduce their suffering by m inim izing the degree to which they were
exposed to the daily degradation and cruelty. But for me, the hunger
strike and the predictable response o f the authorities in forcibly feeding
me had a beneficial result beyond anything I had hoped or expected.
I felt immediately less agitated, more at peace, and more fully open
to m y fate, as God m ight direct it. By making a decision that put me
among a segregated subset, I had more o f an identity among the guards.
T h is was not so much a social response on th eir part as it was an exercise
o f authority and discipline. Nevertheless, it had the effect o f making me
more o f an individual and requiring at least slightly different treatment
from that received by others. I was subjected to occasional efforts to
persuade me to eat. There was, o f course, an element o f theater and
insincerity to the arguments those guards would advance, but still, it
allowed me to deal w ith their arguments and explanations, not simply
to subject myself to their discipline and whims.
W ith in a few weeks, my body adjusted to the low-calorie liquid diet
that would sustain me fo r the next two years. Except fo r the occasional
bouts o f discomfort brought on by guards who sporadically took it upon
themselves to punish me for daring to reject normal camp food, the
twice-daily feedings assumed a certain rhythm . Admittedly, the process
was never peaceful or w ith o u t discomfort. There is no way to avoid pain
when a plastic tube is inserted twice and removed twice from the same
nostril each day.
66 LAKHDAR BOUMEDIENE

Over time, my case was brought to the U.S. Supreme C ourt. W h ile I
had struggled to maintain some semblance o f my own individuality and
humanity, my lawyers— my friends— continued to press our case and to
show that I was innocent. In the end, the U nited States admitted that
President Bush had been wrong in his speech and w ithdrew the only
claim that had been made to justify our im prisonm ent in 2001. New,
equally false claims were made, but those were quickly rejected by the
judge who heard them. O n Novem ber 20, 2008, I sat in a room w ith
four o f the others at Guantanamo and listened to a small speaker as that
judge declared our innocence and ordered our freedom. I was weak, I
was tired, but I fe lt a swelling o f joy as I hoped that finally this darkest
o f ordeals m ig h t be com ing to an end.
Even after the judge’s order, I was held at Guantanamo fo r four
months. A lthough I was moved to what is seen as a better living envi­
ronm ent, I remained a prisoner, under the arbitrary control o f guards
who did not respect me, and still isolated from contact w ith my family.
I recall well when my hunger strike ended. Through the efforts o f my
lawyers, the French government had extended to me an offer to settle
there. In A p ril 2009, a French diplomat, accompanied by my attorney, per­
sonally delivered a visa that would allow me to enter France. As agreed in
advance, they brought a meal— the beans and rice suggested by pro bono
doctors in Boston— and once the introductions were complete, we sat to
eat and talk. I could not eat much, and I hardly remember any taste, but
I savored that meal and its significance for me, my family, and our future.
I have had the privilege to live in France w ith my fam ily for more
than six years. T he days o f beans and rice are far behind. Yet the scars of
Guantanamo are never far from view. I wonder, at times, whether I w ill
ever be free o f the sense o f pain and loss I feel. I also wonder what scars
burden the soldiers who were ordered to mistreat us, now that they
know it was in error, and I hope they are cared fo r and given the oppor­
tu n ity to learn from those mistakes. I am struck by the angry political
rhetoric that continues to surround Guantanamo in the U nited States,
and I tru ly hope that America, like me, w ill someday have the chance
to put Guantanamo in to its past and to resume a constructive existence.

Translated from A rabic by Felice S. B ezri, the M u lti-L in g u a l Group

 WE WERE THE OTHER 67

A Note on the Image: M oath a l-A lw i is a Saudi-hom Yemeni who has been
held a t Guantanamo Bay prison since 2002 w itho ut charge or fa ir process.
In protest, he began a hunger strike in early 2013.
SURVEILLANCE

Ai Weiwei
From the tim e he was born, m y son, Ai Lao, has been under surveil­
lance. W hen I came out o f detention, I realized that his name, his m om ’s
phone number, and his address, which only the authorities had access
to, had all been published online. O f course, wherever we go, whether
it be the park or a restaurant, we always have to be alert. I f we went to a
rock concert, he would see the cars follow ing us in the rearview m irror.
We have to face undercover police and constant observation. So fo r his
generation, really from birth , it has become their natural environment
to be under surveillance.
— A. W., July 22, 2015

The fo llo w in g three spreads o f photos fro m B eijing show various conditions
o f surveillance the a rtis t has been under beginning in 2009 . He was detained by
the authorities and his passport confiscated in 2011. H is passport was returned
in the summer o f 201 5, allow ing him to again tra ve l abroad.
72 Al WEIWEI

THE ARTIST SURVEILLING THE SECRET POLICE

Ai Weiwei has a large archive of photographs documenting police surveillance since
his release from detention. The images are casual and the people in them look quite
ordinary, but they reflect the state’s Hstability maintenance” programs, which have

Bifengtang restaurant, July 28, 2011. Surveillance while Ai dines with friends.

Bookstore in Solana, Beijing, December 11, 2011. Police watch Ai walk with his son from a
second-floor balcony.

Thai restaurant, Lido Hotel, December 1, 2012. Surveillance of Ai dining with NYU law
professor Jerome A. Cohen (foreground, far left) and Chinese lawyers Pu Zhiqiang and
Liu Xiaoyuan (not pictured).
 SURVEILLANCE 73

bigger annual budget than the military. The police follow Ai everywhere, from the
park to restaurants to hotel lobbies. Over the years, he has taken thousands of
photographs of his daily life as a dissident, as a monitored individual.
74 Al WEIWEI

THE SECRET POLICE SURVEILUNG Al AND OTHERS

In May 2012, while walking with his son in Chaoyang Park in Beijing, Ai realized he was being
followed and photographed by the secret police. In retaliation, he confronted the policeman
and took the memory card from the man's camera, which provided the images below.

KFC, May 2012. Students on the first anniversary of the Jasmine Revolution.

Din Tai Fung, May 2012. A restaurant where Ai regularly dined.

Chaoyang Park, May 2012. Ai’s driver, Xiao Pang, and A i’s son’s stroller.
SURVEILLANCE 75
76 Al WEIWEI

THE ARTIST SURVEILLING HIMSELF

On April 3, 2012, the first anniversary of his detention by Chinese officials, Ai set up
four video cameras in his house as a personal extension of the constant surveillance
he has experienced since his release. The cameras sent a twenty-four-hour live feed

258 Caochangdi, April 3, 2012. At Ai’s desk.

258 Caochangdi, April 3, 2012. Above Ai’s desk.

 SURVEILLANCE 77

to the website weiweicam.com. Forty-six hours after the site went live, the authorities
instructed him to shut it down. During those forty-six hours, the site received 5.2
million views.
80

BERLIN JOURNAL

Laura Poitras

Torstrasse, Berlin
 81

When I make film s , I witness and record moments o f uncertainty th a t unfold

in real tim e. The fu tu re is unknown, often f u ll o f risk fo r the people I docu­
ment. When I edit those moments months or years later, the fu tu re has trans­
pired and the uncertainty is transform ed into a plot: a narra tive in which
decisions th a t were vast and m ultiple are reduced to one— the path taken, not
the many paths untaken. B u t the drama, the life pulse o f any story, lies in the
uncertainty o f the moment, the choices, doubts, fears, desires, and risks o f how
to act and act again.

I wrote this jo u rn a l in B erlin between November 2012 and M ay 2013. I had

relocated to B erlin a fter six years o f being detained every tim e I entered the
United States.1 I was looking fo r a place to edit w ithout fe a r th at my footage
would be taken a t the border. The act o f w ritin g th isjo u rn a l made me nervous.

In M ay 2013, I h id the jo u rn a l in B erlin. I rediscovered it in 2015 w hile

preparing fo r this book and exhibition.

* * *

Nov. 4, 2012

Berlin—
I haven’t w ritten in over a year for fear these words are not private. That
nothing in my life can be kept private.

Nov. 5, 2012

I ’ve been thinking about the “ disposition m atrix’’ and how that could
be incorporated in the film .2 Is that what Binney was talking about in
terms o f C IA h it squads?3 D id he help to build the matrix? How deep
does the matrix go? Is there a connection between surveillance and the
k ill matrix? Does everything feed it? Is it narrow or broad?

Nov. 7, 2012

Beyond the rendition and black sites, was there a totally different program
that has not been reported? And could Binney have real knowledge o f it?
82 LAURA POITRAS

Nov, 8 , 2012

I want to do the Guantanamo film .4T he goal would be to make audiences

feel the passage o f time. To come to terms w ith what it means to be indef­
initely detained w ithout charge. To die in prison at thirty-six. To wait for
someone to come home. A story about the terror o f the war on terror.

I ’m still th in kin g o f doing a project w ith Boumediene.5 H e has haunted

me since I met him. N o t a literal narrative— his experience would be
subtext. N o t one-to-one— it needs to flip and make us care in new ways.
A parallel narrative that is about who we could be, casting a man who
experienced who we have become.

Nov. 18, 2012

O n M onday I had a nightmare that has hung w ith me fo r days. I was

being detained on a U.S. m ilita ry base. First I tried to escape in a truck
and was caught at the gate. T h e y tried to blindfold me w/goggles and
put a straightjacket on me. I resisted, so they tried to drug me, but
I w ouldn’t lose consciousness. A t some point I stole a walkie-talkie
and reported that there was a kidnapping/hostage situation, but they
changed the channel o f the frequency. T h e y tried to give me food, but
I went on a hunger strike. There was another journalist I saw. I asked
him to report that I was being kidnapped.

Evening—
T h e antagonist o f the film is the state. T h a t liberates the film from the
rabbit holes o f individual p lo t threads. I t can reach a general conflict o f
individuals all fighting the state and the state as a secret dark force that
tries to destroy anyone who challenges it.

Dec. 2, 2012

Watched the footage o f Adnan L a tif’s brother I film ed in 2007.

Everything is foreshadowed in the conversation, including Adnan’s death
five years later. I also watched again Obama on closing Guantanamo.
T h a t w ill be the opening, then a text card about Adnan’s death, then
 BERLIN JOURNAL 83

2007 footage, then something to show the passage o f tim e to convey

being detained fo r twelve years w ith o u t charge. End on Adnan’s body
returning home. I should raise questions about whether it was suicide
or an overdose.

Dec. 15, 2012

Adnan’s body w ill be returned today. T h e working title is Death o f a

Prisoner, but that m ight be wrong. I t m ight codify his position at G itm o,
suggest a legal system that doesn’t exist. Today Mohammed, Adnan’s
brother, w ill go to the m inistry o f the in te rio r to try and receive the
dead body.

I f only I could sleep I ’d be happy in Berlin.

Dec. 20, 2012

M y laptop keeps mysteriously running out o f space even though it has

16 GB free.

Dec. 25, 2012

I woke up th in kin g about the N C T C emails.6 W h a t is the lin k to

“ H ollyw ood folks” ?

I should ask M u ra t Kurnaz i f he ever learned the identity o f the man

who died hung by his arms in Kandahar.7 I ’ll need to fact-check that or
put a text card saying the identity is unknown. Perhaps list confirmed
deaths during interrogations? I t is all about asking people to imagine
the existential hell. I f that space can be accessed— the connection to
that experience— then what is said m ight have impact. U ltim ately it is
about that expression. To say something in a way that moves people. I t
is not a device, it is the gauge o f the quality o f the w ork itself.

Dec. 31, 2012

N ew Year’s Eve in Berlin. Just back from C C C .HInterviewed Binney.

LAURA POITRAS

G o t closer, but still don’t have the details. H e won’t go into the methods
o f taking people out.

I should do something to mark the N ew Year.

Jan. /, 2013

Finally was able to see Yemen video o f Adnan’s body. T he body was
returned in a black plastic bag w ith Adnan’s IS N # and his date o f death
on a tag.<; T h e y d idn’t even w rite the man’s name. I t is unimaginable.
January 22, 2009, is the date Obama promised to close the prison.

Jan. 2, 2013

Yesterday I edited Adnan’s uncle over the body bag. I t is heartbreaking.

Jan. 6 , 2013

Death o f a N ation
Death o f a Prisoner
M y Wish Is to D ie
A M an Escaped
A Death Foretold
08Sep2012#156

Read N Y T article on K iria ko u .10 Binney probably has the same level
o f F B I scrutiny. T h e y are probably listening and watching in the same
way. I t is a lesson to never trust a feeling o f safety or reduced pressure
because they can and w ill go after you at any moment.

D oing this film makes me really th in k about w orking in other ways.

Ways that come faster and have a direct expression and reach audiences.
I t also reveals the power o f images to tell the news in ways that have to
be confronted emotionally.

N o t sure about the title — is it too benign? I f he is a “ prisoner,” does he

cease to be a human being?
 BERLIN JOURNAL 85

Jan. 12, 2013

Published Death o f a Prisoner yesterday.n I ’m exhausted. I think it is

powerful. I have no perspective.

Jan. 13, 2013

Aaron Swartz killed him self on Friday.12 Tragic.

Jan. 17, 2013

Just received email from a potential source in the intelligence commu­

nity. Is it a trap, is he crazy, or is this something real? H e is asking for
some secure setup before communicating. I need to create a new key
pair fo r this. W h y would he contact me?

Feb. 6, 2013

Contacted again by “ C itizen Four.” I am not even sure how much I

can/should w rite here. I f he proves what he claims, the story is huge.
T he focus o f the state and state power against individuals resisting. C 4’s
narrative also provides a driving plot/mystery.

I cannot begin to comprehend the magnitude o f what he is saying: “ I

know how it w ill end fo r me.”

Feb. 7, 2013

Started rereading 1984. I t is strange— I remember it so well. And now

to be in Berlin, it comes full circle. Berlin, Bowie. I don’t think F1I ever
have another project like this, touching so many chords o f my mem­
ory. Citizen Four— this narrative focuses the film around the power o f
the state. I should rewatch The M an Who F e ll to E a rth , 2001: A Space
Odyssey, and A ll the President's M en.
LAURA POITRAS

Feb. P, 2013

Jesus, I have no idea what I am about to enter into. I ’m still not sure it
is fo r real. I w on’t know u n til I do the verification. I still wonder i f they
are tryin g to entrap me, Jake, or Julian.13Julian would be the likely tar­
get. I really have to decide who I want to bring in and how I want this
to unfold. Should I work the material into the film? O r is it too news­
w orthy and needs to be more immediately released? D o I document the
vetting and verification?

I can’t do this alone, I know that.

M y w ork m ight get shut down by the government.

Feb. 11, 2013

I read the news in fear o f an arrest. I t still could be a shakedown target­

ing Julian or Jake. W atching what I ’ll do w ith the material. I t really is
a drama to understand the possible motivations/goals. I take it at face
value, but why? H e could have approached the N Y T or the Washington
Post fo r maximum exposure. W h y reach out to a filmmaker? Because
I ’ve been targeted? Because he has already gone down other paths?
Because he doesn’t have what he claims? Honestly, i f he is legit I am
seriously in over my head. I have no legal team, no editorial backup.

Feb. 14, 2013

I t w ill be a story fo r sure, I just don’t know how much I want to be in it,
though it m ight be unavoidable if/w hen C4 is arrested. Reading 1984
again is somehow an extension o f my reality. God, I ’m tired. W ill I ever
be able to sleep again?

Feb. 16, 2013

“ Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. A t any
m om ent the tension inside you was liable to translate itself in to some
visible sym ptom .” — 1984
 BERLIN JOURNAL

I am b a ttlin g w ith my nervous system. I t doesn’t le t me rest o r sleep.

Eye tw itches, clenched throat, and now lite ra lly w aiting to be raided. I
really need to prepare fo r that. Binney’s fo o t was cut o ff on Wednesday.
O ur bodies betray us. I should rewatch Blue , W hite , Red.™

Is C4 a trap? W ill he put me in prison?

Feb. 17, 2013

W ho is he? W here does he go to email? Does he have fam ily, kids? Is he

sittin g sile n tly in meetings know ing he w ill betray his colleagues? Does
he like the danger? Was he once a rebel— what is his narrative desire? Is
he fu lfillin g that by reaching out to me? H e says he is under investiga­
tio n — how does he know? Is he being followed? Does he fo llo w me, see
what I say and do? Does he w ant to meet? W hat does he want?

Feb. 20, 2013

Found another fla t fo r M a rch /A p ril. O ff the grid at the m om ent unless
I ’m being physically surveilled. I w ill try to keep it disconnected fo r as
long as possible. N o phone, W i-F i.

I dream t I was sent dozens o f packages. M ountains o f m aterial. S till no

em ail from CA— the last one was over a week ago.

Feb. 23, 2013

I ’m at the p o in t in 1984 where they rent the room : W inston sees the
rat. T he book is te rrify in g and so relevant to today. T he fear o f an
all-know ing state. Doublespeak. Reading the newspaper about k ill lists.
F or what? T he “ enemy” does no t threaten to destroy us. I t is just being
used to ju s tify a grow ing surveillance state.

“ W e lost the war.”

Evening—
I f this leak is fo r real, I m ight w ant to stagger release. T he question is,
88 LAURA POITRAS

W ill I be im m ediately arrested? Raided? W ill I be able to continue to

edit and finish the film ?

Feb. 24, 2013

I t has been tw o weeks since I ’ve heard anything from C itizen Four. I
hope that isn’t a bad sign. H e to ld me n o t to w o rry i f I don’t hear from
him . I f the leak is significant, I m ig h t be safe publishing it, but I would
also brin g down the w o rld ’s eyes on me. G od, m y life is really over in
term s o f privacy. I t is te rrify in g to th in k I m ight never feel confident I ’m
n o t being watched.

I f I have addresses o f interception points, these can be a narrative thread.

Feb. 25 , 2013

I th in k w aiting fo r C itizen Four is distracting me from being able to focus.

I ’m at the p o in t in 1984 where they have been arrested. I ’m dealing w ith

really dark forces.

Feb. 26 , 2013

W hy the fuck am I m aking long -fo rm documentaries when other ways

o f w orking are so much m ore energizing?

I really w ant to do the installation project o f hanging screens in a ware­

house. So that entering it is like a to rtu re chamber.

I ’d like to do a d rive -in theater across from the N S A .15 T h a t property

fo r sale— project the film across the street in an outdoor projection.
M aybe there is a way to re th in k the d rive -in concept. To broadcast the
audio over radio that can be picked up on phones and have the film
projected at d iffe re n t locations.
 BERLIN JOURNAL 89

M arch 5, 2013

I f I can do this warehouse idea, that w ould be exciting. E ntering a room

o f hanging screens like a slaughterhouse. T hey have many headphones,
creating a landscape o f voices try in g to be heard. W hite-noise effect.
The view er is then com pelled to listen, to find w hich picture goes w ith
which headphones.

M arch 10, 2013

I don’t know w hat I ’m feeling. I moved, w hich has throw n me in to a

dive— w hy am I here, what am I doing? I don’t feel good o r grounded.
I ’m o ff balance.

I finished 1984 last night. T h e ending I remembered so vividly. T he

mask w ith rats, the betrayal, and the m eeting w ith Julia, who also
betrayed him . T he a b ility to change w hat someone feels. In some ways
that is happening to me— I am fig h tin g , but they’ve gotten inside so
that I don’t know i f anyplace is private. I f anyplace is safe. I ’m try in g
to keep this new fla t o ff the radar, so no phone, no connecting to the
In te rn e t w ith o u t Tor. I ’ve created m y own isolation, so they w in. T hey
always w in. I can fig h t all I want and I w ill lose. I w ill be destroyed,
paranoid, forsaken, unable to sleep, th in k, love.

Jake said som ething like, “ I t ’s P TS D w ith o u t the post-.” I t doesn’t end.
B ut it is n o t just this project, it is Iraq, Yemen, the border, and now the
NSA. I t is cum ulative.

M arch 11, 2013

I really feel like I ’m underwater. There is pressure in m y head. I ’m tryin g

to figure out i f it is in m y head or the apartment. I can hear the sound o f
m y blood m oving through m y veins. Jesus, what the fuck is happening?

W orking on M anning audio today.16 I t is im portant to publish.

LAURA POITRAS

M arch 12, 2013

M anning video released today. I focused on M anning’s entrance in to

the m ilita ry and his response to the Apache video. W hat it shows is that
people cannot rem ain silent.

M arch 16, 2013

“ C rypto Wars 2”— that is w hat Jake said the film was about when we firs t
met. I didn’t understand it. H e was th in kin g ahead o f me. In a way this
should feel like a sci-fi manifesto, a fu tu rist story or puzzle. N o t an educa­
tional tool but a revolutionary tool k it. I should build a map. Instructions.

M arch 17, 2013

N ightm are: R unning from someone w ith T. T W e were clim bing, and
then I look out the w indow to see the Freedom Tower under construc­
tio n at eye level. I panic/vertigo. I can only im agine fallin g . I ’m frozen.
W oke in a sweat.

Installation project: I w ant a space that looks down, like a factory floor.
T h e headphones hang from wires, so people can only move in certain
straight lines i f they w ant to see other images. People m ig h t need to
switch positions, creating a social exchange. From above you witness
and decide i f you w ant to descend in to the view ing area. T h a t is the
only way you’ll be able to hear, so people w ill.

Since the headphones are hung from above, people w ill need to reach
up and p u ll them down. Each headphone has m u ltip le channels that
sync w ith d iffe re n t projections. T h e view er w ill be able to sw itch
audio channels. From above, you hear w hite noise o f a ll the head­
phones playing.

I should th in k about using N SA m aterial in the exhibition. To draw peo­

ple in and break news. To m irro r the themes o f the surveillance mech­
anism. Maybe an art exhibition could do that— both create an aesthetic
experience and reveal inform ation that evokes an em otional response.
 BERLIN JOURNAL

M arch 18, 2013

V fo r Vendetta last n ig h t— all about how governments lie.

M y C ountry , M y C ountry seems so naive in retrospect.17 As i f appealing

to people’s consciences could change anything. Ten years in to this war
it is obvious there are other forces at w ork.

M arch 20 , 2013

T he tenth anniversary o f the Iraq W ar.

I really need a p lo t throughline that w ill give m ystery and suspense.

I t w ill ground the rest o f the film . If/w h e n the inform ation is released
I need to calibrate the effect. W hat i f he is arrested? W hat i f he is an
FB I inform ant? T here is a danger w orking w ith news events— they lose
th e ir m eaning once public. I need to make sure everything has bigger
social and human meaning.

M arch 26 , 2013

C h illin g em ail from C itizen Four. H e says I ’ll receive the lin k in seven
days. H e says the hard w ork is done, but the dangerous w ork is s till
ahead. H e assures me that i f he is detained o r kille d , I w ill s till receive
the archive. H e says this w ill happen i f our adversaries are m ore suc­
cessful than we are. H e says the archive can’t be sanitized w ith o u t rais­
ing questions o f authenticity. H e is prepared fo r the consequences o f
the disclosure. I really don’t want to become the story, but I m ight not
be able to stop that i f this archive is as detailed as he has indicated. Am I
being lead down a dead end? Being played by some rogue actor?

As this insanity unfolds I ’m reading D octorow ’s Homeland , w hich feels

like a m irro r o f the exact fucking re a lity I ’m liv in g in .18 N atio n a l-
security leaks, detentions, threat o f death, keys passing.

Jake says m y friends w ill be targeted and that I can’t protect them . H e
says it is bigger than anything W ikiLeaks has done. M ore top secret and
92 LAURA POITRAS

that the backlash is the sort o f th in g people get kille d over. T rillio n s o f
dollars o f investm ent.

I told Jake I would take the heat. H e said that isn’t possible, and that every­
one I know w ill be subjected to pressure and that I should warn Katy.19

M arch 30 , 2013

Day six o f the seven-day w indow given by C itizen Four to receive the
lin k . Yesterday read the section in Hvmeland where M arcus is kidnapped
and interrogated. T he book feels like a fucking manual. T ota lly nuts.
T he s tu ff when his com puter starts ta lkin g to him rem inds me o f when
T started film in g w ith Binney and the crashes I experienced. T he screen
going to ta lly pin k and tu rn in g off.

M arch 31 , 2013

Received the lin k last night. “ A stro N oise.” I am dow nloading it rig h t
now. I t is at 90% . M y vision is starting to telescope, but I feel calm.
I slept long, u n til 10 am. T he next step is to v e rify the hash. I don’t
have a clue, but I ’ll try to troubleshoot. T onight I should watch 2001: A
Space Odyssey. Seems fittin g w ith all these b lin k in g screens. W hat i f I ’m
being played? It is hard no t to get paranoid. I ’m probably too trusting.
I believe C itizen F our’s story. I t connects w/m e, but w hat does that
mean? H ow can I tru st this person who approached me out o f the blue?

95%

D ow nload failed. A ttem pting again. T h is is intense— pote n tia lly down­
loading N S A files on Easter Sunday in B erlin.

T h e file is dow nloading now.

A p ril I, 2013

I should know w hat Astro N oise contains before in volving anyone

else. I t is all a b it overw helm ing. I could now be in possession o f N SA
 BERLIN JOURNAL 93

secrets. W ith o u t the key I w on’t know.201 film ed the dow nloading and
the ve rifyin g o f the hash.

I finished reading Homeland and watched 2 0 0 L As I was film in g the

screen I thought about Exact Fantasy and w orking w ith prim ary docu­
ments.21 Seeing 2001 gave me chills. M y parents took me. I s till remem­
ber it. I wonder how old I was?

God, I really need to find a way to offload stress. I f this file is fo r real
it is a huge story, w hich I ’ve documented and w ill also break. I have no
editorial support to handle this.

A p ril 2, 2013

Audio re co rd in g /p rin t script (edit)

S D ig itiz e A stro N oise download
S Reply renovation
Review footage log and p rio ritiz e scene to prep w ork memo
C opy + distribute A stro Noise

I f I go to N Y C in A p ril I should meet w ith Jay Sanders regarding the

installation project.

A p ril 3, 2013

Yesterday I was dizzy w/anxiety. I reread some o f the letters. I f C itizen

Four provides docum entation, it ’s a total bom bshell. “ SSO,” “ Special
Source O perations.” Sleep was h o rrib le again. I t is getting worse. T he
funny th in g is that I ’m sure I ’ll look back on this as just the best tim e.
Being in B erlin, having a great story. T here is so much to appreciate
that I should try to le t the anxiety go. W hat is the w orst they can do?

A p ril 4, 2013

F in a lly had a good n ig h t’s sleep. T raveling to London this weekend to

film Julian. O f course, the pattern o f the tim in g w ill make it look like
I am going to give him the A stro Noise file . I f and when there is a
94 LAURA POITRAS

grand-jury investigation o f this leak, that tim in g w ill be used. N arratives

can be spun. I doubt C itizen Four has any idea I know Julian.

N otes:
A rchitectural plans=source
Disaster=come home
Renovation taking longer=delay
Recycled=m ultiple
C arpenter q uit= no t received
Co-op=gov.

A p ril 5, 2013

Yesterday I prepped letters. I pray I ’m n o t the cause o f C itize n F o u r’s

arrest. B ig story today about the m ilita ry ’s secret new cyber rules o f
engagement. I t is increasingly hard to see how any o f this has a posi­
tive ending.

A p ril 6, 2013

T he sound o f the blood m oving in m y brain w ouldn’t stop. I need to

decide w hat to carry today. Very strange— I ’m less w orried about cross­
ing borders in Europe than in the U.S. B ut s till I need to consider the
danger o f taking a com puter. T h is is all to ta l madness— this level o f
feeling watched. And feeling I could be causing harm to others.

A p ril 14, 2013

N ightm are: I was in a b u ild in g w ith a courtyard. W e hear a sound, and

it is a spaceship fly in g in the courtyard looking fo r someone to kidnap
o r k ill. N o t clear w hich. T he people w ith me hide, and then I realize I
need to docum ent w hat is happening. So I get to an area where I can see
the m achine and take a photo inside the p ilo t’s cabin. T he camera has a
flash, so I see the faces in the photo. B ut the flash also means they know
they’ve been seen. I run, and then realize I should upload the photo fast,
before they catch me. I send it to D . T he photo is a big story. I t reveals
evidence o f a program the U SG wanted to keep secret. I am on the run.
 BERLIN JOURNAL 95

A p ril 18, 2013

I f I trie d to make a fic tio n , Fd be interested in C4. Actually, I ’d love to

do a doc/verite w hile he is s till inside. S till unknown. F or instance, does
he have children? H ow does he manage to live pretending? L iv in g a
double life? R isking so much?

A p ril 29, 2013

Returned from N Y C yesterday. Very intense trip — m eeting w ith G lenn,

Jake, Jam eel/A C LU .22 Received the most detailed oudine from C4. Jake
raised question about entrapm ent. M y instincts say the source is legit.
G lenn is on board and ready, but to ta lly clueless on the security-
technical side o f things. H e expressed b e lie f that to get traction, we
need to show either that Congress is being lied to o r illegal actions.
Jameel said the same. I t is about changing the po litica l clim ate, not
about legal questions o f standing. In the wake o f Boston, this w ill be
really hard to do.

Jake was m ore freaked out— very aware o f the danger this could open.
H e said I needed to fo llo w absolutely s tric t security. T h a t I am a target
they w ould do anything to com prom ise. I f C4 is le g it and has documen­
tation, he is rig h t.

Jake emailed— he and A. were follow ed after I left.

C itizen Four w rote to disassociate metadata again. Em ail now is “ every-

m an.” I am “ Sound and V isio n .” H e wanted to give me the option
to decide on m y own terms w hether to claim involvem ent. H e says,
“ Every tric k in the book w ill be used to look in to th is,” and that we are
in uncharted te rrito ry.

W hat is this film really about? I t m ight be about the courage to resist
power. T h a t is the theme that runs throughout. I t is also about a revo­
lu tio n a ry historical m om ent when a new technology emerges that shifts
the balance o f power. B ut really it is about resistance. Surveillance is the
organizing theme, o r the prism , through w hich we observe resistance.
LAURA POITRAS

I w onder w hat Julian’s plan was that day in the hotel room ?25 Was there
an escape plan?

M ay 3, 2013

I can’t hear. T he sound o f blood rushing in m y veins has gotten worse.

It began when I moved in M arch. T he sensation o f being underwater
and removed from reality. I feel m ore removed and isolated. I keep
w aiting fo r m y ears to pop and to return back to reality, but maybe that
w on’t happen. I can’t sleep and now I can’t hear.

B art G ellm an reached o u t to ask about collaborating.24 I hate Time

magazine. I can’t make com m itm ents u n til I know more.

M ay 4, 2013

N o em ail today. Last n ig h t I read a post about the “ C itize n ’s C om m ittee

to Investigate the F B I” and it made me th in k th a t’s w hat this is— but
fo r the N SA. I t w ould tru ly be incredible i f he is never discovered. L ike
Deep T h ro a t. T h a t w ould just blow a hole in to all this secrecy culture.
T h a t one among them had turned, but they couldn’t id e n tify him .

I t is hard to im agine it ends here. I w ill probably be subpoenaed. O f

course I w on’t com ply, but that m ig h t mean I have to seriously consider
the idea o f going to ja il to protect him . I need to make sure that i f that
happens, the film w ill be com pleted. It can’t happen before.

M ay 5, 2013

Fuck— I have to make one o f the m ost im po rta n t decisions o f m y life

and there is no one I can talk to. C 4 wants to release an FAA 702 docu­
m ent quickly before the key.25 H e says I shouldn’t release it and that it
can’t be traced back to him . Is this the game, the trap?

I need to th in k w hat makes sense in the long term . W hat w ill create the
m ost attention and also give me space to keep working? W hen this gets
investigated, w hat decision makes the m ost sense? W hat decision w ill
 BERLIN JOURNAL

bring m aximum awareness? And m axim um public outcry? M axim um

governm ent response?

C4 asked me to put a target on his back. To n o t protect his identity. H e

also said he would never com m it suicide. W hat kind o f fucking w orld is
this that everyone in m y film says this to me?

I need to ask everything now before the key arrives. H e said contents
o f A stro N oise w ill make the Pentagon Papers and M anning’s leak look
like idle gossip. Jesus. I am to ta lly over m y head. Listening to Binney
you realize what these people are capable of. T hirty-seven years o f
service and they show up w/guns drawn. These people are evil. W hat
w orld have I entered? W ill I ever escape?

“ Once the payload moves from ciphertext to plaintext, the life I have
lived is finished. W hether scorned power ends it through im prisonm ent
o r violence is o f little interest. I am n o t afraid.”— C4

M ay 8, 2013

M e t w /law yer. Legal protections in Germ any are good i f the U.S. tries
to issue a subpoena.

B art is pushing hard fo r direct contact. O f course he is doing his job,

but I should be careful and not agree to anything w ith o u t understand­
ing the consequences. I should control d istrib u tio n carefully once it
gets in to plaintext. Jesus. M y life m ig h t soon be over o r become very
public. I should prepare myself.

M ay 10 , 2013

C itizen Four agreed to meet fo r interview . A ll w ill move fast now.

E verything has to be secure before we meet, otherwise we w ould be a
perfect target i f they thought it could be stopped. T h e y’d call it a con­
spiracy. I t w ould be so easy to frame. I ’m already on a watch lis t. T h e y’d
say I ’m acting as an agent.
LAURA POITRAS

M ay 11, 2013

I m ig h t travel Thursday o r Friday. H o p e fu lly shoot on Sunday. R eturn

M onday o r Tues. I should spend the weekend w orking on questions.
Ideally this w ould happen in a house in the country.

I should really consider doing the interview alone.

— W hat do you th in k they w ill do to you?

— Explain to me what you th in k they w ill do to you.
— Explain to me w hy you decided to become a w histleblow er.
— Can you w alk me through how you were able to retrieve this
data/archive?
— Tell me w hat the archive contains.
— T ell me what you know about Stellarw ind.
— T ell me what you know about the A shcroft hospital visit.
— Can you explain the secret interpretatio n o f Section 215 o f the
P a trio t Act?
— Explain to me who in Congress know w hat you are revealing.
— Explain to me w hat you th in k is illegal in these documents.
— Explain w hy you are not afraid.
— Explain w hy you decided no t to leak the archive to M S M , such as
the N Y T .
— W hat do you th in k they’ll do to me?
— W hat frightens you the most?
— Some people w ill accuse you o f being a tra ito r. W hat do you say to
them?
— Explain how this in fo rm a tio n can be used to w in.
— W ho is im plicated in crim inal activities?
— T ell me w hat “ Treasure M ap” is.
— Explain B ill’s role in the N SA. W hat were his skills?
— Explain w hy you don’t try to escape o r seek asylum.
— W hat do you know about the U tah facility?
— Explain w hy they are b u ild in g it and w hat it w ill do.
 BERLIN JOURNAL 99

M ay 12, 2013

M y heart is beating out o f m y chest. T he pressure o f p u ttin g this all

together is enormous.

They are going to come after me w ith all th e ir aggression to stop the
spread. T he tric k w ill be to make it a scandal before C itizen Four gets
caught. O therw ise the leak gets framed as treason/attack on national
security. E ith e r way, this w ill no t be at all fun. T hey w ill prosecute me,
right? I really do need a press organization backing me on this. I do
want to get out o f this one alive, so I have to be careful. I ’ll go to ja il
to protect the F irst Am endm ent, but I don’t w ant to do som ething that
invites them to in d ic t me.

God, but seriously, m y life in the U.S. is over after this, right? H ow w ill
I be able to live there?

M ay 13 , 2013

S ILV E R S H O T did the setup fo r G lenn.26 He should be on encryption

by Thursday. T hank god. N o w ord from C itizen this weekend. I hope
m y last em ail d id n ’t push him away. Asking to meet is risky I know, but
how can I not ask? I don’t know the level o f surveillance he is under. H e
says he can’t travel undetected. W hat does that mean? I assume he lives
near F o rt Meade.
M ay 15, 2013

T he plans arrived, so I should have them to n ig h t and can begin d is tri­

bution. I should w rite down the hotels I can call from N Y C to find a
place to copy everything.

I should also destroy this fucking notebook.

* * *

I fle w to New York la te r th a t day. Two weeks la te r I fle w to Hong Kong w ith
Glenn Greenwald to meet Edward Snowden.
100 LAURA POITRAS

NO TKS

1. In 2 0 0 6 ,1 was placed on a government C oun terterro rism Center, o r N C T C . She

te rro rist watch list after making M y C ountiy, wanted to pu t me in touch w ith G. from
M y C ountiy, a film about the Iraq War. Since N C T C to see my film . G. w rote to request
then, I have been detained and interrogated a D V D and put me in touch w ith a woman,
more than forty times at the U.S. border. In R., who handles “ outreach to H o llyw o o d
2 0 1 5 ,1 filed a Freedom o f Inform ation Act folks.” I never heard from them again after
lawsuit against the Departm ent o f H omeland her email. I assume they looked in to the ir
Security, the Departm ent o f Justice, and database and realized 1 was on the N C T C
the O ffice o f the D irecto r of N ational te rro ris t watch list.
Intelligence to request my files. Tn O ctober o f 7. M u ra t Kurnaz is a form er Guantanamo
that year, I received a lirs t release o f heavily prisoner I filmed in 2009. H e was tortured
redacted F B I documents that reveal I was the in Afghanistan.
target o f a classified grand-jury investigation. 8. Chaos C om puter Congress, o r C C C , is an
Several of these documents appear in this vol­ annual hacker conference in Germany.
ume on pages 193-201. 9. A ll prisoners at Guantanamo are assigned
2. T h e disposition m atrix is a database o f peo­ an Internm ent Serial Num ber, or 1SN.
ple that American intelligence agencies see as 10. Scott Shane, “ E x-O ffice r Is First from
terrorists. People in this database are selected CM.A. to Lace Prison for a Leak,” New York
according to criteria from the Obama admin­ Times, January 5, 2013, http://w w w .nytim es.
istration to create a list o f people whom the co m /2 0 13/01 /06/us/form er-cia-oflicer-is-
U.S. targets fo r capture or assassination. M ost the-first-to-face-prison-for-a-classified-leak.
often they are killed by drone strike. President htm l. John K iriakou was a C IA agent who
Obama makes the final decision on every list. was imprisoned tor revealing inform ation to a
3. W illia m Binncy worked fo r the NSA for reporter about agents who tortured prisoners
more than th irty years. He was the agen­ at black sites.
cy’s technical director. 1le le ft the N SA in 11. 'The New York Times published the
O ctober 2001, rig h t after 9/11. Before leav­ op-doc Death o f a Prisoner on the eleven-year
ing, he discovered that the social-graphing anniversary o f Guantanamo Bay prison,
program he designed, Thin'Thread, w\is being January 1 1 ,2013, http://w w w .nytim cs.com /
used to spy on U.S. citizens. He and other video/opinion/10000000199831l/d e a th -o f-
N S A employees filed complaints internally. a-prisoner.htm l.
1 began film in g him in 2011. One o f the first 12. Aaron Swartz was an In te rn e t prodigy
things he said to me was, “ 1 want you to know and activist w ho com m itted suicide w hile
I w ill never com m it suicide.” facing prosecution and potential decades
4. Death o f a Prisoner (2013) was a short film in jail fo r logging in to an M I T server and
I made fo r the New York Times about Adnan copying academic journals that were largely
La tif, a Yemeni prisoner who was found dead funded by taxpayer money. T h e site he
at Guantanamo Bay in September 2012. logged into , JS T O R , eventually opposed his
W hen I learned about his death, I contacted being prosecuted.
the Times because I had visited and filmed 13. I began film in g Jacob Appelbaum and
Adnan’s fam ily in Yemen five years earlier. Julian Assange in 2011 in the aftermath o f
5. Lakhdar Boumediene was rendered by W ikiLeaks’ publication o f war logs and U.S.
the C IA in Bosnia and spent seven years at State Departm ent cables. A secret grand-jury
Guantanamo w ith o u t charge. I le was on a investigation into W ik i leaks was launched,
hunger strike for tw o years. He was released which was the reason T relocated to B erlin to
follow in g his 2008 Supreme C o u rt victory edit. T h e secret investigation is still open, five
in Boumediene v. Bush. I filmed him in 2009, years later.
weeks after his release. 14. T h e “ 'Three C olors” trilo g y by K rzysztof
6. In 2010, after finishin g The Oath, 1 was Kieslowski.
contacted by a producer in H ollyw ood 15. I began film in g the NSA’s Utah Data
w ho was doing consulting for the N ational (.'enter in 2011. 'The N S A d idn’t yet have
 BERLIN JOURNAL 101

security because the building was under I first started to receive emails from Citizen
construction, so I was able to get close. T h e Four. A t that time he was a con tributin g edi­
neighbors next door let me film from their to r at large fo r Time magazine.
property. T hey told me that a highway would 25. I later learned this document was a slide
soon come through the ir land. "T hey also told deck from the top-secret Prism program that
me that the ir son had been in an automobile revealed details about nine internet companies
accident and that they had to sell the piece o f and how they shared inform ation w ith the
land rather than build a new house and retire NSA.
there. I considered tryin g to purchase the land 26. S IL V E R S H O T was a code name for
and turning it into a research center to study M icah Lee, a technologist whom Snowden
the NSA, but I never followed up on the idea. contacted to reach me. Snowden assigned
I was too freaked out by the thought o f being code names for people he communicated
across the street from the data center storing w ith — mine was D A R K D IA M O N D .
everyone’s communications.
16. In 2013, a source leaked an audio record­
ing to the Freedom o f the Press Foundation
o f Chelsea (then Bradley) M anning’s state­
ment during then-ongoing court-m artial
proceedings. In it, M a nning discusses how
she felt when she saw the “ Collateral M u rd e r”
video, which shows journalists and children
being gunned down in 2007 in Baghdad by
an Apache helicopter gunship. 1 made a short
video, titled Providence, using M anning’s audio
recording as the voice-over. I t was released
by the Freedom o f the Press Foundation on
March 12, 2013.
17. W hen I traveled to Iraq in 2004 to film
M y Country, M y Country, I never imagined
things like the drone assassination program.
18. C ory D octo row ’s Homeland (2013) is a
w ork o f fiction about a massive leak o f classi­
fied documents.
19. K aty Scoggin served as co-producer on
C ITIZE N FO U R .
20. Encrypted files cannot be opened w ithou t
a “ key,” o r passphrase, to unlock them. I did
not have the key.
21. Exact Fa?itasy is a film 1 made in 1996
about letters w ritte n to celebrities.
2 2 .1 had several meetings in N ew York to dis­
cuss C itizen Four and make plans i f the docu­
ments were real. I also warned several people
whom I knew would be targeted i f C itizen
Four were legit and his claims were accurate.
23. In M ay 2012,1 filmed Julian Assange in
a hotel room in I ,ondon as he disguised his
appearance before seeking political asylum
from Ecuador.
24. Barton Gellman is an investigative jo u r­
nalist. I met w ith him in February 2013 when
104

LISTENING TO THE MOONS

Trevor Paglen

Fig. 1. Map of the National

Radio Quiet Zone, W est
Virginia. From the National
Telecommunications
and Information Association
Manual of Regulations
and Procedures for
Federal Radio Frequency
Management, May 2014
 105

A P R IL 8, 1960. 3 A M . Frank Drake shrugged o ff the th ick Appalachian

cold and groggily clim bed in to a garbage-can-size pod. Deep in the
George W ashington N ational Forest, Drake was now at the helm o f the
Green Bank Radio Observatory’s eighty-five-foot telescope, one o f the
most pow erful antennae in the w orld. Green Bank was designed to plum b
the depths o f space and tim e: to watch stars form , grow, and explode in
massive supernovas; to study the evolution o f galaxies and the influence
o f mysterious dark m atter on the visible universe; to comb the cosmos for
traces o f black holes, pulsars, and other celestial objects o f unimaginable
strangeness and power. In other words, the telescope was designed to
help answer some o f hum anity’s oldest questions: W ho are we? W here
did we come from? W here are we going? But as Drake squeezed in to the
telescope’s focuser that day, he was looking fo r an answer to a slightly d if­
ferent but no less profound question: Are we alone? T he day marked the
beginning o f Project Ozma and the Search fo r E xtraterrestrial Intelligence
(S E TI). Drake was looking fo r signals from an alien civilization.
Green Bank was an ideal locale. N o t only did the observatory have
one o f the most sensitive receivers in the w orld, designed to capture
and record the faintest o f signals from the universe’s depths, it was also
located in a remarkable, newly established nature preserve o f sorts, a
place designated by the Federal Com m unications Commission as the
N ational Radio Q uiet Zone. Created in 1958, the Q uiet Zone (fig. 1)
encompassed 13,000 square miles throughout the ro llin g W est V irginia
h ills and forests where radio signals o f all sorts were severely restricted:
om nidirectional transm itters were largely banned, as were high-powered
television and radio waves. T he Q uiet Zone was a place o f radio silence,
a place o f listening, a place where one could hear the rapid clicking o f a
spinning neutron star light-years away, the b rie f pop o f an exploding star
in a distant galaxy, the faint echoes o f the big bang itself, or, perhaps, the
delicate chatter o f an alien civilization far across the galaxy.
Drake had thought long and hard about what an alien civiliza tio n
m ight sound like to the giant telescope at Green Bank. Planet Earth
had its e lf only just developed technologies that made interstellar com ­
m unication theoretically possible. T he previous decades had seen the
advent o f broadcast television w ith the N azis’ transm ission o f the 1936
B erlin O lym pic Games, the development o f m ilita ry com m unications
networks during W orld W ar II, and pow erful new radar transm itters.
106 TREVOR PAGLEN

Radio technologies laid the groundw ork fo r a global telecom m unica­

tions village, but to visionaries like Drake, they held out the possibility
o f intragalactic com m unication. H e believed it was self-evident that any
cosmic c iv iliz a tio n w ould w ant to reach out to other in te llig e n t spe­
cies on other planets. M oreover, he thought, interstellar radio beacons
w ould be the obvious way to do so. And so, that m orning at Green
Bank, Drake was loo kin g fo r beacons.
Drake posited (somewhat circularly) that because so much human
radio astronom y is conducted around the so-called hydrogen line at
1420 M H z , that location on the radio spectrum w ould be an obvious
place fo r an alien c iviliza tio n to park an inte rste lla r beacon. H e aimed
the massive telescope tow ard the star Tau C eti. Located in the constel­
la tio n Cetus, relatively close to E arth at twelve light-years away, the
star’s sunlike chem ical com position prom ised the possibility o f in te lli­
gent life . As the telescope swung in to position, Drake turned the tape
recorders on. T he needle jum ped. T hen plunged again. Drake sat in
the can u n til noon, w hile the needle rose and fe ll in accordance w ith
the laws o f Gaussian noise. Tau C eti ducked under the western horizon.
Drake did n o t fin d any alien beacons th a t day, o r the next.1
Drake was never able to fin d an extraterrestrial transm itter w ith the
sensitive receivers at G reen Bank, but he was n o t alone in the Q uiet
Zone. T h irty m iles northeast o f Green Bank, near the tin y tow n o f
Sugar G rove, the N a tional Security Agency— an agency whose name
was all but unknow n at the tim e— was b u ild in g a vasdy m ore pow erful
radio telescope (fig. 2). T he alien hunters at Green Bank w eren’t the
o nly ones interested in collecting the faintest signals from space. B ut
the gargantuan “ shadow” telescope under construction at Sugar Grove
wasn’t b u ilt to lo o k fo r extraterrestrial beacons from Tau C eti so much
as at alien civilizations located here on earth. And rather than p o in t its
telescopes at the depths o f the galaxy o r faraway stars, the N S A was
alm ost exclusively interested in one celestial object: the moon.
T he N S As interest in the m oon began w ith a series o f experiments
in the 1940s dubbed P roject Diana (after the lunar goddess) showing a
curious thing: when electrom agnetic signals radiate away from the earth
(as all signals do) in to space, a certain am ount o f them h it the m oon
and p ro m p tly bounce back. By 1945, a Naval Research Labs engineer
named James T rexler had shown that a sufficiendy pow erful receiver
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 107

Fig. 2. Rendering of the Navy’s

radio telescope in Sugar Grove,
W est Virginia, ca. 1959

could collect signals from all over the earth by m o n ito rin g th e ir reflec­
tions, th e ir “ m oonbounce,” w ith pow erful receivers (fig. 3).
T he N avy put theory in to practice in the early 1950s w ith Project
PAM O R (Passive M oon Relay), a giant antenna b u ilt at Stump Neck,
M aryland. T he project demonstrated that the m oon could indeed be used
as a passive reflector in order to spy on other countries. As it rose and tra ­
versed the sky, the moon behaved like a giant m irror, providing a glimpse
in to Chinese and Soviet hinterlands. Because the m oon’s angle in the sky
correlated to a particular slice o f Soviet territo ry, each moonrise provided
the NS A w ith a sweeping look across the Eurasian landmass. W ith the
p ro o f o f concept fo r an eavesdropping m oon antenna in place, the N SA
began envisioning a massive secret installation dedicated to the job. T he
agency imagined creating a very special place where it w ould be possible
to listen to the moon w ith little radio interference, a kind o f “ quiet zone.”
W hat’s more, by collaborating behind the scenes w ith radio astronomers,
the N SA w ould be able to use radio astronom y as a good cover story fo r
the creation o f the U nited States’ most pow erful eavesdropping station.
In large part, Green Bank Radio Telescope (and radio astronomy in
general) was that cover story. U nder the auspices o f the Navy, the N SA
108 TREVOR PAGLEN

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Fig. 3. Notebook entry of James Trexler showing calculations for a long-distance communications
link between Los Angeles and W ashington, D.C., via the moon, January 28, 1945
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 109

had begun construction o f a massive radio telescope, six hundred feet in

diameter, described in a 1959 Popular Science article as “ the biggest machine
that men have ever b u ilt.” 2According to the magazine, the installation was
designed to “ catch the faintest whisperings o f signals from unim aginably
distant space,” its reach would be “ literally, beyond the edge o f the u n i­
verse,” and it “ should settle some hot arguments among astronomers.”
Nonetheless, Popular Science conceded that “ most o f the tim e it w ill be
busy on jobs that the N avy steadfastly refuses to describe.”
B ut the NSA’s massive and largely secret m oonbounce telescope
w ould never be com pleted; the installation w ould be s lig h tly repurposed.
In the years after Sputnik, the N SA decided that listening to electro­
magnetic reflections from the moon was a b it inefficient. A better idea
was just to build your own moon, one specifically designed fo r eavesdrop­
ping. And so the N S A designed a shiny, basketball-size satellite w ith inset
solar cells and protruding antennae, then gave it a scientific cover story.
In June 1960, N ASA launched the Galactic Radiation and Background
(GRAB) satellite (fig. 4). GRAB’Sstated purpose was to m onitor solar radi­
ation fluctuations from space, and that was indeed a part o f its mission.
But “ GRAB” was a lie by omission;
internally, the little satellite was called
Tattletale and was designed to collect
Soviet and Chinese m ilita ry signals.
Tattletale showed that the best
way to eavesdrop on the “ chatter” it
sought wasn’t by adopting the pos­
ture o f a radio astronomer, listening
fo r reflections from the moon as if
they were signals from an alien civ­
ilization. T he better approach was
to become an extraterrestrial civi­
lization oneself and to m onitor the
earth from a listening post in outer
space. And so the N SA kept building
moons. T he giant antenna at Sugar
Grove went dorm ant fo r a tim e.3
In those firs t few years, the tin y _ , „
J J Fig. 4. GRAB 2 atop two other satellites
Tattletale satellites did everything and launch vehicle, ca. 1960
110 TREVOR PAGLEN

Fig. 5. NASA engineers examining Intelsat I, 1965

that the cyclopean moonbounce telescope had been designed to do—

suck up Soviet and Chinese electrom agnetic radiation containing
in fo rm a tio n about m ilita ry hardware, com m unications systems, m is­
sile telem etry, and other sensitive data and broadcast them down to
the N S A on earth. T he new eavesdropping satellites worked so w ell
that the agency follow ed GRAB w ith a series o f sim ila rly sized satellites
called Poppy, w ith seven launches between 1962 and 1971. O thers fo l­
lowed closely thereafter.
In 1968, the N S A placed the firs t SIG EN T (signals intelligence) sat­
ellites in geosynchronous orbits, 36,000 kilom eters (some 22,300 miles)
above the planet. T he Canyon satellites’ th irty -fo o t antennae made them
titans compared to th e ir sm aller GRAB and Poppy cousins, and th e ir
orbits allowed them to rem ain parked at a single poin t over the equator,
effectively becom ing space-based versions o f the NSA js planned receiver
at Sugar Grove. By the end o f the 1960s, the N SA had b u ilt a veritable
solar system o f secret moons around the earth, all designed to listen in on
the “ alien” activities below.
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 111

O f course, the NS A wasn’t the only organization creating new

moons, and satellites had many m ore purposes than eavesdropping.
One o f th e ir m ain uses was the creation o f planetary com m unications
infrastructures. In 1964, eleven countries banded together to form
Intelsat, the Internation al Telecom m unications Satellite O rganization,
an intergovernm ental consortium to own, manage, and provide broad­
cast services via a constellation o f geosynchronous com m unications
satellites. In 1965, Intelsat launched its firs t satellite, named Intelsat
I (nicknam ed E arly B ird; fig. 5), brin g in g fo rth an era o f global in te r­
connection through television, telephone, and facsim ile routing. O ver
the next few years, Intelsat b u ilt a rin g o f geostationary satellites, all
buzzing w ith the chatter from the planet below.
B ut the Intelsat satellite constellation did som ething m ore than cre­
ate the w orld o f global connectivity: inherent in its architecture was
the possibility o f global surveillance. T he N S A jum ped at the chance.
T he advent o f the Intelsat satellites reinvigorated the im portance o f the
NSA’s old m oonbounce facilities. T he m ost efficient way to spy on earth
may have been to build extraterrestrial spacecraft like GRAB, Poppy,
and Canyon, but i f you wanted to spy on moons like the Intelsat satel­
lites, the best way to do it was w ith a radio telescope like the one Frank
D rake had used to pioneer the search fo r aliens.
C om m unications-satellite infrastructures like Intelsat w ork like this:
a signal (fo r example, an international telephone call) is routed from a
land-based telephone w ire in a home o r business to a pow erful radio
transm itter at a ground-based station, o r “ tele p o rt,” where the signal is
sent to a satellite in geosynchronous o rb it. T h a t satellite in tu rn routes
the signal to other “ relay” satellites u n til the signal is over the appro­
priate part o f the planet and is sent back down tow ard earth (to another
teleport) and routed along ground-based telephone cables to the recip­
ient. T he ground-based teleports are essentially com m ercial versions
o f the telescopes at Green Bank and Sugar Grove, albeit ones tuned to
frequencies reserved fo r com m ercial com m unications.
As Intelsat connected the w orld through a netw ork o f ground sta­
tions and com m unications satellites, the N S A began construction o f a
shadow netw ork designed fo r the mass surveillance o f this new “ global
village” o f interconnectedness. T he program was called Frosting, and
it was an earlier version o f the now -infam ous directive o f recent N S A
112 TREVOR PAGLEN

d ire cto r K e ith Alexander to “ collect it a ll.” Established in 1966, Frosting

was designed to collect all satellite com m unications. F rosting had two
subcategories: Transient, a program designed to collect all Soviet com­
m unications, and Echelon, a program established to collect all civilian
com m unications over Intelsat satellites.4
T he Intelsat satellites were easy targets fo r mass surveillance; a ll the
N SA had to do was b u ild its own netw ork o f ground stations sim ilar to
those o f Intelsat and in sim ilar places. T hen the N S A could just suck up
all the same signals as the Intelsat ground stations, achieving the goal o f
planetary surveillance.
In short order, a netw ork o f classified N SA ground stations m ultiplied
in the vic in ity o f Intelsat stations. An Intelsat ground station at Brewster,
W ashington, was “ shadowed” by an N SA station at Yakima (code named
Jackknife); Intelsat’s installation at Cayey, Puerto Rico, was shadowed by
an N SA post at Sabana Seca (C oraline); in the U K , a jo in t venture o f the
N SA and the B ritish H igh Command tailed G oonyhill Downs, and to
track Raisting, Germany, a ground station was installed at Bad A ib lin g
(G arlick). And in the Q uiet Zone, an Intelsat ground station in Etam,
W est V irginia, located to take advantage o f the low radio noise, reinvig­
orated the N SA station at Sugar Grove. T he Q uiet Zone was returned
to its original mission— spying on extraterrestrial moons— and the NSA!s
Appalachian eavesdropping station returned to prominence. In the new
Echelon vocabulary, Sugar Grove was given the code name T im berline.5
As the Intelsat netw ork expanded, so did the netw ork o f shadow
ground stations. And just as Intelsat was form ed as an intergovernm en­
tal consortium to provide global telecom m unciations, the N S A took
the lead in creating a secret intergovernm ental organization dedicated
to mass surveillance: Five Eyes, a collaborative spying e ffo rt among
B rita in , the U nited States, Canada, Australia, and N ew Zealand whose
collective fo o tp rin t could effectively encircle the planet.
Five Eyes soon had a global surveillance infrastructure (fig. 6).
M oonpenny arrived at H arrogate, England; Ladylove at Misawa, Japan;
Lem onwood in K hon Kaen, T hailand; and a pair o f sites under the
um brella o f the Special C ollection Service at embassies in Brasilia and
N ew D e lh i. O ther Five Eyes facilities were created in Ayios N ikolaos,
Cyprus (Sounder); Oman (Snick); N a iro b i (Scapel); D arw in, Australia
(Shoal Bay); and W aihopai, N ew Zealand (Ironsand).
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 113

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I f the Intelsat netw ork constituted the advent o f the “ global village”
o r the “ networked society,” then the NSAs Echelon and Frosting sys­
tems marked its shadow— the genesis o f planetary mass surveillance.
T he hardware and global geography o f the tw o were, and rem ain, nearly
identical. T h is coupling o f global connectivity and global surveillance,
com m unications infrastructures and th e ir secret eavesdropping shadow
architectures, is s till in effect today.
In the 1980s, the rise o f fibe r-o p tic com m unications added a web o f
undersea cables m iles beneath the w o rld ’s oceans to the com m unica­
tions satellites in the heavens above. As great cable ships such as the CS
Long Lines unspooled ever-m ore-pow erful telecom m unications cables
across the seas, N SA submarines like the USS Parche and USS Jim m y
C arter lurked below on the ocean flo o r to install taps and splices onto
them . And just as the w o rld ’s telecom m unications consortium s cre­
ated landing sites and processing centers fo r undersea cables in scores
o f locations, from M astic Beach, Long Island, to M arseille, and from
M um bai to Alexandria, Egypt, the N SA installed a global netw ork o f
114 TREVOR PAGLEN

cable-tapping operations, from Blue Z ephyr to Smokeysink, and from

Azure Phoenix to D ancing Oasis. So too the com m ercial data centers
o f Facebook and G oogle find th e ir shadows at the NSA’s massive data
centers from Bluffdale, U tah, to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
B ut the N S A hasn’t given up on the heavens. Far from it. The
G RAB and Poppy satellites have evolved in to a contem porary con­
stellation o f S IG IN T satellites called In tru d e r th a t circle the globe
in low o rbits, operating in pairs in order to triangulate the exact loca­
tio n o f an intercepted signal. T he Canyon spacecraft o f the late 1960s
and ’70s, w ith th e ir then-form idable th irty -fo o t span, have developed
in to a contem porary constellation o f O rio n S IG IN T satellites w ith
eavesdropping antennae the size o f fo o tb a ll fields. Raven-class eaves­
droppers lu rk in h ig h ly e llip tic a l orbits th a t allow them to dw ell over
the n orthern latitudes, w hile satellites called Nemesis actually move
through the geostationary belt, p eriodically parking to eavesdrop on
any com m unications satellite o f interest.
In short, a netw ork o f secret moons s till listens fo r signals from the
earth below in much the same way that Frank Drake im agined collecting
signals from Tau C eti so many years ago. B ut who are the real aliens?
T he massive telescope at Green Bank, o riginally b u ilt in part as a cover
fo r the NSAs planetary eavesdropping efforts, continues to operate w ith in
the radio silence o f the Q uiet Zone, plucking the faintest signals from the
universe’s depths. Over the ensuing decades, Green Bank has listened to
the form ations o f galaxies, the rapid tapping o f collapsed neutron stars,
the din o f dark energy, and the violence o f w orld-eating black holes.
And although no alien civilizations have been detected, the Search fo r
Extraterrestrial Intelligence continues to this day, albeit in different forms.
W hen Drake firs t began looking fo r aliens, he was looking fo r in te r­
stellar beacons in areas o f the radio spectrum where he im agined aliens
w ould w ant to broadcast. H is hunch was that there m ig h t be a galactic
village o f interconnected species and civilizations, perhaps akin to the
one developing at that m om ent on E arth. H e im agined the hydrogen
line at 1420 M H z to be the intragalactic notice board o f an interstellar
village that hum anity m ig h t be invited to jo in i f it w ould only listen
closely. Drake was shortly joined in this view by other astronomers like
C arl Sagan and J ill Tartar, w ho believed that seeking out extraterres­
tria l civilizations could provide enormous technological benefits to
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 115

Earth; m ore im portant, it could be a message o f hope. T he very exis­

tence o f an alien civiliza tio n , they surmised, was evidence that the self-
destruction o f a w orld that had just turned on its radios and b u ilt nuclear
weapons wasn’t a foregone conclusion. I f alien intelligence existed, they
thought, then it was possible fo r a planet to avert nuclear war and grow
out o f a vio le n t and m ilita ris tic adolescence. A fte r all, Sagan and o th ­
ers believed, any advanced extraterrestrial civiliza tio n we encountered
would be peaceful and a ltru istic by de fin itio n , because it otherwise
would have destroyed its e lf long ago. I f we could find an alien civiliza ­
tion, perhaps it could teach us how to dism antle nuclear stockpiles and
avoid environm ental catastrophe.
To this day, Drake is s till on the lookout fo r cosmic beacons.
Undeterred by the failure to find any evidence o f alien civilizations, he
points out that S E T I has barely scratched the surface in term s o f a sus­
tained galactic search o f m illio n s o f p o tentia lly civiliza tio n -h a rb o rin g
star systems. O n the other hand, humans have been capable o f building
an interstellar beacon fo r more than h a lf a century now but have never
even seriously considered taking on the e ffo rt. W h a t’s more, a consen­
sus has developed among S E T I astronomers that b u ild in g such a bea­
con m ig h t be seriously ill advised. Just as the N S A used the advent o f
global telecom m unications to create global surveillance and targeting
systems, some fear an interstellar beacon could easily be used by hostile
extraterrestrials as an arrow p o in tin g to th e ir next meal.
T he question o f w hether o r not to build an interstellar beacon, how ­
ever, is actually m oot. W e already have, although it wasn’t intended as
such. T h e advent o f rockets, satellites, and the means to track them
has transform ed E arth its e lf in to a de facto beacon, albeit one far m ore
cacophonous than a sim ple, univocal transm ission in a galactic lingua
franca. In 1978, astronom er W oody Sullivan pointed out what the N S A
had long known— that the radio leakage from television signals, tele­
com m unications systems, and m ilita ry hardware has turned the planet
in to a kind o f cosmic lighthouse.6 Sullivan’s goal was to id e n tify other
means o f conducting S E T I: by asking w hat E arth m ig h t look like to
an alien civiliza tio n , S E T I researchers m ig h t expand th e ir search fo r
extraterrestrial signals beyond the hydrogen-line beacons Drake firs t
theorized. Sullivan’s w ork showed that by far the most pow erful signals
em anating from the planet are the U.S. m ilita ry ’s B allistic M issile E arly
116 TREVOR PAGLEN

W arning System (along w ith its then-Soviet counterparts). These radar

installations are designed to detect and track aircraft, missiles, and sat­
ellites far above the earth but are both pow erful enough and cover a
swath o f the sky so broadly that they “ sweep” a large prop o rtio n o f the
galaxy’s stars daily w ith the earth’s ro ta tio n .7 These signals are, in part,
exactly the kinds o f signals the N SA wanted to collect w ith its early
m oonbounce hardware.
A civilization on a planet o rb itin g Tau C eti a mere twelve light-years
away m ight learn o f hum anity’s presence on Earth from daily sweeps o f
Am erican and Russian m ilita ry radars. I f the Tau Cetians tuned in fur­
ther, perhaps from th e ir own Q uiet Zone in a remote valley on their
planet, they w ould probably detect the carrier signals o f E arth’s televi­
sion and telecom m unications transm itters. O ver every tw enty-four-hour
period, they m ight watch these signals rise and fall, a daily survey o f what
is happening on our planet, in much the same way that the N SA sought
to survey the Soviet and Chinese hinterlands by listening to the moon.
U pon furth e r study, they’d find an uneven radio landscape o f varying

Fig. 7. Naval Information Operations Command, Sugar Grove, W est Virginia, 2010.
Photograph by Trevor Paglen
 LISTENING TO THE MOONS 117

amplitudes whose peaks and valleys correspond not only to E arth’s phys­
ical topography but to its te rrito ria l borders and uneven distributions o f
economic and political power. And in tim e, they m ight learn that they
were, in fact, not at all the firs t beings interested in collecting E arth’s
signals. A few years ago, they m ight have heard o f the N SA and Echelon,
as broadcasts o f Duncan Cam pbell’s tw o thousand reports on the agency
and the program traversed the twelve light-years to reach th e ir planet.
And in about nine years, they m ight learn about Edward Snowden.
In the m eantim e, despite the o fficia l shutdown o f its overseer,
the Naval Inform ation O perations Command, in 2015, w ork at the
NSA installation in the Q uiet Zone continues (fig. 7). An entry in the
Snowden archive from the Signals Intelligence D irectorate newsletter
S ID A round the W orld describes life at the NS As Q uiet Zone outpost:
“ Trees, m ountains, streams, rivers, deer, bear, ruffled grouse, red and
gray squirrels, red and gray foxes, possums, skunks, caves, rock clim b­
ing, skiing, w inding roads, red ta il hawks, eagles, coyotes, cattle, sheep,
horses, people, pigs, chickens . . . it ’s all here.” T he author concludes,
“ T he best part about liv in g here is the quietness and animal life . . . .
Standing outside taking in the fresh air every day has made me realize
how lucky I am to be w orking at N IO C Sugar G rove, W V .”

NO TES

1. Drake’s recollections come from Frank D. Jackknife site in Yakima that was published
Drake, “ A Reminiscence o f Project Ozma,” by The Intercept. See “ Blast from the Past:
Cosmic Search 1, no. 1 (January 1979). T h e YRS in the Beginning,” The Northwest
article is available at http://w w w .bigear.org/ Passage 2, no. 1 (January 2011); available
v o lln o l/o z m a .h tm . at https://www.docum entcloud.org/docu-
2. A ll quotations this paragraph from M a rtin m cnts/2189960-nwp-nsa.html.
Mann, “ N ew Radio Telescope Is M a n’s 5. See Duncan Campbell, “ Interception
Biggest M achine,” Popular Science 175, no. 6 Capabilities 2000,” a w orking document pre­
(December 1959), pp. 85-86. pared fo r the S T O A Panel o f the European
3. For a superb overv iew o f the relationship Parliament, October 1999; available at
between radio astronomy, the NSA, and the http://www.duncancam pbcll.org/m enu/sur-
sites at Green Bank and Sugar Grove, see veillance/echelon/IC2000_Report% 20.pdf.
David K. van Keuren, “ C old W ar Science in Sec also James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace ,
Black and W hite: US Intelligence Gathering 2nd ed. (New York: Penguin, 1983).
and Its Scientific Cover at the Naval 6. W . T. Sullivan III, S. Brown, and C.
Research Laboratory, 1948-62,” in “ Science W etherill, “ Eavesdropping: T h e Radio
in the C old W ar,” special issue, Social Studies Signature o f the E arth,” Science, new series
o f Science 31, no. 2 (A pril 2001), pp. 207-29. 199, no. 4327 (January 27,1978), pp. 377-88.
4. T h is story comes from an item in The 7. Ibid.
Northwest Passage, a newsletter fo r the
120

Edward Snowden

Temperature fluctuations in background cosmic radiation, mapped from nine years of data from
the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, 2012
 121

FOR T H O S E W H O L IS T E N , the stars are singing. From the over­

bearing sun to those that on the clearest n ig h t appear as o nly distant
darkness, each has a voice. And th e ir song can protect our secrets.
C ryp to lo g y is the science o f secrecy. C ryptographic methods have
given rise to the a rt o f encryption: prote ctin g valuable in fo rm a tio n by
transform ing it in to a meaningless stream o f gibberish m athem atically
indistinguishable from random noise to all except the rig h tfu l owner.
T he one w ho knows the secret. T he one who has the key.
B ut m odem cryptography depends on com puters, and com puters
are determ inistic. T h a t is, they are incapable o f cre a tivity and m ust
always retu rn precisely the same result in response to a given input.
T hey are incapable, absent outside forces, o f tru ly random behav­
ior. M athem aticians have w orked around this lim ita tio n by devising
“ pseudorandom ” num ber generators. These m ethods use a single,
tru ly random “ seed” num ber to produce m illio n s o f offspring. These
num eric children fo llo w a nonrandom sequence, but that sequence
can never be predicted so long as the value o f th e ir o rig in a l seed
remains secret.
I f th a t seed is stolen o r its value predicted, however, an adver­
sary can reverse the process o f encryption, revealing w hat’s been
concealed.
Humans are by nature pattern-recognition machines. We search fo r
meaning, w hether in the circumstances o f our lives o r on the surface
o f toast. Like com puters, we are incapable o f producing tru ly random
values over tim e. T h is is why your phone’s password is closer to “ 2846”
o r “ kittym itte n s2 ” than “ D H ? z M # X U A g o Ij/l;R l6 I« rK 7 ’6k.” In the
search fo r randomness, we too m ust rely on outside forces.
W hat i f we could rely on the stars?
W ith the rig h t antenna, we can hear the universe’s radio noises.
T h e stars themselves (o r so i t ’s been theorized) can provide us an
unpredictable source o f in fo rm a tio n th a t w ill never be heard again
in the same way. As the w o rld turns, o u r antenna sweeps the vastness
o f the universe at a given p o in t in tim e. T h e signals th a t we receive
con stitu te an ever-changing key forged from the sky its e lf. Such a
key could o n ly be im ita te d by an agent liste n in g fro m th a t exact
same place, in th a t same d ire c tio n , at th a t same tim e, to those exact
same stars.
122 EDWARD SNOWDEN

T h e sky is a lim itless supply o f tru ly random seeds. W e can le t the

universe do the w ork that we increasingly offload to com puters.

***

C ould it work?
I f we were to listen to ju st one star— a star th a t pulses at pre d ict­
able intervals— a clever adversary m ig h t deduce the pattern, match
the noise, and reverse engineer our seed, ju st as a spy can place his or
her probes on m y com puter, see the circu its ta lk in g to one another,
and reverse engineer the key th a t’s stored in the m em ory.
B ut if o ur A stro N oise were to include the w hole sweep o f the sky,
the distant stars m ig h t o u tw it the greatest spies.
“ W e are made o f sta rstu ff,” C arl Sagan rem inds us. “ T h e nitrogen
in our D N A , the calcium in ou r teeth, the iro n in our blood, the car­
bon in o u r apple pies were made in the in te rio rs o f collapsing stars.”
H ow fittin g , then, th a t we m ig h t tu rn back to the stars to help p ro ­
tect w hat makes us m ost human.
CIRCLE DEMOCRACY

Dave Eggers
 127

INT. THECIRCLE H
Q— G
ANGO
FFORTYR
OOM D
AY

Epic views. A glass ceiling. The G ANGO FF ORTY is

assem bled. A presentation is taking place.

All power players are there, including M ae—

sitting in the middle of the table, thrilled to be
there — and Bailey, w ho sits at the opposite end,
genially in m edias res. Stenton, the CFO, stands to
the side. Doesn't want to be on cam era every second.

Behind Bailey, a P
HOTOof an E MPTYP O LLINGPLACE , in
a school gymsom ewhere, dissolves into: 140 million.

BAILEY
And here's how many were eligible to
vote.

The screen reads: 244 million.

M ae's lapel cam era is trained on Bailey and the

SCRE ENbehind him . She checks the view on her
wrist — 1,982,992 viewers. C OMMENTS pour in ("Wow!
The G ang of 40! A privilege!"; a com parison of
the event to the M anhattan Project; another to
"Edison's M enlo Park Lab, circa 1879").

BAILE Y (CONT'D)
And here's how m any Americans are
registered with the Circle.

The screen reads: 241 million.

Behind Bailey, the familiar IM AGE of: UNCLES A

M
pointing. Then another IM AGE appears — of Bailey
wearing the SAMEO U TFIT, in the same pose, next to
Uncle Sam .

M ae scans the room, and sees, by the door, behind

two row s of Circlers —

— Annie, w ho doesn't return the look. She appears

agitated and more fragile than in the past.
128 DAVE EGGERS

BA ILEY (CON T'D)

Noww e get to the m eat of today's
session. Som ething I've been discussing
with Congressw om an Santos and
others. W hat i f your Circle profile
automatically registered you to vote?

Bailey sweeps his eyes across the room, holding on

Mae for her followers.

BAILEY (CO N T'D)

W ith TruYou, to set up a profile, you
have to be a real person, with a real
address, complete personal info, a real
Social Security num ber, a verifiable
date of birth. All the information the
governm ent wants when you register to
vote.
(beat)
Sow hy wouldn't state governm ents just
consider you registered once you set up
a Circle account?

People in the room nod, some out of

acknowledgement that it's a sensible idea,
a notion long discussed.

BAILEY (CO NT'D)

There's no reason.
(smiles)
I have verbal com m itments from
governors from almost every state.
They've agreed to push legislation
to make your Circle account your
automatic path to registration.

A brief round of APPLAUSE.

BAILEY (CONT 'D)

And personally, I don't see w hy you
wouldn't be able to vote through the
Circle. Far easier than going to so me
old gymor church . . .
 CIRCLE DEMOCRACY 129

APPLAUSE ripples through the room . Bailey

smiles broadly. It seems to be the end of the
presentation. But just then . . .

. . . Mae tentatively raises her hand.

BAILEY (CONT'D)
Yes, Mae?

MAE
I wonder i f we could take this one step
further. I m ean . . . well, actually, I
don't think i t —

Annie looks to her. Can't believe the gall.

BAILEY
Go on, Mae. You started well. I like
the words one step further. That's how
this company was built.

Mae glances around the room: the faces a mix of

encouraging and concerned. This includes Annie, who
watches sternly.

M A E
(gathers herself)
Okay . . . w hy couldn't we just work
backwards from that goal, using all the
steps you outlined? All the tools w e
already have.

BAILEY
Go on . . .

MAE
Well, w e all agree that we'd like
100 percent participation, and that
everyone would agree that 100 percent
participation is the ideal.

BAILEY
It's certainly the idealist's ideal.
130 DAVE EGGERS

MAE
And w e currently have 83 percent of
voting-age Am ericans registered on the
Circle?

BAILEY
Yes.

MA
E
And i t seems that we're on our w ay to
voters being able to register, and
m aybe even to actually vote, through
the Circle.

Bailey's head bobs side to side, some indication of

mild doubt, but he's smiling, his eyes encouraging.

B AILEY
A small leap, but okay. Go on.

MAE
(beat)
Wh y not require every voting-age
citizen to have a Circle account?

There's a SHUFFLING in the room, some intake of

breath, mostly from the older Circlers.

STENTON
Let her finish.

Mae glances over to Annie, her arms crossed, eyes

staring at the floor.

MAE
(gaining confidence)
O kay, I know the in itia l reaction will
be resistance. I m ean, how can w e
require anyone to use our services? But
there are all kinds of things that are
m andatory for citizens of this country.

B AILEY
People pay taxes they don't want to
 CIRCLE DEMOCRACY 131

pay. We pay for Social Security. W

e
serve on juries.

MAE
Right, and w e pee indoors, not on the
streets.
(off laughter)
I m ean, we have ten thousand laws.
W e require so m any legitimate things
of citizens. S ow hy can't we require
them to vote? They do in dozens of
countries. W ith our tech, we can
register them automatically. Election
D ay comes around, everyone has to vote.
Y ou have 241 million voters eligible,
241 million voters have to vote. Y ou
get the full will of the nation.

ANNIE
(loud, very sarcastic)
And how exactly do we do that?

STENTON
(stern warning)
Annie.

Mae looks over at Annie. Their eyes m eet. Mae looks

hurt. It's a tense mom ent. Bailey looks at Annie
with disappointment and says:

BA ILEY
It could be som ething like: "Hello,
Annie! Take five minutes to vote."
W hatever i t is. W e do that for our own
surveys.

Annie seems to shrink.

BA ILEY (CONT'D)
(dagger eyes at Annie)
You know that.
(to Mae, bright)
And the stragglers?
132 DAVE EGGERS

Mae smiles. She has an answer. She glances at her

bracelet: 7,202,821 people are watching.

MA E
Well, everyone has to pay taxes, right?
H owm any people do i t online now ? Last
year, m aybe 80 percent. W hat i f we all
stopped duplicating services and m ade
i t all part of one unified system ?

Annie LAUGHS skeptically, shakes her head. Mae is

distracted for a moment, then continues:

M A
E (C ONT'D)
You use your Circle account to pay
taxes, vote, pay your parking tickets,
to do anything.
(excited)
I mean, w e would save each user
hundreds of hours of inconvenience.
The governm ent would save billions!

BAILEY
Hundreds of billions.

STENTON
(loving this part of it)
You'd eliminate half of i t overnight.

Annie steps forward and asks:

ANN IE
Why wouldn't the government just
build a similar service? Why the hell
do they need us?

Now Stenton gets M ae's attention. Jerks his head to

the side. Meaning, get Annie out of the frame. M ae
does so. She looks to Bailey.

MAE
Well, i t would cost too much and they
don't have the expertise. W e have the
infrastructure.
 CIRCLE DEMOCRACY 133

BA ILEY
That's absolutely right.

Now she swings back toward Annie. But Annie's gone.

She's been taken away. The GA N
GO FF ORTY knows
that Annie is out. They scoot their chairs over to
eliminate the space she left.

STENTON
The government needs us more than we
need them.

MAE
Imagine knowing the fu ll will of the
people. Instantly. You'd have true
dem ocracy for the first time in human
history . . .

NowM ae keeps talking as w e cut to her passing

through the cam pus, being mobbed by Circlers.

EXT. CIRCLE C
AMP
U S —DAYTIME

MAE
N o voter suppression. You're voting
from hom e!

NowM OREC IRCLERSC OMEU P, and they join in. M aybe

a quick m ontage of meetings, work groups, as they
build on these ideas.

FOREIGN-BORNC IRCLER
Think of the implications for
totalitarian regim es. If all citizens
are heard, there can be no m ore tyranny!

ANOTHERC IRCLER
And most people in the developing world
have Circle accounts . . .

FOREIGN-BORNC IRCLER
Nom ore rigged elections. The U.N. can
demand they're held through the Circle.
They'll be independent.
134 DAVE EGGERS

MAE
But only i f everyone is heard.

FOR EIGN-BORNC IRCLER

Som andatory Circle accounts for
everyone?

ANOTHERC IRCLER
Every human on earth.

MAE
It's the only way . . .

She's passing quickly through a crowd. W e hear

this, and m aybe other quick snippets (don't hit i t
too hard):

ANOTHERC IRCLER —A DVERTISING

We can take the pulse of the nation —
everyone in the world — in seconds. On
any subject. A ny product.

APAIR O
FCIRCLERS approaches Mae and says:

YOUNGC IRCLER
You're changing the world, Mae!

OLDERCIRCLER
You're the one!
138

Kate Crawford

Multispectral satellite image of Delphi and Central Greece

 Know Thyself: gnethi seauton
N o th in g in Excess: meden agan
A Pledge, and Ruin Is Near: eggua para d'ate
— T he Delphic precepts

I S IT A T T H E D E S K and look at the screen. A software program

norm ally used fo r digital forensics is open before me. T h is database
contains the Snowden archive: all the documents, PowerPoint pre­
sentations, internal memos, newsletters, and technical manuals that
Edward Snowden leaked in 2013. Documents that span more than a
decade o f intelligence thinking and communication is here, from w ithin
the N ational Security Agency in the U nited States and the Government
Communications Headquarters in the U nited Kingdom and reaching
out into the international network o f the Five Eyes. The immense col­
lection o f material captures the era when mass collection metastasized:
the black w o rld ’s gradual evolution o f many o f the techniques and
approaches that we now call “ big data.” T h is knowledge is norm ally o ff
lim its, part o f a “ classified empire” once estimated to be growing five
times faster than the public storehouse o f knowledge.1
For many reasons, this database is a machine for producing anx­
iety. T h e interface is query driven: it centers on a search box. Like a
highly classified version o f Google or Reddit’s Ask M e Anything, the
only way to make discoveries is to throw some terms out there. There is
no easy browsing or pretty visualization o f the repository itself. Instead,
you must begin by phrasing any questions you have about the m ilitary-
intelligence complex in the form o f Boolean search terms. So I type
in words. I t feels exhilarating, terrifying: where to begin? H ow about
something about cryptographic techniques, specific algorithms, or
existing N S A programs? Thousands o f search results. Days o f w ork just
to figure out what w ill be relevant. Instead, I try increasingly idiosyn­
cratic, unusual combinations. Even then, the result is often dozens o f
documents, each w ith its own suggestive paths to follow. T h is is just the
first challenge o f the archive.

For the ancient Greeks, D elphi was the center o f the world. It was the
140 KATE C R A W FO R D

home o f the Oracle, and she possessed the power to explain the present
and see in to the future. O n ly a select few could ask her a question, and
fo r them the Oracle offered a comms channel to the god Apollo. She
predicted m ilita ry attacks, saw into fam ily tragedies, knew when kings
would die. T h e Oracle became a serious force in politics and culture
and remained so fo r centuries. According to archeologists, oracles were
based at D elphi from the eighth to the second century BCE, before the
temple was destroyed in C E 390.2 For an inform ation technology, this
is an exceptionally long lifespan. And this is due not to sim plicity o f
form or function. T h e Oracle o f D elphi was a complex assemblage o f
parts that required much maintenance. There was the Oracle herself,
known as Pythia, a priestess chosen for her exemplary life, who chan­
neled A p o llo ’s wisdom while in a trancelike state. Priests in turn tran­
scribed her words in to poetic hexameters. Then there was the expansive
temple, which was located near a chasm that may have been issuing
forth gas clouds rich in the intoxicant ethylene. O u t o f this mixture o f
elements, rich prophecies would emerge. Some concerned high matters
o f state: when to go to war, colonize a new city, give pardon or punish­
ment. Others were stricdy personal. Over time, this system became a
vital part o f Greek society. T h e Oracle knew all the secrets.

***

Like the divinations o f the Oracle, the problem w ith the Snowden
archive is that you never find an easy answer. Documents lead to other
documents, one N S A program w ill point to another. Code names
obscure specific companies and technological capacities. Some o f these
can be unlocked, but i t ’s obsessive, painstaking work. Remember that
New York Times and ProPublica investigation that finally revealed the
identities behind the “ Fairview” code name (A T & T ’s partner program
w ith the N SA) and “ Storm brew” (Verizon’s program)?3 T h a t was the
result o f m ultiple journalists w orking relendessly for months. T here’s
a reason so many o f the articles about Snowden’s archive have shared
bylines: it takes a complex com bination o f skills to reverse engineer
just what all the terms mean, let alone how they work. And it all begins
w ith typing questions in to litd e boxes. T hen doing it again. Above all,
what you find are more questions. Over time, I ’ve come to think o f it as
 A S K IN G TH E O R AC LE 141

Apollo at Delphi with priestess and unnamed queen. Illustration by Thomas Kirk, from O utlines
from the Figures and C om positions upon the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan leases o f the Late S ir
W illiam H am ilton (London, 1804)

a contemporary experience o f the Delphic Oracle: you ask something

and receive cryptic inform ation that may offer you some answers, but
only by raising more questions.
T h e Snowden documents may be vast in number, but they also have
strange consistencies. First, there is the style: every government agency
and consulting firm has its own way o f laying out documents, a mode
o f conveying inform ation that is distinctly its own. T he NSA house
style is most viscerally conveyed in PowerPoint: you are first struck
by the banality o f bullet points, drop shadows, and clip art before you
are blown away by the magnitude o f the inform ation being conveyed.
Wizards, crystal balls, four-leaf clovers, alchemists— once objects o f
power, magic, and prophecy, now rendered completely inert in a waste­
land o f Com ic Sans and W ordA rt. T h e re ’s a deep cognitive dissonance
142 KATE CRAWFORD

in reading business-convention slide decks that look laughable while

they simultaneously outline a colossal, te rrifying surveillance infra­
structure. You get over that. But the sensation o f shaping search queries
fo r an enigmatic system that can tell you the secrets o f the classified
world? T h is remains w ith you. Tt feels something like vertigo.

***

I f you were given an audience w ith the Delphic Oracle you could
expect an oblique response. Raw D elphic data is meaningless w ith ­
out the w ork o f interpretation. W hen Lysander, the w arrior who won
the Peloponnesian War, visited the Oracle in 403 BCE, he was told
to beware “ the dragon, earthborn, in craftiness coming behind thee.”
E ig h t years later, he was stabbed from behind by a man w ith a ser­
pent on his shield.4 Socrates, o f whom the Oracle once said, “ N o one
is wiser,” understood her words as paradoxes. Indeed, many o f the
Oracle’s responses took the form o f epistemic paradoxes— riddles that
h ig h lig h t inconsistencies in models o f knowledge while casting lig h t
on a common error or misconception. T h e Oracle’s role wasn’t just to
predict a possible future but to show the fallacies o f the present. As a
system o f inform ation it skewed toward d ifficu lt forms o f data, often
accenting the flaws and lim itations o f the supplicant.
Embedded in the architecture o f the temple were messages counsel­
ing restraint. Anyone who entered the temple would face the maxims
o f D elphi, carved in stone: kno w thyself , n o t h in g in excess, and a

pledg e , and R U IN is near . T h e first o f these, Know Thyself, is perhaps

the best known, but the precept has always been double edged. To m od­
ern ears it sounds like a prescription for self-knowledge, but as histori­
ans and philosophers have argued, this was not its original meaning. I t
advised know ing one’s lim its in seeking data: in short, “ D o n ’t ask too
many questions.” In this way, all the D elphic precepts were instructions
to be cautious and stay w ith in bounds:

W hen you question the oracle, examine yourself closely and the
questions you are going to ask, those you wish to ask, and, since
you must restrict yourself to the fewest questions and not ask too
many, carefully consider yourself and what you need to know.5
 ASKING THE ORACLE 143

So the Oracle, as a technology, set up particular restrictions and lim ­

itations. T he inform ation flow was restricted by the number o f people
who could visit the Oracle, by how many questions they could ask, and
by the cryptic nature o f the responses they received. In this sense there
is a strange sim ilarity w ith the Snowden archive. T he person seated
before the search box must decide what to ask next and try to exercise
restraint so as not to be drawn into thousands o f documents and stories
and systems. But in another sense, when analysts consult the database
inside the fortresses o f the NS A and the G C H Q , there seems to be little
respect fo r lim its beyond the strictures o f policy. Everything that can be
captured w ill be. T he archive is an epic testament to inform ation acqui­
sition, overreach, and confidence. I t ’s as though the guiding principles
o f D elphi were reversed. K now Everyone. Everything in Excess. Just
keep pledging that all the necessary protections are in place.

Know Thyself

T he archive is the ultim ate rabbit hole. Days can pass w ithout stop­
ping, w ith o u t eating: I barely rise from the desk. I t feels like I can see
into the complete structure o f a global system, spread out before me in
neat network diagrams. This, o f course, is an illusion. The archive is
always partial— necessarily incomplete, truncated by Snowden's access,
by what he took, and the date on which he copied documents. But it is
also fractured and dispersed by the operating procedures o f the N S A
and G C H Q themselves. Intelligence w ork has to be compartmental­
ized: the w ork o f one department is kept separate from another, and
these divisions are reflected in the collection o f documents. There are
blank spaces, dead ends, and missing parts.
T h a t said, the documents nonetheless offer extraordinary coverage
o f the core period o f the expansion o f big-data techniques during the
early 2000s, up to 2013. Tens o f thousands o f memos, internal news­
letters, and specific investigations. And, o f course, the PowerPoint
presentations. These have been the preferred documents for most
journalistic reporting because they are designed to be dramatic. T he
PowerPoint decks seek to convey the sheer force o f the surveillance
systems as simply as possible in order to impress senior m ilita ry figures,
convince analysts at annual conferences, and secure ongoing funding
144 KATE C R A W FO R D

from politicians. Treasure Map, fo r example, makes fo r a jaw-dropping

presentation— the program builds an almost real-time interactive map
o f the internet.6 T h a t’s everything, including the location and owner o f
any connected computer, mobile phone, or router, even those we imag­
ine to be safely located behind private networks or obscured by dynamic
routing tables. “ M ap the entire internet— any device, anywhere, all the
tim e,” a slide boasts. A few slides on, “ T R E A S U R E M A P as an Enabler”
offers up a layer-cake image o f signals analysis. Above the geographical
layer and the network layer is the “ Cyber Persona Layer”— quaintly
represented on the slide by jellybean-era iMacs and Nokia feature
phones— and then the “ Persona Layer.” T h a t’s us— everyone across the
world. We are represented as clip-art men standing on dots, connected
by radiating lines in the style o f a social graph. O u r names, our homes,
our viewing histories: all easily searchable (“ near real tim e!” ) and ready
for analysis. I t is called a “ 300,000 foot view o f the Internet.” 7
But should we even believe this presentation? It reads a lot like a
sales pitch, and there are real infrastructural lim its to the claims. There
are also deep institutional reasons why agencies would add bravado to
their decks: there’s internal com petition to be seen to be producing the
most sophisticated attacks, w ith funding and institutional support hing­
ing on that perception. But even when the technical claims are exag­
gerated, there’s still much to be learned in these depictions. A t every
level, the documents instruct us about the extent o f the aspirations for
big-data surveillance, the power that those behind it wish to secure, and
the w orld they want to build.
Like Powers o f Ten (1977), the experimental film by Charles and Ray
Eames that telescopes through views o f the universe, the Snowden
archive produces dizzying leaps in perspective o f both time and space
fo r the reader. I t goes big picture, then comes in close. I f Treasure Map
is the G od’s-eye view fo r the NS A, then FoxAcid is closer to home: the
snitch in your system. “ I f we can get the target to visit us in some sort o f
browser, we can probably own them ,” a slide explains.8 Once users have
been induced to click on spam or visit a website, the NS A drops files
through a browser that w ill live on in their system, quietly reporting
everything one does back to base. O n the descriptions go, in a casual,
jocular style, w ith illustrations o f foxes drow ning in a barrel o f acid, and
another fox w inking on a tin o f Spam. One slide describes how analysts
 AS K IN G THE ORACLE 145

PowerPoint slide from NSA Treasure Map slide deck

“ deploy very targeted emails” that require “ a level o f guilty knowledge”

about the target, a technique known to black-hat operators as “ spear
phishing.” G u ilty knowledge? W here, in this system, does th at begin
and end? W h ile there are some lim its on how the data o f American c it­
izens can be collected and used, these are mentioned in the documents
as uncomfortable restrictions. One PowerPoint notes that the NSA is
w orking on m ultiple fronts to “ aggressively pursue legal authorities
and a policy framework mapped more fu lly to the inform ation age.” 9
Change the laws to fit the tools, not the other way around.
I f we zoom back to a more proximate level o f resolution, there am I,
reading leaked, secret government documents on an air-gapped mach­
ine. I only read the documents at this location, and I can’t copy them,
so all research time requires arranging an in-person visit in order to ask
further questions. M y knowledge also feels guilty and full o f risk. It is
always being made clear that these documents are highly restricted. Just
as the D elphic temple was inscribed w ith reminders o f caution, each
page o f the Snowden archive is marked w ith a header noting different
146 KATE CRAWFORD

form s o f classification. T O P S E C R E T //S I//O R C O N //N O F O R N .

T h is knowledge has lim ited access. O n ly some may pass. W h o a rt you
to ask questions here?

N othing in Excess

One day I come across a memo in the archive, drawn from the
classified internal netw ork o f the Signals Intelligence Directorate.
I t describes the way analysts can suffer from being drawn in to the
data, unable to disengage o r adm it defeat. T h e author details how
mountaineers who wish to sum m it Everest train fo r years, becom­
ing obsessed w ith th e ir goal. B ut this deep sense o f investment also
puts them at grave risk: they w ill push ahead w ith a dangerous clim b
despite signs o f danger.
Mountaineers call this phenomenon sum m itfever—when an “ individ­
ual becomes so fixated on reaching the summit that all else fades from
consciousness.” I think part o f this phenomenon is due to the high level
o f investment (monetary and spiritual) in the project that pushes people
to make decisions that are not otherwise supported by objective data:

I believe that SIG IN Ters, like the world-class climbers, are not
immune to sum m it fever. I t ’s easy enough to lose sight o f the
bad weather and push on relentlessly, especially after pouring
lots o f money, time, and resources in to something. From tu rn ­
ing o ff a database or collection site to starting over from scratch
on a target set or software code, i t ’s d ifficu lt to let go o f the
dream and your w ork so far.10

There are many symptoms o f “ sum m it fever” in the documents.

Sometimes i t ’s an offhand remark, as when one analyst jokes about the
desire o f analysts to collect it all: “ Dude! Map all the networks!!!” O ther
times i t ’s couched in more serious or legalistic terms, in the need to
keep acquiring ever more data and greater permissions. One paper in
the archive blandly speaks o f the NSA’s aims to expand all its “ capabil­
ities to reach previously inaccessible targets in support o f exploitation,
cyberdefense and cyberoperations.” It is a project w ith no end. There is
no le ttin g go o f the dream o f perfect inform ation.
 ASKING THE ORACLE 147

T his voracious appetite for gathering and connecting inform ation

was, in part, enabled and sanctioned by the 9/11 Commission. A key rec­
ommendation o f the commission’s report was to improve “ Inform ation
Sharing and Fusion” : “ T h e president should lead the government-wide
effort to bring the major national security institutions into the in fo r­
mation revolution. H e should coordinate the resolution o f the legal,
policy, and technical issues across agencies to create a ‘trusted inform a­
tion network.’” 11 But as I ’ve w ritten elsewhere, as the scale o f the in te l­
ligence network m ultiplied, so did the anxiety over missing crucial data
or not seeing the rig h t connections.12 I t became a cultural imperative
that “ more data is better,” even as analysts were drowning in inform a­
tion. “ We in the agency are at risk o f a similar, collective paralysis in
the face o f a dizzying array o f choices every single day,” an N S A analyst
wrote in a memo in 2011:

“ Analysis paralysis” isn’t only a cute rhyme. I t ’s the term for

what happens when you spend so much tim e analyzing a sit­
uation that you ultim ately stymie any outcome. . . . I t ’s what
happens in S IG IN T when we have access to endless possi­
bilities, but we struggle to prio ritize , narrow, and exploit the
best ones.13

Just as this phenomenon afflicts intelligence analysts, a related sensa­

tion comes w ith reading the Snowden documents. Although it lacks all
the “ near real tim e” search capacity o f the systems used by the agen­
cies themselves, the Snowden cache offers the seduction o f the archival
search, a sensation well known to the investigator, the detective, and
the historian. An analyst pores over the data to track a person o f inter­
est, but a reader o f the Snowden archive shapes search queries in order
to piece together a practice : how do these surveillance programs work,
what technological capacities are in play, what are the broader legal,
cultural, political ramifications? I t is about tracking a system instead o f
catching a suspect. I f there is a sim ilarity here, it is in the obsessive focus
on the data, intently scrutinizing the databases in order to find new
meanings and connections and losing a sense o f boundaries.
Hence the susceptibility to excess. There are, o f course, endless con­
nections and interpretations to be made in any massive archive o f data,
KATE CRAWFORD

and the Snowden database is a particularly significant one. W h a t ana­

lysts call sum m it fever, philosophers have described as archive fe ve r : “ It
is to burn w ith a passion,” Jacques D errida writes. “ I t is never to rest,
interminably, from searching for the rig h t archive even as it slips away.
I t is to run after the archive, even i f there’s too much o f it.” 14
T h e fantasy is that, i f only you look long enough, you w ill find the
truth. I f you only had more time, you could find the single document
that illum inates the whole collection. But archives are tricky beasts.
D errida argued that the archive produces as much as it records his­
tory: the way inform ation is stored, accessed, and transmitted shapes
the nature o f the knowledge it offers. In other words, our understand­
ing o f the NS A is being shaped by the type o f access Snowden had as
a contractor, by the search interface on top o f the database through
which journalists and researchers access it, and by the ways newspapers
report it. T h e design lim itations o f PowerPoint and H T M L affect it,
too. For example, one frustration o f researching the Snowden archive is
that the copies o f internal webpages are riddled w ith broken links and
inaccessible images. T h e data encoded in these interconnections is visi­
bly absent. T he particularities o f hyperlinks and networked documents
mean that they don’t travel well, in contrast to the self-contained PDFs
and training manuals, which w ork perfectly. As a result, the data they
contain becomes the preferred raw material o f history. T he disparity
between these data formats also serves as a reminder o f the immense
technical imbalance between the capacities o f the agencies and the sys­
tem containing the Snowden archive.
I t ’s tem pting to fetishize archives as providing an unfiltered access
to a past reality. B ut as the historian D o m in ick LaCapra observes, i t ’s
a trap to mistake the archive as a “ literal substitute fo r the ‘reality’ o f
the past . . . a stand-in fo r the past that brings the mystified experience
o f the th in g itself.” 15 M o re realistically, the archive can only ever be
a very particular type o f reconstruction, a keyhole view. I t is n o t a
w indow in to the tru th o f things. L ike the Oracle, it gives us coded
answers, told through a technology that changes the very meaning o f
what is being transm itted.
T h is is not to say that the Snowden archive is anything less than an
extraordinary account o f the expansion o f Western surveillance in the
late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. But we can only approach
 ASKING THE ORACLE 149

it through these attenuated channels: the Boolean search query, the

unstructured data file, the document type.
Even so, can we ever tru ly understand it? Everything in the doc­
uments is in some form o f code. T here are many thousands o f code
names fo r programs, fo r technical capacities, fo r N S A partner organiza­
tions. Beyond this, there are the professional codes o f tradecraft, hidden
in plain language but indecipherable to people not in the business. We
can guess what is being hinted at, but spies have their own forms o f
speech— they know when a document is fu ll o f bluster and overreach or
when something is being ch illin g ly understated.

A Pledge, and R uin Is N ear

Just as the imperatives o f K now T h yse lf and N o th in g in Excess seem

foreign in the context o f the N S A and G C H Q , so does the final Delphic
maxim: A Pledge, and Ruin Is Near. Translations o f this phrase vary, but
it means something like “ W hen you consult the gods, do not make vows
and commitments that you cannot honor.” 16 T he Greeks used this as a
warning against making promises that would come back to haunt you.
Intelligence analysts who use these extraordinary systems o f data har­
vesting and tracking are bound to follow the law as well as specific pol­
icies that are meant to restrict their access. O f course, it doesn’t always
w ork that way: analysts have been caught tracking ex-wives and potential
love interests (agents call it L O V E IN T ), or they make errors that result
in the wrong people or countries having their data harvested.17 But even
w ith some safeguards in place, the ruin may be inevitable. Law professor
Paul O hm has described the emergence o f a “ database o f ru in ” in the
private sector as companies gather potentially devastating information
about medical conditions and family histories and then combine their
data stores. “ Once we have created this database,” he writes, “ it is unlikely
we w ill ever be able to tear it apart.” 18T he N SA has b u ilt its own database
o f ruin, one that contains all those phone records, search histories, Skype
calls, location data, network connections, chat logs. These are the phan­
tom bodies o f data that stand in for us.
W hen the first stories from the Snowden archive appeared in news­
papers in mid-2013, intelligence agencies experienced a new kind o f
public scrutiny and pressure. Years later, the most substantial legal
150 KATE C R A W FO R D

Ruins of the Temple of Apollo, Delphi

reform has come through the USA Freedom Act, which ended the bulk
collection o f Americans* phone metadata records, although it leaves
much internet data collection untouched. T h a t gigantic data set w ill
become a decaying monument to the period before Snowden, a ruin
from an earlier time, as analysts come to rely on different tools. The
Snowden database w ill also erode as a gauge o f the technical capabilities
o f the N S A and G C H Q . But its power as a cultural, political, and his­
torical archive w ill remain for as long as we ask questions o f it.
W hen the 9/11 Commission recommended a new era o f inform a­
tion sharing, it described the need to “ simultaneously empower and
constrain officials, telling them clearly what is and is not perm itted,”
because “ the policy and legal issues are harder than the technical
ones.” 19 T h e y remain the hardest problems. T he Temple at Delphi is
a ruin, but the precepts o f restraint have endured as long as any o f the
Oracle’s prophecies. T h e lasting cautions for the era o f global surveil­
lance are still being learned.
 A S K IN G THE O R AC LE 151

NOTES

Where possible, I have provided references tor-attacks-nsa-uscrs-onlinc-anonym-

to published texts using documents from ity; source document available at: https://
the Snowden archive, o r containing similar theintercept.com/document/2014/03/12/
information. nsa-phishing-tactics-man-middlc-attacks.
9. Quoted in Risen and Poitras, “ N.S.A.
1. Peter Galison, “ Removing Knowledge,” Report Outlined Goals for M ore Power.”
C ritical Inquiry 31, no. 1 (2004), p. 229. 10. T h e full document was made available by
2. H ugh Bowden, Classical Athens and the Peter Maass on Documentcloud: ‘“ Signal v.
Delphic Oracle: D ivination and Democracy Noise’ Colum n: Summit Fever,” https://www.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, documentcloud.org/documents/2088979-sum-
2005), pp. 6-9. mit-fever.html. It served as a source for
3. Julia Angwin, Charlie Savage, Jeff Larson, his article “ Inside NSA, Officials Privately
H enrik M oltke, l^aura Poitras, and James C riticize ‘Collect It A ll’ Surveillance,” The
Risen, “ A T & T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet Intercept, May 28, 2015, https://theintercept.
on a Vast Scale,” New York Times, August 15, com /2015/05/28/nsa-officials-privately-criti-
2015, http://www.nytim es.com /2015/08/16/ cizc-collect-it-all-surveillance.
us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of- 11. Government Accountability Office,
intem et-traffic.htm l; and Jeff Larson and Julia Summary o f Recommendations— The 9/1 J
Angwin, H enrik M oltke and Laura Poitras, Commission Report, doc. no. B-303692,
“ A Trail o f Evidence Leading to A T & T ’s September 9, 2004 (Washington, D.C.), p. 33,
Partnership w ith the N SA,” ProPublica.org, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/other/303692.
August 15, 2015, https://www.propublica.org/ pdf; and The 9/11 Commission Report: Final
article/a-trail-of-evidence-leading-to-atts-part- Report o f the N ational Commission on Terrorist
nership-with-the-nsa. Attacks upon the United States (Washington,
4. Plutarch's Lives, trans. Bemadotte Perrin D.C.: U nited States (iovem m ent P rinting
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Office, 2004), p. 418, http:/Avw w .9-11 commis­
1916), p. 317. sion.gov/report/91 1Report.pdf.
5. M ichel Foucault, The Hermeneutics o f the 12. Kate Crawford, “ The Anxieties o f
Subject: lectures at the College de France, vol. 6, Big Data,” The New Inq uiry, May 30,
1981-1982, ed. Frederic Gros, trans. Graham 2014, http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/
Burchell (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, the-anxieties-of-big-data.
2005), p. 4. 13. Quoted in Maass, “ Inside NSA, Officials
6. O n Treasure Map, see James Risen and Privately C riticize ‘Collect It A ll’ Surveillance.”
Laura Poitras, “ N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals 14. Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian
for M ore Power,” New York Times, November Impression (Chicago: University o f Chicago
22, 2013, http://www.nytimes.eom/2013/l 1/23/ Press, 1996), p. 91.
us/politics/nsa-report-outlined-goals-for- 15. D om inick LaCapra, Rethinking Intellectual
more-power.html; and Andy M iiller-M aguhn, History: Texts, Contexts, Language (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Michael Cornell University Press, 1983), p. 344.
Sontheimer, and Christian G rothoff, “ Treasure 16. Foucault, Hermeneutics o f the Subject.
Map: The N SA Breach o f Telekom and O ther 17. Andrea Peterson, “ L O V E IN T : W hen the
German Firms,” D er Spiegel, September 14, NSA Officers Use T h e ir Spying Power on I swe
2014, http://www.spiegel.de/intemational/ Interests,” Washington Post, August 24, 2013,
world/snowden-documents-indicate-nsa-has- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
breachcd-deutsche-telekom-a-991503.html. switch/wp/2013/08/24/lovcint-when-nsa-offi-
7. Quoted in Risen and Poitras, “ N.S.A. cers-use-their-spying-power-on-love-interests.
Report O utlined Goals for M ore Power.” 18. Paul Ohm , “ D o n ’t Build a Database
8. Bruce Schneier, “ Attacking Tor: H ow the o f Ruin,” Hansard Business Revirw, August
NSA Targets Users’ O nline Anonym ity,” 23, 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/08/
The Guardian, October 4, 2013, h ttp :// dont-build-a-data base-of-ruin.
www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/ 19. The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 419.
Jacob Appelbaum
W H E N I WAS A C H IL D , my father would tell me stories o f the horrors
o f the twentieth century. He would say that when the next Holocaust
happened, it would be my fault for not stopping it. I want to burden you
w ith his guilt and I hope that you w ill carry it forward with you. You have
a great responsibility and it is unfair. You are smarter than most and you
understand your responsibility to others, to history, and to yourself. This
is not an easy lot; it is i f anything unbearable in the long term. You w ill be
alone in most o f your life for even considering that you should work to
improve the lives o f everyone on this planet and on others.
Your generation is the first to be raised in an environment o f total
surveillance. But surveillance has not yet become total for everyone
everywhere and i f we w ork together you m ight still create another out­
come. M uch o f this w ork w ill fall on you and your friends alone. I w on’t
always be there to help, i f I ’m there at all. I t is your generation who
w ill decide i f this is to be the fate o f the rest o f us, those alive now and
those yet to be born. Yours is the first to be reduced to numbers at every
stage, every data trail set to haunt you fo r all time; yours is the first to
be reduced to selectors. H o w w ill this change you? W ill it harden you?
W ill you accept this as the only reality possible?
Over the last forty years, a revolution has swept the planet. I t happened
quietly and those who noticed were ridiculed at best. I t is a revolution
where nearly all o f our data is devoured in an automated fashion—
machine to machine, person to person, voice, text. Communications,
movements, all o f life is consumed, quantified, searched, and catalogued.
First every international telephone call, now every call. First so-called
legitimate targets, now nearly every action performed over the internet
by anyone or anything. T he new surveillance systems were so secret
that programs were developed and deployed to discredit those speaking
about them. For discussing the mere existence o f groups w orking on
them journalists were arrested and jailed.
A culture o f im punity shrouds those in control o f the systems o f con­
tro l. Everyone else is guilty and subject to m onitoring, to be punished
fo r transgressions at a later time. There is always the data to construct
any narrative, always evidence w ith which to harass, prosecute, or per­
secute. T h is data is washed and passed along, legally and illegally all
the same. T h is process is called parallel construction and when you are
effective and unlucky, you w ill feel this tactic impact your life.
156 JACOB APPELBAUM

C om m only we see pictures o f w ell-known and popular whistleblow­

ers and journalists presented as revolutionaries. But this is a mistake.
T h e y are not revolutionaries. T h e y are the counterrevolution against a
corporate body o f surveillance and against surveillance states.

★★*

In war, surveillance is obvious. W atching an enemy seems as natural as

the com ing o f winter. But even in “ peacetime,” surveillance is never a
m atter o f peace. Proponents o f surveillance often paint a picture o f ter­
rorism versus surveillance, when in reality surveillance is used in service
o f nonconsensual control o f all kinds, including extreme acts o f terror.
I t is used to more effectively extract economic value, to squelch dissent,
to undermine, and to harm w ith the inform ation gathered. Those who
wield power over surveillance systems w ill use them to more effectively
target, censor, murder, and wage war. Surveillance is violence and it
makes other kinds o f violence more likely.
I ’m not w ritin g to convince or to explain the relevance o f surveil­
lance in its various instantiations. Those who do not understand the
power o f surveillance and dismiss its relevance w ill operate w ith in the
bounds o f those listening, watching, and ultim ately controlling.
And yet surveillance itse lf must not be the sole issue o f your gen­
eration, as it is used to enforce the policies o f other generations over
so much. Issues o f equality o f all kinds— economic, social, political,
genetic. W hen you explain this reality to others you may be dismissed
as paranoid or told not to w o rry and instead focus on the issue at hand.
T here are people who wish only to th in k about their own issues, about
th e ir own concerns; but it is a mistake to consider only one issue w ith ­
out understanding the larger context. T ry to expose the coordinative
strategies o f those in control or those aim ing to control. Disclose the
specific tactical relation between a given issue and the issue o f surveil­
lance. You w ill empower others through these actions. D o n ’t just kick
over the bucket o f water; expose the plum bing and replace it.
Those perpetuating injustices w ill use surveillance to harm, as they
have historically, all who wish to displace their oppression. The voices
who tell you to th in k only about the issues directly at hand are the
voices o f people who w ill harm you by accident or on purpose. T h e ir
 LETTER TO A YOUNG SELECTOR 157

simple-minded th in kin g is not strategic and to listen to them w ill ensure

your failure. There are people who w ill pretend that they have nothing
to hide and this again presupposes that the systems at play are just and
that innocence matters.

★* *

Resistance in an age o f mass surveillance requires the ab ility to see

as surveillance states do. I t requires understanding different methods
o f surveillance, from the intim ately physical to the abstract and elec­
tronic. I t requires that we consider all possibilities even i f they seem
remote, to understand the realms o f what is possible and o f what may
be unlikely. I t is up to us to understand these systems and to ensure
that we w ork together in solidarity to build new infrastructures that
encode the liberties that we hold dearly. T hings seen as possible by
some w ill be considered as inevitable but this is a lie: there is no inev­
itable system.
But you must understand: ours is a w orld o f control and not a world
o f liberty. T here is no wanting fo r those who wish to be your master and
their failure begins w ith your refusal to bow your head. T he state o f the
w orld is at odds w ith your refusal. Everything is uniquely identifiable.
Your voice is unique. Your typing is unique. The websites you visit and
the systems you use to interface w ith the w orld are unique. T he pattern
o f travel you take through the city, the consumption o f electrical power
tied to your daily routines: those paying attention to you as an element
o f a larger picture and to you specifically w ill try to predict everything
from the patterns o f data you leave behind.
I t is these predictions that create avenues for control and it is in this
predictability that you may find avenues for resistance. To evade mass
surveillance requires entropy, in the technical sense. From encrypting
messages to the randomized paths you select as you route through ano­
n ym ity networks, and in everything between, entropy is essential.
Fundamentally, almost all groups that have engaged in resistance
would have been discovered and crushed i f they had operated in a c li­
mate o f mass surveillance. I t is essential therefore to read and adapt
lessons from their histories to the adversarial realities o f your era. I f
you look to the twentieth century, you w ill find many strong examples.
158 JACOB APPELBAUM

L o o k to the leaders but also to the rank and file who carry out actions.
Understand th e ir contexts and their struggles. Imagine how you m ight
prevent th e ir successes and slowly it w ill become obvious how those
operating systems o f mass surveillance are already targeting your efforts.

***

I t is through the internet that you may build systems fo r resistance.

Alm ost all systems o f com munication deployed before the internet
are intentionally vulnerable to traffic analysis and to content inspec­
tion. A near-total ban on encryption for radio-related communication,
backdoors in telephone systems in critical areas, even payment systems
based on cash are designed to be tracked, correlated, and monitored.
Systems that resist surveillance are demonized, banned, or otherwise
smeared when they manage to persist.
T he internet is different. I t provides a system for communication that
allows the creation and deployment o f many other systems o f communi­
cation; it changes the economics drastically in your favor while conversely
systematizing all communications into a machine-processable paradigm.
I t is in this abstraction that you w ill find room for movement and i f you
do well we’ll hold that space.
Remember however that human organization is not only still rel­
evant, it is necessary. Communications w ill change the direction and
function o f groups, it may make them more efficient, it w ill help them
carry out tasks that are otherwise impossible and coordinate in ways
that m ig h t otherwise be impossible.
Those in co n tro l o f surveillance systems have not stopped w ith
the acquisition o f inform ation; they also excel at its processing and
understanding, w ith each aspect o f th e ir system im perfect and rarely
so in the favor o f those being controlled. Com partm entalization is
therefore a result o f the w o rld that we find ourselves livin g in. But it
too is a tactic fo r resistance. I t is essential to compartmentalize your
activities, as mass surveillance acts as a kind o f tim e machine. T h e
mistakes you make today, the experiments you carry out tom orrow,
they w ill live w ith your data doppelganger fo r all time. T h e y become
more you than you. Your data tra il w ill become the real story o f your
life. M o re than your actual m ind, which you w ill no longer be free
 LETTER TO A YOUNG SELECTOR 159

to change; more than your actual self, your data becomes you and
decides your fate.
O n ly in our ephemerality are we free and only in that freedom w ill
we be at liberty. Your task is to create that ephemerality for everyone,
w ithout exception, and to make that space as large as is possible. A
w orld w ith o u t gods or masters!

★* *

I im plore you to support the systems we’ve been building for you. D o
not take them fo r granted; ensure their survival. Use strong cryptogra­
phy fo r your messages and make selector-based surveillance economi­
cally infeasible. D o not trust the postal system as it is subject to extreme
m onitoring, interdiction, and disruption. Be the infrastructure that you
need for im proving the w orld by w orking w ith people you trust and
building trust through deep friendships. Understand the lim its o f these
relationships and never betray your peers. Rise above the petty and
w ork to empower every single person on the planet.
T h e rewards fo r your efforts w ill not always seem just. I f identified,
you w ill be searched, harassed, driven mad, interrogated, exiled, jailed,
harmed in unspeakable manners, and i f you’re the O ther you can expect
to be killed. I t is thus essential not to be identified. There are no good
guys. Compartmentalize your activities and share your successes widely.
I t is also essential to understand that such results are inevitable and
n o t to be dismayed. A great revolutionary was once confronted by an
old man. “ I w ill not live to see the end o f the struggle,” he said. “ M ay I
n o t take some hours o f leisure now?” A ll or nothing is o f no use to peo­
ple who w on’t be around when the all happens. Find peace in knowing
that there is no winning, only a means that w ill be experienced as an
end fo r some.
I t is your generation that w ill make up for my generation’s failures.
You w ill pay dearly fo r your efforts. T h is should not deter you. D o not
go it alone except in that which must be done alone, build networks
and conspire together. You’re not a national-security threat; you’re a
post-national-security promise.
You’ll be dead forever, make it count.
MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES

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Fig. 1. A pillar at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, showing a vulture, a crane, and a man without a head
IN A W O R K called Ange/Maschine (Eye/Machine, 2002), Harun Farocki
coined the term “ suicide camera ” Auge/Mascbine shows cameras mounted
to the tips o f missiles during the first G u lf War. The camera would broad­
cast live u n til it exploded.
But contrary to all expectations, the camera was not destroyed in
this operation. Instead it burst in to billions o f small cameras, tin y lenses
embedded into cellphones. T he camera from the missile exploded into
shards that penetrated people’s lives, feelings, and identities, skimming
their ideas and payments.
T he camera on the missile tip was supposed to identify and track
objects. But as it self-destructed, it m ultiplied. I t is now not only iden­
tifyin g and tracking objects, but the devices embedded into them, their
owners, their motions and emotions, as well as most o f their actions and
communications. I f the cameras in the tips o f the missiles were suicide
cameras, the ones in cellphones are zombie cameras, cameras that failed
to die.
But what i f not only the cameras exploded but also the images they
produced? W h a t i f this created a situation in which images were broken
to the point o f being unintelligible?
T h is image to the left apparently shows a vulture flying above a
headless person (fig. 1). A t least this is what archeologists claim. I t is d if­
ficu lt to figure out just from looking at it. You can’t really see what they
are talking about. I t looks like a radioactive chicken. And the strange
shape below is supposed to be the guy w ith o ut a head.
I wanted to see this re lie f in person, on a pillar dating back 12,000
years. So I went to the Gobekli Tepe complex near Urfa, Turkey, the
oldest known ritual structure in the world. I t looks somewhat like
Stonehenge, only it ’s 6,500 years older, and instead o f one massive
stone-pillar circle there are around twenty, most o f them unexcavated.
M any o f the pillars bear exquisite carvings o f scary animals.
But it turned out that the re lie f I was looking for is not visible on site.
One can only see the p illa r’s back side; the re lie f itself is hidden. The
only way I could see it was on a cellphone. One has to go online and
Google it. O f course you can do that almost everywhere. In so-called
reality, however, it is not accessible.
But it was not only me who watched the image. M y cellphone was
also watching me, my location, and my activities.
164 HITO STEYERL

In January 2015, the rumble from the battle o f Kobani in northern

Syria could be heard at Gobekli Tepe. In October 2014, the city had
come under massive attack by Daesh (or ISIS) and was expected to fall
any day. Hundreds o f bystanders were watching from the Turkish side
o f the border, tryin g to catch a glimpse o f the fighting raging on several
fronts around and inside the city. Countless eyes were observing the
events w ith m ilitary-grade binoculars and all sorts o f cameras.
B ut even though there was a m ultitude o f eyewitnesses to the battle
o f Kobani, what did they see? O r rather, what did I see?
O n the border w ith Syria, onlookers were using m y camera view­
finder to try to id e n tify Daesh positions (fig. 2). T h e y claimed to see
ISIS cars m oving in the distance. B ut to be honest, I couldn’t recog­
nize a thing.
I saw smoke, clouds, houses. Maybe cars, or maybe just glints o f sun­
lig h t in the distance. Am ong the hundreds o f bystanders, few knew what
they were actually seeing. I certainly didn’t. W hatever was visible were
less images than shards o f images, flying around after huge explosions.
T h e term theater o f w ar, as defined by C arl von Clausewitz:

Such a portion o f the space over which war prevails as has its
boundaries protected, and thus possesses a kind o f indepen­
dence. T h is protection may consist in fortresses, o r im portant
natural obstacles presented by the country, or even in its being
separated by a considerable distance from the rest o f the space
embraced in the war. Such a portion is not a mere piece o f the
whole, but a small whole complete in itself.1

T h e term theater also refers to a staging o f m ilita ry action. T h e hills

around Kobani fo r a while turned very lite rally into a theater: a drive-in
cinema fo r tanks and other bystanders.
We saw flying objects, clouds o f smoke, flashes o f light. O n cell­
phones, one could also see headless people in Daesh videos.
A ll this was just as incomprehensible as the re lie f on the Gobekli
Tepe p illa r (fig. 3).
T h e vulture hovering over the decapitated person. I saw it on my
mobile phone. In fact you all can see it on yours, too. Just Google
“ G obekli Tepe” and “ vulture p illa r” ; it w ill come up. You w ill see that
 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES 165

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Fig. 2. Image captured by my camera as its viewfinder was being used by onlookers to locate
ISIS positions in Kobani, Syria, O ctober 8, 2014
166 HITO STEYERL

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Fig. 3. A pillar at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, showing a vulture, a crane, and a man without a head
 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES 167

someone added red lines to the guy w ith o u t a head, maybe in order to
make the shape more visible.
T h is is how machines “ understand” images, too. They project lines
and boxes onto photographs to track and analyze objects.2
By adding lines and boxes to images, machines allegedly become
more autonomous. T h is especially goes fo r recent weapons systems
that are called autonomous to convey the idea that they are becoming
gradually more independent o f human supervision and co n tro l.3
But images are not decoded by machines just to prove their intel­
ligence. T h e y are used as models to trigger actions and to create real­
ity. Just as humans used plans and maps to change the world, so do
machines use machine-readable communication to do the same.
Autonom y , however, has several different meanings: T he battle
o f Kobani itself was a fight for autonomy, not for machines but for
humans. Autonom y means something different from the perspective
o f KobanT’s defenders: it means autonomy from statehood as such. N o t
only the state o f Syria or Turkey but from the state per se. Autonomy
is not separatism, not a taking over or occupation o f the state, but the
creation o f parallel structures w ith in existing ones.
T h e images on the G obekli Tepe pillars mark an im portant junc­
tio n in the process o f creating the state. T hey were produced at the
very beginning o f statehood. Indeed, some archeologists claim that
the production o f these images its e lf created a precursor to state­
hood, in the Stone Age. Experts used to th in k that agriculture pre­
ceded statehood and organized religion. G obekli Tepe suggests that it
m ig h t have been the other way around: C u lt created art. A rt created
the division o f labor. Some people had to produce food fo r others.
A griculture seemed to be a solution. Scientists th in k that the complex
bu ild in g and carving process brought about social hierarchy to enable
the necessary infrastructure. In producing sculptural images o f a fly ­
ing vulture hovering above a human w ith o u t a head, statelike struc­
tures were created, perhaps, as a sort o f byproduct. T h e images on the
p illa r perhaps became a model fo r creating a different, and likely more
unequal, social reality.
As I said, no one knows what the images on the Gobekli Tepe pillars
mean. There are no captions, soundtrack, or explanations. There was
no w ritin g and there is no oral history. But we still live w ith in their
168 HITO STEYERL

consequences: w ith in states, societies marked by private property and

class inequality, societies in w hich everything belongs to someone.
In his w ork R iding on a Cloud (2013), Lebanese artist Rabih Mroue
claims that his main protagonist— a character based on his brother
Yasser— lost his ability to recognize or understand images after being
shot in the head by a sniper. Since he sustained brain damage, images
have become meaningless compositions o f lines, colors, and materials
fo r him . H e cannot recognize anything o f images. T he sniper’s bullet
has destroyed his faculty o f identification.
Images fo r machines look different from images for humans. In
their purest form , as transmitted data, they are incomprehensible, even
imperceptible to humans. T h e y may be coded as pulses o f lig h t or mag­
netic charges o r long lines o f seemingly random letters.
I f we were able to see them, they m ig h t have as little meaning for us
as any picture m ight have fo r a person shot in the head by a sniper, more
abstract than even lines and boxes. We are as challenged to see an image
made by and fo r autonomous machines as someone h it by a sniper is
challenged to see images made by and fo r other humans.
Maybe the art history o f the twentieth century can be understood
as an anticipatory tutorial to help humans decode images made by
machines, fo r machines. Look at this M ondrian painting to the right,
for example (fig. 4). T h e colored grid typical fo r M ondrian is perhaps
an unconscious exercise for humans tryin g to learn how to see like a
machine, for acquiring the posthuman vision that abounds today.
T h is is posthuman documentary: lig h t and radio waves permeating
every space unseen, whole lives transformed into patterns that must be
translated to be perceptible to any human. Images that, again, become
models to create social reality.
L o o k at these two guys walking through ruins holding their laptops
like divining rods on the next spread (fig. 5). They weren’t looking for
water but rather fo r a Turkish cellphone-provider’s signal, to send their
own signals from the battlefield.
I spoke to them on the day o f the city’s liberation. They were journal­
ists for a Kurdish news agency who had spent a couple o f weeks inside the
besieged city. Some evenings they tried to crawl out o f the city under­
neath the barbed wire but were shot at by Turkish border guards. So they
returned to the ruins, looking for a signal to file their stories. But this was
 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES 169

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170 HITO STEYERL

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Fig. 5. Journalists from DIHA news agency searching for a W i-Fi signal in Kobani, Syria,
January 2015
 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES

not so easy. T he internet changed w ith the weather, they said. And every
evening they had to find another shelter in the midst o f the destruction as
they followed the migrant, unpredictable signal wafting across the border.
But obviously every b it o f data transmitted by cellphones in this area
is collected; and we know where and by whom. An article by Laura
Poitras and others analyzing documents provided by Edward Snowden
reveals that all cellphone data in the region is m onitored at a N S A lis­
tening station near Ankara and then passed on to Turkish intelligence
services.4 These signals are then used by Turkish authorities to in tim ­
idate, indict, and incarcerate journalists and activists, or even worse.5
Several Kurdish m ilitants but also civilians have been killed when
this inform ation was acted upon, by air strikes. T he signals from phones
were intercepted and turned into fighter-jet attacks, k illin g in one case
more than th irty civilians.6
Look at your phones. See i f you can find the vulture on the pillar
at Gobekli Tepe hovering over the decapitated person. W hich lines and
boxes were added to this photograph while it was squeezed through the
circuits o f state surveillance? W hich objects were identified? On grounds
o f which calculatioas were they considered for intelligence use or dis­
carded? W h ich actions were triggered? W h ich flying objects launched?
Machines show one another unintelligible images, or, more gener­
ally, sets o f data that cannot be perceived by human vision. They are
used as models to create reality. But what kind o f reality is created by
unintelligible images? Is this why reality itself has become to a certain
degree unintelligible to human consciousness?
W hat kind o f state w ill be created as a result o f these operations? A state
that shrouds most o f its operations in secrecy, retracting behind secret
legislation; a deep state in which inequality is simultaneously on the rise?
I f models for reality increasingly consist o f sets o f data unintelligible
to human vision, the reality created after them m ight be partly unintel­
ligible to humans too.
Images in which whole lives become patterns that autonomous
machines use to gossip about you or pull the trigger.
Images that, i f applied, create a reality that looks in parts as i f your
brain was damaged by a sniper, one readable only by machines.
A reality consisting o f dead lines and k ill boxes. In which you don’t
understand your own eyes.
172 HITOSTEYERL

Images that m ight create corporate states as a byproduct.

An artist colleague from Ukraine told me a story. H is name is Oleg
Fonaryov, and he made a beautiful photography project around it.7
He asked one question: W h a t i f human evolution responded to the
change o f lig h t sources around us? For m illions o f years, the only lig h t
on earth came from the stars and the sun, maybe some fire or candles.
N o w there are a lo t o f electric lights and tons o f screens. N o t to speak o f
those posthuman documentaries flying through the bones o f the dead
and the living. In the history o f evolution, organic bodies have changed
to deal w ith changing environments. W h at senses, what organs w ill
people grow to pick up invisible images? To decode data streams that
we cannot presently detect? H o w w ill people evolve in order to adapt to
an environm ent modeled on unintelligible imagery?
O n the n ig h t o f K obani’s liberation, the projection didn’t w ork
properly at the big celebration party on the Turkish side o f the border.
T here was a big screen hung from a mosque. But there was no input to
the projector. T hen a desktop image appeared (fig. 6).
I t showed a masked guerilla and a couple o f flags. But that was not
the interesting part. T he interesting part was the array o f icons on the
desktop, fo r communications software, image-processing tools, encryp­
tion software, F T P clients. Though it was meant to be the backdrop
o f the celebration, it actually became a document in itself. I t showed a
workplace and its tools. I t was a document o f an autonomous produc­
tion o f images. W h a t kind o f reality w ill be created using these tools?
W ill they help realize autonomy fo r humans?
And then again: W h y is the person on the desktop wearing a mask?
Because he or she has already evolved the sensors predicted by Oleg?
Can he or she already figure out posthuman documentary images? Is he
or she hiding her new organs under a balaclava?
I finally saw the birds and the headless people w ith my own eyes.
In a refugee camp in Surug, across the border from Kobani, teen-
agers were rehearsing a dance directed by a young girl in a guerilla
uniform . T h e y were vigorously rom ping around to traditional music.
But suddenly they all dropped to the ground, as i f they had been
h it by falling bombs or some other lethal violence. A t one point, their
heads were covered by the scarves used as belts in the region. Under my
eyes they transformed into representations o f corpses.
 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES 173

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Fig. 6. Celebration of the liberation of Kobani, January 2015. A projection forms the backdrop
for dances and speeches
174 HITO STEYERL

But one by one the bodies were picked up by the choreographer

girl, who was playing a flying bird. A ll the bodies on the ground slowly
morphed into birds— not vultures, but cranes. And then they flew away.
M ig ra to ry cranes have been in the region for at least 12,000 years.
T h e y appear on Gobekli Tepe’s pillars. But conservationists in Urfa
have been w aiting for the birds in vain the past few years. Because o f
the war in Syria, they stopped coming. N o w the choreographer girl had
brought them back.
H e r name is Medya.

Medya in Surug refugee camp, January 2015

 MEDYA: AUTONOMY OF IMAGES 175

P.S. Activist Diako told me this story from besieged Kobani, via Skype:

When I was in In dia , I saw a long queue a t a H indu temple. I asked, W hat's
going on? I was told, We are selling little pieces o f heaven. I t was really cheap
too, and one could get a signed, stamped document fro m priests to prove th at
one owned a piece o f heaven. B ut I had a different idea. I went up to the priest
and asked whether I could buy hell. B ut not ju s t a p a rt o f it. The whole thing.
A nd he said OK. Eventually I got a signed and stamped piece o f paper to prove
th at I was the only one who owned hell. So I went back to the queue and talked
to the people. I said, Look guysyyou can go home. There is no need fo r you to
buy a piece o f heaven. You w ill go there autom atically. How do I know? Because
I am the sole owner o f hell. A nd I w ant it a ll to myself!
176 HITO STEYERL

NOTES

T h ank you, Savas Boyraz, M u rat C iftc i, '1'om part o f an effort to nurture ties w ith the gov­
Keenan, Adam Kleinm an, Laura Poitras, Salih ernment led by Prime M in is te r Recep Tayyip
Salim, and Mcdya. T h ank you also to Antje Krdogan. U.S. and Turkish officers sit side
Fhmann, D e tle f Gericke-Schonhagen, and by side in the dim ly lighted complex m o ni­
the H K team, Berlin. to rin g real-tim e video feeds from Predator
A first version o f this text was delivered as drones.” See Adam Entous and Joe Parkinson,
a talk at a mem orial conference fo r H aru n “ Turkey’s Attack on Civilians T ie d to U.S.
Farocki at the Haus der K u lturen der W elt, D rone,” W all Street Journal, M ay 16, 2012,
B erlin, in February 2015. A nother version http://w w w .w sj .com/ne ws/articles/SB 1000142
was given at the Akademie der Kiinste der 4052702303877604577380480677575646.
W e lt in C ologne in September 2015 as part 7. Fonaryov’s w ork is Another Planet (2 010-).
o f a lecture/perform ance w ith sound artist See http://www.photoacestudio.eom /site/#/
Kassem Mosse title d Combat Zones That See. actual/another-planet.

1. Carl von Clausewit/., On W ar, trans.J. j .

Graham (1873), Book 5, C hapter 2, h ttp ://
www'.clausewi tz.com/read ings/O n W ar 187 3/
Bk5ch02.htm l.
2. T h is was beautifully analyzed in H arun
Farocki’s seminal works Auge/Maschine and
Erkennen m id Verfolgen (W ar at a Distance,
2003), which deal w ith the connection
between war and production, linked by com ­
puter vision.
3. Here I was reminded o f Farocki’s ideas
about autonomy by Trevor Paglen’s beautiful
obituary fo r him on the A rtfo rum website:
“ Farocki asks the audience to ‘imagine a
war o f autonomous machines. Wars w ithou t
soldiers like factories w ith o u t workers.’”
See Paglen, “ Passages: H arun Farocki
(1944-2014),” http://artforum.com/passages/
id=50135.
4. Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, M ichael
Sontheimer, and H olge r Stark, “ A Two-Faced
Friendship: Turkey Is ‘ Partner and Target’ for
the N S A ,” D er Spiegel, September 1, 2014,
http://w w w r.spiegel.de/intem ational/w orId/
documents-show-nsa-and-gchq-spied-on-
partner-turkey-a-989011.htm l.
5. “ Turkey Keeps ‘N o t Free’ Position
in Freedom House Report on Press
Freedom,” H u rriy e t D aily News, M ay 1,
2015, http://w w w .hurriyctdailynew s.com /
turkey-keeps-not-free-position-in-freedom -
house-report-on-press-freedom.aspx?page-
ID =2 3 8 & n ID = 8 1814&NewsCatTD=3 39.
6. “ U.S. drone flights in support o f Turkey
date from N ovem ber 2007, when the
Bush administration set up what is called a
C om bined Intelligence Fusion Cell in Ankara,
180

Jill Magid
Authorized for Release to (R EL TO) the W hitney M useum of Am erican Art

The visual tim e is A ugust 9 2015 1:38 pm

Dear Laura,

Thank you for explaining to me your concept o f operations (C O N O P )

over huevos ranchcros at [M IN IM IZ E D U.S. RESTALTRANT]. W h ile
the concept seemed clear at the time, it took me days o f research at the
Partner Facility, under H .’s guidance, to understand how to implement
it. T h e collection mission you tasked me w ith was to mine Snowden's
archive in order to create a glossary for this survival guide. A simple cut
and paste. (It wasn’t.) I accepted.

I used the com puter that was loaded w ith the archive in the center
o f the Partner F acility because it faces out the window. H . sat beside
me. H e gave me a b rie f introduction : ways to search and chain search
and how to read the numerously bracketed file names that arose when
I did. I t was overwhelm ing in structure and content, but I nodded,
and he passed me the mouse. G iven the trove o f data w ith in the data­
base and m y lim ite d schedule, defined by H .’s short windows o f avail­
ability, I focused on m y mission. I started w ith the kind o f queries
you’d expect: guide , slang , index , definitions , lexicon , ling o , and the N S A
(N ational Security Agency) intranet colum n S ID (Signals Intelligence
D irectorate) Today, w hich had its own kind o f subjargon. A number
o f files had glossaries embedded w ith in them; some were glossaries
themselves. H made a folder fo r me named J ill on the desktop and I
dragged the files in, expecting to appropriate them.

In the course o f my collection activities I stumbled upon collateral

inform ation, identified as N ational Security Inform ation under the
provisions o f E O 12958 but not subject to the enhanced security pro­
tection required fo r Special Access Program inform ation. I t caused
a band inte rru p tio n , and I tem porarily deviated from my assigned-
spectrum search plan to intercept activity related to a target who had
caught my interest. T h e story involved a high-calorie sports d rin k and
a man in search o f a second wife. A long w ith his personal emails and a
JILL MAGID

business entry marked P R O P IN (proprietary inform ation) identifying

in fo rm a tio n provided by a commercial firm or private source under
an express or im plied understanding that the inform ation w ill be pro­
tected as a proprietary trade secret or proprietary data believed to
have actual o r potential value, I found a low -resolution photograph o f
him or someone somehow related to him w ith two young girls wear­
ing long blond pigtails— I th in k they may have been twins— sitting
on a m ustard-color couch, and another photograph o f a dark-skinned
amateur model, her hair caught awkwardly in the wind, posing w ith
a canned beverage in fro n t o f the [M IN IM IZ E D F V E Y ADDRESS].
T h e S ignal-to-N oise ratio was high, but the history pull was th o r­
ough. Between [M IN IM IZ E D U.S. S O C IA L M E D IA ] posts describ­
ing the target’s business strategy, his loves and rom antic betrayals, I
found the notation “ Salacious material has been removed but may be
provided upon request.” I couldn’t help but love the idea o f an N S A
agent, holed up in some cubicle, rem oving this material and placing it
in a file marked “ Salacious.”

Intrigued, I m odified m y collection strategy. I matched m y desired sig­

nals w ith the appropriate sensors based on m y analytic strategies and
the target’s vulnerabilities. T here were many. Love, intimacy, desire,
betrayal. Even when I did not search fo r the target directly, he con­
tinued to surface. T here were m u ltip le correlations, provided by the
same account o r by alternate accounts fo r my autoenrichm ent where
known in fo rm a tio n was expanded upon and made more meaningful
by adding previously unknown machine-derived inform ation w ith lit ­
tle to no human interaction. H e arose through the unintentional task­
in g o f identified nonpublic communications that I must now reprocess
w ith the aim o f re p o rtin g o r retaining a file fo r you named Glossary.

D uring the process I felt a sense o f excitement and Inform ation Assurance
(IA), as i f I could guarantee the availability, integrity, authentication,
confidentiality, and nonrepudiation o f national-security telecommuni­
cations. I t was cryptologic. A ll I needed was a target— terminologically
speaking, synonymous w ith threat— to track and the archive became leg­
ible, converted from encrypted data into a human-readable form. I cryp-
toanalyzed and exploited it, taking any data I found on the threat back to
 GLOSSARY 183

the time p rior to its being intercepted or retrieved by the U nited States
Signals Intelligence System (USSS), before it was sent or stored. The data
was there, in its raw and unedited form, and once I found my footing, it
flowed. Oh, did it flow: a steady stream o f data packets flowing from one
sender to his receivers, each packet w ith its identifier unique to the flow.
I t was impossible to stop myself from follow ing it. The data was seductive
and unw ittingly salacious. H o w was I to manage my inform ation needs,
or to take into account m y mission priorities, my manpower capabili­
ties, or even our data formats? T he architecture o f the system, w ith its
structure o f components, their interrelationships, and the principles and
guidelines governing their design and evolution over time, was new to
me. I t was entirely possible I ’d tripped over a development signal, with
its not fully resolved structure exhibiting an undetermined encipherment
or encoding scheme, or continuing obvious test phases prior to in tro ­
duction as a deployed, operational system. I found myself wishing for a
D F O (Data Flow Operations) Watch, anyone to supervise my Targeting
and Mission Management (T M M ). I supposed that was H .’s job. But he
was busy w ith his own work, and I chose not to disturb him. Eventually, I
knew, he would look up from his small laptop, which he actually worked
on from on his lap, and see what I was doing. W hen he finally did, he
smiled. Good, he said. You found something to follow . I protested: But these
files are FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) data. He shrugged.
Ju st go fo rw a rd w ith this now and w a it fo r w hat Laura says.

I accepted this as accreditation, trusting that, in your absence, H .

could make the official management decision to perm it my operation
o f the inform ation system in the Partner Facility, deeming it at an
acceptable level o f risk, based on the im plem entation o f an approved
set o f technical, managerial, and procedural safeguards. I t was a risky
call. In taking H . as m y Accountable O fficer (AO ), I made m yself
less accountable. O r maybe I was just curious. I t took some mental
Adaptive Planning (AP), as i f H . and I together enjoyed the jo in t capa­
b ility to create and revise plans rapidly and systematically. A fter all, I
reasoned, AP occurs in a networked, collaborative environm ent such
as the Partner F acility and results in plans that contain a range o f
viable options. T h e option to cut and paste a glossary fe lt like one
choice w ith in an array o f many others, including that o f using terms
184 JILL MAGID

I ’d found in the archive to author a letter to you about the process o f

m aking a glossary.

And so I carried on follow ing my threat, w ho’d been tasked by the NSA
on request from a partner agency. Concurrently, I asked H . to forward
my collection requirements to your Asset Managers, requesting tech­
nical control and conceptual coordination o f my operations and activ­
ity. I am not sure how he tried to reach you, i f by email, phone, or
Communications Electronic Operating Instructions (C E O I) such as
callsign assignments, suffixes, frequency assignments, signs and coun­
tersigns, pyrotechnic and smoke signals, or complete supplemental
instructions. But he heard from you a few days later, as I arrived again
at the Partner Facility.

I t was clear to me from H . ’s devolution that my emphasis on the target

did n o t satisfy your valid customer In fo rm a tio n Need (IN ). As a result
I suffered a collection outage, disturbing the end-to-end flow o f my
tasked collected data. T h e effect was dizzying, a feeling further exac­
erbated by the change in atmospheric anomalies I ’d experienced when
traveling through the building. T h e flo o r beneath me felt unstable, as
i f the Partner Facility was geographically located at a Desired G round
Zero (D G Z ), directly above or d ire ctly below the center o f a planned
chemical attack. You had a h ig h e r-p rio rity usage o f m y resources: that
o f b u ild in g the glossary. I would have to abort m y target development
and stick to m y need-to-know.

Exhausted and disappointed, I sat down and looked over the edge o f the
computer screen, out the wall o f windows and onto a panoramic view
over the cityscape. I closed m y eyes and imagined the river as a con­
tested area, a claimed te rrito ria l sea and superadjacent airspace starting
12 N M (Nautical M iles) from the appropriate baseline out to the sea­
ward boundary o f a m aritim e jurisdiction claim not in accordance w ith
the 1982 Convention o f Law o f the Sea, wherein the claimant nation
purports to restrict access to or to control movements w ith in the area
by U nited States m ilita ry units. 1 breathed deeply and pictured myself
floating out the window, over the city, and onto the surface o f the water.
H . and the Partner Facility Operations Manager disappeared behind
 GLOSSARY 185

me, and I was free to explore as I wished. I felt safe and calm in their
absence, and I let my body drift. W ith my eyes still closed, I could
see something beaconing down the river from a nongeolocatable point:
either my sensors were faulty or my line o f bearing (LO B ) was inaccu­
rate. I t was a lig h t or some kind o f electronic device em itting signals
related to its position fo r use by marine navigation, or for warning or
tracking— the kind o f thing F IS IN T (Foreign Instrum entation Signals
Intelligence) picks up. Impossible, I thought. Even in this meditative
state, I remembered that in contested areas, fishing and exclusive-eco­
nomic-zone claims usually are not applicable.

H .’s cellphone rang and I opened my eyes abruptly, feeling jolted as i f

having just experienced a fire, flood, or earthquake, or perhaps a delib­
erate event such as sabotage. I collected myself and pretended to
resume a continuity o f operations (CO O P). T he Operations Manager
had brought me a tuna-and-avocado salad from the sandwich shop
on [M IN IM IZ E D U.S. ADDRESS]. H e ’d probably been hassled by
security upon returning: while the Partner Facility is no E A G LE ,
E D E N , P IN E C O N E , S U N V A LLE Y , W H IS T L E R , M A V E R IC K ,
K IL L IN G T O N , C O P P E R M O U N T A IN , W H IT E T A IL , B R E C K -
E N R ID G E , C L E V E R D E V IC E , T IT A N P O IN T E , or PER FEC T-
S T O R M , the security guard treats it as i f it were, or another NS A part­
ner meeting facility. I tried to pour the dressing on the dry tuna and
capers w ith o u t spilling it on the keyboard. H . took his sandwich and left
the room to take his call. T h e Operations Manager moved large metal
poles from one side o f the Partner Facility to the other.

I tried to approach the archive again w ith o ut the target as a guide. But
w ithout a focus, or C H A N D E L IE R enabling a comprehensive and
real-time analysis o f NSA/CSS (Central Security Service) language
capabilities and readiness to rapidly identify and deploy language-
analysis resources in response to global mission requirements, the
data felt encrypted. I t blinked num bly at me, a jumbled representa­
tion o f facts, concepts, and instructions to which meaning is or may be
assigned. I made a decision that i f I could not draw meaning directly, I
would assign it myself, by parsing the phrases o f the definitions I could
utilize and that flowed well in my text.
JILL MAGID

To say the task was easy would be a Denial and Deception (D & D ). To
make matters worse, I entered too many simultaneous search queries
and the archive’s responses slowed to a crawl. I t suffered from what
looked like but could not have been a database attack in which foreign
operations were being used to disrupt, deny, and degrade the inform a­
tion resident in it. I turned to H . for technical support and Electronic
Protection (EP), as this was an emergency and I had no preparedness. H .
took over and I fell back, retrograding in to Fallback/Maintenance (M X)
O rb it. I did not ask him i f you o r he had set up C ritical Infrastructure
Protection (CIP) w ith the intention o f preventing destruction or inca­
pacitation o f physical and cyber systems so vital to the U nited States
that their loss would have a debilitating impact on national security, the
national economy, or national public health and safety. For all I knew he
was counterlaunching a C om puter N etw ork Defense (C N D ). Finally
he decided on a CEASE B U Z Z E R , term inating whatever kind o f elec­
tronic failure had occurred, including the use o f electronic-warfare
expendables. There was no Inform ation Technology Disaster Recovery
Plan other than stopping where we were.

A t that p o in t o f presence (PoP), I had two substantial subfolders w ith in

my J ill folder: one fo r m y target and one fo r terms. Due to th e ir con­
taining Secret (S) national-security inform ation and material, which
require a substantial degree o f protection and the unauthorized dis­
closure o f w hich could reasonably be expected to cause serious dam­
age (including disruption o f foreign relations, significantly affecting
the national security; significant im pairm ent o f a program or policy
directly related to the national security; revelation o f intelligence
operations; and compromise o f significant scientific or technological
developments relating to the national security) to the national secu­
rity, and Top Secret (TS) national-security inform ation or material,
w hich requires the highest degree o f protection and the unauthorized
disclosure o f w hich could reasonably be expected to cause exception­
ally grave damage (including armed hostilities against the U nited
States o r its allies; disruption o f foreign relations vita lly affecting the
national security; the compromise o f vital national-defense plans or
complex cryptologic and com m unications-intelligence systems; the
revelation o f sensitive intelligence operations; and the disclosure o f
 GLOSSARY 187

scientific o r technological developments vital to the national security)

to the national security I had access to, H . would not let me take any
files home w ith me. T h e y ’d have to be sanitized.

Days later, H . brought me a protected USB stick, requiring an exten­

sive passphrase, encrypted w ith hash and entropy. H e put it on m y
keychain and told me not to lose it. I t contained my folder J ill, heav­
ily redacted, p o rtio n marked, and downgraded to classification level
C onfidential (C). N one o f the FISA data on m y target was there. A ll
o f the files listin g term inology were. One o f them was the T S USSS
dictionary. T h e m ajority o f this letter comes from it.

I sorted through the term inology systematically, in the same way that
someone in the N S A mailroom flacks through mail. Some o f this work
I did w ith in the Continental U nited States (C O N U S ) at my studio in
Brooklyn and other outside o f it (O C O N U S ) while in Jamaica on h o li­
day. A t all times I was careful to remain offline, logged in as a guest user o f
m y own computer, so that no Communications Intelligence (C O M IN T )
consisting o f technical and intelligence inform ation that derived from
the m onitoring o f foreign communications signals by any other than
the intended recipients could be collected or processed through it. The
effort was laborious; there was nothing salacious about it.

T h e archive, which I had all too brie fly entered, was vast and pregnant
w ith secrets (S). I had wanted to penetrate it. C ollecting N S A vocabu­
lary was a job, not a mission, resulting in a glossary o f terms that were
defined but meaningless. I needed a target. He was my decryption key
to the archive, and to all o f the languages w ith in it. W ith o u t him , I
was le ft w ith an architecture w ith o u t tenants, terms w ith o u t actors,
S IG IN T w ith o u t H U M I N T (Hum an Intelligence).

T h is is why I don’t have a glossary to offer you, Laura, at least n o t in

traditional form . Please accept this letter as m y basic report in which I
have described the events and activities that took place during my mis­
sion. O r take it as a documentation o f analytics and methods describ­
ing m y tradecraft. O r perhaps rather than a glossary you’d prefer a
reverse dictionary? In this case, list the words I ’ve used alphabetically,
188 JILL MAGID

starting w ith the last letter and w orking toward the first. O r see my
letter fo r what it tru ly is: a distress signal, a call fo r help or rescue as a
data-burst transmission, and publish it. Broadcast it over established
frequencies such as a museum catalogue intended fo r a wide audience
such as that o f art viewers and film goers fo r the purpose o f search
(meaning) and rescue (transcendence).

Otherwise, Laura, I have nothing to report (N T R ), and you may

F IL E A B O R T .

W ith Language Readiness,

Federal Bureau of Investigation

These documents from , the Federal Bureau o f Investigation were obtained

through a Freedom o f Inform ation A ct law suit file d by Laura Poitras in 2015
in advance o f the Astro Noise exhibition. The redactions have been made by
the governm ent. Between 2006 and 2012 , the F B I conducted an investigation
into Poitras, convened a classified grand ju ry on the basis o f alleged conspiracy
charges, and subpoenaed records about her fro m a variety o f sources.
 193

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194 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

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 18 USC §371 195

FAX NO. : Nov. 01 2007 02:07PM P 2

Southern D istrict of N ew Y ork

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GR EETING S!

W E C O M M A N D Y O U th a t a ll and sing u lar business and excuses being la id aside* you appear and attend
before the G R AN D JU R Y o f the people o f the U nite d States fo r the Southern D is tric t o f N ew Y o rk, at the
U nited States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street (N orth S ide), Room 480, in the B orough o f M anhattan,
C ity o f N ew Y o rk, N ew Y o rk, in the Southern D is tric t o f New Y o rk, at the fo llo w in g date, tim e and place:

Appearance D ate: N ovem ber 9* 2007 Appearance T im e: 10:00a.m.

to te s tify dnd give evidence in regard to an alleged v io la tio n o f:

18 U.S.C. § 371

and n o t to depart d ie G rand Jury w ith o u t leave th e re o f o r o f the U nite d States A tto rn e y, and that you b rin g
w ith you and produce at the above tim e and place d ie fo llo w in g :

SEE A T T A C H E D R IP E R A N D N O N D IS C L O S U R E L E T T E R

N .B .: Personal appearance is not required i f the requested documents are delivered or made
available on or before the return date to D a vid L e lb o w ltz , A ssistant U nited States A ttorney,
U nited States Attorney’s O ffice , One Saint A ndrew ’ s Plaza, N ew Y ork, N Y 10007, T d .: (212)
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F a ilu re to attend and produce any item s hereby demanded w illc o n s titu te contem pt o f co urt and w ill subject
you to c iv il sanctions and c rim in a l penalties, in a ddition to other penalties o f the Law .

D A TE D :
O ctober 26,2007

. M IC H A E L J. G A R C IA J f) ~
U nited States A ttorney fo r the
'Southern D is tric t o f New York

A 98i*tant U nited States A tto rn e y Telephone:

One S t A ndrew ’s Plaza (212) 637-1947
N ew Y o rk, N ew Y o rk 10007

Poitras-104
196 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

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M y C ountry, M y C ountry, 2006. Digital video, 90 min. Dr. Riyadh al-Adhadh interviewing
prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison
 205

TROUBLEMAKERS
LAURA POITRAS AND THE

Alex Danchev

Trouble in tra n sit, got through the roadblock

We blended in w ith the crowd
We got computers, weyre tapping phone lines
I know th a t ain V allowed
— Talking Heads

M ost o f us can say w ith somejustice th a t we were good workmen. Is it

equally true to say th at we were good citizens?
— M arc Bloch

A ll change in history , a ll advance, comes fro m the nonconformists.

I f there had been no trouble makers, no dissenters, we should s till be
liv in g in caves.
— A. J. P. Taylor1

L A U R A P O ITR A S IS A T R O U B L E M A K E R . She is also a filmmaker.

She has the unusual distinction o f achieving professional recognition in
both fields. As the prim ary contact and conduit for the whistleblower
Edward Snowden, the subject o f her documentary C IT IZ E N F O U R
(2014), her status as troublemaker is inextricably intertwined w ith her
status as filmmaker: her preoccupations or vocations have merged.
Poitras’s w ork has been recognized by her peers and wider audi­
ences— and also intelligence agencies.2 She was placed on a terrorist
watch list by the U nited States government. The central watch list is
called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environm ent (T ID E ). It is kept
by the National Counterterrorism Center; the NSA, the C IA, the FBI,
and other members o f the intelligence community can all “ nominate”
individuals to be added to it. Evidently there are at least two subsidiary
206 ALEX D A N C H E V

lists relating to air travel: a no -fly list, o f those who are not allowed to
fly into or out o f the country, and a selectee list, o f those who are ear­
marked fo r additional inspection and interrogation. As Poitras reveals in
C IT IZ E N F O U R , there are said to be 1.2 m illio n people on various stages
o f the watch list, a figure that shocked even Snowden.3 She herself had
the privilege o f being a selectee. Federal agents would stop and question
her as she was entering or leaving the U nited States. T he same thing
happened in other countries. In Vienna, she relates, “ I sort o f befriended
the security guy. 1 asked what was going on. H e said: ‘You’re flagged.
You have a threat score that is o ff the Richter scale. You are at 400 out o f
400.’ I said: ‘Is this a scoring system that works throughout all o f Europe,
or is this an American scoring system?’ H e said: ‘N o, this is your govern­
ment that has this and has told us to stop you.’” 4
In the U nited States, the questioning was aggressive. H e r notes and
receipts were riffled, and sometimes copied; on one occasion her equip­
ment was confiscated. Once, when she asserted her First Amendment
rig h t not to answer questions about her work, she was told, “ I f you
don’t answer our questions, we’ll find our answers on your electron­
ics.” 5 She gave as good as she got, taking names and recording questions
(u n til deprived o f w ritin g materials), protesting her treatment, w ritin g
to members o f Congress, and subm itting Freedom o f Inform ation Act
requests. O ver time, she went to ever-greater lengths to protect herself
and her data, leaving her notebooks overseas w ith friends or in safe-
deposit boxes, w iping her computers and mobile phones clean, taking
elaborate precautions w ith her digital security. H e r protestations and
representations came to nothing. Altogether, she says, she was detained
on more than fo rty occasions between 2006 and 2012 w ithout expla­
nation. T h e endless stop and search was a violation. “ W hen did that
universe begin, that people are put on a list and are never told and
are stopped fo r six years?” she asked, rhetorically, in an interview from
2013. “ I have no idea why they did it. I t ’s the complete suspension o f
due process. I ’ve been told nothing, I ’ve been asked nothing, and I ’ve
done nothing. I t ’s like Kafka. N obody ever tells you what the accusa­
tion is.” 6 T h e arbitrary nature o f the proceedings o f The T ria l (1925)
corresponds eerily to the proceedings o f the war on terror: “ Someone
must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for w ithout having done
anything w rong he was arrested one fine m orning.” 7
 T R O U BLEM AK ER S 207

W ith Laura P., it did not come to that. A fter six years, Poitras had
had enough. She feared not so much fo r herself as for her material: her
documents and her films. She took two drastic steps. She allowed her
friend Glenn Greenwald to w rite about her case— which was a little
like letting a highly trained attack dog o ff the leash— and she moved to
Berlin. N o sooner had Greenwald’s article appeared in Salon , in 2012,
than the airport interrogations stopped as suddenly as they had begun.8
In Berlin, Poitras came in from the cold— a nice historical reversal. She
became part o f a com m unity o f dissident expatriates, which came to
include Jacob Appelbaum, who appears in C IT IZ E N F O U R . In Berlin,
she regained her composure and her customary self-containment. “ L e t’s
be honest,” she told George Packer o f the New Yorker. “ I f I had darker
skin, or was carrying a different passport, the cast o f guilt, the shadow,
would go a lo t longer.” 9 Nevertheless, her life had changed. For Laura
Poitras, security is a lived experience. Privacy is as much an instinct as
a cause. She is a very private person, but she w ill never again be a truly
private citizen. P olitically and electronically, she is a marked woman, a
target o f the national surveillance state. Radicalization is something she
understands from the inside.
Poitras is a public intellectual and a documentarian; she has also
taken up the role o f dissenter. In 2014 an interviewer asked her what
prompted this turn:

I t was a response to historical circumstances, particularly the

build-up to the Iraq W ar and the prison at Guantanamo. I
thought that there was a moral d rift, that we’d look back on
post-9/11 America as a dark chapter in U.S. history. To have a
prison where people are sent w ith o u t charges, and then engag­
ing in a preemptive war against a country that had nothing to
do w ith 9/11— that seemed like a frightening precedent, that
we’re going to attack a country because we think it m ight cause
us harm in the future. I felt that these were dark times, that I
felt compelled to say something about it, and that as a docu-
mentarian I had skills that would help me channel my impres­
sions and thoughts.
A t the very least, I would create a historical record. I don’t
know i f m y w ork changed anyone’s opinion. T he Iraq W ar
208 ALEX D A N C H E V

The Oath, 2010. Digital video, 96 min. Abu Jandal in his taxi, Sana'a
TROUBLEMAKERS
210 ALEX D A N C H E V

CITIZENFOUR, 2014. Digital video. 114 min. Drone kill-list chain of command drawn by
Glenn Greenwald

continued for a long time. Guantanamo is still open. But I wanted

to express something about a d rift away from the rule o f law and
basic principles o f democracy, to document what was happening.
I thought I was choosing to make a film about the Iraq W ar or
Guantanamo. W hen I finished M y Country , M y Country , the film
on Iraq, I was shocked that Guantanamo was still open. It was
2005 when I knew I ’d take a broader look at post-9/11 America,
and that it would probably occupy me for a long tim e.10

T h e starting point for the film on Iraq was a coruscating article by Packer
on the American occupation o f that country, “ W ar After the War,”
subtitled “ W h a t Washington Doesn’t See in Iraq.” 11 Packer’s work is a
mosaic o f many tragedies, large and small, o f which that experience is
composed. W hat caught Poitras’s eye was the tragedy o f Captain John
Prior, a rifle-company commander on his first real-world deployment, as
he calls it, who was put in charge o f a patch o f Baghdad: the rectangle o f
Zafaraniya, a largely Shiite slum in the south o f the city, home to some
250,000 people. H is mission was to improve the infrastructure o f his
patch, and at the same time to guarantee its security. H e was also respon­
sible for sewage disposal throughout the area occupied by his entire bat­
talion, an area w ith a population o f half a m illion people.
 TR O U BLEM AK ER S 211

In the telling o f the tale, P rio r is a dedicated officer and a decent

man. He hopes to make a career in the m ilitary. He wants to do some­
thing for his country and fo r the country he occupied: he wants to do
good. H e had mastered counterinsurgency. He had studied hearts and
minds. He had read some history. But he is a stranger to the real world.
H e is bewildered in Babylon. H e was not trained in nation building,
civil affairs, or sewage disposal.
P rior is well intentdoned. I f he is not quite Pyle, the original Quiet
American o f Graham Greene’s creation, there is a certain family resem­
blance.12 H is mission is beyond him, but he has an impregnable belief in
the advertisement o f American rectitude. Pyle talked self-righteously o f
“ clean hands.” In his own idiom P rior says much the same. He is noth­
ing i f not hard working. By day, he chairs the local council and oversees
reconstruction projects. By night, he raids homes and searches for sus­
pected militiamen. T he raids are fruidess; they succeed only in stoking
resentment. One vexatious night, P rio r’s translator turns to Packer and
says: “ Like Vietnam.” F ifty years on, Saigon spoke eloquently to Babylon.
Packer asked P rior whether his night work threatened to undo
the good accomplished by his day work. “ He didn’t think so: as the
sewage started to flow and the schools got fixed up, Iraqis would view
Americans the way the Americans see themselves— as people trying to
help.” Packer continues:

But P rior was no soft-shelled humanitarian. He called him self a

foreign-policy realist. Fixing the sewer system in Zafaraniya, he
believed, was an essential part o f the war on terror. Terrorists
depended on m illions o f sympathizers who believed that
America was evil and Americans only wanted M iddle East oil.
“ But we come here and we’re honest, trustworthy, we’re caring,
we’re compassionate,” P rior said. “ W e’re interested in them.
W e’re interested in fixing their lives. N o t because we have to,
but because we can, because we can be benevolent, because we
are benevolent.” 13

P rio r’s predicament exemplified the contradictions inherent in the

American project as Poitras saw it. I t was those contradictions that she
set out to film .
212 ALEX D A N C H E V

In June 2004 Poitras went to Baghdad and embedded w ith a civil-

affairs u n it responsible for helping Iraqi officials organize the country’s
first elections after the invasion. She was frustrated to find that the unit
was largely confined to the sanctuary o f the Green Zone. Soon after
she arrived, she went to film an inspection o f the notorious Abu Ghraib
prison. There she encountered an Iraqi doctor, Riyadh al-Adhadh, who
was com piling complaints, medical and procedural, from the prison­
ers. D r. Riyadh, a Sunni from the Adhamiya district o f Baghdad, turns
out to be a voluble character and a public-spirited citizen. “ T h is is not
Vietnam ,” he admonishes his U.S. m ilita ry minders, on camera, apropos
the flattening o f Fallujah. “ T h is is a new century.” Dr. Riyadh is a brave
man. Adhamiya is a hotbed o f anti-American sentiment and insurgent
activities; in his community, participation in the political process is tan­
tamount to collaboration. Nonetheless, he is determined to stand for
election to the Baghdad Provincial Council. Already an active member
o f the local council, where nine o f his colleagues have been killed, he is
not enamored o f the existing order. “ We are an occupied country w ith a
puppet government,” he observes succinctly.
Poitras had found her subject. For the next eight months she docu­
mented Dr. Riyadh, who courageously invited her to stay at his house—
where Poitras viewed images o f the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib
w ith the doctor’s daughter on her very first n ight there— and to film his
clin ic .14M y Country, M y C ountry (2006) is a chronicle o f that experience.
I t is an intim ate film amid the carnage, piercingly human and deeply
poignant. I t is also an essential document o f the war (and the war after
the war). Like all o f her films, it is a self-effacing treatment. Poitras aims
fo r a kind o f intersubjective understanding. The documentarian and the
doctor are both troublemakers, in their fashion; both risk their lives for
th e ir principles— for their practice— and so too does the doctor’s family.
Poitras is her own camerawoman. H e r modus operandi is disarm­
ing. Typically, she holds the camera at waist height and looks down at
the viewfinder rather than hiding behind the lens. “ T he camera doesn’t
have to be a barrier,” she believes. “ I t ’s a witness.” H er films are eye­
witness accounts: camera-eye-witness accounts. She is intensely pres­
ent, yet unobtrusive; even the film in g is unobtrusive. T he code (or the
ethic) may owe something to the exemplary documentary filmmaker
Frederick Wiseman, whose metier is the study o f institutions and their
 TR O U BLEM AK ER S 213

My Country, My Country, 2006. Digital video, 90 min. Dr. Riyadh at Adhamiya Free Clinic,
Baghdad

inmates, and whose signature is a conscientious austerity and simplicity,

eschewing interviews, jump cuts, narration, or music.15The emphasis is
on scenes, fades, naturalism, and actuality: in Poitras’s words, “ people,
in real time, confronting life decisions.” U nlike Wiseman, she concen­
trates on the inmates, but her films are also investigations o f institutions
o f various kinds, above all the state, the consequences o f its coercive
power, and its moral purpose.
T h e human predicament is m inutely observed, but she manages to
retain a space fo r reflection and disputation, an openness at once eth­
ical and intellectual. Poitras is as empathetic as she is engage. She is
w illin g to listen. T here is a stillness to her camerawork w hile she does
just that. She encourages us to do the same. T h e e ffo rt is w orthw hile.
H e r films are fu ll o f unforced insights. In M y C ountry , M y C ountry , Dr.
Riyadh’s oldest daughter goes out to vote, in spite o f all, and comes
back singing the Iraqi national anthem. T h e title o f the film is drawn
from the opening words o f that anthem. For Poitras, as perhaps fo r
D r. Riyadh, Mmy country, my country” is inescapably double edged.
H e r next film was to be about Guantanamo. Poitras had the idea
o f documenting the reintegration o f a form er inmate who had been
214 ALEX D A N C H E V

The Oath, 2010. Digital video, 96 min. Salim Hamdan in captivity in Afghanistan, 2001

found innocent and returned to his home country. She went to Yemen,
the home country o f many inmates o f Guantanamo. O n her second
day in the capital, Sanaa, she had another extraordinary encounter. She
was introduced to a taxi driver called Nasser al-Bahri, whose nom de
guerre was Abu Jandal. Once upon a time, Abu Jandal had been Osama
bin Laden’s bodyguard, and his “ em ir o f hospitality,” in Afghanistan,
circa 1997-2000. W h a t is more, his brother-in-law was a prisoner at
Guantanamo. Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s driver, had spent six years
there, where he became both a test case and a cause celebre as the locus
o f a legal challenge to the power o f the state in the matter o f the m ili­
tary commissions (the case o f Harndan v. Rumsfeld), and the first person
to be tried under the hastily assembled M ilita ry Tribunals Act (2006).
Hamdan was eventually convicted o f providing m ilitary support to
A1 Qaeda but acquitted o f terrorist conspiracy. He was transferred to
Yemen in 2008 and reunited w ith his family the follow ing year. In 2012
his conviction was overturned on appeal.
Salim Hamdan, imprisoned at Guantanamo, would be a d ifficult sub­
ject. Abu Jandal, on the other hand, was a gift. He was garrulous in the
extreme. H e was a charismatic ex-jihadi who had supped w ith “ Sheikh
Osama,” as he called him, and claimed to know personally all nineteen o f
the 9/11 hijackers. He had fought in Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan. He
 T R O U BLEM AK ER S 215

had grown tired o f fighting. He had been troubled by Sheikh Osama’s

pledge o f loyalty to M ullah Omar, the Taliban leader in Afghanistan.
He had been incarcerated and interrogated. He had been through a
government rehabilitation program. He was counseling young Yemenis
who m ight sympathize w ith A1 Qaeda. He was worried about his ch il­
dren. H e was a kind o f jack-in-the-box. He loved to perform; it was
d ifficu lt to tell when he was perform ing and when he was not. H e was a
bad character, or at any rate an unreliable one. “ He was never who you
thought he was,” as Poitras remarked. T his was not at all the story she
had been looking for; it was a story that made her nervous, but it was
not a story she felt she could ignore. She decided to change tack. She
rented an apartment in Sanaa and asked Abu Jandal to install a camera
on the dashboard o f his taxi, so that he could be filmed plying his trade,
dissimulating w ith inquisitive passengers, and philosophizing, as was his
wont. He readily agreed. Abu Jandal is the star o f The Oath (2010). Salim
Hamdan is the ghost.
The Oath is ambiguous and unsettling. T he chief protagonist has
none o f the conspicuous hum anity o f Dr. Riyadh. Abu Jandal is very
slippery, a gray zone all o f his own. For much o f this film it seems Poitras
has lost the plot, possibly by design. Toward the end, however, a moral
unfolds, or perhaps a message. Im m ediately after 9/11, we learn, Abu
Jandal was interrogated in Yemen by A li Soufan, a Lebanese-American
FBI special agent. A t the time, Soufan was something o f a rarity in the
F B I— an Arabic speaker, a student o f international relations, a subtle
mind, and a sophisticated interrogator. (In the course o f his in te rro ­
gation, he noticed that the em ir o f hospitality declined some pastries,
because he was diabetic; the next night, he brought him some sugarless
wafers, a courtesy acknowledged by Abu Jandal.) As chief investigator
o f the bom bing o f the USS Cole the previous year, Soufan knew as much
as anyone about A1 Qaeda at that juncture. A detailed account o f his
interrogation o f Abu Jandal published in 2006 demonstrated beyond
doubt that Soufan got Abu Jandal to talk— and not merely to talk,
but to divulge actionable intelligence, the interrogator’s holy grail—
w ith o u t recourse to any “ enhanced interrogation techniques” or coer­
cion o f any kind, but rather by playing on weakness, flattery, cunning,
and moral suasion.16 In the film Soufan underlines the point: using
lawful procedures he gained vital intelligence— the kind o f intelligence
ALEX D A N C H E V

CITIZENFOUR , 2014. Digital video, 114 min. N S A /G C H Q Surveillance Base, Bude, England.
Rimed by Trevor Paglen
T R O U BLEM AK ER S 217
210 ALEX D AN C H EV

that torture does n o t yie ld .17For Poitras, this was the key: “ M aintaining
those kinds o f principles, you can actually get results, i f the end goal
is de-escalation o f violence or de-radicalization.” T h a t is the message
o f The O ath .
T he th ird in the trilo g y o f her investigations o f American power
after 9/11 was intended to bring the war home, in more ways than one.
Poitras was interested in domestic surveillance and the resistance to it.
Surveillance is not an easy subject for the filmmaker to engage: there is
no there there.18 Various strategies have been proposed to make visible
the invisible: Trevor Paglen, for example, takes ultra-long-distance pho­
tographs o f national-security sites, facilities invisible to the naked eye
or impenetrable to the democratic gaze. For C 1 T IZ E N F 0 U R , Poitras
commissioned Paglen to film at Bude and M enw ith H ill, England,
operated by Governm ent Communications Headquarters (G C H Q ),
the British equivalent to the N ational Security Agency. She began film ­
ing Julian Assange, in England; Glenn Greenwald, in Rio de Janeiro;
Jacob Appelbaum, in Berlin; and a retired cryptanalyst and mathemati­
cian named W illia m Binney, in Maryland, home o f the NSA.
Binney had worked for the N SA man and boy. In that community he
was a legendary figure; he has been described as one o f the best analysts
in the agency’s history. He resigned as Technical Leader for Intelligence
in October 2001, soon after he had concluded that the NSA was head­
ing in an unethical direction. Binney was outraged at the NSA!s failure
to foil the 9/11 plot. He believed that he and his team had developed
a system called T hin T h re a d that could solve the agency’s basic prob­
lem— it was overwhelmed by the amount o f digital data it was collect­
ing. T h inT hread was rejected in favor o f a rival approach, optim istically
christened Trailblazer, b u ilt by private contractors. In 2006, Trailblazer
was abandoned as a $1.2 b illion flop. Meanwhile, in the wake o f 9/11, and
under pressure from the W h ite House, the directorate o f the N SA sanc­
tioned an extensive program o f warrantless domestic surveillance. The
program was developed in secret. Binney was not “ read in,” but some
o f his people were; from the reports he received, he became convinced
that it employed a bastardized version o f his brainchild, stripped o f p ri­
vacy controls. Binney was all in favor o f m onitoring, code breaking, data
m ining, and signals intelligence— he had spent a professional lifetim e
trying to perfect such techniques— but he was fundamentally opposed
 T R O U BLEM AK ER S 219

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in«$ia@ ainesi**~$ rsync -P ghost@216>66i,;
a/Pe rs i stent/Yea rZero_Down load
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eceiving incremental f i l e l i s t
jstrp4ftpisp/jfa

CITIZENFOUR, 2014. Digital video, 114 min. Laura Poitras's computer screen as she began to
download files from Edward Snowden

to what he saw as illegal, unconstitutional, unaccountable, unjustifiable,

and indiscriminate spying on American citizens, not to mention the cor­
ruption and malfeasance that he thought had led to this debacle.
So did a copper-bottomed patriot and doyen o f the secret world
turn whistleblower. W illia m Binney is an unlikely troublemaker, but an
unbeatable source. He is old enough to remember Watergate and Deep
T h ro a t (later revealed to be M ark Felt), the source for Carl Bernstein
and Bob Woodward, the investigative reporters o f the Washington Post.
He alludes to this history in C IT IZ E N F O U R . T he lineage o f dissent is
well learned by the dissenters.
Poitras made a short film about him, The Progjam (2012), for the
New York Times.10 Binney explains his position, making lig h t o f the
risks he is taking— he mentions in passing a raid on his house, by heav­
ily armed FBI agents, one o f whom pointed a rifle at his head as he
emerged from the shower. I t was left to Poitras to spell out the serious­
ness o f his situation in an accompanying article: “ He is among a group
o f N SA whistleblowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have risked
everything— their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships— to
warn Americans about the dangers o f N SA domestic spying.” 20
The Program was to be a prelude. One o f its many online viewers
was Edward Snowden, who was already fam iliar w ith Poitras’s work. In
220 ALEX DAN C H EV

January 2013 he emailed her, anonymously, using the alias Citizenfour.

“ I am a senior member o f the intelligence community,” he told her,
w ith pardonable exaggeration. “ T h is w on’t be a waste o f your tim e.”
H e asked fo r her encryption key. She gave it to him. She was hooked.
So was he.21
Each needed to establish the bona fides o f the other: to find a
basis o f trust. Poitras was afraid o f entrapment. “ I don’t know i f you
are legit, crazy o r try in g to entrap me,” she wrote. Snowden (still
anonymous) was afraid o f exposure and arrest, o r worse, before he
had even begun. H e was also afraid o f being ignored. “ I ’m n ot going
to ask you anything,” he replied. “ I ’m just going to tell you things.”
H e needed Poitras in order to do what he had to do; he knew that
he w ould have to convince her to take him seriously. H e had already
tried and failed w ith Greenwald, who had not installed the neces­
sary encryption software fo r them to communicate securely. Poitras
was sound on security, and suspicious. U ltim ately, that was all to the
good, as Snowden recalled:

We came to a point in the verification and vetting process

where I discovered Laura was more suspicious o f me than I was
o f her, and I ’m famously paranoid. T he combination o f her
 TROUBLEMAKERS 221

CITIZENFOUR, 2014. Digital video, 114 min. Glenn Greenwald (left) interviewing Edward
Snowden, Mira Hotel, Hong Kong

experience and her exacting focus on detail and process gave

her a natural talent for security, and that’s a refreshing trait to
discover in someone who is likely to come under intense scru­
tin y in the future, as norm ally one would have to w ork very
hard to get them to take the risks seriously.
W ith that putting me at ease, it became easier to open up
w ithout fearing the invested trust would be mishandled, and I
th in k it ’s the only way she ever managed to get me on camera. I
personally hate cameras and being recorded, but at some point
in the w orking process, I realized I was unconsciously trust­
ing her not to hang me even w ith my naturally unconsidered
remarks. She’s good.22

Poitras was in deep, and she knew it. M uch to her surprise, after three
months o f emailing, C itizenfour inform ed her that he would not seek
to remain anonymous once the story broke and his treasure trove o f
documents was in the pipeline to the public domain. “ L e t’s divorce our
metadata one last tim e,” he wrote. “ I hope you w ill paint a target on my
back and tell the w orld I did this on my own.” H e r immediate response
was that she wanted to meet and that she wanted to film . C itizenfour
was horrified. “ I t ’s too dangerous, and it ’s not about me— I don’t want
222 ALEX D A N C H E V

CITIZENFOUR, 2014. Digital video, 114 min. Laura Poitras setting up her camera in Edward
Snowden’s hotel room, Mira Hotel, Hong Kong

to be the story.” “ Like it or not,” she replied, “ you’re going to be the

story, so you m ight as well get your voice in .”
And yet it was not quite as simple as that, as Poitras herself clearly
recognized. T h e Snowden case, or rather the Poitras case, is the para­
digm case o f the participant-observer. Like it or not, she had become
an actor in her own drama. Indeed, she was in some sense the moving
force— the director— w ith o u t any idea o f the identity or proclivity o f
her pseudonymous leading man. T h is gave rise to a number o f urgent
questions, practical and ethical. W hen she filmed Snowden she would
have need o f an accomplice. Happily, Snowden him self was o f the same
mind. H e urged her to find a collaborator to publish the documents and
explicate their meaning— not a simple task. H is preferred choice for
this key role was Greenwald.
T h e rest o f the story reads like John le Carre crossed w ith Kafka.25
Snowden transited from Hawaii to H ong Kong, w ith four laptops
and little else. Greenwald, w orking fo r The G uardian , enlisted Ewen
MacAsldll, the paper’s Washington bureau chief. Characteristically,
Snowden gave them precise instructions for their rendezvous: a confer­
ence room on the th ird floor o f the M ira H otel. He would be carrying
a R ubik’s Cube (unsolved). T h e y were to have an exchange about the
hotel food, and then to follow him. A fter a certain stutter— they were
 TR O U BLEM AK ER S 223

too early, he was too young— they arrived in his room. W ith o u t further
ado, Poitras proceeded to set up her camera. In a matter o f minutes she
was ready. “ I ’m going to begin film in g now,” she announced quietly,
and so it began.
She filmed for some twenty hours, over eight days. T h is is the core
o f C IT IZ E N F O U R : the encounter w ith Snowden in hiding; making
and breaking the story in the same breathless moment. In short order
Greenwald produced a series o f incendiary articles, and Poitras pro­
duced a short film , P R IS M W histleblower (2013).24 I t is this extraor­
dinary setup— people, in real time, confronting life decisions, w ith
a vengeance— that makes the full-length film so compelling: at once
th rille r and fable; a chamber piece and a political event o f tremendous
significance; a model o f cinema verite. C IT IZ E N F O U R is riveting. So is
Edward Snowden. H e sits on the bed, tense but collected. He speaks in
sentences, sometimes in paragraphs. He is cogent, principled, realistic,
modest. There are flashes o f w it, self-knowledge, even self-irony. The
modus operandi is as understated as ever.25
She was surely rig h t to in tu it that he was genuine, in every sense,
notwithstanding persistent attempts to demonize, psychologize, or
trivialize, fittin g him for the standard repertoire o f stock characters for
which dissenters are always fitted: traitor, narcissist, “ useful id io t.” 26
M otivations are often tangled, as Dostoevsky observes in Crim e and
Punishm ent• “ Sometimes actions are performed very skillfully, most
cleverly, but the aims o f the actions and their origin, are confused, and
depend on various m orbid influences.” 27 T h a t may be true o f Snowden,
as o f others, but there is no sign o f it.
In truth, troublemakers like Laura Poitras and Edward Snowden
have done the state some service. Dissenters are model citizens. As
A. J. P. Taylor and J. M . Coetzee remind us, they are traduced at the
time, and vindicated by posterity.28 “ A fter all,” another great dissenter
has w ritten, “ we have gotten used to regarding as valor only valor in war
(or the kind that’s needed fo r flying in outer space), the kind that jingle-
jangles w ith medals. We have forgotten another concept o f valor— c iv il
valor. And that’s all our society needs, just that, just that, just that! T h a t’s
all we need and that’s exactly what we haven’t got.” 29
224 ALEX D A N C H E V

NOTES A rt and W ar and T error (Edinburgh: Edinburgh

University Press, 2011), Chapter 8.
TTiis essay o riginally appeared in slightly d if­ 8. Glenn Greenwald, “ U.S. Filmmaker
ferent form in In te rn a tio n a l A ffa irs 91, no. 2 Repeatedly Detained at Border,” Salon, A pril 8,
(M arch 2015), pp. 381-92. 2012, http://www.sa1on.com/2012/04/08/u_s_
filmmakcr_repeatedly_dctained_at_border/.
1. Talking Heads, “ L ite D u rin g W artim e,” 9. George Packer, “ T h e H older o f Secrets,”
on Fea r of M usic ( Sire, 1979); M arc Bloch, New Yorker, O ctober 20, 2014, http ://w w w .
Strange D efeat (1948), trails. Gerard H opkins newyorker.com/magazi ne/2 0 1 4 /10/20/hold-
(N ew York: N o rto n , 1999), p. 173; A. J. P. er-secrets. Unless otherwise indicated, subse­
Taylor, The I rouble M akers (London: quent quotations from Poitras come from her
H a m ilto n, 1957), p. 14. conversation in this profile.
2. Eor her recent work, Poitras has been 10. C onor Fricdcrsdorf, “ ‘W hat die W ar on
awarded a M a cA rthur f ellowship, a George 1'error Actually Looks 1ake’: Laura Poitras on
Polk Award fo r national-security reporting, C itizenfbw ; ” The A tla n tic {October 2014), http ://
and a P ulitzer Prize fo r public service. She www.theatlantic.com/politi cs/archivc/2014/10/
was first nominated fo r an Academy Award for what-die-war-on-terror-actually-looks-like-lau-
M y C o u n tiy , M y C o m it/y (2006), the best doc­ ra-poitras-on-em-citizenfbur-cm/381749.
umentary yet made about the Iraq War, and 11. George Packer, “ W ar After the War,”
she won the award for C IT IZ E N F O U R . New Yorker, Novem ber 24, 2003, http://w w w .
3. Further information on the watch list has newyorker.com/magazinc/2 003/11/24/war-
since been divulged by The Intercept, drawing on after-the-war. T h is article was subsequently
more leaked documents. See Jeremy Scahill and woven into Packers profound study o f America
Ryan Devereaux, “ Watch Commander: Barack in Iraq, The Assassins' Gate (London: Faber and
Obama’s Secret T e rro ris t-! racking System, Faber, 2006), as its Chapter 7.
by the N um bers,” The Intercept, August 5, 12. Graham Greene, The Q uiet Am erican
2014, https://theintercept.com /2014/08/05/ (1955) (London: Vintage, 2004). Packer weighs
watch-commander. On the efficacy o r oth ­ the parallel in Assassins' Gate , p. 89.
erwise o f such procedures, see Mattathias 13. Packer, Assassins' Gate , Chapter 7.
Schwartz, “ T h e W hole I laystack,” N eiv Yorker, 14. On the Abu G hraib images and their
January 26, 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/ currency, see Danchev, On A r t and W ar and
magazine/2015/01 /26/whole-haystack. ’Terror, Chapter 9.
4. Peter Maass, “ H ow Laura Poitras Helped 15. David Thom son, “ Frederick W iseman,”
Snowden Spill H is Secrets,” New York Times in A B iographical D ictio n a ry o f F ilm (London:
Sunday M agazine , August 13, 2013, h ttp :// Deutsch, 1994), pp. 817-18, is a scintillating
www.nytim es.com /2013/08/18/magazine/ and skeptical assessment o f the filmmaker.
laura-poitras-snowden.html. W iseman’s first and most controversial film
5. Laura Poitras, “ T h e Program,” N rw York is T itic u t hollies (1967), on the Bridgewater
Ii?nes, August 23, 2012, http://w w w .nytimes. State I lospital fo r the crim in ally insane in
con i/2012/08/2 3/opinion/the-national-securi- Massachusetts.
ty-agency.s-domestic-spying-program.html. 16. Lawrence W rig h t, “ 'The Agent,” Neu>
6. Maass, “ I.aura Poitras.” Maass spec­ Yorker, July 10, 2006, http://www.newyorker.
ulates that her selectee status may relate com/magazine/2 006/07/10/thc-agent. The
to unfounded accusations about her p rio r article fonns Chapter 20 o f his celebrated study
knowledge o f an attack on U.S. soldiers while o f A1 Qaeda and the road to 9/11, The Loom ing
film in g in Baghdad in 2004, or to money Tim er (London: Penguin, 2007). Poitras makes
she sent to the subject o f her film , suspected reference to W rig h t’s account in her interview
(groundlessly) o f insurgent activities, w hen his w ith Friedersdorf, “ ‘W h a t the W ar on Terror
fam ily fled the civil war in 2006. Actually Looks Like.’ ”
7. Franz Kafka, 7 he T ria l (1925), trails. W illa 17. For more on this issue, see Danchev, On
and Edwin M uir, in The Collected Novels o f Franz A it and W ar and Terror, Chapter 8.
Kafka (London: Penguin, 1988), p. 9— the cele­ 18. Cf. f rank M o lle r and Rune S. Andersen,
brated opening sentence. See Alex Danchev, (h i “ Engaging the Lim its o f V isibility:
 TR O U BLEM AK ER S 225

Photography, Security and Surveillance,” 24. Laura Poitras, P R IS M W histleblow er (2013),

Security D ialogue 44 (2013), pp. 203-21, which video, The G u /rd ia n , }u n c 9, 2013, http://w w w .
focuses on Simon N o rfo lk and Trevor Paglen. theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jun/09/
19. Laura Poitras, The Program (2012), video, nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-intcr-
New York Times, August 22, 2012, h ttp :// view-video. Greenwald’s opening salvo focused
www.nytimes.eom/video/2012/08/22/opin- on dragnet surveillance calculated to outrage
ion/1000000017 33041/the-program.html. the American public was “ N SA Collecting
20. Poitras, “ T h e Program.” T he group Phone Records o f M illions o f Verizon
consists o f Binney, Drake, J. K irk Wiebe and Customers Daily,” The G u a rd ia n ,]une 6, 2013,
Edward Loomis, “ the NS A Four.” See also Jane http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/
Mayer, “ 'The Secret Sharer,” New Yorker, jun/06/nsa-phonc-records-verizon-eourt-or-
May 23, 2011, http://www.newyorker.com/ der. T h e trio were also concerned to make the
magazine/2011/05/2 3/the-secret-sharcr. point that G C H Q is in some respects even
Subtitled “ Is Thomas Drake an Enemy o f the more invasive, as C IliZ E N F O U R underlines.
State?” the article provides a penetrating analy­ See, e.g., Ewen MacAskill et al., “ Mastering
sis o f his case, which sheds light on all o f them, the Internet: H ow G C H Q Set O ut to Spy on
Binney included— and on the punitive response the W orld W ide W eb,” The G uardian, June 21,
o f the Obama administration to whistleblowers. 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/
21. 'The story as it unfolds is told in the ju n /2 1/gchq-mastering-the-internet.
well-inform ed instant history by Luke 25. David Bromwich suggests something similar
Harding, The Snowden Files (London: Guardian in “ The Question o f Edward Snowden,” New
Faber, 2014), and in the first person by York Review o f Rooks, December 4, 2014, http://
Glenn Greenwald in chapters 1 and 2 o f his www.nylx)oks.com/articles/archi ves/2014/
No Place to H ide: Edw ard Snowden, the N SA dcc/04/question-edward-snowden.
and the Surveillance State (1 ,ondon: Penguin, 26. See, e.g., Jeffrey Tbobin, “ Edward Snowden
2014). Subsequent quotes from the Snowden- Is N o Hero,” New Yorker, June 10, 2013, http ://
Poitras correspondence are from Harding. www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/
Greenwald has his faults, and his detractors, edward-snowden-is-no-hcro; N igel Inkster,
b lit his book is an invaluable account o f the “ T h e Snowden Revelations: M yths and
Snowden affair by one o f the main actors. Misapprehensions,” S u rv iv a l 56 (2014),
Supplemented by his website, glenngrcenwald. pp. 51-60; and Loch K. Johnson, ed., “ An IN S
net, it is also a sourcebook o f documents. For Special Forum: Implications o f the Snowden
judicious critiques o f his sometimes simplistic Leaks,” Intelligence and N atio n a l Security 29
positions on the issues, sec David Gole, “No (2014), pp. 793-810, in particular the contribu­
Place to H ide by Glenn Greenwald, on the tion o f Rose M cD erm ott (pp. 802-04).
NSA’s Sweeping Efforts to ‘Know It A ll’,” 27. Fyodor Dostoevsky, C rim e and Punishm ent
Washington Post, May 12, 2014, https://www. (1866), trans. Jessie Coulson (O xford: W o rld ’s
washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-place- Classics, 1998), p. 217. Snowden read this
to-hide-by-glenn-grecnwald-on-the-nsas- book in Moscow, his next way station after
sw eeping-efforts-to-know-it-all/2014/05/12/ H o n g Kong.
dfa45dec-d628-lle3-8a78-8fe50322a72c_ 28. Taylor, Trouble M akers, p. 16; J. M . Coetzee
story.html; and George Packer, “ Intoxicating to Chelsea Manning, December 2, 2014, a
C onviction,” Prospect (June 2014), pp. 48-52. letter that appeared in The G uardian as part o f
22. “ Q & A: Edward Snowden Speaks to Peter “ Dear Chelsea Manning: Birthday Wishes from
Maass,” New Yoib Times, August 13, 2013, Edward Snowden, Terry Gilliam , and M ore,”
http://www.nytim es.com /2013/08/18/maga- December 17, 2014, http://www.theguardian.
zinc/snowdcn-maass-transcript.html. c<>m/us-news/2 014/dec/16/-sp-dear-chelsea-
23. M ichiko Kakutani, “ T h e Needles in manning-birthday-messages-from-edward-
the M onumental N.S.A. Haystack: ‘ I hc snowdcn-terry-gilliam-and-more#img-6.
Snowden Files,’ by Luke ITarding,” New York 29. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, trans. Thomas P.
Times, February 4, 2014, http:/Avww.nytimes. W hitney, The G ulag Archipelago (London:
com/2014/02/05/books/the-snowdcn-files-by- H arvill, 1974), parts I- II, pp. 461-62.
lukc-harding.html.
226

Artist’s Acknowledgments

I am deeply fortunate to have collaborated w ith the W h itn e y Museum

o f American A rt on Astro Noise.
In cinema we have the tradition o f end credits to acknowledge
the unique roles o f people who make a film possible. Like films, a
museum exhibition is a collective undertaking. As this project presented
uncharted waters for me, I am deeply thankful to the many individuals
who contributed their expertise, creative vision, and support to the cre­
ation o f Astro Noise.
There are four individuals w ith o u t whom this w ork would not exist.
From its conception to actualization, Jay Sanders challenged me to
push boundaries w hile making sure I stayed true to my vision; Donna
De Salvo offered her unwavering trust and encouraged me to take artis­
tic risks; Brenda C oughlin collaborated on every aspect o f Astro Noise,
contributing unparalleled production expertise and calm under fire; and
H e n rik M oltke provided the backbone research and reporting on which
the exhibition and book are built.
I offer my deep gratitude to Adam D. Weinberg, the director o f the
W hitney; Scott Rothkopf, the museum’s deputy director for programs
and chief curator; and the Board o f Trustees for their trust and support.
T he actualization o f the exhibition is the w ork o f Lauren D iL o re to ,
who managed a m illio n m oving parts and made it look effortless; Peter
K irby, whose invaluable wisdom drove the production and turned
vision in to reality; Ravi Rajan, who brought his shrewd, expert judg­
ment and irreplaceable guidance; M ark Steigelman and Anna M artin,
who oversaw the floor plan and construction integral to the show;
Reid Farrington, Jay A bu-IIam da, and the rest o f the team, whose
warm spirits and expertise ensured my A W needs were met; and Greta
Hartenstein, whose curatorial assistance kept us on track.
I am profoundly grateful to Yoni Golijov, for his adept studio manage­
ment in balancing m ultiple projects and approaching each w ith passion
and a critical eye; M elody London, for her always beautiful and heartfelt
 227

editing, which brings compassion to the screen; Danny Durtsche, for

his crucial role in realizing the art pieces; Iddo Arad and Maura Wogan,
fo r their indispensable legal support; Nicholas Fortugno, for his irre ­
sistible brilliance and enthusiastic spirit o f collaboration; Josh Begley,
fo r his artistic insight and invigorating support; Djuna Schamus, for her
exceptional research; and Charlie M orrow , Jeff Aaron Bryant, Rebecca
Drapkin, R. I. P. Hayman, and the whole Charles M o rro w Productions
team, fo r bringing their artistry to the sound design.
Bed Down Location in particular presented a challenge. The work
exists thanks to a dedicated team. In addition to those whom I have
already thanked, I would like to extend my gratitude to Faisal bin Ali
Jaber fo r generously sharing his story and the footage he collected
documenting the drone strike that killed two members o f his family;
Sammi al-Iryani, who devoted him self to the critical task o f finding vid-
eographers where the drone wars are most active; Jonah Greenstein,
who aided in conceptualizing and experimenting w ith the imagery; cin­
ematographer Stephanc Guisard, who graciously shared his time and
hard-earned astrophotography wisdom; and C ori C rider and Reprieve,
who provided invaluable assistance. Thank you also to Waleed
Ahmed, M atthieu Aikins, Andrew Berends, Iona Craig, Anand Gopal,
Abdulrahman Hussein, Sheila Maniar, Paul Mason, Omar MuIIick,
Jamal Osman, Mohammed al-Qalisi, Muhammed Ali Sheikh, Khaled
Taher, and Bassam Tariq. I regret that at the time o f this w ritin g I can­
not name all the journalists and camera operators who went into the
field to bring the drone wars into the exhibition.
T he volume you hold in your hands is the result o f an artistic col­
laboration w ith designer Joseph Logan, who created a book that both
embodies the exhibition and stands on its own, and w ith the book’s
authors. I ’m deeply thankful to each o f them— Ai Weiwrei, Jacob
Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumediene, Kate Crawford, Alex Danchev,
C ory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, J ill Magid, Trevor Paglen, Jay Sanders,
Edward Snowden, and H ito Steyerl— fo r their exquisite w riting, and
for accepting my invitation to dive deep, stay connected to political
realities, have fun, and break the rules.
And yet the texts, however brilliant, could not assemble themselves
into a book. For that I owe sincere gratitude to a tremendous publica­
tions team: Beth lluscm an, for making our ideas a reality and proposing
228

we p rin t and distribute a free version; Elizabeth Levy, fo r her consum­

mate oversight and orchestration; E ric Banks and Dom enick A m m irati,
fo r their incisive editing; Rachel Hudson, for her design brilliance;
Nerissa Dom inguez Vales, fo r shepherding the production; and Jacob
H o rn , for navigating image clearances, several o f which presented
unique challenges.
M y gratitude also goes to the many people who worked on the public
program m ing indispensible to this exhibition’s impact: Megan Hcucr,
fo r her leadership and inspired insights; E m ily Arensman, fo r her com­
m itm ent to the programs’ success; Kathryn Potts, Heather Maxson,
and Sasha W ortzel, fo r their w ork building an incredible Youth Insights
program; and H a rlo Holmes, fo r taking on the essential task o f design­
ing encryption-education events.
Many friends have shared their support, advice, and knowledge.
I ’m especially grateful to Kirsten Johnson, M erel Koning, Jeremy
Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, Katy Scoggin, Pandora Zolotor, AJ Schnack,
Charlotte Cook, Allegra Searle-LeBel, Cara Mertes, Ruby Lerner, Stuart
Horodner, Diane Weyermann, Ryan Werner, Jenny Perlin, Ed Halter,
David Sobel, Trevor T im m , Bart Beckermann, Sarah Harrison, Ben
Wizner, Abdulghani al-Iryani, and Jamie Lee W illiams.
T h e follow ing organizations provided vital assistance along the way:
Freedom o f the Press Foundation, Field o f Vision, First L ook Media
and The Intercept, Creative Capital, Electronic F rontier Foundation,
and the American C iv il Liberties U nion. For their generous support,
I thank the Sundance Institute, David Menschel and the V ital Projects
Fund, the M acA rthur Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the
U SA Rockefeller Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman, B R IT D O C ,
the Bertha Foundation, Cinereach, and the Ford Foundation and its
president, Darren Walker.
T h is exhibition emerges from nearly fifteen years o f documenting
post-9/11 America and the global consequences o f the so-called war on
terror. N one o f my w ork would be possible w ithout the many individ­
uals who took enormous risks to allow me to film their efforts to build
a more just world.

— Laura Poitras
230

Curator’s Acknowledgments

To Laura Poitras: I t was a little over three years ago in our correspon­
dence that I said, “ L e t’s stay in touch and find a way to collaborate
again.” I could never have imagined that Astro Noise would be the result.
T h e process o f w orking w ith you on this exhibition and publication has
been enlightening and challenging in so many ways, and I am honored
that you would put your time, trust, and vision in the W hitney and me.
I was introduced to Laura thanks to the W hitney Biennial 2012.
Thank you to my co-curators o f that exhibition: Elisabeth Sussman,
curator and Sondra G ilm an C urator o f Photography, and Thomas
Beard and Ed Ila lte r, with whom I had the great opportunity to first
present Poitras’s work at the W hitney. M argie Weinstein, form er man­
ager o f education initiatives, supported Laura’s Surveillance Teach-In
as a Biennial public program, and Elisabeth Sherman, Esme Watanabe,
and Sophie Cavoulacos steadfastly produced the exhibition.
Being a part o f the W h itn e y Museum at this momentous tim e is
something I w ill treasure for years to come. To Adam D. Weinberg,
the W h itn e y ’s Alice Pratt Brown D irector, thank you for your endless
leadership, enthusiasm, and support through this process and toward
everything we all do. Donna De Salvo, form er chief curator and cur­
rent deputy director for international initiatives and senior curator, has
provided unfailing encouragement and guidance to me and to Laura as
wre undertook this endeavor, and Scott Rothkopf, deputy director for
programs and Nancy and Steve C row n Fam ily C hief Curator, expertly
advised, supported, and propelled this exhibition through to comple­
tion. And to die W h itn e y Museum Board o f Trustees, we are so grateful
to have your support and deep com m itm ent as we continually cham­
pion and challenge the importance and definitions o f American art.
Greta Hartenstein, my curatorial assistant, has at every turn through
the inevitable labyrinth o f such an ambitious project provided wisdom
and innovative thin kin g and offered boundless enthusiasm and sup­
port to all aspects o f Astro Noise. Special thanks as well to Andrew W.
 231

M e llo n Foundation Curatorial Fellow Lauren Rosati for her acumen

and deft thinking, and to our interns, Lola Harney, Gregor Quack, and
Alessandra Gomez.
One o f the great pleasures o f this project has been working with the
remarkable team that has progressively assembled itself in Laura’s studio
and beyond to manifest the exhibition and book. First and foremost,
the b rilliant Brenda Coughlin has been our collaborator through all
aspects o f this project, and wc are grateful beyond words for die support
and attention she has given to it. Yoni G olijov has not missed a meet­
ing yet and has juggled the many needs and production aspects w ith
uncanny ease. Peter K irb y accepted the unique challenge o f facilitating
this vision’s becoming a technical reality w ithin the W hitney’s galleries,
and we thank him for his knowledge and ingenuity. So too Ravi Rajan
brought his expertise for guiding ideas into aesthetic forms to bear on
many aspects o f this project, as did Danny Durtsche in his close work with
Laura on the specific artistic details that constitute many o f the works.
A special acknowledgment is due H enrik M oltke, who has studied, ana­
lyzed, and translated the most complex material into knowledge that has
supported so much im portant work. T he Charles M o rro w Productions
team (Charlie M orrow , w ith Jeff Aaron Bryant, Rebecca Drapkin, and
R. I. P. Hayman) collaborated to provide innovative audio expertise to
design and enhance the impact o f the exhibition. And I second Laura’s
own acknowledgments and offer a major thanks to her additional col­
laborators and associates whom I did not have the pleasure o f meeting
but whose w ork helped realize this ambitious and im portant exhibition.
From the very first concept meeting it was clear that Astro Noise: A
S u rv iv a l Guide fo r L iv in g Under Total Surveillance would be a book like
no other. Beth Huseman, director o f publications, never blinked at this
prospect and instead fervently saw to it that its ambitions be realized at
the highest level in every way. We thank her immensely for her dedi­
cation. Jacob H o rn , editorial assistant, facilitated its complexities w ith
great care and sensitivity. Designer Joseph Logan worked w ith Laura
and me on the W h itn e y Biennial 2012 catalogue, and his magical ability
to create the most exquisite books amid the frenzy o f countless moving
parts meant he was to be our trusted collaborator here. And thank you
to Rachel Hudson fo r her w ork w ith Joseph and the ideas and care
she brought to this book. Project manager Elizabeth Levy gracefully
232

oversaw all facets o f the volum e’s creation, and her tireless com m itm ent
and attention to every detail ensured that it came to fruition. Editors
E ric Banks and Dom enick A m m irati worked closely w ith the authors,
Laura, and myself to hone our ideas and see to it that the book as a
whole maintained the complexity o f our intent. Nerissa Dominguez
Vales masterfully trafficked the images, production, and printing, and
we thank her for all her care. And thank you so much to our writers: A i
W eiwei, Jacob Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumediene, Kale Crawford, Alex
Danchev, C ory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, J ill Magid, Trevor Paglen,
Edward Snowden, and H i to Steyerl.
In so many ways, the particularities o f Laura’s work have asked new
things o f the W hitney Museum, and we are grateful for the challenges
and our ability to meet them. John S. Stanley, chief operating officer,
supported us at the highest level. Nicholas S. Holmes, general counsel at
the W hitney, deserves a special acknowledgment for guiding us through
much new territory and doing so w ith dedication to the institution and its
fundamental goal o f supporting artists. H e sought the counsel and sup­
port o f an amazing legal team, including David Schulz, who masterfully
led us through the intricacies o f presenting these complicated materials,
and John Charles Thomas, whose long history w ith the W hitney and
w orking w ith artists greatly supports the work we all do.
Thank you to my fantastic colleagues at the W hitney, many o f
whom worked intim ately w ith Laura and her studio w ith an open, col­
laborative spirit. E xhibition coordinator Lauren D iL o re to helmed our
flig h t in to deep space, guiding all aspects o f the project through pitch
darkness, around faint disturbances, and toward our final goal, charted
at the distant edge o f the known universe.
Thanks to my curatorial colleagues fo r their support, especially the
thoughtful and valued guidance o f E m ily Russell, director o f curato­
rial affairs, as well as all my curatorial colleagues, who offer continual
dialogue and encouragement: Carter Foster, Barbara Haskell, Chrissie
lies, David K iehl, Christopher Y. Lew, Dana M ille r, Jane Panetta,
Christiane Paul, Laura Phipps, Carrie Springer, and those curators I
have mentioned above.
Christy Putnam, associate director for exhibitions and collections
management, has guided her team to design and support this exhibi­
tion to its fullest realization. T he physical spaces o f the exhibition and
 233

their unique details were created w ith the expertise o f M ark Steigelman,
exhibition design and construction manager, and Anna M artin, design
and construction associate designer. T he W hitney’s A /V staff played
an integral role in the technical aspects o f this show and installed and
maintained it w ith extreme care. Thank you to Reid Farrington, Jay
Abu-Hamda, Richard Bloes, Peter Berson, and Jeff Bergstrom. So too
Peter Guss, director o f inform ation technology, and Sang Lee, manager
o f inform ation technology, offered their expertise to the realization o f the
work, as did Peter Scott, director o f facilities, David Selimoski, engineer,
and Larissa Gentile, building project manager.
T hank you to Adrian Hardwicke, director o f visitor experience, for
his w ork to envisage how the audience w ill navigate this uncompro­
mising exhibition and to John Balestrieri, director o f security, for his
concern fo r the safety o f both the work and the visitors at all times.
To our advancement team, Alexandra Wheeler, deputy director o f
advancement, H illa ry Strong, director o f institutional advancement,
and M organ Arenson, manager o f foundation and government rela­
tions, we deeply appreciate w orking so closely w ith you on the support
and funding o f this exhibition and fo r your openness to its experimental
approach and its real-time manifestation.
And great thanks are due our exemplary Education Department
team. Kathryn Potts, associate director, Helena Rubinstein C hair o f
Education advised from the outset and has thoughtfully considered the
sensitivities o f an exhibition that asks tough questions to us as both
art viewers and Americans, w orking w ith her team to guide our visi­
tors through the experience in an engaged and contemplative manner.
Megan Heuer, director o f public programs and public engagement, and
E m ily Arensman, manager o f public programs, collaborated closely
w ith Laura, her studio, and me and have put forth a formidable and
innovative program o f public events, taking myriad forms, which we
see as integral aspects o f the exhibition. A special thanks to the partici­
pants in the public programs that w ill help bring the exhibition content
in to real-world applications via art, film , encryption, and discussion.
For their ongoing support producing our programs in the W h itn e y’s
theater and beyond, thank you to Lana M ione, theater manager, and
Amanda Davis, performance coordinator. Anne Byrd, director o f
interpretation and academic programs, facilitated the public’s access
234

and understanding o f the exhibition and its artistic intent, and Gene
M cH u g h wrote the articulate, inform ative texts that accompany view­
ers through the exhibition. Danielle Linzer, director o f access and com­
m unity programs, worked closely w ith us as well.
H ila ry Greenbaum, director o f graphic design, and her glorious
team, V irginia Chow, Sung M un, and L iz Plahn, brought their inge­
nuity and creativity to the show’s typography, signage, and brochure.
T hank you to Je ff Levine, chief marketing and communications
officer, and Stephen Soba, director o f communications, and their
hard-w orking team, Amanda Angel, Sarah M eller, and Sara Rubenson,
among others, fo r their dedication to the project.
For the advice and generosity o f those peers who offered their
audiovisual expertise and consultation, we thank Aaron Louis, D irector
o f Audio Visual, T h e Museum o f M odern Art; Anne Breckenridge
Barrett, J.D., D ire cto r o f Collections and Exhibitions, Museum o f
Contem porary A rt Chicago; Daniel Slater, Senior Exhibitions Manager,
V ictoria and A lbert Museum; Benjamin Pearcy, 59 Productions; Lindsay
Danckwerth, D irector, Special Projects, Galerie Lelong; and Victoria
Brooks, Curator, T im e Based Visual Art, EM PAC — T he Curtis R.
Priem Experimental Media and Perform ing Arts Center, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.
A special thanks also to those colleagues and friends who have pro­
vided counsel and advice: Julia Angwin, Artists Space (Richard B irkett
and Stefan Kalmar), Paul Chan, Tony Conrad, Nicholas Fortugno,
Bettina Funcke, Melanie G illigan, Johannas Goebel (EMPAC), Carol
Greene, J. Hoberman, Alex Hubbard, Robert H u llo t-K e n to r, John
K night, Andy Lampert, Je ff Larson, Annie Ochmanek, Paige Sarlin,
SVA C ritical Theory and the Arts, Ann Webb (Royal O ntario Museum),
E m ily Zim m erm an, and the one and only Sarah Michelson.

—Jay Sanders
C urator and C urator o f Performance
W hitney Museum o f American A rt
236

‘Anarchist” Image Index

Anarchist is the code name of an operation run by the British Army for the UK’s Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). From the top of the Troodos Mountains on the
island nation of Cyprus, two antennae operating twenty-four hours a day intercept signals
from satellites, drones, and radars in the Mediterranean region.

The selection of visualizations in Astro Noise comprises snapshots of signals collected

through Anarchist They show various stages in the processing of the collected signals.
The images are from GCWiki, an internal British intelligence wiki disclosed to Laura Poitras
and other journalists by Edward Snowden.

Pages 2 -3 : Data feed with Doppler Pages 4 -5 : Israeli drone video feed,
tracks from a satellite, intercepted intercepted June 10, 2009
May 27, 20 09

Pages 6 -7 : Air traffic control signals, Pages 8 -9 : Israeli drone feed,

intercept date unknown intercepted February 24, 2009

Pages 10-11: Unidentified signal Pages 12-13: Air traffic control data
from an Israeli source, intercepted plots near Astrakhan, Russia, intercept
January 23, 2009 date unknown
 237

Pages 14-15: Data feed from a French Pages 242-43: Unidentified signal
satellite, intercepted March 30, 2009 from an Israeli source, intercepted
April 15, 2009

Pages 244-45: Signal from an Pages 246-47: Data feed from a

unidentified source, intercepted drone, intercepted July 7, 2009
April 5, 2009

Pages 248-49: Air traffic control data Pages 250-51: Data burst,
plots near the Turkish-Syrian border, intercepted O ctober 25, 2009
intercept date unknown

Pages 252-53: Commercial satellite Pages 254-55: Satellite feed with

feed, intercept date unknown Doppler track, intercepted May 28,
2009
238

W H ITN EY M U S E U M Chairman Emeritus Trustees

OF A M ER IC AN ART Leonard A. Lauder Steven Ames
B O A R D O F TRUSTEES J. Darius Bikoff
Honorary Chairman David Carey
Flora Miller Biddle Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo
Henry Cornell
Co-Chairmen Frederic Cumenal
Neil G. Bluhm Fiona Irving Donovan
Laurie M. Tisch Fairfax N. Dorn
Lise Evans
President Victor F. Ganzi
Richard M. DeMartini Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Philip H. Geier, Jr.
Chairman of the Executive Robert Gersh, ex officio
Committee Robert B. Goergen
Robert J. Hurst Sondra Gilman Gonzalez-
Falla
Vice Chairmen James A. Gordon
Susan K. Hess Anne Dias Griffin
Warren B. Kanders Kenneth C. Griffin
S cott Resnick George S. Kaufman
Thomas E. Tuft Raymond J. Learsy
Jonathan O. Lee
Vice Presidents Raymond J. McGuire
Nancy Carrington Crown Brooke Garber Neidich
Pamella G. DeVos John C. Phelan
Beth Rudin DeWoody Donna Perret Rosen
Paul C. Schorr, IV Richard D. Segal
Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer Jonathan S. Sobel
Fern Kaye Tessler Fred Wilson
David W. Zalaznick
Secretary
Nancy Poses Honorary Trustees
Joel S. Ehrenkranz
Treasurer Gilbert C. Maurer
Miyoung Lee
Founder
Alice Pratt Brown Director Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Adam D. Weinberg, ex officio

As of October 27, 2015

 239

W H ITN EY M USEUM Alison Abreu-Garcia Regine David

OF A M ERICAN ART Jay Abu-Hamda Amanda Davis
STAFF Stephanie Adams Monserrate DeLeon
Osman Ahmed Margo Delidow
Adrienne Alston Donna De Salvo
Martha Alvarez-LaRose Lauren DiLoreto
Amanda Angel John Donovan
Marilou Aquino Marisa Donovan
Emily Arensman Lisa Dowd
Morgan Arenson Anita Duquette
Kristina Arike Kasim Earl
David Armacost Erica Eaton
I. D. Aruede Cesar Espinoza
John Balestrieri Alvin Eubanks
Wendy Barbee-Lowell Reid Farrington
Caroline Barnett Katherine Flores
Matthew Barnett Seth Fogelman
James Bartolacci Carter Foster
Courtney Bassett Caroline Fox
Caroline Beasley Shaniece Frank
Bernadette Beauchamp Samuel Franks
Teo Beauchamp Murlin Frederick
Harry Benjamin Lauri Freedman
Caitlin Bermingham Kyle Freeman
Stephanie Birmingham Annie French
Eliza Blackman Donald Garlington
Ivy Blackman Anthony Gennari
Hillary Blass Larissa Gentile
Richard Bloes Ronnie George
Alexandra Bono Claudia Gerbracht
Cristine Brooks Sarah Giovanniello
Algernon Brown Hilary Greenbaum
Hollister Brown Peter Guss
Douglas Burnham Stewart Hacker
Thomas Burns Adrian Hardwicke
Ron Burrell Tara Hart
Garfield Burton Greta Hartenstein
Anne Byrd Barbara Haskell
Jocelyn Cabral Maura Heffner
Pablo Caines Dina Helal
Margaret Cannie Peter Henderson
Jane Carey Jennifer Heslin
Amanda Carrasco Megan Heuer
Maritza Castro Ann Holcomb
Christina Cataldo Nicholas S. Holmes
Inde Cheong Abigail Hoover
Claire Cheyney-Henry Jacob Horn
Virginia Chow Ayyub Howard
Ramon Cintron Sarah Humphreville
Randy Clark Beth Huseman
Ron Clark Chrissie lies
Errol Coore Gina Im
Brenna Cothran Zoe Jackson
Heather Cox Carlos Jacobo
Kenneth Cronan Jesse Jenkins
Monica Crozier Dolores Joseph
Mia Curran Vinnie Kanhai
240

Chris Ketchie Kimie O ’Neill Joel Snyder

Farrah Khatibi Rose O ’Neill-Suspitsyna Michele Snyder
David Kiehl Nelson Ortiz Stephen Soba
Thomas Killie Nicky Ozir Barbi Spieler
Kathleen Koehler Jane Panetta Carrie Springer
Irene Koo Sejin Park John Stanley
Tom Kraft Christiane Paul Mark Steigelman
Melinda Lang Mary Paul Minerva Stella
Eunice Lee Jessica Pepe Betty Stolpen
Sang Soo Lee Natasha Pereira Hillary Strong
Monica Leon Jason Phillips Paul Suarez
Rachel Lesser Laura Phipps Emily Sufrin
Jen Leventhal Angelo Pikoulas Emilie Sullivan
Jeffrey Levine Elizabeth Plahn Denis Suspitsyn
Christopher Lew Mary Potter Elisabeth Sussman
Danielle Linzer Kathryn Potts Hannah Swihart
Kelley Loftus Rachel Pridgen Ellen Tepfer
Robert Lomblad Linda Priest Latasha Thomas
Emma Lott Stephen Ptacek Zoe Tipp!
Doug Madill Vincent Punch Ana Torres
Trista Mallory Christy Putnam Stacey Traunfeld
Elyse Mallouk Julie Rega Beth Turk
Jessica Man James Reyes Lauren Turner
Carol Mancusi-Ungaro Gregory Reynolds Lucas Underwood
Louis Manners Emanuel Riley Matthew Vega
Anna Martin Ariel Rivera Ray Vega
Heather Maxson Felix Rivera Eric Vermilion
Meredith McDevitt Jeffrey Robinson Emily Villano
Patricia McGeean Richard Robinson Billie Rae Vinson
Caitlin McKee Georgianna Rodriguez Farris Wahbeh
Michael McQuilkin Manuel Rodriguez Adam D. W einberg
Sandra Meadows Gina Rogak Alexandra Wheeler
Nicole Melanson Clara Rojas-Sebesta Charlotte Wittmann
Sarah Meller Justin Romeo Andrew Wojtek
Bridget Mendoza Adrienne Rooney Sasha Wortzel
Graham Miles Joshua Rosenblatt Laura W right
Dana Miller Jamie Rosenfeld Sefkia Zekiroski
David Miller Amy Roth Kayla Zemsky
Lana Mione S cott Rothkopf Nicolette Zorn
Christie Mitchell Sara Rubenson
Christa Molinaro Emily Russell As of October 14, 20 15
Matthew Moon Angelina Salerno
Sara Mora Leo Sanchez
Michael Moriah Jay Sanders
Victor Moscoso Galina Sapozhnikova
Sung Mun Lynn Schatz
Eleonora Nagy Meryl Schwartz
Anthony Naimoli Peter S cott
Daniel Nascimento Michelle Sealey
Ruben Negron David Selimoski
Randy Nelson Jason Senquiz
Tracey Newsome Leslie Sheridan
Carlos Noboa Elisabeth Sherman
Pauline Noyes Dyeemah Simmons
Jaison O ’Blenis Justin Singleton
Brianna O'Brien Lowndes Matt Skopek
Suzanna Okie Adrienne Smith
 241

PHOTOGRAPHY AND The following is a partial p. 26: Photograph by Oresti

REPR O D U C TIO N list of copyright holders, Tsonopoulos
CREDITS photographers, and sources p. 29: Photograph by Greta
of visual material. Additional Hartenstein
information about images p. 38: G C H Q
appears on pages 2 3 6 -3 7 p. 60: Courtesy Professor
and page 256. Unless Ramzi Kassem, CUNY
otherwise indicated, all School of Law, Immigrant and
images are courtesy the Non-Citizen Rights Clinic,
artist. Every effort has been New York, counsel for Moath
made to obtain permissions al-AIwi
for all copyright-protected p. 80: Photograph by Laura
images; if there are any Poitras
errors or omissions, please p. 107: Courtesy the
contact the publisher so that National Radio Astronomical
corrections can be made in Observatory Archives,
any subsequent edition. Charlottesville, Virginia/
Associated Universities, Inc./
National Science Foundation
p. 108: Courtesy the Naval
Research Laboratory,
Washington, D.C.
p. 109: Courtesy the Naval
Research Laboratory,
Washington, D.C.
p. 110: Courtesy NASA
p. 113: National Security
Agency
p. 116: © Trevor Paglen
p. 120: Courtesy NASA
p. 138: Department of the
Interior/USGS
p. 141: Digitized by the
Internet Archive in 2013
p. 145: National Security
Agency
p. 150: Photograph by Daniel
Enchev via Flickr
p. 174: Photograph by Hito
Steyerl

SIipease: Excerpt of clas­

sified FBI document, 2010,
from investigation of Laura
Poitras obtained through
Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit. Redactions have
been made by the United
States government.

Divider images: Laura

Poitras, O'Say Can You See,
2001/2011. Digital video,
15 min.
Astro Noise: A Survival Guide for Living This catalogue was produced by the
Under Total Surveillance was published on the publications department at the Whitney
occasion of the exhibition Laura Poitras: Astro Museum of American Art, New York:
Noise, curated by Jay Sanders, curator and Beth A. Huseman, director of publications;
curator of performance, with the assistance Beth Turk, editor; Anita Duquette, manager,
of Greta Hartenstein, curatorial assistant, rights and reproductions; and Jacob Horn,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, editorial assistant.
February 5 -M a y 1,2 016 .
Project manager: Elizabeth Levy
The exhibition Laura Poitras: A stro Noise Editors: Eric Banks and Domenick Ammirati
was developed in collaboration with the Design: Joseph Logan and Rachel Hudson
artist and her studio, Praxis Films: Brenda Production: The Production Department
Coughlin, producer; Henrik Moltke, research; Image research: Jacob Horn and Henrik Moltke
Yoni Golijov, studio manager; Ravi Rajan, Proofreader: Chesley Hicks
design; and Danny Durtsche, fabrication.
Printing and binding: GHP, W est Haven, CT
Major support for this exhibition is provided by Typeset in Eurostile, Akzidenz, and Janson
The Andy Warhol Foundation. Printed on 115gsm Arctic Volume W hite

Significant support is provided by the Teiger Printed and bound in the United States
Foundation, the Keith Haring Foundation 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Exhibition Fund, and The Reva & David Logan
Foundation. ISBN 97 8-0-3 0 0 -2 1 7 6 5 -0

Copyright (c) 2016 by the Whitney Museum of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

American Art, New York. Data
Names: Poitras, Laura, author. | Sanders, Jay,
All rights reserved. This book may not be 1 9 7 5 -, writer of introduction. | Ai, Weiwei,
reproduced, in whole or in part, including writer of added text. | Whitney Museum of
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying American Art, host institution, issuing body.
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Title: Astro noise : a survival guide for living
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers under total surveillance / Laura Poitras ;
for the public press), without written with an introduction by Jay Sanders and
permission from the publishers. contributions by Ai W eiwei [and 12 others).
Description: New York : Whitney Museum
AH film stills copyright © Praxis Films of American Art, [2016] | New Haven :
Distributed by Yale University Press | 2016 |
Copyright © for texts and images by Ai Weiwei, Published on the occasion of the exhibition
Jacob Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumediene, “Laura Poitras: Astro Noise" at the Whitney
Kate Crawford, Alex Danchev, Cory Doctorow, Museum of American Art, February 5-M ay 1,
Dave Eggers, Jill Magid, Trevor Paglen, 2016.
Laura Poitras, Edward Snowden, and Identifiers: LCCN 2015041177 | ISBN
Hito Steyerl remains with the authors. 978030 021 765 0
Subjects: LCSH: Poitras, Laura—Exhibitions.
Whitney Museum of American Art | Installations (Art)—United States—
99 Gansevoort Street Exhibitions. | Documentary films—United
New York, NY 10014 States—History—21 st century—Exhibitions,
whitney.org j A rt—Political aspects—United States—
History—21st century—Exhibitions. |
Distributed by Electronic surveillance—United States—
Yale University Press History—21 st century—Exhibitions.
302 Temple Street Classification: LCC P N 1998.3.P647 P65
P.O. Box 2 0 9 0 4 0 2015 | 709.2—dc23
New Haven, CT 0 6 520 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.
yalebooks.com/art gov/2015041177