Original published at Common Dreams
However, in a dramatic revelation for those who have now seen "Citizenfour" -- which debuted at the New York Film Festival on Friday night where it received a standing ovation -- a scene captured by Poitras shows award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald quietly confirming to Snowden the existence of a secord source within the intelligence community who has been sharing highly-secretive information.
The official trailer of the film, also released Friday, gives a sense of the film's tenor and tone, but not much in way of expose:
However, as journalist Ewan MacAskill, who himself played a key role in reporting on the Snowden affair and appears in the film, reports for the Guardian:
"Towards the end of filmmaker Laura Poitras's portrait of Snowden -- titled Citizenfour, the label he used when he first contacted her -- Greenwald is seen telling Snowden about a second source.
"Snowden, at a meeting with Greenwald in Moscow, expresses surprise at the level of information apparently coming from this new source. Greenwald, fearing he will be overheard, writes the details on scraps of paper.
"The specific information relates to the number of the people on the US government's watchlist of people under surveillance as a potential threat or as a suspect. The figure is an astonishing 1.2 million.
"The scene comes after speculation in August by government officials, reported by CNN, that there was a second leaker. The assessment was made on the basis that Snowden was not identified as usual as the source and because at least one piece of information only became available after he ceased to be an NSA contractor and went on the run."
In his review of the film, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation Trevor Timm places the existence of a second leaker in the context of Snowden himself as he describes the possible interplay between how the actions of one whistleblower may ultimately lead to motivating others to follow suit. Timm writes:
"As [Snowden] talks to Poitras about the potential consequences of his actions on his own life, Snowden explains that he's confident that the coming government pursuit of him will only encourage others. It's like the internet principle of the Hydra, he says: 'They can stomp me if they want to, but there will be seven more to take my place.'
"In the dramatic conclusion of the film, Snowden learns on-camera Poitras and Greenwald now have a new source, who gave The Intercept information about the US government's enormous "terrorism" watchlist. That watchlist, which contains 1.2 million names -- most of which have no direct nexus to terrorism -- is governed by Kafkaesque secrecy rules that were recently ruled unconstitutional (and which took another blow from a fed-up federal judge on Friday night).
"The government's chronic secrecy problem has been acknowledged by virtually everyone, including our sitting president, who has simultaneously decried overclassification and presided over its massive expansion. Yet, like clockwork, the government's response to every new leak is to reflexively get more secret, call for more leak prosecutions (despite their already record numbers), and impose draconian restrictions on government employees who already work under a microscope."
And in the end, Timm concludes:
"...what the government has failed to grasp is that Chelsea Manning and Snowden's leaks are not isolated incidents -- or, at least they won't be when we look back on this era 10 years from now. There are 5 million people with security clearances in this country, and many of them are part of a new generation that is far more critical of the blanket secrecy permeating government agencies than the old guard.
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