(AFP/Getty Images)
JOINED AT THE HIP: WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison has been NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s adviser since he took flight. She was by his side while holed up at the Moscow airport (inset) and Thursday when he left the airport (above) after getting asylum. (
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LONDON — The whole time Edward Snowden has been seeking asylum, WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison has been by his side.
She has emerged as a central, if mysterious, figure in the saga that has taken Snowden across the world in an attempt to evade US espionage charges.
Harrison in just a few years has risen from intern to one of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s most trusted lieutenants, but she has earned an even higher profile as Snowden’s guide and adviser.
WikiLeaks says she traveled with the former National Security Agency systems analyst from Hong Kong — where her expatriate sisters Kate and Alexandra Harrison live — to Moscow. She appeared next to Snowden, 30, at a meeting with activists at the Moscow airport, where he was stranded for weeks.
She even slipped out of the airport in a taxi with him after Russia granted him asylum Thursday, according to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks has otherwise not revealed much about her.
But what is clear is that she has become indispensable to the organization.
It has described her as Snowden’s legal adviser.
While Harrison does not appear to have a law degree, her bio on the WikiLeaks Web site lists her as a “UK citizen, journalist and legal researcher.” Media reports put her age at 31.
While interning at the Center for Investigative Journalism, based at London’s City University, she helped Assange with the organization’s disclosure of secret US military records, according to the group’s Web site.
Harrison went on to join the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in August 2010, working as a researcher at the British nonprofit.
There she worked on the team handling a series of Iraq War files released by WikiLeaks to several major media organizations before joining WikiLeaks itself in October 2010.
Since then, she has maintained a constant, but mostly silent, presence at Assange’s side.
She was with him at the English country manor where he lived under house arrest while resisting extradition to Sweden on sex- related allegations.
She also was with him at his court appearances.
She was among those who forked over funds for his bail, money they lost when he sought refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in violation of his bail conditions.
But with Assange holed up in the embassy, Harrison has taken a more public role in the organization.
Thursday, WikiLeaks announced that Snowden had left the Moscow airport — under Harrison’s care.
Rarely seen publicly in their weeks hiding out at the airport, that appears unlikely to change now.
“Harrison has remained with Mr. Snowden at all times to protect his safety and security, including during his exit from Hong Kong,” WikiLeaks said in a statement. “They departed from the airport together in a taxi and are headed to a secure, confidential place.”