Citizenfour Page #12

Every dictatorship down through

history has always done that.

One of the first things they need to do

is try to acquire knowledge

of their population.

And that's exactly

what these programs do.

I see this as the most major threat

to our democracies all around the world.

What do you think

they're doing to reporters,

those of us that are working directly

with the Snowden documents?

How do you think they would approach

dealing with people like us?

You're on the cast iron cover list.

Which means any...

any electronic device you use

that they can attach to you they'll record

and capture all that data.

And what do they do with that data?

Trying to figure out what we're doing?

Uh, well, that's part of it,

but the other part for them I think

is to find the sources

of information you're getting.

So if I have a confidential source

who's giving me information

as a whistleblower,

and he works within the US government,

and he's concerned about

what he perceives as violations

of the Constitution,

and he gets in touch with me,

they... go ahead.

From there on, they would nail him

and start watching everything he did,

and if he started passing data,

I'm sure they'd take him off the street.

I mean, the way you'd have to do

it is like Deep Throat did, right?

In the Nixon years.

Meet in the basement

of a parking garage, physically.

"Let's disassociate

our metadata one last time...

so we don't have a record

of your true name

in our final communication chain.

This is obviously not to say

you can't claim your involvement,

but as every trick in the book

is likely to be used in looking into this,

I believe it's better that

that particular disclosure

come on your own terms.

Thank you again for all you've done.

So sorry again for the multiple delays,

but we've been in uncharted territory

with no model to benefit from.

If all ends well, perhaps

the demonstration that our methods worked

will embolden more to come forward.

Citizen."

So the update that I wanna give you

is about the new, um...

the new source that we...

Okay.

That... This is what...

This is the person

who's doing the most...

Mm-hmm, right.

...the work on it, um...

And now, basically what's happened is...

And...

That's actually...

that's really dangerous.

Um... on the source's side.

Do they know how to

take care of themselves?

I mean he... it's all being done...

through this.

Okay.

And they're all talking...

this way.

Okay.

I was gonna say,

one of the big questions there is,

can they handle it?

No, they're very careful.

- Even... through that. Yeah.

- Okay.

And...

That's where that is.

Wow, that's really something.

Did you know that?

It's not the actual planes.

Right, right, you mean the control.

It's the process,

who's sending the... yeah.

There's a chart.

There's like a whole layout

for every one...

That is really bold; it's really risky.

You know, that's the thing,

if they understand what they're doing...

There's this chart, it goes like this.

It shows the decision-making chart.

It's shaped like this:

- So up here it says...

- Mm-hmm.

That's the decision-making chart

for each... one.

- It's so political!

- This is this part's amazing.

- That's...

- That's f***ing ridiculous.

This is... It's so shocking.

That's... that's the population

of entire countries.

That's what we're working on.

That person is incredibly bold.

But, um...

But also very well aware.

You know, I just hope... I mean...

No, I mean,

the boldness of it is shocking,

but it was obviously

motivated by what you did,

- I mean...

- This is going to.

This is going to

That could raise the profile...

of this whole political situation

with whistleblowing

to a whole new level.

- Exactly.

- It's gonna...

Yeah, I actually think

that's a great thing.

And I think people are gonna see

what's being hidden again,

again, by a totally different part

of the government.

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