Who helped Edward Snowden in Hong Kong?

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One day after stealing secrets from the National Security Agency's Threat Operations Center in Hawaii, Mr. Snowden flew to Hong Kong. At some point following his arrival on May 20 last year, he approached Russian officials, who in turn contacted President Vladimir Putin. We know this because Mr. Putin bragged about it in an interview in September on Russia's state-run Channel 1 television.

According to the transcript of that interview. Mr. Putin said, "I will tell you something I have never said before." Mr. Snowden "first went to Hong Kong and got in touch with our diplomatic representatives." Mr. Putin said that he was briefed that an American "agent of special services" was seeking to come to Russia, and Mr. Putin ruled that the agent "is welcome, provided, however, that he stops any kind of activity that could damage Russian-U.S. relations."

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From May 20, the day he landed, to May 31, according to a source familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency report on the Snowden affair, U.S. investigative agencies have been unable to find any credit-card charges or hotel records indicating his whereabouts. On a recent trip to Hong Kong, a U.S. official told me that Mr. Snowden had been observed on CCTV cameras entering the skyscraper that housed the Russian consulate on three occasions—but the visits were in June.

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. 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.

So where was Edward Snowden between May 20 and May 31?

The lawyers who had been retained by an anonymous party for him in Hong Kong have not been forthcoming. One of them, Albert Ho, told New York Times bureau chief Keith Bradsher that Mr. Snowden had assistance from a "well-connected" resident of Hong Kong with whom he had been acquainted prior to his arrival. This person acted as Mr. Snowden's "carer" and arranged safe houses for Mr. Snowden both in Hong Kong and in the adjacent New Territories. Mr. Ho declined to further identify the carer.

Robert Tibbo, another lawyer, told me in Hong Kong that he had escorted Mr. Snowden to at least one of the safe houses prepared for him. Mr. Tibbo also declined to identify Mr. Snowden's carer.

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