Snowden: Hero or Traitor? [Archive]

boutons_deux

07-01-2013, 09:20 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers

all of them heros. :lol

even this guy:

San Diego protester faces vandalism charges for sidewalk chalk drawings
A protester is standing trial on criminal vandalism charges in San Diego, and faces a sentence of up to 13 years in prison if convicted, for a scribbling a series of anti-bank slogans in chalk on a city sidewalk.

Mayor Bob Filner has denounced the prosecution of Jeff Olson, 40, a man with no previous criminal record, as a waste of taxpayer money and an abuse of power that infringes on First Amendment free speech protections in the U.S. Constitution.

"This young man is being persecuted for thirteen counts of vandalism stemming from an expression of political protest that involved washable children's chalk on a city sidewalk," the mayor said last week in a memo to the City Council.

The city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, defended his pursuit of the case in remarks published on Thursday in the U-T San Diego news website, saying: "We prosecute vandalism and theft cases regardless of who the perpetrator or victim might be."

"We don't decide, for example, based upon whether we like or dislike banks," Goldsmith added. "That would be wrong under the law and such a practice by law enforcement would change our society in very damaging ways."

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Howard Shore issued a gag order in the case, forbidding all parties from discussing the trial further. He previously ruled that Olson would not be permitted to invoke freedom of expression as a defense in the case.

Olson is charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of vandalism, each carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, though he is not expected to receive as harsh a sentence as 13 consecutive years behind bars if found guilty.

He is accused of writing a series of protest slogans between February and August 2012 on sidewalks in front of Bank of America branches.

Olson has admitted to the graffiti protests, but said nothing he wrote was profane or vulgar and suggested his prosecution was politically motivated.

"I wrote, 'No thanks big banks.' I wrote, 'Shame on Bank of America,'" he told San Diego CBS television affiliate KFMB-TV. He told another local station, ABC affiliate KGTV: "If I had drawn a little girl's hopscotch squares on the street, we wouldn't be here today."

The mayor's office would not rule out the possibility that Filner might appear as a witness for Olson.

The Olson case has become the latest flashpoint in a deepening rift between Filner and Goldsmith, who was elected city attorney under the former mayor by promising to improve the office's ability to work with the city's top elected official.

The mayor and city attorney have clashed over medical marijuana dispensary crackdowns, tourism district funds, bond issues and the mayor's recent successful effort to cut $500,000 from the city attorney's budget.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/28/us-usa-graffiti-chalk-idUSBRE95R04P20130628?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

BoA steals 100Ks of homes in false, botched, illegal foreclosures, skates free, but can't stand anti-BoA graffitti.

boutons_deux

07-01-2013, 09:27 AM

so why is he gettin chase after, while rupert murdoch does the same shit last year gets away free?

Let's see how the General who is a suspect in leaking US as stuxnet perp gets handled.

And dickhead needs prosecuting for outing Valerie Plame.

Spurminator

07-01-2013, 10:12 AM

I haven't been following the story enough to know if I'd call him a "hero" but I do know that the international manhunt is ridiculously over the top. Not sure if that's a media coverage thing, or if the government really is treating him like an international terrorist.

But if I'm picking a side, it's definitely his.

sjacquemotte

07-01-2013, 10:14 AM

Let's see how the General who is a suspect in leaking US as stuxnet perp gets handled.

And dickhead needs prosecuting for outing Valerie Plame.
Wasn't that the Wash Post?

boutons_deux

07-01-2013, 11:01 AM

another one:

Barrett Brown's Revelations Every Bit As Explosive As Edward Snowden's

Brown made a splash in February 2011 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/17/wikileaks-internet) by helping to uncover "Team Themis (http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Team_Themis)", a project by intelligence contractors retained by Bank of America to demolish the hacker society known as Anonymous and silence sympathetic journalists like Glenn Greenwald (now with the Guardian, though then with Salon). The campaign reportedly involved a menagerie of contractors: Booz Allen Hamilton, a billion-dollar intelligence industry player (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/14/edward-snowden-investigate-booz-allen) and Snowden's former employer; Palantir, a PayPal-inspired and -funded outfit that sells "data-mining and analysis software that maps out human social networks for counterintelligence purposes"; and HBGary Federal (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/spy/all/), an aspirant consultancy in the intelligence sector.

The Team Themis story began in late 2010, when Julian Assange warned (http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/11/29/an-interview-with-wikileaks-julian-assange/) WikiLeaks would release documents outlining an "ecosystem of corruption [that] could take down a bank or two." Anticipating that it might be in Assange's sights, Bank of America went into damage-control mode (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/business/03wikileaks-bank.html) and, as the New York Times reported, assembled "a team of 15 to 20 top Bank of America officials … scouring thousands of documents in the event that they become public." To oversee the review, Bank of American brought in Booz Allen Hamilton.

Days later, Bank of America retained the well-connected law firm of Hunton & Williams (http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/hunton_williams_wikileaks_chamber/), which was reportedly recommended by the Department of Justice (http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Data-intelligence-firms-proposed-a-systematic-attack-against-WikiLeaks/12751/). Hunton & Williams promptly emailed (http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/hunton_williams_wikileaks_chamber/) HBGary Federal, Palantir and Berico; they, in turn, "proposed various schemes to attack" WikiLeaks and Greenwald. In fact, Hunton & Williams had first contacted the three tech firms in October 2010 (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/spy/), at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce to find out if it was being attacked by labor union-backed campaigners.

The final cast member, Aaron Barr, then CEO of HBGary Federal, started creating personal dossiers on Hunton & Williams employees to display his prowess as a social media ninja – his way of convincing the law firm that he could train them in the perils of social media. Barr was anxious to generate income for hisstruggling subsidiary (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/spy/all/).

According to the Team Themis proposal, its partners suggested creating false documents and fake personas to damage progressive organizations (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/02/10/143419/lobbyists-chamberleaks/) such as "ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com". According to reporting by Wired (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/spy/all/), the three companies hoped to bill the Chamber of Commerce for $2m a month. But while (as leaked emails showed (http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Team_Themis)) the parties in the plan went back and forth over how to apportion the spoils, nothing was forthcoming.

Then Hunton & Williams submitted the Bank of America proposal, and HBGary Federal, Palantir and Berico swung into action. On 2 December, just three days after Assange's warning, Aaron Barr crafted the plan to launch "cyber attacks" on WikiLeaks (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/02/the-ridiculous-plan-to-attack-wikileaks/).

The tech companies' emails – which Anonymous hacked and Barrett Brown helped publicize – listed planned tactics:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/surveillance-us-national-security

Did DoJ or any Congressman dare touch Barret Brown's leaks? fuck no. F.I.R.E. is untouchable, WAY ABOVE the law.

AntiChrist

07-01-2013, 01:55 PM

The first instinct of any heroic whistleblower should always be to go to China and Russia.

Spurminator

07-01-2013, 02:08 PM

The first instinct of any heroic whistleblower should always be to go to China and Russia.

Kind of sad that it seems safer to do that than go to America, huh?

CosmicCowboy

07-01-2013, 05:33 PM

This whole thing was just god awful embarrassing for the US but maybe that is what was needed. Seriously? Our fucking Secretary of State going out today and saying it's FUCKING NORMAL to bug our allies?????

The US spying scandal deepened today as Secretary of State John Kerry said it is 'not unusual' for governments to bug the offices of their allies sparking fierce retorts from France and Germany.

The extraordinary statement has angered leaders across the world after leaked documents revealed America spied on 38 foreign missions and embassies including the European Union's Washington nerve centre.

As outrage grew across the EU over the damaging revelations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was first to lash out, declaring that 'bugging friends is unacceptable' before French premier Francois Hollande demanded its 'immediate halt'.

LnGrrrR

07-01-2013, 06:23 PM

I mean, it is probably normal. It would be stupid for us to just trust our allies. But you would think we would have a better answer prepared.

SA210

07-01-2013, 06:24 PM

Hero. No doubt about it. :tu

Glad he exposed the the scumbags in power.

cheguevara

07-01-2013, 06:43 PM

the fact that the US media actually discussed military possibly intercepting his commercial liner with fighter jets just takes this from a mere international scandal to a fucking epic Comedy starring Steve Carrell as the US president.
:lmao

this is fucking beyond embarrassing at this point. It reached the levels of twilight zone episode.

:lol President Obama traveling through his Motherland and getting hounded on this episode and saying things like "intelligence is finding out what I had for breakfast" is just icing on the cake :lol

and yes in the twilight zone episode, Snowden would be the hero

SA210

07-01-2013, 06:46 PM

Ed Snowden: "In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be."

DMX7

07-01-2013, 10:06 PM

This clown just wants his 15 minutes. He's ultimately a nobody.

Rogue

07-01-2013, 10:48 PM

the current US government is a broke one and it's already owned by Jews and chinks. Guy came out of the shell and splashed light on the truth so he's a hero without any doubt. One should never get punished for speaking the truth in a true democracy imho. The cyber secret agency has expanded to 3 times its original size since Obama took office, having wasted more tax payer money that what the Afghanistan war cost, not to say the "obamacare" is probably the biggest financial blackhole to ever exist in this country, that has been consuming money in astronomical figures. anyone (including my goddess) who still thinks Obama is better than GWB must be either fooling him/herself or be a complete retard

boutons_deux

07-02-2013, 08:02 AM

Lapdog corporate for-profit media has switched the story from the content of Snowden's release(s) to Snowden.

Looks like the American Corporate Empire has intimidated all of Snowden's asylum countries into refusing him asylum, not with military intimidation but with financial intimidation.

Like Manning, Snowden will be imprisoned, held naked in isolation, and tortured for months or years before his kangaroo court show trial.

90% of ignorant, dumbed down America will be watching brain-rotting TV, mistaking it for "reality".

America The Beautiful.

LnGrrrR

07-02-2013, 08:06 AM

Some country that hates the US will take him. I'd be amazed if they didn't. What's the US going to do? The only card they hold is denying financial aid.

boutons_deux

07-02-2013, 08:24 AM

Some country that hates the US will take him. I'd be amazed if they didn't. What's the US going to do? The only card they hold is denying financial aid.

financial aid, embargo, suspend/annul free trade agreements, and general bullying and bad mouthing

America's New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/americas-new-cold-war-why_b_3531862.html

CosmicCowboy

07-02-2013, 08:25 AM

Some country that hates the US will take him. I'd be amazed if they didn't. What's the US going to do? The only card they hold is denying financial aid.

He is probably going to Venezuela in Maduro's presidential plane today.

boutons_deux

07-02-2013, 08:32 AM

Venezuela Defends Snowden but Hedges on Offering Sanctuary
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/world/europe/snowden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

hater

07-02-2013, 03:04 PM

no venezuela won't take him. no country will take him

he's staying in Russia for the next few months and then eventually he'll probably be naturalized there

SA210

07-02-2013, 03:30 PM

Ben Swann Full Disclosure is asking the questions the rest of the media is ignoring. Even by the overreaching standards of the Patriot Act, Ben Swann demonstrates how the NSA's Prism program is clearly illegal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfUi5C7WdrA

SA210

07-02-2013, 10:01 PM

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/1005922_537002036366978_1311987663_n.jpg

boutons_deux

10-11-2013, 12:05 PM

C.I.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks

Just as Edward J. Snowden was preparing to leave Geneva and a job as a C.I.A. technician in 2009, his supervisor wrote a derogatory report in his personnel file, noting a distinct change in the young man’s behavior and work habits, as well as a troubling suspicion.

The C.I.A. suspected that Mr. Snowden was trying to break into classified computer files to which he was not authorized to have access, and decided to send him home, according to two senior American officials.

But the red flags went unheeded. Mr. Snowden left the C.I.A. to become a contractor for the National Security Agency, and four years later he leaked thousands of classified documents. The supervisor’s cautionary note and the C.I.A.’s suspicions apparently were not forwarded to the N.S.A. or its contractors, and surfaced only after federal investigators began scrutinizing Mr. Snowden’s record once the documents began spilling out, intelligence and law enforcement officials said.

“It slipped through the cracks,” one veteran law enforcement official said of the report.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/cia-warning-on-snowden-in-09-said-to-slip-through-the-cracks.html?from=homepage

just like the alert from the Russians about the Boston bombers "slipped through the cracks"

$50B+ /year and we get these Keystone Kops protecting America

mouse

10-11-2013, 12:57 PM

$50B+ /year and we get these Keystone Kops protecting America

Not true they did go after that woman for downloading music.

EVAY

10-11-2013, 09:07 PM

TRAITOR

m>s

10-11-2013, 09:36 PM

he'll be pardoned and allowed back after the revolution, and go down as a hero.

Rogue

10-11-2013, 10:08 PM

Snowden is a hero absolutely, otherwise when your phone or AIM account got hacked you'd never know who did it.

HI-FI

10-11-2013, 10:38 PM

maybe a little of both. even if he were a double agent for Russia all along, it doesn't mean what he exposed isn't any less troubling.

there was a whisteblower who helped build the system who has been warning people all along as well, he deserves some credit too.

boutons_deux

10-12-2013, 10:43 AM

the militarized police, national security surveillance state genie is out of the lantern, and it won't ever go back in. Human-Americans are fucked and unfuckable. Voting is a useless charade.

Patriot Act author prepares bill to put NSA bulk collection 'out of business'

The conservative Republican who co-authored America's Patriot Act is preparing to unveil bipartisan legislation that would dramatically curtail the domestic surveillance (http://www.theguardian.com/world/surveillance) powers it gives to intelligence agencies.

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, who worked with president George W Bush to give more power to US intelligence agencies after the September 11 terrorist attacks, said the intelligence community had misused those powers by collecting telephone records on all Americans, and claimed it was time "to put their metadata program out of business".

His imminent bill in the House of Representatives is expected to be matched by a similar proposal from Senate judiciary committee chair Patrick Leahy, a Democrat. It pulls together existing congressional efforts to reform the National Security Agency in the wake of disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Sensenbrenner has called his bill the Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-Collection, and Online Monitoring Act – or USA Freedom Act, and a draft seen by the Guardian has four broad aims.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/10/nsa-surveillance-patriot-act-author-bill

Clapper outright, blatantly, seriously lied to Congress (didn't get the same investigation as lying pro athletes), as indicator that the national security state, NSA/CIA, is totally beyond the reach of civilians.

Winehole23

01-28-2014, 08:50 PM

“If I am a traitor, who did I betray? I gave all of my information to the American public, to American journalists who are reporting on American issues. If they see that as treason I think people really need to consider who do they think they’re working for. The public is supposed to be their boss, not their enemy. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6jYA-ggorU

Nbadan

01-28-2014, 09:10 PM

...if you think about it, all Snowden did was confirm what conspiracy theorists on the far left and some like Alex Jones, on the far right had been saying all along...score one for conspiracy theorists.....9/11 was the premise for enacting TIA domestically...blame it on Obama all you want but domestic spying and electronic surveillance was already big when Obama took his oath on the Koran....

Nbadan

01-28-2014, 09:13 PM

maybe a little of both. even if he were a double agent for Russia all along, it doesn't mean what he exposed isn't any less troubling.

That's why Snowden has to be prosecuted..and probably should do some time and then be pardoned.had he stayed here like Bradley Manning I would favor a full pardon....I hope Obama pardons Manning on his way out the door..

Koolaid_Man

01-28-2014, 11:40 PM

He deserves the death penalty...China and Russia took what they wanted he was powerless to stop them. He's a traitor...State secrets should be kept secret as long as killing natural born citizens aren't part of the equation. You guys have a very narrow view of world politics and how it's in our best interest certain things don't get revealed...you cannot run a country without lies and secrecy and neither can your allies and enemies...soldiers are putting their lives on the line and a little punk like Snowden thinks he can steal info and jeapordize their lives and missions...you clowns should put yourself in the Presidents chair..., secretary of Defense, the CIA, the FBI, high ranking Pentagon officials who are working round the clock to keep America safe from it's enemies...

Snowden deserves the death penalty...they wanna hack emails..who cares just gonna find a bunch of porn and shit...I ain't got nothing going on except macking Ho's so access my shit who cares...he's no fucking hero...Putin would have executed him on the spot if he were Russian...so ohhh the irony of Putin giving him refuge...now he's in a place (Russia) who's State secrets make the US look like sainthood...

AntiChrist

01-29-2014, 09:43 PM

Nbadan

01-29-2014, 11:09 PM

Two Norwegian politicians say they have jointly nominated former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel peace prize. Socialist politicians Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said the public debate and policy changes "in the wake of Snowden's whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order".

Being nominated means Snowden will be one of scores of names that the Nobel committee will consider for the prestigious award. The five-member panel will not confirm who has been nominated but those who submit nominations sometimes make them public.

Nominators, including members of national parliaments and governments, university professors and previous laureates, must enter their submissions by 1 February. The prize committee members can add their own candidates at their first meeting after that deadline.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/edward-snowden-nominated-nobel-peace-prize

AntiChrist

01-30-2014, 02:34 PM

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/edward-snowden-nominated-nobel-peace-prize

They'll pretty much give this prize to anyone, tbh. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize

DMC

01-30-2014, 08:37 PM

Neither hero nor traitor. He's an opportunist. It's about him, nothing more.

ElNono

01-30-2014, 09:09 PM

Enrique

Winehole23

02-03-2014, 03:39 PM

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/today_i_briefed.html

TeyshaBlue

02-03-2014, 03:53 PM

The comment section to that blog post is incredible.

Winehole23

02-03-2014, 04:22 PM

the Graziani comment @2:02 was the first one I paused on. which stuck out for you?

TeyshaBlue

02-03-2014, 08:26 PM

I thought this one was particularly enlightening....lots of moving parts.
Adjuvant • January 17, 2014 3:05 AM
@glasnost, Nick P, et al.:
I'm going to continue in a very US-centric vein here, so apologies in advance to foreign readers.
This discussion reminds me of a point I brought up earlier regarding laws which are kept secret from our legislators. The most egregious example of this phenomenon I have found is the fact that some unknown subset of that Continuity of Government provisions enacted on September 11, 2001 (and more formally two days later) continues in effect to this day, and the State of Emergency under which this national has been governed has been quietly renewed every year since. Not once in 12 years has there been a review of this State of Emergency by the Congress, as mandated by 50 USC § 1622(b).
I also previously reproduced Congressman DeFazio's indignant speech on this issue, after both he and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee on which he sits were denied access to the details of these programs on the grounds that they lacked the clearances.
Presumably 50 USC § 1622 is no longer operative, having been overruled by some supervening regulation, some "higher" *secret* "law." Any attempts by members of Congress to ascertain how this might be possible have met with no success. The secret secret is secret, you see. According to Prof. Peter Dale Scott (Ph. D Poli Sci, McGill; former Canadian diplomat; Prof. Emeritus of English, UC Berkeley) who has researched this issue,
"Former Congressman Dan Hamburg and I appealed publicly in 2009, both to President Obama to terminate the emergency, and to Congress to hold the hearings required of them by statute.47 But Obama, without discussion, extended the 9/11 Emergency again on September 10, 2009,48 and again a year later.49 Meanwhile Congress has continued to ignore its statutory obligations.
One Congressman explained to a constituent that the provisions of the National Emergencies Act have now been rendered inoperative by COG. If true, this would indicate that the constitutional system of checks and balances no longer applies, and also that secret decrees now override public legislation as the law of the land.
I still maintain that the Continuity of Government provisions represent, as I stated earlier, "the [extra-]constitutional nest from which this army of legal cockroaches proceeds." Consider their provenance. This time I will quote Project Censored's summary at length on this point (emphases mine):
In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of “highly sensitive” emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly these were emergency plans to suspend the American constitution in the event of a nuclear attack.
Oliver North was involved with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in plans to take over federal, state and local functions during a national emergency. This planning for 'Continuity of Government' (COG) called for 'suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law.' Two of the key COG planners on the secret committee were Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the two men who implemented COG under 9/11.
In other words extraordinary emergency measures, originally designed for an America devastated in a nuclear attack, are now to be applied to anything the White House considered an emergency. Cheney and Rumsfeld continued their secret planning when Clinton was president; both men, both Republicans, were heads of major corporations and not even in the government at that time.
What few have recognized is that, nearly a decade later, some aspects of COG remain in effect. COG plans are still authorized by a proclamation of emergency that has been extended each year by presidential authority, most recently by President Obama in September 2009. COG plans are also the probable source for the 1000-page Patriot Act presented to Congress five days after 9/11, and also for the Department of Homeland Security’s Project Endgame — a ten-year plan, initiated in September 2001, to expand detention camps, at a cost of $400 million in Fiscal Year 2007 alone."
Project Censored goes on to mention 50 USC § 1622 and its mysterious non-application.
In the hopes of retaining the interest of this readership, allow me take this discussion on a slightly different tack.
This blog has often hosted discussions on subversion of hardware, down to the level of the silicon. It is possible to insert backdoors which are ineradicable and capable of calling forth all manner of higher-level exploits, subverting firmware. I believe what we are witnessing here with Continuity of Government provisions is directly analgous: the backdooring of a national legal system at the [sub-]Constitutional level, using a mechanism originally meant to take effect in the most extreme existential emergency but reworked for nefarious purposes (a sort of legal JTAG header, if you will), and the wholesale suborning of the national legal framework thereby from the firmware (Constitution) up.
I have referred to this previously as a problem of "parallel constitutionalism": we have our system of public laws, and we have the secret "laws" and interpretations which have in many cases superseded them. We are unable to directly observe this body of secret "laws" because it is, of course, secret (closed-source and obfuscated and/or encrypted code, to continue our analogy).
This duality has made itself manifest in a wide assortment of practical (legal) particulars, as one would expect in an compromised (legal) system. Addressing any of these particular manifestations individually will, of course, fail to reverse the overall system compromise if, as I hypothesize, they proceed (in whole or in part) from a subversive, alternative, and secret quasi-Constitution (reflashed BIOS/firmware) which has been enabled by the subversion of lower-level components (the silicon-level backdoor or JTAG header of our analogy -- or the need for a plan for Continuity of Government in the face of nuclear Armageddon in fact).
If we are to make any sense of the secret laws (persistent and recurring infections of advanced, obfuscated and encrypted malware), we must first make sense of the subverted legal framework (hardware and firmware) within which they operate. To disinfect the system and neutralize the Advanced Persistent (Constitutional) Threat, we must attempt find and neutralize the [sub-]Constitutional-level (silicon) backdoor, then restore the original [Constitutional] firmware. For this to be done, the coders (legislators) must, at a start, be able to understand the silicon backdoor (Continuity of Government) and, ideally, decrypt or reverse-engineer the subverted firmware (Constitutional and pseudo-Constitutional law).
I am not the first, by any means, to draw the analogy between law and code (a hat tip, above all, to Stallman and Lessig) on that point). I hope that my extended analogy, unwieldy and imperfect as it is, will be found helpful. It's meant only as a brief and extemporaneous sketch, but perhaps it may serve as a starting point for further discussion.

Winehole23

02-03-2014, 08:31 PM

in two words, shadow government

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 06:03 AM

http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs10/011720-james-clapper-013014.jpg

The Menace of the Military Mind

I had my first experience with the U.S. military when I was a young reporter covering the civil war in El Salvador. We journalists were briefed at the American Embassy each week by a U.S. Army colonel who at the time headed the military group of U.S. advisers to the Salvadoran army. The reality of the war, which lasted from 1979 to 1992, bore little resemblance to the description regurgitated each week for consumption by the press. But what was most evident was not the blatant misinformation—this particular colonel had apparently learned to dissemble to the public during his multiple tours in Vietnam—but the hatred of the press by this man and most other senior officers in the U.S. military. When first told that he would have to meet the press once a week, the colonel reportedly protested against having to waste his time with those “limp-dicked communists.”

Homer in “The Iliad” showed his understanding of war. His heroes are not pleasant men. They are vain, imperial, filled with rage and violent. And Homer’s central character in “The Odyssey,” Odysseus, in his journey home from war must learn to shed his “hero’s heart,” to strip from himself the military attributes that served him in war but threaten to doom him off the battlefield. The qualities that serve us in war defeat us in peace.

Most institutions have a propensity to promote mediocrities, those whose primary strengths are knowing where power lies, being subservient and obsequious to the centers of power and never letting morality get in the way of one’s career. The military is the worst in this respect. In the military, whether at the Paris Island boot camp or West Point, you are trained not to think but to obey. What amazes me about the military is how stupid and bovine its senior officers are. Those with brains and the willingness to use them seem to be pushed out long before they can rise to the senior-officer ranks.

The many Army generals I met over the years not only lacked the most rudimentary creativity and independence of thought but nearly always saw the press, as well as an informed public, as impinging on their love of order, regimentation, unwavering obedience to authority and single-minded use of force to solve complex problems.

So when I heard James R. Clapper Jr., a retired Air Force lieutenant general and currently the federal government’s director of national intelligence, denounce Edward Snowden (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-accomplices_n_4689123.html)and his “accomplices”—meaning journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras—before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week I was not surprised. Clapper charged, without offering any evidence, that the Snowden disclosures had caused “profound damage” and endangered American lives. And all who have aided Snowden are, it appears, guilty of treason in Clapper’s eyes.

Clapper and many others who have come out of the military discern no difference between terrorists and reporters, and by reporters I am not referring to the boot-licking courtiers on television and in Washington who masquerade as reporters. Carry out an interview with a member of al-Qaida, as I have, and you become in the eyes of generals like Clapper a member of al-Qaida. Most generals I know recognize no need for an independent press. The munchkins who dutifully sit through their press briefings or follow them around in preapproved press pools and publish their lies are the generals’ idea of journalism.

“In the absence of contrasting views, the very highest form of propaganda warfare can be fought: the propaganda for a definition of reality within which only certain limited viewpoints are possible,” C. Wright Mills (http://infed.org/mobi/c-wright-mills-power-craftsmanship-and-private-troubles-and-public-issues/) wrote. “What is being promulgated and reinforced is the military metaphysics—the cast of mind that defines international reality as basically military.”

This is why people like James Clapper and the bloated military and security and surveillance apparatus must not have unchecked power to conduct wholesale surveillance, to carry out extraordinary renditions (http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/20-extraordinary-facts-about-cia-extraordinary-rendition-and-secret-detention) and to imprison Americans indefinitely as terrorists.

This is why the nation, as our political system remains mired in paralysis, must stop glorifying military values. In times of turmoil the military always seems to be a good alternative. It presents the facade of order. But order in the military, as the people of Egypt are now learning again, is akin to slavery. It is the order of a prison. And that is where Clapper and his fellow generals and intelligence chiefs would like to place any citizen who dares to question their unimpeded right to turn us all into mindless recruits. They have the power to make their demented dreams a reality. And it is our task to take this power from them.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_menace_of_the_military_mind_20140203

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 06:07 AM

in two words, shadow government

Equally as corrupt as the shadow, (unregulated) banking system.

boutons_deux

02-04-2014, 06:08 AM

I thought this one was particularly enlightening....lots of moving parts.

link?

Winehole23

02-04-2014, 07:17 AM

comment thread at the Schneier blog post @ #44

HI-FI

02-04-2014, 09:08 PM

in two words, shadow government
you saying that sarcastically or you think the comments are convincing? It seems pretty legit and intelligent but normally stuff like that gets dismissed as conspiracy theory. I'll try to read through all of it later.

HI-FI

02-04-2014, 09:09 PM

Enrique
:lol
jeremiahjohnson.gif

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 12:38 PM

you saying that sarcastically or you think the comments are convincing? It seems pretty legit and intelligent but normally stuff like that gets dismissed as conspiracy theory. I'll try to read through all of it later.Convincing?

Quien sabe?

Was plausible to me. I'm not familiar in any granular way with continuity of government issues arising from emergencies, so I have no idea who to look to as an authority. comment section of a blog post might not be the first place I'd look, though.

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 12:43 PM

(no disrespect to the fine blog and the fine comment, of course)

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 12:48 PM

Equally as corrupt as the shadow, (unregulated) banking system.so one may infer. there are always opportunities for shady self dealers; the store never closes.

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 12:52 PM

or conflicted ones, like Nostromo

boutons_deux

02-05-2014, 01:02 PM

so one may infer. there are always opportunities for shady self dealers; the store never closes.

Fraud in Army Recruiting Bonus Program May Cost Nearly $100 Million

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/us/politics/wide-reaching-army-recruiting-fraud-described-by-investigators.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=1

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 01:10 PM

like I said, the store never closes.

not for cut and paste jobs like you, either. Army fraud has zero topical relevance. how is that relevant to what we were discussing?

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 01:10 PM

you seem to have lost track.

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 01:12 PM

that you were ever on track to start with may only be a gratuitous inference on my part, your next post will tell.

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 01:24 PM

comment section of a blog post might not be the first place I'd look, though.fwiw, the blogger was recently called by Congress to talk about the NSA.

Winehole23

02-05-2014, 03:08 PM

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361

ElNono

02-06-2014, 02:52 AM

Bruce Schneier knows his stuff... a few years back when we created an encryption product for iOS, we used the Fortuna random number generator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna_%28PRNG%29) which was invented by him (and has been thoroughly crypt-analyzed). We contacted him after the product went on sale to let him know, and offered a complimentary copy of the software, which he accepted.

Winehole23

02-06-2014, 04:41 AM

http://pando.com/2014/02/04/the-first-congressman-to-battle-the-nsa-is-dead-no-one-noticed-no-one-cares/
http://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/2014/01/50725/otis-pike-former-first-district-congressman-dies-at-92/

Winehole23

02-06-2014, 01:19 PM

In a Congressional committee hearing, the author of the Patriot Act threatened to orchestrate a movement to not reauthorize the controversial post-9/11 law.

In a session of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases?id=D95F308B-3B94-4412-B7D3-E5C6AC0E2702), Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) said that given the government’s muted response to the Snowden leaks—particularly regarding the bulk metadata collection authorized under Section 215—the White House needs to make further changes.

Speaking to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who appeared before the committee, Sensenbrenner gave a stern warning.

“Section 215 expires in June of next year,” Sensenbrenner said, according to The Hill (http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/197404-panel-nsa-powers-must-be-changed). “Unless Section 215 is fixed, you, Mr. Cole, and the intelligence community will end up getting nothing because I am absolutely confident that there are not the votes in this Congress to reauthorize 215.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/patriot-act-author-absent-reform-well-halt-bulk-metadata-program-renewal/

Winehole23

02-06-2014, 01:40 PM

Equally as corrupt as the shadow, (unregulated) banking system.Fake egalitarianism. One might be worse.

Winehole23

02-06-2014, 01:41 PM

the shepherd is weak; the wolf shits wool

boutons_deux

02-06-2014, 03:20 PM

Fake egalitarianism. One might be worse.

you have misused "egalitarianism"

the shadow banking system and NSA are share major characteristics in that there is no govt regulation, no accountability, and they operate behind secrecy and opaque complexity to the detriment of Human-Americans.

Winehole23

03-10-2014, 02:10 AM

SXSW related:

A member of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Pompeo, published an open letter to South by Southwest Interactive conference organizers on Friday demanding that they rescind their invitation (https://pompeo.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=372133) to Edward Snowden.

Pompeo, R-Kan., said he was "deeply troubled" by the scheduled video appearance of Snowden, whom he described as lacking the credentials to authoritatively speak on issues pertaining to "privacy, surveillance, and online monitoring."

Snowden is scheduled to speak by video conferencing on Monday at 11 a.m. CT with Christopher Soghoian, a privacy advocate and principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, who will be onstage at SXSW (http://news.cnet.com/sxsw/) in Austin, Texas. Moderated by Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, Snowden is expected to answer audience questions.

The panel, "A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden (http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP27783)," will focus on the impact of the NSA spying revelations and how technology can be used to protect privacy.

Snowden's "only apparent qualification," Pompeo wrote, "is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin." http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57620072-38/kill-the-snowden-interview-congressman-tells-sxsw/

z0sa

03-10-2014, 02:45 AM

He's both.

boutons_deux

03-10-2014, 06:12 AM

SXSW related:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57620072-38/kill-the-snowden-interview-congressman-tells-sxsw/

I'v known Christophe and his father for decades. He's the guy a few years ago who printed his own boarding pass and used it (but didn't get on the flight). He's a white hat whistleblower. The FBI knows Christophe very well.

Winehole23

03-10-2014, 12:32 PM

Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/opinion/edward-snowden-whistle-blower.html?referrer

boutons_deux

03-10-2014, 01:25 PM

Snowden at SXSW: The NSA set fire to the future of the Internet

Edward Snowden accused the National Security Agency and the US government today of "setting fire to the future of the Internet."

In a high-profile video appearance at the South by Southwest (http://news.cnet.com/sxsw/) festival -- his video was beamed over Google Hangout through seven proxies from Russia to Austin -- Snowden touched on myriad topics, ranging from privacy to the ramifications of government spying, as he answered questions from the Internet at large via Twitter.

"The NSA... they're setting fire to the future of the Internet. And the people in this room, you guys are the firefighters. We need you to help us fix this," Snowden said.

Moderator Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said that Snowden's actions have led to a "reinvigorated" interest in government oversight.

"Sometimes it needs serious sweeping, and Ed Snowden's been the broom," Wizner said.

One of the first questions that Wizner asked Snowden was why he was addressing the technorati at South by Southwest instead of the policy wonks in Washington, D.C.

"The tech community are the ones who could help fix this situation, more than people in Washington," Snowden said. "There's a tech response needed. It's the makers, thinkers and the dev community who can help make sure we're safe."

Christopher Soghoian, a privacy advocate and principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, was onstage with Wizner in Austin. He agreed with Snowden that the tech community and technology companies, which often have been lackadaisical about implementing encryption.

"We need to lock things down and make things secure out of the box. Developers will have to think differently," he said.

Snowden said that the value of encryption can't be understated, and claimed that the US government remains unsure of which documents he leaked.

"They have no idea what documents were provided to journalists, because encryption works," he said. "We need to think about it not as an arcane dark art, but a protection against the dark arts."

The trio discussed the possibility of the NSA breaking encryption, but Snowden didn't think that was likely. A bigger threat to encryption than government breaking encryption, Snowden said, is simply stealing the encryption keys.

"I think encryption will be sustained unless we make massive leaps in understanding math and physics," he said.

Soghoian said that the cryptographic community felt it had been lied to, in part because of a lack of motivation to toughen encryption (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57619771-83/colbert-turns-his-funny-gun-on-snowden-in-rsa-keynote/).

Soghoian had harsh words for broad swathe of technology firms, including Google for data collection via Android (http://www.cnet.com/android-atlas/) and Chrome, Facebook for data collection and privacy violations, Apple for making its address book insecure, Yahoo for not implementing encryption sooner, and Mozilla for not making Firefox (http://www.cnet.com/firefox-3/) secure enough.

But he also noted their response to the documents Snowden leaked.

"Unfortunately it took the largest whistle blower in history to get these companies to prioritize their customer's privacy," Soghoian said.

A major difference between corporate data collection and government spying, Soghoian and Snowden agreed, is that you can't challenge government spying in court.

"If data is being clandestinely acquired and the public or courts have no way of reviewing it, that's a problem," Snowden said.

Another problem with the US government spying on its citizens was that it made it difficult to stop actual terrorist threats.

"Tamerlan Tsarnaev was known by the Russians. If we'd focused on traditional intelligence, not mass surveillance, we might've stopped him," Snowden said.

"The goal here isn't to blind the NSA. The goal here is to make it so that they cannot spy on innocent people because they can," Soghoian added.

Wizner let Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web founder, asked Snowden the first audience question. He thanked Snowden and said that what Snowden has done is profoundly in the public interest.

He also asked what should be done to improve the government surveillance practices.

Snowden replied that the problem was not with the system, but its implementation.

"We have an oversight model that could work. The problem is when the overseers in Congress, NSA, who don't want to do oversight."

The main issue, he said, was "accountability."

"We can't have people like [Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper lying to Congress."

Snowden closed by reiterating his intention by going to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras with the NSA documents.

"When I came public it wasn't to single-handedly change the government. I wanted to inform the public so they could make their own decision," he said.

"Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to. I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and I saw that the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale," he said.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57620111-83/snowden-at-sxsw-the-nsa-set-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet/?tag=nl.e404&s_cid=e404&ttag=e404&ftag=CAD1acfa04

boutons_deux

03-10-2014, 02:49 PM

Chomsky: An Ignorant Public Is the Real Kind of Security Our Govt. Is After

A leading principle of international relations theory is that the state's highest priority is to ensure security. As Cold War strategist George F. Kennan formulated the standard view, government is created "to assure order and justice internally and to provide for the common defense."

The proposition seems plausible, almost self-evident, until we look more closely and ask: Security for whom? For the general population? For state power itself? For dominant domestic constituencies?

Depending on what we mean, the credibility of the proposition ranges from negligible to very high.

Security for state power is at the high extreme, as illustrated by the efforts that states exert to protect themselves from the scrutiny of their own populations.

In an interview on German TV, Edward J. Snowden said that his "breaking point" was "seeing Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress" by denying the existence of a domestic spying program conducted by the National Security Agency.

Snowden elaborated that "The public had a right to know about these programs. The public had a right to know that which the government is doing in its name, and that which the government is doing against the public."

The same could be justly said by Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning and other courageous figures who acted on the same democratic principle.

The government stance is quite different: The public doesn't have the right to know because security thus is undermined - severely so, as officials assert.

There are several good reasons to be skeptical about such a response. The first is that it's almost completely predictable: When a government's act is exposed, the government reflexively pleads security. The predictable response therefore carries little information.

A second reason for skepticism is the nature of the evidence presented. International relations scholar John Mearsheimer writes that "The Obama administration, not surprisingly, initially claimed that the NSA's spying played a key role in thwarting 54 terrorist plots against the United States, implying it violated the Fourth Amendment for good reason.

"This was a lie, however. Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, eventually admitted to Congress that he could claim only one success, and that involved catching a Somali immigrant and three cohorts living in San Diego who had sent $8,500 to a terrorist group in Somalia."

...

http://www.alternet.org/chomsky-staggering-differences-between-how-people-and-powerful-define-security

Catholic Church is another example where the defense, continuation of the CC overrode the rights of its (young) members NOT to be sexually abused.

boutons_deux

03-10-2014, 02:53 PM

Google’s Eric Schmidt Believes They’re Sufficiently Protected From Government Spying

Back in 2013, the NSA’s Project PRISM was one of the bigger tech scandals as it implicated several big tech companies (http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/08/nsa-allegedly-paid-google-microsoft-yahoo-and-facebook-millions-to-cover-compliance-costs/) such as Google, Yahoo, and Apple (http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/10/nsa-apparently-tapped-into-google-and-yahoo-data-centers-around-the-world/) as working together with the NSA to allow spying and gathering of information on their users.

Naturally the companies denied this, and Google themselves were outraged that the NSA had somehow managed to hack into their system which led to tech companies meeting with President Obama and calling for reforms (http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/12/major-tech-companies-call-for-nsa-reforms/). That being said, Google has upgraded their security since which has led executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, to believe that all their data is now safe from the government’s prying eyes.

This was announced at SXSW in which Schmidt was quoted as saying, “Pretty sure that information within Google is now safe from any government’s prying eyes,” with regards to Google’s recent security upgrade.

Schmidt also revealed that apart from increased encryption, Google has also made other changes to its security in the recent months, although he did not go into detail as to what they might be.

Understandably so since the last thing Google needs is hackers knowing what kind of security they use so they can begin hacking their way in!

Naturally some critics feel that these upgrades might not necessarily be enough and we have to agree. While tight security will deter some hackers, there are those out there particularly skilled and determined who will eventually find a way in since no system is 100% secure, but in the meantime we guess it’s good to know that Google has made those changes anyway, for their users’ sake.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/03/googles-eric-schmidt-believes-theyre-sufficiently-protected-from-government-spying/

Of course, once the Feds demand Google et al to hand over the user data, they will. :lol

boutons_deux

03-21-2014, 12:37 PM

Former Top NSA Official: “We Are Now In A Police State”

32-year NSA Veteran Who Created Mass Surveillance System Says Government Use of Data Gathered Through Spying “Is a Totalitarian Process”

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees.

Binney has been interviewed by virtually all of the mainstream media, including CBS (http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9495393), ABC (http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=19341792), CNN (http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/18/nsa-whistleblowers-obama-administration-misleading-on-surveillance-programs/), New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html), USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/16/snowden-whistleblower-nsa-officials-roundtable/2428809/), Fox News (http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/06/07/nsa-whistleblower-responds-obama-metadata-phone-call-more-revealing-listening), PBS (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec13/whistleblowers_08-01.html) and many others.

Last year, Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together, and said (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1):

We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.

But today, Binney told Washington’s Blog that the U.S. has already become a police state.

By way of background, the government is spying on virtually everything we do (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/security-expert-the-details-matter-less-and-less-we-have-to-assume-that-the-nsa-has-everyone-who-uses-electronic-communications-under-constant-surveillance.html).

All of the information (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/spies-can-now-for-the-first-time-monitor-everything-about-us-and-they-can-do-so-with-a-few-clicks-of-a-mouse-and-to-placate-the-lawyers-a-drop-down-menu-of-justifications.html) gained by the NSA through spying is then shared with federal, state and local agencies (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/08/the-most-persuasive-evidence-that-the-government-spies-on-all-americans.html), and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/08/the-most-persuasive-evidence-that-the-government-spies-on-all-americans.html). The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805) the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805).

This is a bigger deal than you may realize, as legal experts say that there are so many federal and state laws in the United States, that no one can keep track of them all … and everyone violates laws every day without even knowing it (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/you-break-the-law-every-day-without-even-knowing-it.html).

The NSA also ships Americans’ most confidential, sensitive information (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/11/u-s-sending-americans-confidential-info-abroad-just-like-outsourcing-torture-foreign-governments.html) to foreign countries like Israel (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents)(and here (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2008/10/israel-companies-handle-sensitive-u-s-spying-data.html)), the UK (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-deal-surveillance-personal-data) and other countries … so they can “unmask” the information (http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/21/nsa-5-eyes-sharing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nsa-5-eyes-sharing) and give it back to the NSA … or use it for their own purposes.

Binney told us today:

The main use of the collection from these [NSA spying] programs [is] for law enforcement. [See the 2 slides below].
These slides give the policy of the DOJ/FBI/DEA etc. on how to use the NSA data. In fact, they instruct that none of the NSA data is referred to in courts – cause it has been acquired without a warrant.

So, they have to do a “Parallel Construction” and not tell the courts or prosecution or defense the original data used to arrest people. This I call: a “planned programed perjury policy” directed by US law enforcement.

And, as the last line on one slide says, this also applies to “Foreign Counterparts.”

This is a total corruption of the justice system not only in our country but around the world. The source of the info is at the bottom of each slide. This is a totalitarian process – means we are now in a police state.

Here are the two slides which Binney pointed us to:

http://rt.com/files/news/1f/ff/b0/00/sod.jpghttp://rt.com/files/news/1f/ff/b0/00/_dea-5.jpg
(Source: Reuters via RT (http://rt.com/usa/dea-agents-nsa-evidence-067/); SOD stands for “Special Operations Division,” a branch of a federal government agency (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805).)

We asked Binney a follow-up question:

You say “this also applies to ‘Foreign Counterparts.’” Does that mean that foreign agencies can also “launder” the info gained from NSA spying? Or that data gained through foreign agencies’ spying can be “laundered” and used by U.S. agencies?

Binney responded:

For countries like the five eyes (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand) and probably some others it probably works both ways. But for others that have relationships with FBI or DEA etc., they probably are given the data to used to arrest people but are not told the source or given copies of the data.

(See this (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/11/u-s-sending-americans-confidential-info-abroad-just-like-outsourcing-torture-foreign-governments.html) for background on the five eyes.)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/12/former-top-nsa-official-now-police-state.html

boutons_deux

03-21-2014, 12:50 PM

Inside the NSA’s Secret Efforts to Hunt and Hack System Administrators

Across the world, people who work as system administrators keep computer networks in order – and this has turned them into unwitting targets of the National Security Agency for simply doing their jobs. According to a secret document (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/03/20/hunt-sys-admins/) provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the agency tracks down the private email and Facebook accounts of system administrators (or sys admins, as they are often called), before hacking their computers to gain access to the networks they control.

The document consists of several posts – one of them is titled “I hunt sys admins” – that were published in 2012 on an internal discussion board hosted on the agency’s classified servers. They were written by an NSA official involved in the agency’s effort to break into foreign network routers, the devices that connect computer networks and transport data across the Internet. By infiltrating the computers of system administrators who work for foreign phone and Internet companies, the NSA can gain access to the calls and emails that flow over their networks.

The classified posts reveal how the NSA official aspired to create a database that would function as an international hit list of sys admins to potentially target. Yet the document makes clear that the admins are not suspected of any criminal activity – they are targeted only because they control access to networks the agency wants to infiltrate. “Who better to target than the person that already has the ‘keys to the kingdom’?” one of the posts says.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/20/inside-nsa-secret-efforts-hunt-hack-system-administrators/

Winehole23

03-25-2014, 09:38 AM

absent the Snowden leaks, it's doubtful this would have come to pass, if it passes:

The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_security_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that — if approved by Congress — would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to senior administration officials.

Under the proposal, they said, the N.S.A. would end its systematic collection of data about Americans’ calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/us/obama-to-seek-nsa-curb-on-call-data.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Winehole23

04-15-2014, 11:05 AM

The Washington Post and The Guardian win the 2014 Pulitzer gold medal for public service:

The Pulitzer Prize has rendered its vote on what it thinks of Edward Snowden’s revelation of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) domestic surveillance techniques today by giving a gold medal in public service (http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2014-Public-Service) to The Guardian US and The Washington Post for breaking the stories. The Pulitzer committee credits the Post for helping "the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security," while The Guardian is recognized for "helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy."http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/14/edward-snowdens-nsa-leaks-lead-to-pulitz

boutons_deux

04-15-2014, 11:52 AM

.. and hero whisteblower Snowden gets nothing but criminalization.

Winehole23

04-16-2014, 11:06 AM

Greenwald and Poitras win the Polk Award: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/business/journalists-who-broke-news-on-nsa-surveillance-return-to-the-us.html

pgardn

04-16-2014, 02:52 PM

.. and hero whisteblower Snowden gets nothing but criminalization.

Thats what happens when you choose to break a law.

What he did was very important to our understanding into lack of oversight. And how deeply the NSA and quite likely other agencies are getting into information they don't need to be in. As well as programs that are very questionable legally and exactly the type of programs we think are so dangerous to the free flow of information.

But he broke the law. And then landed in a country exactly the opposite of what he professed to be morally within his qualifications based on how they treated the free flow of information.

So thanks for the info Ed, I wish there was some other avenue you could have used.

boutons_deux

04-16-2014, 03:05 PM

Snowden had to break the law to expose the STILL UNPUNISHED law-breaking of NSA.

What other choice did he have? "go through channels" :lol

pgardn

04-16-2014, 03:17 PM

Snowden had to break the law to expose the STILL UNPUNISHED law-breaking of NSA.

What other choice did he have? "go through channels" :lol

So you know there was no other way to get the information out to people in our government that would see the law breaking? You know there is NO OTHER way. He had to break the law. I think I would have completely exhausted this avenue before copying anything illegally.
You know there was no other way and you know he exhausted all possibilities BEFORE breaking the law.

And besides all this he is a hypocrite. You think he surfs the internet in Russia boots?

boutons_deux

04-16-2014, 03:27 PM

Snowden certainly knew the horrible record and abuse of whistleblowers.

Suggest his alternatives to law breaking. And we're talking about breaking the laws of the fucking beyond-the-law NSA messianic Few Good Men.

pgardn

04-16-2014, 03:30 PM

Do you have any idea the precedent this would set boots? Anyone with govt. Access could release things they deemed important. Individual workers would be the judge and jury of what can be released. So of course they give up some State dept official or some operative for intelligence in Ukraine and the operative gets axed.

Good show.
You don't see the scenarios that could arise? You don't think its important that we get accurate info, for instance in Ukraine, we just rely on Ukraine and Russia to tell us what's really going on?

I don't want people like you deciding what needs to be released.
I don't want individuals releasing what THEY judge to be important.

Winehole23

04-17-2014, 10:59 AM

boutons_deux

04-17-2014, 11:02 AM

pgardn

04-17-2014, 11:49 AM

:lol

"deemed important" AND ILLEGAL

So I want you to go work for the IRS, decide there is too much privacy, and use Assange to release everyone's tax return.
Excellent.

pgardn

04-17-2014, 11:55 AM

actually, Snowden released the NSA info to journalists, who then decided along with their editors what was in the public interest to release.

as for going through proper channels, many of those who've done so since 2009 have been been subject to official secrets prosecution. Obama has chilled whistleblowing.

First sentence, my point still stands. An individual could steal and release govt. info of his choosing. This is a problem.

Then don't release the info unless you are willing to pay the price. The chill has been exposed. It will become easier if people take the abuse of authority seriously. Which some democrats and republicans are.

Ask Valerie Plame how it feels when someone within a govt. agency releases info to journalists...

TDMVPDPOY

04-18-2014, 02:21 AM

a snitch or not, cops loves snitches but they dont protect snitches...lmao corrupt cops

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 06:05 AM

Ask Valerie Plame how it feels when someone within a govt. agency releases info to journalists...So 2003. Have you read a newspaper since?

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 06:13 AM

you might find a few relevant threads in this forum if you really cared so much.

pgardn

04-18-2014, 07:27 AM

You get the point Winehole.

So 2003...

It was a bad year for your favorite wine?
It was the year your smoking jacket caught fire?

The point is still the same. If you don't get it by now and would like to prove my point for me then do so.

pgardn

04-18-2014, 07:34 AM

you might find a few relevant threads in this forum if you really cared so much.

Of course.
ST is the repository given I don't read newspapers anymore.
Damn ink...

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 01:19 PM

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 01:20 PM

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190614

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 01:23 PM

Binney, Roark, others here: http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180115&p=6113161&viewfull=1#post6113161

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 01:32 PM

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202316

pgardn

04-18-2014, 03:04 PM

If you think Plame is relevant to the discussion, you're living in the past. Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou and Richard Barlow are a bit closer in time, all three got it much worse than Plame, and that's just off the top of my head. Obama puts Bush in the shade wrt whistleblowers. There are a number of searchable threads on this topic that might bolster your pose of knowledgeability . . .

Wa Po broke both goofball.
Got an award for one, the other... Ask Robert Novak ( he probably won't answer)

And we are a bit uppity today aren't we. Last time you asked me to explain myself with my misreading of Syria and gas, that misreading pointed out by myself, was in the same thread.

So take your own advice big fella.

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 03:16 PM

deflection, grasping at straws. lol uppity.

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 03:17 PM

lol declaring victory in past threads

Winehole23

04-18-2014, 03:17 PM

your bs is particularly weak today, pgardn.

pgardn

04-19-2014, 08:16 AM

lol declaring victory in past threads

Declaring victory...

WTF?

This is some sort of game and you are keeping score?
So what conference am I in and do I have a chance to make the playoffs?

pgardn

04-19-2014, 08:19 AM

your bs is particularly weak today, pgardn.

Well darn.

Does Walmart sell a BS meter?
I wish to practice so I can meet your lofty standards.

Winehole23

04-19-2014, 02:46 PM

feel free to rejoin the conversation once you've caught up.

pgardn

04-19-2014, 03:18 PM

feel free to rejoin the conversation once you've caught up.

Thats what you said last time, and then thanked me for explaining.

And thanks for assigning yourself the role of welcoming committee.
I think I will sit this one out. I'm way behind and would not prematurely declare myself a victor among what are opinions.

Winehole23

04-19-2014, 03:24 PM

you got nothing? how unsurprising...

pgardn

04-19-2014, 04:03 PM

Information:

What do the people represented by a democratic government have the right to know?
Some information, if made public, could be dangerous/detrimental for individuals or the entire population represented by their government. Other information might be deemed absolutely necessary for a government to release given that a government by the people and for the people to survive as labeled.

Its a very old problem. It will continue to be.

Sorry Ms. Crutchfield, I don't want to play anymore.
Maybe later. Don't tell my parents.

FuzzyLumpkins

04-20-2014, 03:07 AM

Wine had a day drunk going on it seems.

pgardn

04-20-2014, 09:44 AM

Wine had a day drunk going on it seems.

Ahhh...

My fault for not being around long enough to know better.

Winehole23

04-20-2014, 10:12 PM

Fuzzy diagnoses me as alcoholic based on, well, I don't really know. He also does free psych workups. Knows all sorts of stuff about posters he's never met.

His advice is worth what you pay for it.

FuzzyLumpkins

04-21-2014, 06:19 AM

Fuzzy diagnoses me as alcoholic based on, well, I don't really know. He also does free psych workups. Knows all sorts of stuff about posters he's never met.

His advice is worth what you pay for it.

All that and you never say that you weren't drinking. I diagnose it because I have seen others drunk behave the same way. It's not particularly difficult to figure out. I also do not comment on you being an alcoholic or not. If I have then I was in the wrong because I have no way of knowing why you drink.

OTOH, stream of consciousness spam posting is what it is.

Winehole23

04-21-2014, 08:32 AM

All that and you never say that you weren't drinking.it's none of your business what I do, but I wasn't. that said, I reserve the right to drink whenever I please.

I also do not comment on you being an alcoholic or not.oh but you do. I can find examples if you like.

OTOH, stream of consciousness spam posting is what it is.all discussion is stream of consciousness, more or less. this is a discussion board, is it not?

Nbadan

05-01-2014, 12:56 AM

hero?

Edward Snowden set to leak secrets about Arab leaders - report
Source: Arabian Business

Edward Snowden, a former US intelligence operative who last year began leaking details of the activities by US spy agencies, is reportedly set to release details of secrets related to the Arab world.

According to the Al-Arab Al-Yawm website, sources close to Snowden's Arabic translation team said the new leaks would be related to leaders and governments in the Arab world and will reportedly reveal what Arab leaders told Americans behind closed doors and agreements they, made with the CIA, the Middle East Monitor reported.

"The Arabic part will trigger a tsunami in the Arab world," Al-Arab Al-Yawm claimed. The latest leaks are expected to include details on Syria, Palestine and Turkey.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, caused international uproar last June when he disclosed details of the extent of surveillance and electronic intelligence gathering by his former employers and by the British equivalent GCHQ to the Washington Post and Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

Read more: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/edward-snowden-set-leak-secrets-about-arab-leaders-report-548367.html

Infinite_limit

05-01-2014, 01:55 AM

hero?

Edward Snowden set to leak secrets about Arab leaders - report
Source: Arabian Business

Read more: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/edward-snowden-set-leak-secrets-about-arab-leaders-report-548367.html
If you don't live in the USA, you want to see it crumble.

boutons_deux

06-04-2014, 01:16 PM

http://otherwords.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/manning-up-problem-cartoon-600x449.jpg

Winehole23

06-05-2014, 12:28 PM

65 things we've learned about the NSA in the last year:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/65-65-things-we-know-about-nsa-surveillance-we-didnt-know-year-ago

boutons_deux

06-05-2014, 03:06 PM

RandomGuy

06-05-2014, 05:40 PM

Not sure I have weighed in.

Hero, barely.

Shone a light on shit that needed light.

Winehole23

06-06-2014, 10:24 AM

A Year After Snowden, U.S. Tech Losing Trust Overseas

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/06/05/318770896/a-year-after-snowden-u-s-tech-losing-trust-overseas?sc=17&f=1001&utm_source=iosnewsapp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=appthere's a tangible economic downside to this. the NSA's electronic dragnet has cost US companies billions already.

Winehole23

06-06-2014, 10:34 AM

Clapper minimizes the damage:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/edward-snowden-took-less-than-previously-thought-says-james-clapper/2014/06/05/054cb9f2-ecee-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html

boutons_deux

06-06-2014, 11:10 AM

Clapper minimizes the damage:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/edward-snowden-took-less-than-previously-thought-says-james-clapper/2014/06/05/054cb9f2-ecee-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html

Clapper's a spook. THEY ALL LIE.

angrydude

06-06-2014, 11:40 AM

there's a tangible economic downside to this. the NSA's electronic dragnet has cost US companies billions already.

Sad thing is, if there is anything that will stop this, it is big business not wanting to lose that money.

Unless rich people value their budding police state over making money.

boutons_deux

06-06-2014, 11:42 AM

Microsoft, China clash over Windows 8, backdoor-spying charges
http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-china-clash-over-windows-8-and-charges-of-backdoor-spying/?tag=nl.e703&s_cid=e703&ttag=e703&ftag=CAD090e536

boutons_deux

06-06-2014, 11:44 AM

Cellphone operator reveals scale of gov't snooping

LONDON (AP) — Vodafone, one of the world's largest cellphone companies, revealed the scope of government snooping into phone networks Friday, saying authorities in some countries are able to directly access an operator's network without seeking permission.

The company outlined the details in a report that is described as the first of its kind, covering 29 countries — in Europe, Africa and Asia — in which it directly operates. It gives the most comprehensive look to date on how governments monitor the mobile phone communications of their citizens.

The most explosive revelation was that in a small number of countries, authorities require direct access to an operator's network — bypassing legal niceties like warrants. It did not name the countries.

"In those countries, Vodafone will not receive any form of demand for lawful interception access as the relevant agencies and authorities already have permanent access to customer communications via their own direct link," the report said.

The report itself reflects the concern now being raised regarding privacy rights around the world. Though Vodafone is a global company, it consists of separate subsidiaries, all of which are subject to domestic laws of the countries in which it operates.

"The need for governments to balance their duty to protect the state and its citizens against their duty to protect individual privacy is now the focus of a significant global public debate," the company said in the report. "We hope that ... disclosures in this report will help inform that debate."

The findings will alarm civil rights advocates already in arms over the revelations of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency systems administrator whose leaks have exposed some of the agency's most sensitive spying operations.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights group Liberty, described the findings as a worst-case scenario infringement into civil rights.

"For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying," Chakrabarti said in a statement, adding that the Snowden revelations showed the Internet was already being treated as "fair game."

"Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin - our analogue laws need a digital overhaul," she said.

http://m.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Cellphone-operator-reveals-scale-of-gov-t-snooping-5533174.php

Infinite_limit

06-06-2014, 01:18 PM

Winehole23

06-09-2014, 09:59 AM

Friedersdorf replies to Kinsley and Linker:

Let's ground the decision about publishing classified information in reality.

In reality, the government often does serious damage to the U.S. by making the wrong judgment call on classification. Officials are the most biased judges when it comes to these decisions because, often times, the truth reveals their own incompetence or illegal behavior, and suppressing the truth always inflates their relative power and importance. There is no more biased decider than government officials.

In reality, journalists making "wrong calls" on classification have done so little damage that it's hard to cite examples that show any lasting harm. There aren't horror stories in which America was gravely damaged due to journalists spilling a precious secret (though government often predicts disasters that never come). We've gotten along quite well for decades without prosecuting any journalists, even though there were countless leaks in that period. There were some threats of prosecution in that period—and virtually all of them reflected badly on government in hindsight.

Kinsley and Linker can only gesture at hypothetical harms that could occur if journalists published without fear of prosecution. They ground their whole position in a thought experiment rather than in decades of lived experience. Alarms are raised about vesting too much responsibility in journalists of "dubious" credentials. Fear is stoked at the superficially frightening idea that cute animal curators at BuzzFeed could wind up making the call. But no one explains how these people would come into America's top secrets. In what world will the cute puppy aggregator find himself holding a list with the names of every undercover CIA agent? And even then, wouldn't he probably not publish?

In reality, it is almost always seasoned national-security reporters who get sensitive leaks. Linker implies that if they were the ones making the call he'd feel much better about my standard. Well, in practice, isn't that exactly how things typically work?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/the-pointlessness-of-prosecuting-journalists-who-publish-leaks/372381/

Winehole23

07-17-2014, 03:24 AM

Mathematicians weigh in: http://www.ams.org/notices/201406/rnoti-p623.pdf

Winehole23

01-26-2015, 09:40 AM

Gallagher warned that the long sentence would nonetheless set a precedent for journalists. “Basically,” he said, “if you share a link to publicly available material without knowing what’s in it – maybe it could contain stolen credit card info – you could be prosecuted.”

“Any journalist that uses hackers as sources is extremely chilled by this,” Gallagher added.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-trial-warns-dangerous-precedent-hacking-sentencing

Winehole23

01-26-2015, 10:17 AM

By my count, the Obama administration has secured 526 months of prison time for national security leakers, versus only 24 months total jail time for everyone else since the American Revolution. It's important – and telling – to note that the bulk of that time is the 35 years in Fort Leavenworth handed down to Chelsea Manning.

It takes a bit of digging to find all this information. As my public service for the day, here's a rundown of every leak case, the sentence (if there was one), and its current disposition.

Pre-Obama Cases

Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo (1973). Famous national security whistleblowers prosecuted for releasing the Pentagon Papers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers). Sentence: Charges dropped (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0511.html) after revelations that President Nixon's henchmen burglarized Ellsberg's psychoanalyst looking for dirt and tried to bribe the judge in their case with the directorship of the FBI.
Samuel Morison (1985). Naval analyst who sent pictures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Loring_Morison) of the Soviet navy to Jane's Fighting Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane%27s_Fighting_Ships), a reference book on the world's warships. Sentence: 24 months. He was subsequently pardoned by President Clinton, despite CIA objection.
Larry Franklin (2005). Pentagon analyst charged with leaking Iran-related intelligence material to lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sentence: 10 months (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23671.html) at a halfway house and 100 hours of community service.

Obama Cases

Thomas Drake (2010). NSA whistleblower. Revealed waste at the agency in connection with the Trailblazer Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailblazer_Project). Sentence: All espionage charges were later dropped (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-06-09/news/bs-md-nsa-leak-case-20110609_1_jesselyn-radack-drake-case-espionage-act), and Drake pled guilty to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a year of probation. The judge called the government's conduct in the case "unconscionable."
Shamai Leibowitz (2010). Orthodox Jewish FBI translator, concerned (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/06leak.html?pagewanted=all) about ill-considered Israeli airstrike against Iran, revealed U.S. spying against Israeli diplomats to blogger. Sentence: 20 months. Amazingly, the sentencing judge said, "I don't know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea."
Chelsea Manning (2013). Wikileaks. Sentence: 420 months (35 years). As noted, it's heaviest sentence in history, almost twenty times the pre-Obama record.
John Kiriakou (2013). CIA analyst and case officer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kiriakou). Kiriakou was the whistleblower who revealed the secret CIA torture program. Sentence: 30 months.
Donald Sachtleben (2013). FBI agent and contractor alleged to have disclosed to the Associated Press details of a disrupted Yemen-based bomb plot. The wildly overbroad (https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-national-security/dojs-ap-phone-logs-grab-highlights-renewed-need-shield-law) subpoena the Justice Department sent to the AP as a follow-up made national headlines. Sentence: 43 months (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ex-fbi-pleads-guilty-being-ap-source-sentenced). Longest ever imposed in civilian court.
Stephen Kim (2014). State Department advisor who disclosed information about North Korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb to a Fox News reporter. The reporter was investigated by the FBI as a possible "co-conspirator" for mere act of newsgathering. Sentence: 13 months (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ex-state-dept-adviser-stephen-j-kim-sentenced-to-13-months-in-leak-case/2014/04/02/f877be54-b9dd-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html).
Jeffrey Sterling (case pending). Alleged to have been James Risen's source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Alexander_Sterling).
Edward Snowden (case pending). Revealed secret law allowing wholesale, covert surveillance of innocent people by the NSA. Charges against him carry decades in prison.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/leak-prosecutions-obama-takes-it-11-or-should-we-say-526

Winehole23

01-29-2015, 02:03 AM

Sterling convicted (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/jurors-tell-judge-they-cant-agree-in-cia-leak-trial-of-jeffrey-sterling/2015/01/26/db819f78-a57c-11e4-a7c2-03d37af98440_story.html).

Winehole23

01-30-2015, 12:42 PM

more leaks. modern dirty tricks. it isn't just terrorists the NSA targets:

A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald, while working with NBC News, revealed some details of a GCHQ presentation concerning how the surveillance organization had a "dirty tricks" (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140207/08354426130/gchq-has-entire-program-dirty-tricks-including-honeypots-using-journalists-deleting-online-accounts.shtml) group known as JTRIG -- the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group. Now, over at The Intercept, he's revealed the entire presentation (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/) and highlighted more details about how JTRIG would seek to infiltrate different groups online and destroy people's reputations -- going way, way, way beyond just targeting terrorist groups and threats to national security.

Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140224/17054826340/new-snowden-doc-reveals-how-gchqnsa-use-internet-to-manipulate-deceive-destroy-reputations.shtml

Winehole23

01-30-2015, 01:15 PM

in the information war, companies and political activists are targeted too

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:00 AM

Citizenfour wins the Oscar for Best Documentary:

n Sunday, journalist Laura Poitras won the Oscar for documentary filmmaking for her movie Citizenfour, which chronicled Snowden's journey and told the story of the journalists who handled the documents he gave them. In her acceptance speech, Poitras thanked the Academy, the documentary community, and Snowden himself.

"The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don't only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself," she said. "When the most important decisions being made, affecting all of us, are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden, for his courage, and for the many other whistleblowers."

Poitras won the Oscar together with her producers Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky.http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/02/psa-oscar-winning-citizenfour-to-air-on-hbo-today/

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:03 AM

Citizenfour had only a limited theatrical release within the US, and it's been notoriously hard to track down through legal streaming means (as of Sunday, it wasn't yet available on iTunes). However, the movie will get its broadcast premiere today, February 23, when it will be shown on HBO (http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/citizenfour#/). And for UK readers, Channel 4 will show the film on Wednesday evening (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/citizenfour).

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:13 AM

recap:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/65-65-things-we-know-about-nsa-surveillance-we-didnt-know-year-ago

boutons_deux

02-23-2015, 11:20 AM

Snowden's much more of an American hero than the psycho killer Kyle.

Snowden risked his freedom and lost, Kyle risked nothing shooting at people at 100s yards distance. The US military "on the ground" kicking in doors and walking patrols risked way more than Kyle.

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:27 AM

Snowden's much more of an American hero than the psycho killer Kyle.in fact, both are hailed as heroes and it's hardly unthinkable that some people admire both Kyle and Snowden.

(but of course you're right and that's the only thing that matters, as usual.)

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:33 AM

petition drive for clemency:

https://www.aclu.org/secure/grant_snowden_immunity

boutons_deux

02-23-2015, 11:33 AM

in fact, both are hailed as heroes and it's hardly unthinkable that some people admire both Kyle and Snowden.

(but of course you're right and that's the only thing that matters, as usual.)

my opinion, well informed, is as "right" as anybody's.

Winehole23

02-23-2015, 11:36 AM

how does it feel never being wrong?

boutons_deux

02-23-2015, 11:42 AM

how does it feel never being wrong?

absolutely wonderful, you should strive in that direction, but you have a ways to go, good luck.

Spurminator

02-23-2015, 06:08 PM

Snowden and Greenwald doing an AMA on Reddit right now. Good read.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2wwdep/we_are_edward_snowden_laura_poitras_and_glenn/

TheSanityAnnex

02-23-2015, 09:39 PM

my opinion, well informed, is as "right" as anybody's.
Except it's hardly well informed, if it was you'd have known Kyle was on the ground going door to door doing raids with the marines.

Winehole23

03-19-2015, 11:04 AM

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (above) said this week in Homburg that the U.S. government threatened to cease sharing intelligence with Germany if Berlin offered asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden or otherwise arranged for him to travel to that country. “They told us they would stop notifying us of plots and other intelligence matters,” Gabriel said.https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-snowden-vice-chancellor-says/

boutons_deux

03-19-2015, 11:50 AM

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-snowden-vice-chancellor-says/

... extortion showing no respect for a key ally, trading partner, etc, etc. "exceptional" USA is a bully

pgardn

06-13-2015, 11:25 PM

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33125068

Oops...

ElNono

06-13-2015, 11:44 PM

^ Downing Street has less credibility than Snowden, tbh...

pgardn

06-13-2015, 11:57 PM

^ Downing Street has less credibility than Snowden, tbh...

Maybe.

But when you got a person choosing what he deems important to give out the probability that mistakes get made goes up. All of these countries have spies. So the hero traitor ? becomes very muddy. I again state what Snowden did was of huge importance and illegal.

You give many individuals with access to information a huge amount of power if they alone decide what is allowed to be made public.

pgardn

06-14-2015, 12:05 AM

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/14/russia-and-china-broke-into-snowden-files-to-identify-british-and-us-spies

This is all just out of the box so it maybe overblown but it does again highlight the concerns of having access to sensitive information and singly deciding to leak it.

ElNono

06-14-2015, 01:19 AM

Maybe.

But when you got a person choosing what he deems important to give out the probability that mistakes get made goes up. All of these countries have spies. So the hero traitor ? becomes very muddy. I again state what Snowden did was of huge importance and illegal.

You give many individuals with access to information a huge amount of power if they alone decide what is allowed to be made public.

The intelligence apparatus grew too big unchecked, and with that growth came the excesses. Gathering intelligence is fine, doing so violating our rights as Americans is not. Snowden simply brought to light such excesses, at a great personal price.

Even if this incident is true, it's far from the end of intelligence gathering for the US or the UK. As we've seen, even the disclosure of flagrant violations to our Constitutional rights, including the judicial deeming them illegal, barely moved the needle. A lot of hawks in this country just need to get old and die.

ElNono

06-14-2015, 01:22 AM

And the UK is even worse than the US in some of the heavy handed legislation when it comes to terror. Laws like forcing people to reveal passwords or face jail time are a good example. Luckily for us, *some* amendments, like the fifth, are still upheld in this country.

ElNono

06-14-2015, 01:25 AM

Timing is also suspect as hell, considering the recent Chinese hack that allegedly exfiltrated SF86 data, which apparently contains complete dossier of purported agents.

ElNono

06-14-2015, 01:28 AM

Also, from somewhere else:

GCHQ and the UK have been crying wolf about encryption for years. Now after all their bleating about how they can't crack encryption, they're claiming the Russians and Chinese have done it, but they couldn't?

pgardn

06-14-2015, 08:30 AM

hater

06-14-2015, 09:43 AM

:lmao spy agency leaking this to the media

:lol whores

boutons_deux

06-14-2015, 12:35 PM

The Intercept trashes the Murdoch toilet paper Times of London

THE SUNDAY TIMES’ SNOWDEN STORY IS JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST — AND FILLED WITH FALSEHOODS

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/14/sunday-times-report-snowden-files-journalism-worst-also-filled-falsehoods/ (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/14/sunday-times-report-snowden-files-journalism-worst-also-filled-falsehoods/)

ElNono

06-14-2015, 01:52 PM

None of this changes the fact that one man working for a govt. contractor made a huge decision on his own about what to leak. As I stated in my first post in reposting all of this, the disclosure was very important but very illegal and is very dangerous. I purposely posted this in its infancy to illustrate the importance of individual decisions that affect a huge number of people. I have no idea where it's going.

Comparing what China and Russia fund or allow is not my concern in this post although it is interesting. When the UK hacks Chinese industry for their own economic gain please post this as it would be very worthy and would add depth to the contradictory comparisons we turn to when examining our own problems.

I don't really see it like that. In my opinion, it was a necessary step towards righting some wrongs, which would have not been righted if the action didn't take place. Whistleblowing always carry risks and inevitably leads to side effects. The final question is: was it worth it? And the answer to that varies heavily between people, from Snowden himself to everybody. Personally, I think it was.

Certain level of oversight was long overdue in this area, and if it takes shinning some light into the pile of shit to do it, then so be it.

spursncowboys

06-14-2015, 08:43 PM

traitor

pgardn

06-14-2015, 10:34 PM

I don't really see it like that. In my opinion, it was a necessary step towards righting some wrongs, which would have not been righted if the action didn't take place. Whistleblowing always carry risks and inevitably leads to side effects. The final question is: was it worth it? And the answer to that varies heavily between people, from Snowden himself to everybody. Personally, I think it was.

Certain level of oversight was long overdue in this area, and if it takes shinning some light into the pile of shit to do it, then so be it.

Fair enough.

boutons_deux

06-15-2015, 03:56 PM

Reporter Who Wrote Sunday Times 'Snowden' Propaganda Admits That He's Just Writing What UK Gov't Told Him

So we've already written about the massive problems (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150614/23490431337/pulitzer-prize-bullshit-fud-reporting-goes-to-sunday-times-snowden-expose.shtml) with the Sunday Times' big report claiming that the Russians and Chinese had "cracked" the encryption on the Snowden files (or possibly just been handed those files by Snowden) and that he had "blood on his hands" even though no one has come to any harm. It also argued that David Miranda was detained after he got documents from Snowden in Moscow, despite the fact that he was neither in Moscow, nor had met Snowden (a claim the article quietly deleted). That same report also claimed that UK intelligence agency MI6 had to remove "agents" from Moscow because of this leak, despite the fact that they're not called "agents" and there's no evidence of any actual risk. So far, the only official response from News Corp. the publisher of The Sunday Times (through a variety of subsidiaries) was to try to censor (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150615/09463331342/news-corp-sends-dmca-notice-over-glenn-greenwald-trashing-sunday-times-ridiculous-snowden-story.shtml)the criticism of the story with a DMCA takedown request.

Either way, one of the journalists who wrote the story, Tom Harper, gave an interview to CNN which is quite incredible to watch (http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/06/14/tom-harper-nsa-files-snowden-howell-intv-nr.cnn/video/playlists/intl-latest-world-videos/). Harper just keeps repeating that he doesn't know what's actually true, and that he was just saying what the government told him -- more or less admitting that his role here was not as a reporter, but as a propagandist or a stenographer. Here's the key snippet (https://vine.co/v/eedM73dwDzj):

If you can't see or hear that, it's Harper saying "we just publish what we believe to be the position of the British government." This is a claim that he repeats throughout the interview, pleading ignorance to anything factual about the story. In short, his argument is that he heard these allegations through a "well placed source" within the UK government and he sought to corroborate the claim... by asking another source in the UK government who said "that's true!" and Harper ran with it.

Some more highlights. CNN's George Howell kicks it off by asking how UK officials could possibly know that the Chinese and Russians got access to the files, and Harper immediately resorts to the "hey, I just write down what they tell me!" defense:

Um... well... I don't know the answer to that, George. Um.... All we know is that... um... this is effectively the official position of the British government. Um.... we picked up on it... um... a while ago. And we've been working on it and trying to stand it up through multiple sources. And when we approached the British government late last week with our evidence, they confirmed, effectively, what you read today in the Sunday Times.

Again: government official tells them stuff, and they confirm with another government official -- and that's the story. Note that he says he showed the UK government "evidence" yet there is no evidence in the article itself. Just quotes and speculation. He goes on, trying to downplay the entire point of journalism, which should be to ferret out the truth. But, to Thomas Harper, if you question his report, you should be asking the government about it, not him. That's not his job.

It's obviously allegation at the moment, from our point of view. And it's really for the British government to defend it.

So, you publish an explosive story based on anonymous quotes and already proven falsehoods, and then you refuse to defend it, saying that it's the government's job to do so? Do you even know what a journalist is supposed to be doing, Harper?

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150615/11565531344/reporter-who-wrote-sunday-times-snowden-propaganda-admits-that-hes-just-writing-what-uk-govt-told-him.shtml

Murdoch toilet paper, anybody surprised? :lol

Splits

06-15-2015, 10:42 PM

Look at this pasty faggot ass "reporter" trying to defend his "journalism" :lmao

"we don't know"

"I don't know"

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/06/14/tom-harper-nsa-files-snowden-howell-intv-nr.cnn/video/playlists/intl-latest-world-videos/

"We just publish, uh, what we believe to be the position of the British Government"

https://vine.co/v/eedM73dwDzj

:lmao "journalism"

boutons_deux

06-18-2015, 11:48 AM

HAYDEN MOCKS EXTENT OF POST-SNOWDEN REFORM: “AND THIS IS IT AFTER TWO YEARS? COOL!”

https://prod01-cdn00.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2015/06/hayden-article-display-b.jpg

Former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden on Monday marveled at the puny nature of the surveillance reforms put in place two years after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a vast expansion of intrusive U.S. government surveillance at home and abroad.

Hayden mocked the loss of the one program that was reined in — the NSA’s bulk collection of metadata information about domestic phone calls — calling it “that little 215 program.”

And he said if someone had told him two years ago that the only effect of the Snowden revelations would be losing it, his reaction would have been: “Cool!”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/17/hayden-mocks-extent-post-snowden-surveillance-reform-2-years-cool/

The militarized surveillance police state is way beyond the control of govt. America is fucked and unfuckable, democracy dead.

Infinite_limit

06-18-2015, 11:55 AM

Hearing of the 1.7 Million documents stolen and the "game changing" repurcusions for USA/UK, was one of the happiest Political news I've seen since 9/11

Winehole23

10-07-2015, 01:57 AM

Edward Snowden says he has offered to return to the United States (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-i-want-to-come-home-to-u-s/) and go to jail for leaking details of National Security Agency programs to intercept electronic communications data on a vast scale.The former NSA contractor flew to Moscow two years ago after revealing information about the previously secret eavesdropping powers, and faces U.S. charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.
Snowden told the BBC that he'd "volunteered to go to prison with the government many times," but had not received a formal plea-deal offer.

He said that "so far they've said they won't torture me, which is a start, I think. But we haven't gotten much further than that."

In an interview broadcast Monday on the BBC's "Panorama" program, Snowden said he and his lawyers were waiting for U.S. officials "to call us back."

Earlier this year, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said a plea deal with Snowden was a possibility.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/edward-snowden-i-would-go-to-prison-to-return-to-the-united-states/

Winehole23

11-12-2015, 11:58 AM

EU Parliament offers asylum:

Too little has been done to safeguard citizens' fundamental rights following revelations of electronic mass surveillance, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. They urge the EU Commission to ensure that all data transfers to the US are subject to an "effective level of protection" and ask EU member states to grant protection to Edward Snowden, as a "human rights defender". Parliament also raises concerns about surveillance laws in several EU countries.

This resolution, approved by 342 votes to 274, with 29 abstentions, takes stock of the (lack of) action taken by the European Commission, other EU institutions and member states on the recommendations set out by Parliament in its resolution of 12 March 2014 on the electronic mass surveillance of EU citizens (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2014-0230+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN), drawn up in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations.

By 285 votes to 281, MEPs decided to call on EU member states to "drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender".

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20151022IPR98818/html/Mass-surveillance-EU-citizens'-rights-still-in-danger-says-Parliament

boutons_deux

11-12-2015, 12:44 PM

EU Parliament offers asylum:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20151022IPR98818/html/Mass-surveillance-EU-citizens'-rights-still-in-danger-says-Parliament

If he moves to Europe, the CIA will violate the Euro country's sovereignty, like they violate ALL countries' sovereignty, and kidnap him, or better, kill him.

CIA framed Assange with two Swedish bitches.

pgardn

11-12-2015, 03:20 PM

If he moves to Europe, the CIA will violate the Euro country's sovereignty, like they violate ALL countries' sovereignty, and kidnap him, or better, kill him.

CIA framed Assange with two Swedish bitches.

Links for Assange and sexual misconduct (rape) framing by CIA.
I will say your stuff is better than hater's but has been tinged in the past.

And why did Snowden even attempt to get charges dropped and come back if the CIA was going to kill him anyway?

boutons_deux

11-12-2015, 03:29 PM

Links for Assange and sexual misconduct (rape) framing by CIA.
I will say your stuff is better than hater's but has been tinged in the past.

And why did Snowden even attempt to get charges dropped and come back if the CIA was going to kill him anyway?

both Sverige ladies accusing Assange of rape or unprotected or whatever had CIA contacts. How serendipitous could that be?

Do Your Own Research -- WC

Winehole23

11-13-2015, 10:59 AM

why do you refuse to cite your source? are you ashamed of it?

Winehole23

02-14-2016, 02:11 PM

Cryptome slaps at Snowden and First Look, aka Snowden Inc.:

Young and Natsios are introduced, correctly, as “renowned figures within a larger community people interested in keeping governments and institutions accountable, and using documents to do that.” But they also offer deep insights into the media and how it has handled revelations about U.S. intelligence and the National Security Agency. And their remarks, such as the quote above, clearly catch their host by surprise.

In the 18th minute, they issue a scathing rebuke of “celebrity” journalism as practiced, in their opinion, by The Intercept (https://theintercept.com/), the publication owned by Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/ken-silverstein-the-intercept-115586). The interview is worth hearing in its entirety, and I urge anyone who’s had questions and concerns about Edward Snowden and his relationship to The Intercept’s founding editors, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras, to listen to it and carefully consider their arguments.

Why? Because Cryptome raises serious questions that nobody else on the left or in the media want to talk about, including how Omidar has created a business from Snowden’s cache; what exactly Snowden may have been doing while he was working for the CIA prior to his time at NSA (and what else he may have been doing at NSA itself); and why Snowden and The Intercept continue to proselytize for Tor, the anonymization tool (https://pando.com/2014/07/16/tor-spooks/), despite its massive funding (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/29/us-government-funding-tor-18m-onion-router) from the U.S. government, the Pentagon and the national security state.

http://timshorrock.com/?p=2354

Winehole23

02-14-2016, 02:14 PM

Cryptome’s critique, as expressed in the interview, is not new. Ever since Greenwald first wrote about Snowden’s documents in The Guardian in 2013, the organization has been keeping careful track of the glacial pace of the documents’ release and The Intercept’s almost-total control over the cache. Their latest tally, posted (https://cryptome.org/2013/11/snowden-tally.htm) this week, is 6,318 pages of what The Guardian first reported as 58,000 files.

From the start, Young and Natsios made it clear that they strongly disapprove (http://motherboard.vice.com/read/cryptome-is-pushing-for-all-of-the-snowden-docs-to-be-made-public) of the fact that this cache has not been made widely available to the public and posted for all to see – as they have done with the tens of thousands of intelligence files they have released since the late 1990s (and as Daniel Ellsberg did with the Pentagon Papers (http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Ellsberg/ells.QA99.leak.html)). Take a look at how Gawker (http://gawker.com/a-discussion-with-cryptome-514154708), a publication very friendly to The Intercept, reported on Cryptome in June 2013:

When the Guardian and Washington Post published their blockbuster NSA reports based on Ed Snowden’s leaks, journalists lined up conga-style to congratulate them on the scoops. Not Cryptome (http://cryptome.org/). Instead, the secret-killing site blasted the Guardian and Post for only publishing 4 of the 41 slides that Snowden gave them about PRISM, the NSA’s system for spying on the internet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data).

“Mr. Snowden, please send your 41 PRISM slides and other information to less easily cowed and overly coddled commercial outlets than Washington Post and Guardian,” Cryptome wrote in a June 10th dispatch (http://cryptome.org/2013/06/snowden-censored.htm) titled “Snowden Censored by Craven Media.”

To longtime followers of Cryptome, this response was unsurprising. Before Wikileaks, before Ed Snowden, there was Cryptome. Manhattan-based architects John Young and Deborah Natsios founded Cryptome.org in 1996 as a repository for documents no one else would publish, including lists of CIA assets, in-depth technical schematics of sensitive national security installations, and copyrighted material. As leaking has created a vibrant media ecosystem in recent years, complete with favored outlets, journalists and sources, Cryptome has positioned itself as its curmudgeonly ombudsman, quietly but blisteringly cutting down the hype and blather it sees in its competitors while advocating a form of radical transparency as straightforward as Cryptome.org’s bare-bones website.

same

Winehole23

09-21-2016, 11:13 PM

WaPo propped itself up on Snowden and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Now, its op-ed page says he should be jailed:

Remember that, while many people falsely think that Snowden is the one who revealed these programs to the public, that's not the case. He gave the documents to certain journalists, saying that he trusted them to sort through them and determine what was newsworthy, what was not, and what should be kept secret. It was the Washington Post that determined the PRISM program -- which is still subject to legal challenges (though so far has been found to be legal) -- was serious enough for news coverage. Not Ed Snowden. And yet now the Post says Snowden should be prosecuted for the journalistic decision it made, which earned it a Pulitzer.

Yes, the Post editorial board is free to make such a stupid decision, but it's only going to harm its journalistic staff. What source is going to go to the Washington Post now, when it's the very paper that took all the glory from publishing stories from a source -- and then called for him to be thrown in jail? https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?start=10

Winehole23

09-21-2016, 11:14 PM

Here's what the Washington Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron said about the Pulitzer Prize (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/washington-post-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-public-service-shared-with-guardian/2014/04/14/bc7c4cc6-c3fb-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html) when it was announced:

Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said Monday that the reporting exposed a national policy “with profound implications for American citizens’ constitutional rights” and the rights of individuals around the world.

“Disclosing the massive expansion of the NSA’s surveillance network absolutely was a public service,” Baron said. “In constructing a surveillance system of breathtaking scope and intrusiveness, our government also sharply eroded individual privacy. All of this was done in secret, without public debate, and with clear weaknesses in oversight.”

Baron added that without Snowden’s disclosures, “we never would have known how far this country had shifted away from the rights of the individual in favor of state power. There would have been no public debate about the proper balance between privacy and national security. As even the president has acknowledged, this is a conversation we need to have.”

Winehole23

09-21-2016, 11:26 PM

House report on Snowden, skewered for lies and inaccuracies:

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/house-intelligence-committees-terrible-horrible-bad-snowden-report/

pgardn

09-22-2016, 06:46 AM

Many individuals and institutions willing to make money or gain fame off of sensitive information with absolutely no thought about the bigger picture. And even edit said information for their own means.

We have many illustrations of how this "hacked" and or leaked information can lead to very enlightening yet disturbing outcomes. And possibly even influence our own presidential elections...

boutons_deux

09-22-2016, 06:53 AM

House report on Snowden, skewered for lies and inaccuracies:

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/house-intelligence-committees-terrible-horrible-bad-snowden-report/

well, duh, of course the Repug House, that font of fantastic governance, accomplishments, and veracity, would screw anybody who wasn't 1000% "My Country, Right or Wrong"

CosmicCowboy

09-22-2016, 07:10 AM

WaPo propped itself up on Snowden and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Now, its op-ed page says he should be jailed:

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?start=10

Good point.

Now ask yourself what changed from then to now.

*hint*

Who now owns Amazon and the Washington Post?

Winehole23

09-23-2016, 08:21 AM

Jeff Bezos.

How does that explain WaPo's editorial stance?

boutons_deux

12-16-2016, 03:09 PM

Snowden's 'Proper Channel' For Whistleblowing Being Booted From The NSA For Retaliating Against A Whistleblower

NSA oversight (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130811/19404824139/rep-justin-amash-house-intelligence-committee-withheld-nsa-documents-incoming-congressmen.shtml) and whistleblowing through proper channels (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160924/07302535609/proper-channels-whistleblowing-still-mostly-good-way-messengers-to-get-shot.shtml): both pretty much worthless.

Members of the intelligence community and members of its supposed oversight have said the same thing repeatedly over the past few years: oh, we'd love to cut Edward Snowden a break, but he should have taken his complaints up the ladder, rather than outside the country.

As if that would have resulted in anything other than Snowden being cut loose from his job and his security clearance stripped. The NSA's Inspector General -- supposedly part of the agency's oversight -- was even more harsh (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140226/16421426361/snowdens-proper-whistleblowing-channel-finally-speaks-its-all-talking-points-condescension-smears.shtml) in his assessment of Snowden's actions.

During a day-long conference at the Georgetown University Law Center, Dr. George Ellard, the inspector general for the National Security Agency, spoke for the first time about the disclosures made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
In addressing the alleged damage caused by Snowden’s disclosures he compared Snowden to Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent and convicted spy who sold secrets to the Russians.
[...]
“Snowden, in contrast, was manic in his thievery, which was exponentially larger than Hanssen’s. Hanssen’s theft was in a sense finite whereas Snowden is open-ended, as his agents decide daily which documents to disclose. Snowden had no background in intelligence and is likely unaware of the significance of the documents he stole,” Ellard suggested.

These are the words of the "proper channel." Ellard went on to state that had Snowden approached him with his concerns he would have pointed to the series of judicial rubber stamps that backed up the government's post-9/11 national security assertions as they approved more and more bulk surveillance.

That Inspector General -- the official channels, the oversight -- is now (mostly) on his way out of the agency for actions undertaken in direct conflict with his position, as reported by the Project for Government Oversight (http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/12/intelligence-community-landmark.html).

[L]ast May, after eight months of inquiry and deliberation, a high-level Intelligence Community panel found that

Ellard himself had previously retaliated against an NSA whistleblower,

sources tell the Project On Government Oversight.

Informed of that finding,

NSA’s Director, Admiral Michael Rogers, promptly issued Ellard a notice of proposed termination,

although Ellard apparently remains an agency employee while on administrative leave, pending a possible response to his appeal from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

"Bring your complaints through the proper channels," said the proper channel, all the while making sure whistleblowers regret blowing the whistle.

Ellard still has an appeal left to reclaim his position as a dead end for whistleblowers, but it seems unlikely the agency will be interested in welcoming a liability back into the fold. Ellard didn't just violate standard government policies on workplace retaliation but a fairly-recent presidential directive as well.

[The decision] was reached by following new whistleblower protections set forth by President Obama in an executive order, Presidential Policy Directive 19.

President Obama issued this (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17351921164/obama-signs-whistleblower-protection-act-same-day-that-whistleblower-bradley-manning-is-court.shtml) in 2012, and it was put into force the next year, a few months before Snowden began dumping documents. The new directive created better protections but would have done nothing (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130809/12594124128/obamas-simply-wrong-whistleblower-protections-would-not-have-applied-to-snowden.shtml) to aid Snowden in taking his complaints to the proper channels because he was only a government contractor, not an actual government employee.

It's somewhat of a surprise that Ellard managed to get caught in this loosely-protective framework, suggesting whatever he did was fairly egregious.

Officials of his stature rarely see retaliation claims against them substantiated. But that's exactly what happened here.

Following PPD-19 procedures, a first-ever External Review Panel (ERP) composed of three of the most experienced watchdogs in the US government was convened to examine the issue. The trio -- IG’s of the Justice Department, Treasury, and CIA – overturned an earlier finding of the Department of Defense IG, which investigated Ellard but was unable to substantiate his alleged retaliation.

Also receiving a bit more substantiation are Snowden's claims that utilizing the proper channels within the NSA would have been fruitless -- something that has been pointed out by

earlier whistleblowers, nearly all of whom have seen their careers ended and their lives turned upside down by government prosecutions for their actions.

https://theintercept.com/2016/12/16/if-you-want-to-see-how-donald-trump-will-destroy-the-environment-read-this-legislative-roadmap/