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| Edward Snowden |
When he was working in the intelligence community in 2009, Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who passed top-secret documents to journalists, appears to have had nothing but disdain for those who leaked classified information, the newspapers that printed their revelations, and his current ally, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, according to newly disclosed chat logs.
Snowden, who used the online handle “TheTrueHOOHA,” was particularly upset about a January 2009 New York Times article that reported on a covert program to subvert Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, according to the logs, which were published Wednesday by Ars Technica, a technology news Web site.
“They’re reporting classified [expletive],” Snowden wrote. “You don’t put that [expletive] in the NEWSPAPER.”
At the time of the posting, in January 2009, Snowden was 25 years old and stationed in Geneva by the CIA.
“Are they TRYING to start a war?” he asked of the New York Times. “Jesus christ they’re like wikileaks.”
Um, isn't he currently WORKING with Julian Assange of Wikileaks?
But wait, there's more.
This courtesy of the New York Times:
“They’re just like WikiLeaks,” Mr. Snowden — or someone identified as him from his screen name, “TheTrueHOOHA,” and other details — wrote in January 2009 about an article in The New York Times on secret exchanges between Israel and the United States about Iran’s nuclear program.
His unidentified interlocutor replied, “They’re just reporting, dude.”
But TheTrueHOOHA was not mollified. “They’re reporting classified” material, he wrote, suggesting that both the leak and the article were dangerous to national security. “Those people should be shot” in their private parts.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume he was suggesting that leakers and hackers be shot in the dick. Which, speaking as a man, is NOT something we guys take lightly.
Now there are some who will suggest that Snowden is not technically a "hacker" as he had access to the information while doing his job. Yeah, you know not so much.
This courtesy of The Daily Beast:
Last week NSA Director Keith Alexander told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Snowden was able to access files inside the NSA by fabricating digital keys that gave him access to areas he was not allowed to visit as a low-level contractor and systems administrator. One of those areas included a site he visited during his training that Alexander later told reporters contained one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court orders published by The Guardian and The Washington Post earlier this month.
At least for me it has become IMPOSSIBLE to support Edward Snowden anymore.
I have to admit I am glad that we know what we know, but I am NOT glad that learned of it in the way that we did.
At this point I believe the US is completely justified in seeking to bring him back to the States and have him face American justice.
Again . . . Snowden became a spy and a pawn when he took the information to the two countries who have some of the worst human rights violations in the world. My fellow progressives can bite me when they defend THOSE actions. (Russia is trying to kill gays and they put musicians in jail because of the church). China? Give me a break . . .
ReplyDeleteWhy did he give the information up to other countries? Why not just give the info to the press---? After he fled and handed it over. . spy.
If it is true Snowden hacked into information--how does that make him any better than the NSA he claims moral authority over? Many will continue defending this young man because they don't want to look like fools for supporting him in the beginning. They'll think he's being lied on---'cause, oops Snowden is not who they thought he was. I get that. They'll go down defending him no matter how ugly it gets because they are appalled by the NSA data mining. I hate it too but why are they shocked? Its been going on for a long time. Its called the Patriot Act. I have a feeling soon they'll find out Snowden was being paid in the first place. I still think he's a pawn to bigger fish. Follow the money. I smell a billionaire.
And frankly, I think the government should leave him where he is. I believe Obama told the press he would not be scrambling jets to bring back a twenty-nine year old hacker . . . . But lets face it---Obama is not a pacifist. And its not like he isn't capable of having Snowden grabbed by black ops. But I have a feeling Mr. Snowden will soon realize that being in the hands of Putin is no joke.
And if I'm not mistaken--Ecuador is getting nervous about taking him. Maybe they want to discourage having to house leakers for all eternity. Anyway, their government has issues themselves about freedom of the press etc. So. . . . it isn't a perfect world.
I've read recently that someone else who requested asylum in Ecuador had to wait several YEARS before being approved. Last I heard, Snowden is still in the airport in Russia and cannot leave the premises in order to to get to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Moscow.
DeleteThere's a limit to how long he can stay in an airport and he may have fewer options than he thinks. And you're right - you do NOT want to mess with Putin!
Ecuador has favored trading with the US, which would probably be revoked if they accepted Snowden – whom they can not yet prove to not be a liar. What's in it for them at this point?
DeleteMore to the point, I smelled a rat from day one. That's because I once had NSA clearance and counted the agency as one of my clients. I suspected a billionaire and payoff money in this from the get-go, and my hunch is much stronger now than it was then. I think it was a concerted, well-paid, and enormous swift-boating attempt that went horribly awry. Remember, Greenwald was involved with Snowden long before Snowden was planted at Booz Allen Hamilton.
And don't forget that BAH is a mostly republican-owned (including substantial ownership by the Carlyle Group, a majorly Bush family-owned empire) and -run agency, and that Snowden's boss at BAH was Eric Hoplin. Hoplin, a former Republican organizer and official, served as Chairman of the College Republican National Committee (the same job that launched Karl Rove into his life-long juggernaut), Deputy Chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, and recruiter for the George W. Bush and other Republican campaigns. Does anyone seriously think that Hoplin is apolitical now that he has access to every shred of information about the US government and all of its citizens (and now that every other manufactured 'scandal' against the Obama administration has struck a dry hole)?????????http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoplin
Some stories about Snowden claim that he intentionally sought a job with Booz Allen (see "Edward Snowden Says He Sought Booz Allen Hamilton Job To Gather NSA Surveillance Evidence" - HuffPost), so it makes sense to me that he'd make anti-leaker comments in order to impress them that he'd never leak info.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought that, too.
DeleteHere is an opinion piece from the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/the-criminal-nsa.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0&pagewanted=all
Here's another article worth reading:
Deletehttp://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57591551-83/ex-stasi-boss-green-with-envy-over-nsas-domestic-spy-powers/?ttag=twic
and rent the German film Barbara
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barbara_2012/
to see what it feels like to be watched.
and here's another one worth reading:
Delete"Military & Defense More: NSA Surveillance Spying Military
Latest Glenn Greenwald Scoop Vindicates One Of The Original NSA Whistleblowers
William Binney — one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in National Security Agency (NSA) history — worked for America's premier covert intelligence gathering organization for 32 years before resigning in late 2001 because he "could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution."
Binney claims that the NSA took one of the programs he built, known as ThinThread, and started using the program and members of his team to spy on virtually every U.S. citizen under the code-name Stellar Wind.
Thanks to NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden, documents detailing the top-secret surveillance program have now been published for the first time.
And they corroborate what Binney has said for years.
From Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman of The Guardian:
The collection of email metadata on Americans began in late 2001, under a top-secret NSA program started shortly after 9/11, according to the documents. Known as Stellar Wind, the program initially did not rely on the authority of any court – and initially restricted the NSA from analyzing records of emails between communicants wholly inside the US.
However, the NSA subsequently gained authority to "analyze communications metadata associated with United States persons and persons believed to be in the United States," according to a secret Justice Department memo from 2007 that was obtained by the Guardian.
Binney says that ThinThread was built to track electronic activities — phone calls, emails, banking and travel records, social media , etc. — and map them to collect "all the attributes that any individual has" in every type of activity and build a real-time profile based on that data.
"So that now I can pull your entire life together from all those domains and map it out and show your entire life over time," Binney told documentarian Laura Poitras in "The Program" (emphasis ours). Binney added that the purpose of the program is "to be able to monitor what people are doing" and who they are doing it with.
Greenwald and Ackerman, citing the NSA documents, describe how mining metadata from U.S. phone calls and especially Internet communications, which continues to this day, allows the NSA to performs "contact chaining" by which the agency can analyze "networks with two degrees of separation (two hops) from [a] target."
From The Guardian (emphasis ours):
"The calls you make can reveal a lot, but now that so much of our lives are mediated by the internet, your IP [internet protocol] logs are really a real-time map of your brain: what are you reading about, what are you curious about, what personal ad are you responding to (with a dedicated email linked to that specific ad), what online discussions are you participating in, and how often?" said Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute.
"Seeing your IP logs – and especially feeding them through sophisticated analytic tools – is a way of getting inside your head that's in many ways on par with reading your diary," Sanchez added.
On July 2 Binney, along with two other former NSA employees, agreed to provide evidence in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit (Jewel vs. NSA) that alleges the U.S. government operates an illegal mass surveillance program.
Given the latest leaks, that testimony looks rock solid.
And Greenwald and Ackerman report that the NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) directorate has "ongoing plans to expand metadata collection."
“I should apologize to the American people,” Binney told Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. “It’s violated everyone’s rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world.” "
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-whistleblower-william-binney-was-right-2013-6#ixzz2XY6abOkT
There are some stories out there suggesting that Snowden or Snowjob, may not be who we think he is. Rather, he may be a front man for excuses to further clamp down on our freedoms, a way to alter public opinion. Something to consider.
ReplyDelete
DeleteI think Snowdon, like Assange, is just another one who seeks his 15 minutes of Internet fame and glory. He will find out the hard way that actions have consequences.
Gryphen....the hypocrisy of this country finally got to him....think context...in 2009 he, like many others were awaiting a a refreshing change in the leadership of this country.....still waiting......
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry. When you get paid by the federal government (that is, by all of us) you have to abide by the rules. It appears that this guy never wanted to abide by the rules. If he did not want to do the work he should have quit, understanding, however, that the secrets stay secret. He appears to be a spy, maybe a spy without a master, but a spy nonetheless.
DeleteBeaglemom
So he chose to go to serious human rights violators Russia and China to prove his point? Now how does that make sense? Keep defending the indefensible.
DeleteBe aware that he was in a position to actually KNOW the depth of the depravity......
DeleteWe're all waiting for Snowdon to tell us all about that depravity, but I guess he's too busy playing Catch Me if you Can.
DeleteAnd quite possibly dreaming for a cut of the Hollywood revenue that will be based on this.
DeleteGryphen, as no public word of Mr. Snowden's exact whereabouts or condition has been shared since he arrived in Russia, I am compelled to fabricate a plausible scenario of what this modern day hero/traitor may be experiencing:
ReplyDeleteSnowden glances around the luxurious - by Russian standards - hotel suite and puffs smugly on his flawless Cuban cigar. Yep, he sure put one over on the good old U. S. of A., he chortles to himself.
He turns at the sound of the suite's door opening to find a broadly smiling, doughy looking man with red rimmed eyes who introduces himself only as Sergei. "On behalf of President Putin, I wish to welcome you to our country", he says and bestows a brief, slightly boozy kiss on each of Snowden's cheeks.
"Is everything to your satisfaction?", he asks and gestures expansively about the expensively and tastelessly decorated living room. "Oh, very much so", replies Snowden, who is beginning to realize how awesomely his treachery is paying off for him.
"You're going to be given the key to the city in a public ceremony at the Metro Petroskodrome in half an hour. The vice mayor will make the presentation. It's quite an honor for a most distinguished and welcome guest", Sergei declares with a deep bow and Snowden blushes slightly.
"Let me grab my briefcase and we can go", says Snowden.
"Nyet, Comrade, that won't be necessary. Your valise will be safe here in the apartment. I'll have... guards posted to ensure none of your belongings is disturbed."
"Spasibo, Sergei, but that briefcase is filled with computer drives full of top secret American information. I can't let it out of my sight", says Snowden, relishing the opportunity to use a new word from his smartphone's Russian phrase app.
"But, Comrade, I insist. It will interfere with your enjoyment of the ceremony. My beautiful niece, Svetlana, will be there. She's a doctor, an engineer and a bikini model. She is anxious to be having sex with you. Leave the valise, please."
"Is she a blonde or brunette?", asks Snowden.
"What is your preference?", asks Sergei.
"I like blondes", declares Snowden with a grin.
"Svetlana is blonde. You'll like her. She's very good in bed. Come, the car is waiting downstairs", says Sergei warmly.
"I'm looking forward to meeting her, too, Sergei, but I do have to take the briefcase", says Snowden, with a smile, wondering for only an instant how his host is able to assess his niece's sexual performance.
"But... I... insist", says Sergei in a flat, slow, cold manner. He is no longer smiling.
Snowden opens his mouth to reply and notices, for the first time, three large, dour looking bald men, standing next to the door, arms crossed in front of their wide chests, wearing identical black leather gloves, long black leather trench coats, dark sunglasses and stern expressions on their faces. Snowden feels his testicles reflexively tighten up against his body.
and... scene.
That header photo is of a cocky young fellow who just might be finding himself in this exact situation right now.
DeleteI believe that the essential point everyone is missing about Snowden vs NSA is that the NSA and our US government hired Booz Allen Hamilton to conduct surveillance that should have been handled by OUR OWN US government. Outsourcing our national security is insane. (We also outsource some of the work at the IRS which makes me really angry.) Great article here (http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/edward-snowden-privatization-national-security-193200238.html) Edward Snowden and the Privatization of National Security By Dean Baker at Yahoo! Finance | The Exchange – Wed, Jun 26, 2013 3:32 PM EDT.
ReplyDeleteBooz Allen was hired decades ago, something like the 1940's, to do spy work. The US government is their ONLY client. Hell they are like a private wing of the US government.
DeleteDoesn't matter when they hired them, it's still insane. This was bound to happen. Who knows how many times before now that we have had major leaks. If it happened back in the 1940s or 1950s it would have taken a month of Sundays for the breach to see the light of day and the US government still had time to fix any damage. Now days, the information or mis-information is halfway around the world in a nanosecond. (BTW the NSA was formed November 4, 1952 and currently has over 40,000 employees. Its predecessor was Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), created on May 20, 1949.)
DeleteI agree. Don't get distracted by the shiny propaganda objects. What happened to our right to privacy?
Deletehttp://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_23554739/restricted-web-access-guardian-is-army-wide-officials
and
See the real hypocracy on reporting from government sources:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10103
I'd rather we stop shooting the messenger and think really hard about the message. This full scale spying on us is the problem, not the 30 year old who might have changed his mind at 25.
In South Africa, they were trying to get Pres O arrested for being a war criminal for targetted killings. They are protesting him now, even before he lands in SA. So think more broadly about what is being done in our name with our tax dollars instead of swallowing the pap the propagandists are shovelling.
A thousand amens to gra*ma Banana's comment. And it would be cheaper, too.
DeleteMaybe Snowden was faking outrage at reporters printing leaked information to help cover up what he wanted to do. i think the guy is a traitor and I think the Russians should turn him over. Remember the John Le Carre and other stories about the Cold War when switches would be made at Check Point Charlie in Berlin? They could ship him back to the US in a heartbeat. I think that Putin's just mad because of the embarrassment his country had to endure with the Boston bombings and because of the West's anger at his helping the Syrian government.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Agree, Beaglemom.
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but it appears to me that this is apples/oranges. Snowden did not reveal national security secrets; he revealed that our government is spying on its own people - which the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights says they are not supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteHow is that equivalent?
Well, it's the Patriot Act. And Congress in its insanity following 9/11 fell for it. We've all known that meta data mining has been going on. If it finds terrorist cells, so be it. I won't be in any of them.
DeleteIt's not that he revealed that information (and, really, did we not know that already?), it's what he did afterwards.
DeleteAnd you know exactly what was on the laptops he stole, how???
DeleteData collection has been happening for decades and is no surprise to anyone old enough to no longer believe in the Tooth Fairy. I find it extremely hard to believe that China, Russia and who knows what other countries have been so enthusiastic about helping him if ALL he has is information about internal spying.
I think Snowden is a mole working for the Kock brothers.
ReplyDeleteA good guess. They've got the moolah to do this, and though they claim to hate communism, they have strong former ties with Russia, since their father made tons of money from the Stalin regime – to whom they literally owe their fortune.
Deletehttp://www.truthdig.com/report/item/tea_party_financiers_owe_their_fortune_to_joseph_stalin_20100418/
I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteEdward Snowden is of no consequence unless you genuinely believe that the United States doesn't have every citizen of every friendly country under surveillance, together with the government of every government- friendly or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteBack in the late 1950's the US Navy accidentally (?) broke the Dutch naval code. There was some embarrassment and lots of apologies but, let's face it, governments have always been, well, curious about what other governments are doing. Don't think that Russia and China don't have their ears to the ground all of the time.
DeleteBeaglemom
EVERY citizen of EVERY friendly nation? I had no idea our government is so efficient and hard working.
DeleteYes, EVERY citizen of EVERY friendly nation: every nation now has its citizens under digital surveillance and I don't know of one of them that hasn't willingly given the US access to that data for the purposes of fighting (ahem) trrrrrrism.
DeleteThere's no "work" required of the US govt, Sunshine. It's all done for them. Read a book once in a while.
“'Those people should be shot' in their private parts."
ReplyDeleteI say America should oblige Edward Snowden and put him in front of a firing squad.
Snowden is carrying four laptops full of classified information. Make no mistake about it. China downloaded every bit of data from all four laptops before allowing to leave. Russia is doing the same. He is not a 'whistle blower': He is a leaker of classified information.
YES GRYPHEN,
ReplyDeletequoting the New York Times, how astute of you.
Wasn't this the newspaper which helped along with our getting into Iraq?
They supported the bailout of the banks, didn't they?
And now they are sliming Snowy.
And you fall in line with with the New York Times
Screw the Times (I hate them). They aren't the only ones on Snowden.
DeleteAnd you are exactly the kind of person who will go down supporting Snowden no matter what truths come out about him.
If they find a million dollars on him---the U.S planted it.
He admitted he took the job to hack into files, so he kind of wasn't a whistleblower. If it turns out his whole persona has been an act and he used reporters and Greenwald---you'll scream--thats not possible. So are they lying about him going to China and Russia? Sometimes there are no heros. Just humans.
Gryphen is quoting the NYT, which is quoting a tech website that is quoting Edward Snowdon.
DeleteYour'e right,
DeleteGryphen quoting NYT.
NYT quoting tech.webside quoting Snowy.
Above comment is toward less than stellar investigations in the past re. Bush administration and banks.
The screeching of some commenters against anybody with a different opinion from GRYPHEN;
DeleteCan one say Palyn boots = Gryphen boots?
Believe it or not, we can make up our own minds and defending the same position as Gryphen isn't being a "bot." But it sure is convenient for you to think so.
DeleteYour'e right
DeleteGryphen isn't a bot. But some of the commenters are sure close. Personal attacks and innuendo don't help debate on any issue.
What the hell is the deal with that header picture?
ReplyDeletehahahahahahaha
Everyone knows that governments spy on their citizens to varying degrees.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows that the US government spies on us a lot more since the Patriot Act went into effect.
Everyone knows governments spy on each other.
So, what OTHER information does he have that other countries, which have NOT typically been our best buddies, are so anxious to get copies of?
THAT'S what scares me the most about this situation.
Scumbag. That's about all I can come up with right now. Well, that's not true. I could add a whole bunch of adjectives describing "scumbag." But I don't have the mental energy right now.
ReplyDeleteHe's a scumbag through and through.
If, as someone above suggested, he is just reporting on something the American government did to its American citizens...then WHY THE HELL did this asinine idiot find it necessary to involve the rest of the world???? Specifically those countries who we have a very delicate (would that be the right word) relationship with?
It's now more than just telling the American people WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW! (Sorry for the shouty capitals. I'll try to refrain.)
Seriously. I refer anyone to read the latest post from Jim over at Stonekettle Station. Good read, as always.
Back to the one word I really just wanted to write to begin with...
...scumbag.
Remember the Obama Scandals? That Used to Be a Thing
ReplyDeleteSifting through the Republican responses to President Obama’s climate speech Tuesday, an odd omission could be found — or, at least, it would have seemed odd as recently as a week or two ago. The various Republican statements churned out for the media dutifully denounced the president as a job-killing, coal-hating, stealth-taxing liberal. See Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Rand Paul, Orrin Hatch, the National Republican Senatorial Committee via spokesblogger Jennifer Rubin, and any others you care to Google on your own. The word that never appears in any of them is scandal. Not a one of them claimed Obama was attempting to distract America from his scandals.
It is not that Republicans have previously shied away from bringing “scandal” in to putatively unrelated Obama doings. The existence of a presidential “scandal” can be inferred when the opposition party — and both parties do this — attempts to tie the scandal to anything the president does or does not do. Republicans have previously defined as attempts to distract from the scandal such disparate Obama actions as nominating judges, proposing to reduce student loans, visiting the Jersey Shore, and defending the use of drones. That is to say, basically everything Obama has done since the dawn of the Obama scandal era about seven weeks ago. If the president can give a major speech without either the opposition or the new media accusing him of attempting to distract from the scandal, then the scandal is over.
Do you remember how all-consuming the “Obama scandals” once were? This was a turn of events so dramatic it defined Obama’s entire second term — he was “waylaid by controversies,” or at least “seriously off track,” “beset by scandals,” enduring a “second-term curse,” the prospect of “endless scandals,” Republicans “beginning to write his legislative obituary,” and Washington had “turned on Obama.” A ritualistic media grilling of Jay Carney, featuring the ritualistic comparisons of him to Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler, sanctified the impression of guilt.
It has come and gone, having left barely a trace. To be sure, the Obama scandals live on in the conservative world, where the evidence of deep corruption and venality grows stronger and stronger. But
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/obama-scandals-used-to-be-a-thing.html?mid=rss
The “Scandals” Go Up In Smoke
ReplyDeleteThere was always something desperate about them: an attempt somehow, after five years of remarkably scandal-free governance, to try once again and prove Michelle Malkin’s fantasies (and Peggy Noonan’s feelings) correct. Darrell Issa was the perfect charlatan for the purpose; and Roger Ailes desperately needed a new narrative in the post-election doldrums. But there really was no there there … and you can feel the air escaping from the hysteria balloons.
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/06/28/the-illusion-of-scandal/
Legal sources tell NBC News that the former second ranking officer in the U.S. military is now the target of a Justice Department investigation into a politically sensitive leak of classified information about a covert U.S. cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
ReplyDeleteAccording to legal sources, Retired Marine Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has received a target letter informing him that he’s under investigation for allegedly leaking information about a massive attack using a computer virus named Stuxnet on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
So what about this J? Snowden is a tool, but this is a four-star USMC general.
I wanna see him get the same treatment, hang him out to dry like Snowden, who only reported on the existence of a spying program, not leaked details of an ongoing black ops program.
A hundred amens to this. Talk about aiding and abetting our enemies by someone who SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!
DeleteNo WONDER the GOP and their MSM have been complaining for months about Obama 'investigating journalists' and 'attacking whistleblowers': the whistleblowers are actual LEAKERS, and the journalists are in on it. In their collective minds, a good offense was their best hope for a defense.
Thank goodness it didn't turn out that way. And thank goodness for Eric Holder, an extremely astute prosecutor who will not wear kid gloves when coming after these traitors. The GOP is proving daily that it truly will destroy the entire country and everyone in it merely to vent their rage against President Obama.
If this story from the South China Morning Post is true, young Edward Snowden is in a crapload of trouble (wherever he is).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1268209/exclusive-snowden-sought-booz-allen-job-gather-evidence-nsa
Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor for one reason alone – to obtain evidence on Washington’s cyberspying networks, the South China Morning Post can reveal.
For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media.
“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post on June 12. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”
During a global online chat last week, Snowden also stated he took pay cuts “in the course of pursuing specific work”.
In other words, Snowden specifically took the job so he could leak. That was always his intent.
He's done. The only question is who else he brings down with him. Yes, Mr. Greenwald, I'm looking at you. Greendwald supposedly has been in contact with Snowden for months. If Snowden's sole purpose was to get at classified material with the intent to leak it, what Greenwald knew and when suddenly becomes very germane. He's not a journalist at this point. He's a possible accomplice and possible co-conspirator.
Things just got real interesting.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/06/last-call-for-snowdens-motives.html
And once Putin gets all the information he wants from Snowden, just how useful is an immature, unpredictable, lying blabbermouth spy, anyway??? No wonder Obama is acting cool: he knows the end-game for Snowden will not be pretty.
DeleteWATCH: President Obama’s Remarks About Edward Snowden
ReplyDeletehttp://thedailybanter.com/2013/06/watch-president-obamas-remarks-about-edward-snowden/
Real-Life Repercussions Of Snowden Leaks: Al Qaeda Changing Tactics, Making Plot Detection Harder
ReplyDeleteIn the continuing, swirling debate of “is he or isn’t he?” – traitor, hero, patsy, pawn – the real-life ramifications of Edward Snowden’s leak of classified information to the media, as well as to sources in China (with whom the U.S. has what could certainly be called a complicated relationship), are not only on the table to be discussed, but felt. And the ripples are starting to make their way to shore.
According to the Associated Press, intelligence agencies are in overdrive attempting to salvage surveillance efforts seriously compromised by the Snowden dump:
It’s an electronic game of cat-and-mouse that could have deadly consequences if a plot is missed or a terrorist operative manages to drop out of sight.
Two U.S. intelligence officials say members of virtually every terrorist group, including core al-Qaida members, are attempting to change how they communicate, based on what they are reading in the media, to hide from U.S. surveillance. It is the first time intelligence officials have described which groups are reacting to the leaks. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about the intelligence matters publicly. [...]
The changing terrorist behavior is part of the fallout of the release of dozens of top-secret documents to the news media by Snowden, 30, a former systems analyst on contract to the NSA.
The Office of the Director for National Intelligence and the NSA declined to comment on the fallout, but the NSA’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, told lawmakers that the leaks have caused “irreversible and significant damage to this nation.”
“I believe it will hurt us and our allies,” Alexander said.
Leaders on all sides of the political aisle have been as mixed in their assessment of Snowden and his actions as Americans at large. Libertarians have hailed him as a freedom fighter. Republicans and Democrats have run the gamut in terms of their reactions, from anger at the “overreach” of the NSA, to horror at the “criminal” and potentially damaging actions of a rogue operative. Some have addressed the very specific issue of how terrorist groups and others are reacting to the leaked information.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said there are “changes we can already see being made by the folks who wish to do us harm, and our allies harm.”
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Tuesday that Snowden “has basically alerted people who are enemies of this country … (like) al-Qaeda, about what techniques we have been using to monitor their activities and foil plots, and compromised those efforts, and it’s very conceivable that people will die as a result.”
The thought of which should chill to the bone any “information freedom fighters” who dismiss the very real potential for damage created by the broad leaks (with more said to come) made here and abroad.
But, of course, in this climate of cultural suspicion and “everything is a conspiracy,” any alarm uttered by NSA officials or politicians is too often put in the pool of “dubious,” rather than considered with cold-water clarity. AP reports that
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/27/real-life-repercussions-of-snowden-leaks-al-qaeda-changing-tactics-making-plot-detection-harder/
I'm SO disappointed in you, Gryph . . .
ReplyDelete"I have to admit I am glad that we know what we know, but I am NOT glad that learned of it in the way that we did."
How in the hell would we know the frightening extent of the NSA's surveillance if Snowden had NOT exposed it ???
Did you know that in order to get his job he took an oath of secrecy AND an oath to uphold the Constitution ?
Faced with unquestionable proof that those two had in fact become mutually exclusive, which one would YOU have honored ?
Pouncing on the supposed-hypocrisy of a 25-year-old's comments made 4 years and God-knows-how-many secrets ago avoids the obvious question: what must he have learned about our government's surveillance that caused a complete 180 of his views ?
Anyone who says Snowden should be held to his prior opinions about leakers being shot "in the private parts" really should watch out for ricocheting bullets -- exposing the NSA's criminal overreach AFTER everything Bradley Manning's gone through truly required BALLS of STEEL.
The sad fact is that this idiotic "shoot the messenger" meme is actually the best way to distract attention away from the REAL issue at hand: the NSA's current surveillance programs have got to be the most heinous, egregious and wide-ranging violation of our Constitution in its entire 200+ year history.
oh good lord, chill out. your over the top screech isn't impressive at all. when anyone makes sweeping statements like '..in its entire 200+ year history', you just defeat the purpose of being taken seriously. you may want to do a little homework rather than carrying on like you are. this isn't new. it's been going on in some form by governments all over the world, since information could be tracked. it's just that in the age of digital information, it's become more fluid. gryphen massively overreacted to the initial information, and now he's come down to earth and seen the error of his ways. you, on the other hand are still reacting to shiny objects. chill, baby.
DeleteThe Errors of Edward Snowden and His Global Hypocrisy Tour
ReplyDeleteMy tolerance for Edward Snowden has run out.
The former contractor with the National Security Agency who divulged classified secrets about domestic surveillance programs has undertaken what can only be depicted as the global hypocrisy tour. A man outraged by American surveillance and who advocates free expression toodles happily to Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China? Then off to Moscow? Then tries for Ecuador (and, in some accounts, Cuba)?
And along the way, Eddie decided to toss out classified information about foreign-intelligence surveillance by the United States in other countries. For the Chinese, he was quite a spigot of secrets. He revealed documents showing that the N.S.A. had obtained text messages from the Chinese by hacking into some of the country’s telecommunications networks, engaged in computer espionage activities at Tsinghua University, and hacked into systems of Pacnet, an Asian provider of global telecommunications service.
Now, before I get into the specifics of Snowden’s China leaks, I want to stop for a minute.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenwald/2013/06/errors-edward-snowden-global-hypocrisy-tour
The last thing President Barack Obama wants to do is turn Edward Snowden into a grand enemy of the state or a Daniel Ellsberg-type hero who speaks truth to power.
ReplyDeleteIn the shifting narrative of the Obama administration, the man whose leaks of top-secret material about government surveillance programs have tied the national security apparatus in knots and brought charges under the Espionage Act has now been demoted to a common fugitive unworthy of international intrigue or extraordinary pursuit by the U.S. government.
A “29-year-old hacker,” in the words of Obama; fodder for a made-for-TV movie, perhaps, but not much more.
“This is not exceptional from a legal perspective,” the president said Thursday of Snowden’s efforts to avoid capture by hopscotching from Hawaii to Hong Kong to Russia.
“I’m not going to have one case of a suspect who we’re trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I’ve got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues simply to get a guy extradited,” the president told reporters in Senegal.
It was the second time in a week that the administration had toned down its rhetoric as Snowden remained out of reach and first China and then Russia refused to send him back.
...“Calling him a hacker, as opposed to a government contractor or an NSA employee, brings him down a notch to someone who’s an irritant, as opposed to someone who has access to integral intelligence files,” Pauker said. “To externalize him and brand him with a black-hat hacker tag distances him from the government.”
The disdainful talk isn’t just coming from the White House.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/obama-working-hard-to-bring-snowdens-stature-down-a-notch.php?ref=fpb
Greenwald’s Latest Snowden Leak
ReplyDeleteGreenwald’s new ‘bombshell’ article about the NSA essentially details how the NSA collected email metadata beginning shortly after 9/11.
The screamer headline: “NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama.”
We already knew about this program. Most recently, Eichenwald has been writing about it for the last week or so.
But here’s the most revealing part of Greenwald’s article: the program was stopped by the Obama administration in 2011. As Charles Johnson tweeted yesterday, the article’s headline could actually be “Obama discontinued NSA email program started under Bush.”
Furthermore, Greenwald wrote: “It did not include the content of emails.” The NSA only collected metadata, authorized by bulk FISA court warrants. The program, like everything else, sought overseas communications, and those communications might have inadvertently included some data from US persons connected with the overseas emails. And, again, reminder: any data from US persons that’s inadvertently collected is anonymized, encrypted and destroyed. It’s only decrypted with an individual warrant.
What’s continuously astonishing to me is that corporation-hating liberals are freaked out about privacy yet appear to be totally fine with evil corporations collecting and storing all of this data — including content, which isn’t stored by the government.
Once again, I still don’t see any evidence of wrongdoing or abuse-of-power here.
See article for live links:
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/06/greenwalds-latest-snowden-leak.html
Here's the additional thing, folks. When corporations control this data, it's no longer covered by your Constitutional rights. Just try suing BAH under the Privacy Statute and see how far you get.
DeleteWASHINGTON -- In the three weeks since Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency's widespread surveillance programs, the legislative response to his revelations on Capitol Hill has slowed to a glacial pace and public obsession has noticeably shifted from a debate on national security versus privacy to Snowden's latest whereabouts.
ReplyDeleteCivil liberties advocates in Congress introduced a slew of bills in response to reports that the NSA has been collecting phone records from millions of Americans and mining electronic communications from nine major Internet companies:
•Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) proposed legislation would require the federal government to have a warrant based on probable cause in order to seize phone records from Americans;
•Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who long warned of the government's surveillance methods, are seeking to limit the government's authority to collect data;
•Unusual bedfellows Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) co-sponsored a bill that would declassify FISA court opinions;
•And this week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation to revisit the Patriot Act Section 215 and FISA Amendment Act Section 702, under which the NSA programs are lawful.
But the one thing they lack is a timeline for when, or if, anything will actually get done. While the need to address the scope of the NSA programs has been raised in Judiciary committee hearings held by Leahy, none of the bills aimed at doing that has progressed beyond picking up a few cosponsors.
...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters earlier this month that any legislation in response to the NSA surveillance must go through the Judiciary committee. Leahy's office was unable to provide information on if and when the bill might be marked up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/nsa-bills_n_3516928.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Here's another fun fact. Back when the questions were about pedigree -- about who broke what first and who Edward Snowden's really-real BFF really was -- this was Mr. Greenwald's proud statement:
ReplyDeletehttp://driftglass.blogspot.com/2013/06/and-you-you-can-be-mean.html
Snow den for sure bit off a bit more than he envisioned by going both to HongKong as well as to Moscow with four laptops and countless thumb drives full of Top Secret i formation. When he was in Hong Kong, the Chinese for sure went and downloaded all he had, and now, inMoscow, he was immediately surrounded by the former KGB (don't remember their new name). One of the Russian defectors said, there is no way they will not get the I of they want from him...
ReplyDeleteHe is a traitor that deserves the Death Penalty. He has put American lives at risk. If I were president, he would be thrown 6 stories down in a maximum security cell that has concrete walls and no human contact. I'd give him a soccer ball that he could name Wilson. He would never see the light of day again. As far as finding asylum in some third world country. If he thinks he will be free to sip coffee on some beach patio he is mistaken.
ReplyDeleteAngus King On Edward Snowden: 'I'm Moving More And More Towards The Treason End Of The Scale'
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/angus-king-edward-snowden_n_3516807.html
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/06/28/cia-agents-were-embedded-with-nypd-and-had-no-limits/
ReplyDeleteHe screwed up big time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-screwed-up-big-time-2013-6
No, these secretists should be shot. Line them all up and shoot'em down as target practice we should! Maybe some some human experiments on them beforehand too. Nah, just because we should, doesn't mean we would. We're better than that, which is why you pathetic low-lives who honestly believe that you're at the top, some how above us, are still alive. Keep living your little worlds. Also, I hope you find a toronto dentist that either doesn't know about or care about how you people think of the world.
ReplyDeleteEcuador Abandons Snowden, Cancels Temp Travel Document
ReplyDeleteEcuador is backing off of their support of Edward Snowden - President Rafael Correa canceled his temporary travel document today. From the Guardian:
The plan to spirit the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to sanctuary in Latin America appears to be unravelling amid tension between Ecuador's government and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
President Rafael Correa halted an effort to help Snowden leave Russia amid concern Assange was usurping the role of the Ecuadoran government, according to leaked diplomatic correspondence published on Friday.
Amid signs Quito was cooling with Snowden and irritated with Assange, Correa declared invalid a temporary travel document which could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.
This essentially leaves Snowden completely stranded in Russia. With four laptop computers full of classified material. And no way to leave.
Methinks that Putin has a big, shark-toothed grin on his face today...and Snowden looks like a rather tasty morsel at this moment.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/28/1219717/-Ecuador-Abandons-Snowden-Cancels-Temp-Travel-Document