Editor's note: This story was based on reporting from The Wall Street Journal and other sources. That reporting was incorrect, as new documents from The Intercept have shown and definitively detailed Edward Snowden's whereabouts during the period in question.
The Intercept's documents showed that Snowden, as he claimed, checked into the Mira Hotel on May 21, and did so under his name and with his own credit cards.
Business Insider regrets the error.
Edward Snowden says that he wanted the U.S. to know where he was after he arrived in Hong Kong.
But U.S. authorities still don't know what he did for the first 11 days after his arrival.
"That whole period was very carefully planned and orchestrated," Snowden told the Guardian. "There was no risk of compromise. ... And I didn’t cover my traces [in Hong Kong]. I only tried to avoid being detected in advance of travel ... on the other side I wanted them to know where I was at. I wanted them to know."
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In his book, Greenwald writes that Snowden "arrived in Hong Kong from Hawaii on May 20, checking into the Mira Hotel under his own name."
And Snowden told Vanity Fair that “I used a personal credit card so the government could immediately verify that I was entirely self-financed [and] independent."
But Edward Jay Epstein of The Wall Street Journal went to Hong Kong and confirmed that Snowden didn't check into the Mira Hotel until June 1, which was a couple of days before he met with journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.
"Mr. Snowden would tell Mr. Greenwald on June 3 that he had been 'holed up' in his room at the Mira Hotel from the time of his arrival in Hong Kong. But according to inquiries by Wall Street Journal reporter Te-Ping Chen, Mr. Snowden arrived there on June 1," Epstein reported. "I confirmed that date with the hotel's employees. A hotel security guard told me that Mr. Snowden was not in the Mira during that late-May period and, when he did stay there, he used his own passport and credit card."
Epstein also cited a source familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency report on the Snowden affair, that "U.S. investigative agencies have been unable to find any credit-card charges or hotel records indicating his whereabouts" between May 20 and June 1.
"To answer the question in three words: I don't know where he was for these 11 days," Epstein said in an interview. "It's very important because if we knew where he was, then we'd know who he went to see in Hong Kong."
Strangely, no one seems to know — even though Snowden says he made it obvious.
