I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture.
That is a huge claim. I do not imagine that his training involved being tortured to make sure. If he's wrong, there could be dire consequences for the US.
You might even say his ego is writing checks his body can't cash.
(copy pasted from my reply on another comment below)
>I cannot be coerced...
vs. "won't", "would never", et. al.
But then, in the worst case scenario - how could Snowden access it himself if he needs the documents?
Spread the password and access details to two people without keeping it yourself. Those two people split their in half without keeping it themselves. The four people who now have the password are the 'kill switch' required to monitor Snowden's location. Snowden has no idea who they are.
Should he be tortured, all he can do is reveal his first two contacts. The torturer will now have to abduct those two people to get the key.
All these second level people know is the two people THEY spoke to. So you need BOTH of the second level to get all four of the third level people.
And then you'll have to abduct another FOUR people to get the key. All before these four people realize Snoden has disappeared.
He knows he can't resist torture. But he doesn't have to. He LITERALLY cannot be coerced.
I posit there's nothing earth shaking on his own notebooks anymore.
Some article somewhere mentioned that he carries 4 notebooks, and then the press started fear mongering and compromiting him by insinuating that the notebooks are full of secrets and government property. Can anybody quote an official claim that the notebooks aren't his own?
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/laptop_securit...
If I had my documents encrypted with keys that I'd distributed to multiple parties, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops: "No point torturing me, the key is in three pieces and if I don't sign in every week the data will be destroyed so realistically you can't possibly seize all the pieces in the time-frame you'd require! Of course, if you can get all the pieces, just stick us all together in the same room and I promise to give you my piece, so no point torturing me then either."
Seems like there'd be a really strong incentive to have people know you had a mechanism that ensured it.
Edit:
I already mentioned SERE training in a higher level post. It's pretty intense, but still, the most valuable lesson you learn is that everyone will end up talking.
I was simply commenting on the possibility of a person resisting torture. If that person has some sort of safety mechanism in place, the torturer might not be able to get the information he wants, but that's not because the victim has resisted, because he won't.
1) Write some software that destroys your data if you don't login every x hours.
2) Under duress, stall for x hours.
Other methods:
A) Alternate password that destroys the data.
B) Cyanide capsule in tooth.
Obviously a group less concerned about the long-term health of their interrogatees have a lot more flexibility in methods, and training is largely understood to be a delaying tactic to spoil time-sentitive tactical data, rather than resist interrogation indefinitely.
Hypothetically, there could be a mechanism by which he has to check in with some associates periodically, who by means of some N of M secret sharing are able to destroy/release the data otherwise. Then you need to resist for only 1-2 checkin periods. Or have a duress codeword that causes the same result. Any destruction scheme requires that the data be held somewhere secure enough not to be cloned though.
(And any heartbeat type scheme requires periodic communication with some/all associates, possibly leading your adversary to them, although broadcast media is probably good enough while he's mainstream news)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival,_Evasion,_Resistance_...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_to_interrogation
> You'll break. Instantly. So spare yourself the agony. Just spill the beans.