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| Cannot be tortured into talking you say? |
The dramatic plot of the Edward Snowden NSA whistleblowing saga has just taken an interesting twist: in a letter to U.S. Senator Gordon Humphreys, Snowden declares himself impervious to torture.
Furthermore, he claims his encryption cannot be hacked.
From his letter, posted in the Guardian:
[N]o intelligence service — not even our own — has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China).
You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture.
You know the idea of saying something like this, while sitting in Russia, under the watchful of ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin, seems the very definition of insanity.
If Putin WANTS to see what Snowden has, assuming he has not already seen it,then he WILL see what Snowden has. Period!
If Snowden thinks that Putin is on his side, or shares his vision of respecting the rights of people not to be spied on by their government, then he is a bigger fool than any of us may have thought.
What's more, if Snowden is granted asylum by the Russian government his trouble may have only just begun.
The only thing saving Snowden’s pathetic butt is that Putin doesn’t want to cause a scene. Let Bill Clinton accompany the poor fool home. I, for one, have lost patience with the idiot.
ReplyDeletePutin: U.S.-Russia Relations Greater Than Snowden
ReplyDeletePresident Vladimir Putin signaled clearly on Wednesday that he did not want a dispute over the fate of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to derail Russia's relations with the United States.
Russia has ruled out extraditing Snowden, wanted by Washington for leaking details of U.S. surveillance programs, and the U.S. citizen is currently stuck in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
Allowing him to stay in Russia even temporarily would upset Washington. Putin does not want to jeopardize a planned Moscow summit with President Barack Obama in September, their first in Russia since he started a new term last year, or cloud the atmosphere at a subsequent G20 summit in St Petersburg.
But a refusal would open Putin to criticism at home that he gave into Moscow's former Cold War enemy, even though he has refused to extradite Snowden to the United States to face espionage charges.
Asked during a visit to the eastern Siberian town of Chita whether the affair would cast a shadow over a U.S.-Russia summit due in September in Moscow, Putin told reporters: "Bilateral relations, in my opinion, are far more important than squabbles about the activities of the secret services."
Putin did not say whether Russia would grant Snowden's temporary asylum request, filed on Tuesday after more than three weeks at Sheremetyevo, but reiterated that he must agree to do nothing to harm the United States.
"We warned Mr. Snowden that any action by him that could cause damage to Russian-American relations is unacceptable for us," the former KGB spy said.
Snowden's decisions were a matter for him, said Putin, and suggested that if Russia granted him temporary asylum it should not be seen as a challenge to the United States.
"We have our own objectives as a state, including in the area of the building of Russian-American relations," Putin said.
Putin has used the case of Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong and then flew to Moscow on June 23, to accuse the United States of preaching to the world about rights and freedoms it does not uphold at home.
But both countries have signaled they want to improve ties, strained by issues ranging from the Syrian conflict to Putin's treatment of opponents and Western-funded non-governmental organizations since he started a third term in 2012.
UNWELCOME GUEST
Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer assisting Snowden, said Snowden had no plans to leave soon for any of the three Latin American countries that are offering him refuge because of U.S. pressure on its allies to bar his way.
Kucherena said he expected a positive response within a week to Snowden's request for temporary asylum in Russia. That would allow him to stay until he is sure of safe passage to another country. Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have offered him sanctuary.
"The grounds that he cited in the application ... hardly allow for a refusal of asylum," he told reporters. "He has no plans to go elsewhere. He can't go anywhere, even if he gets a valid passport."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/us-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUSBRE96F0I020130717
Of course Putin can say all these things: they now have all the information that was on those laptops. "Letting Snowden go" is not a problem at all to Putin at this stage of the game.
DeleteI can hear it now: "We have no idea where that laptop is", and, "How dare you accuse us? Russia would never stoop to stealing sensitive information from the US."
They don't need to stoop when a lunatic basically delivers it to them. If one of their crooks brought us secrets what would we do?
DeleteOh good grief. Impervious to torture, huh? Ok, it is just a waste of time listening to anything this poor sot has to say. This is becoming a reality show. What Will Edward Say Today? I'm not seeing this renewed for the fall.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way----Edward doesn't have to worry about being tortured because he already handed the info over to Putin. So all this crap about how he is this tough ass black ops guy just makes me giggle.
Impervious to torture... how can he make it more clear that he is deranged? Greenwald also too. Two dangerous loons.
DeleteAgree with ur 2nd paragraph.
Torture is eating hotel room service for one month.
DeleteAfter this, even Sarah would confess to faking the birth.
And what were his bargaining chips so that he could make sure the Russians fed him during all this time? After all, he's not been on a hunger strike.
DeleteSnowden's Laptops May Hold 'Extremely Sensitive' Details About NSA-CIA 'Black Bag Jobs'
ReplyDelete...Aid writes that the "one major concern" of U.S. intelligence officials is that "details of these [black bag] operations, including the identities of the targets covered by these operations, currently reside in the four laptops reportedly held by Edward Snowden. ... Officials at both the CIA and NSA know that the public disclosure of these operations would cause incalculable damage to U.S. intelligence operations abroad."
"If anyone wonders why the U.S. government wants to get its hands on Edward Snowden."
http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-may-have-details-on-black-bag-jobs-2013-7
DeleteThere's a Game going on. Don't know why, don't know how, but there will be a lot of books to read in the future with some kind of truth.
ReplyDeleteSnowden Says He Hasn’t Released Info to Harm “Our People” - but Der Spiegel Said Exactly the Opposite
ReplyDeleteGreenwald trumpets support from a far right wing anti-choice lunatic
-----
Snowden’s claim that he hasn’t released information that can harm “our people” is directly contradicted by Germany’s Der Spiegel, in a recent article on documents provided by Snowden’s accomplices: Der Spiegel: Snowden Released Information That Could ‘Endanger the Lives of NSA Workers’.
SPIEGEL has decided not to publish details it has seen about secret operations that could endanger the lives of NSA workers.
Greenwald also claimed that Snowden has a “dead man switch” that will be triggered if anything happens to him, releasing information that will cause massive harm to the United States.
It’s clear that at this point, Snowden is simply saying anything that will get him into a better position. Vladimir Putin made it an explicit condition of seeking asylum in Russia that Snowden stop releasing information that can harm the US, so Snowden’s now saying he never did so or intended to do so. Russia, here we come.
Meanwhile, who exactly is former Sen. Gordon Humphrey, and what are his political views?
Humphrey is about as far to the right as a politician can be in America, and that’s pretty far indeed. He’s a vicious foe of President Obama who endorsed Rick Perry in the last election, an extreme anti-choice activist who wants to defund Planned Parenthood, and was a supporter of the absolutely insane Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry in his congressional campaign.
Nice friends Greenwald and Snowden have.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/42275_Snowden_Says_He_Hasnt_Released_Info_to_Harm_Our_People_-_but_Der_Spiegel_Said_Exactly_the_Opposite
Good luck with that, Eddie. I wouldn't be talking too tough if I were you, also, too.
ReplyDeleteEddie boy, saying that is about as smart as waving a juicy roast beef in front of a starving grizzly and claiming there's no way the bear will get it from your pasty white hands.
ReplyDeleteIt appears more and more as if his arrogance has no bounds. His mouth is writing checks his brain and body can't cash.
Greenwald’s Microsoft NSA Bombshell is Frustratingly Coy and Deliberately Deceptive
ReplyDeleteOnce again, we’re being duping into believing that Microsoft is handing over all user communications, including content, without any warrants or oversight. Readers have to descend 13 paragraphs into the article to discover this line: “Targeting US citizens does require an individual warrant…”
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/07/greenwalds-microsoft-nsa-bombshell-is-frustratingly-coy-and-deliberately-deceptive/
AS for this idiot's encryption? ANYTHING Man makes, Man can UNmake!
ReplyDeleteNothing more dangerous than an arrogant computer security tech.
ReplyDeleteand especially one who knows absolutely nothing about history. Lots of luck in Russia, Eddie! Besides, Putin used to work for the KGB.
DeleteBeaglemom
I feel somewhat better now that Snowden has clued us in to his internal fortitude. I just hope he doesnt think encryption means keeping valuable information on a thumb drive up his butt. He is a good liar but it has been proven from the false information on his resume that he is poorly educated. I wonder if he got the job on lies and then after the transition period of three months, it became very apparent that he knew nothing. So, to save face, he decided to be No. 1 Whistleblower.
ReplyDeleteThose who cannot, pretend a lot.
How true indeed.
DeleteHmmm... could it be that Snowden is using this tactic to force the US to allow him to travel to Latin America?
ReplyDeleteHmmm... or he may be going for suicide by rogue Russian so there is mass damage to USA.
DeleteWhatever he is after at this point, he is not so smart and he is nuts.
He's using this tactic so that the American people don't continue to turn against him.
DeleteJust a couple of weeks ago, President Obama was brushing off Edward Snowden as a “a 29-year-old hacker” hardly worthy of causing an international incident.
ReplyDeleteOn Friday, that attitude changed dramatically as Obama administration officials called out nations that have been friendly to the former intelligence contractor on the day he asked Russia for asylum. Officials also took a hard line against Snowden.
Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin were scheduled to have a phone call Friday afternoon, where it was expected that Snowden’s situation would be discussed. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made it clear that the U.S. will be upset if Russia grants Snowden’s request.
“Providing a propaganda platform for Mr. Snowden runs counter to the Russian government’s previous declarations of Russia’s neutrality and that they have no control over his presence in the airport,” Carney said. “It’s also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr. Snowden to further damage U.S. interests.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/the-obama-administration-has-stopped-pretending-theyre-not-w
N.S.A. Leaks Revive Push in Russia to Control Net
ReplyDeleteEdward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, fled the United States saying he did not want to live in a surveillance state.
But now the Russians are using his very presence here — on Friday Mr. Snowden said he intended to remain in Russia for some time while seeking asylum elsewhere — to push for tighter controls over the Internet.
Two members of Russia’s Parliament have cited Mr. Snowden’s leaks about N.S.A. spying as arguments to compel global Internet companies like Google and Microsoft to comply more closely with Russian rules on personal data storage.
These rules, rights groups say, might help safeguard personal data but also would open a back door for Russian law enforcement into services like Gmail.
“We need to quickly put these huge transnational companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook under national controls,” Ruslan Gattarov, a member of the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, or Federation Council, said in an interview. “This is the lesson Snowden taught us.”
In the United States, the documents leaked by Mr. Snowden highlighted the increasingly close ties between the N.S.A. and the biggest high-tech companies. His documents revealed how Microsoft, Facebook, Google and other companies have cooperated with the agency.
If anything, requests by law enforcement agencies in Russia, with its long history of people bugging, informing and spying on one another, poses an even more stark quandary for companies like Google and Facebook.
American information technology companies operating in Russia routinely face demands from law enforcement to reveal user data, and have less recourse than in the United States to resist in the courts.
The Russian reaction may surprise Mr. Snowden most of all. In an interview with The Guardian, he said he unveiled details of N.S.A. surveillance because “I don’t want to live in a world where there is no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/global/nsa-leaks-stir-plans-in-russia-to-control-net.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=3&
That's funny. He doesn't want to live in a surveillance state and now he lives in Russia.
DeleteFunny he and Greenwald couldn't figure out China or Russia.
DeleteSo it's ok for him to keep secrets but not the government? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?
ReplyDelete-Oz
It's past the time we swap the word "narcissism" for "Snowdenism"
ReplyDeleteSnowden seems not to realize he is not non corporeal. Torture, of course, would cause him to have an epiphany. Hopefully it will not come to that and the learning curve will be more gradual.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is fucking arrogant! really.
ReplyDeleteHe is the King of the World.
DeleteHe may, before too long, regret his delusional longing for his own "fifteen minutes of fame".
ReplyDeleteWho would waste their time torturing this narcissist? All they would get his inflated opinions of his own wonderfulness.
ReplyDeleteTeaching people to protect data (which Snowden may or may not have done) does NOT mean you can concoct unbreakable encryption. If Snowden had that kind of genius, he was hopeless underpaid.
All the encryption in the world won't protect data from incineration or the myriad other dismal fates that data storage devices can fall prey to.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't surprise me that Snowden might find his precious secrets have been already scrambled by a quite innocent looking fellow denizen of the Moscow airport transit lounge.
A guy named Markcv died as a result of an incident on a London street when a micro-engineered pellet containing ricin was fired into his leg via an umbrella wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian secret police. Snowden should read up on Markov.
This helps Putin when those pesky ballerinas and gymnasts decide that they want to leave the tour and stay in the US. Since we grant them asylum, why shouldn't he grant Snowden asylum.
ReplyDeleteKeep Snowden and put him on the anti-democracy talk circuit. Do not allow him access to US resources including visitors. And, when he has had enough and whines about returning to the US (and you know he will), poison his food to give him a long and insidious illness, a Russian favorite killing tactic.
While I am not pro-war, when I think back to all of those boys going to war scared silly, but with only one mission in mind... Ed Snowden is just vulgar trash.
Putin could probably make Snowden tell all his secrets by limiting his Internet access to dial-up speed. Anybody else here remember using the standard 14.4kbps modems of 20 years ago? That would drive any of us crazy today. Ten minutes to download a picture? Never mind, I think I'll have someone fax me a b/w copy of their butt sitting on the Xerox copier while I play solitaire.
DeleteSchmuck.
ReplyDeleteThat picture of Putin looks like the caption should be "Impervious to torture? Challenge accepted!"
ReplyDeleteTom, in FL
...And Edward Snowden was never seen again. The end.
ReplyDeleteI have not been following this story, only heard a snippet of an interview with Snowden on PBS, and he sounded intelligent and credible in what little I heard.
ReplyDeleteThe only way one can be sure of being "impervious to torture" is to not know the desired info, and that's what I thought he meant. So he could be right.
Not knowing info makes one "impervious to torture" ? ? oh sure
DeleteNo, that's not what he meant. He said he has information that he won't give up.
DeleteRead more about the story, then form your opinion.
Impervious to torture?
ReplyDeleteI can tell he hasn't tried borst yet.
Well, I wonder one thing...if Putin decides to torture him and kills him, I have to say i'm a little worried what is going to come out. Whether or not Putin is fucking with the U.S. holding onto Snowden no one knows. I feel tho that Putin wants to get rid of him, don't think he wants his ass in Russia to long before the U.S. govt. becomes very very pissed off.
ReplyDelete