Edward Snowden exposes National Security Agency domestic surveillance

Very interesting that Snowden seems to have totally disappeared. I love intrigue!

CIA cracks down on its own to stop leaks - The Associated Press

CIA Director John Brennan is launching a new campaign aimed at pressuring CIA officers to keep the intelligence agency's secrets secret, after a series of leaks to the media.

In a memo to the CIA workforce this week, Brennan says the "Honor the Oath," campaign is intended to "reinforce our corporate culture of secrecy" through education and training. The Associated Press obtained the memo Wednesday, marked unclassified and for official use only.

Brennan writes that the campaign stems from a review of CIA security launched last summer by former director David Petraeus, following what Brennan calls "several high-profile anonymous leaks and publications by former senior officers."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cia-cracks-down-its-own-stop-leaks

Funny, since Petraeus' girlfriend had access to secret stuff, due to being totally hot.

It's the exclamation point at the end, I think, that got to me. You seem so happy to have something to occupy your time, yet the exclamation point seems to ignore the real life implications, as if the important thing to take away from this is that it intrigues you.

Must be a late hour...you're reading too much into my post. Take a deep breath and relax now.

No sign of cyber leaker Snowden on flight to Cuba | Reuters

www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/27/us-usa-security-moscow-idUSBRE95Q0GB20130627

Envoy says U.S. loses trust in Hong Kong after Snowden | Reuters

www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/27/us-usa-security-hongkong-idUSBRE95Q0FX20130627

'World order unjust and immoral!' Ecuador’s Correa rips into Snowden coverage — RT

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa came up with scalding online remarks over criticism his country faced from the US press for potentially granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

“They’ve managed to focus attention on Snowden and on the ‘wicked’ countries that ‘support’ him, making us forget the terrible things against the US people and the whole world that he denounced,” Correa said Wednesday in response to a Tuesday Washington Post editorial.

“The world order isn’t only unjust, it’s immoral,” Correa added.

<snip>

"I wonder if Snowden chose Russia or China for assistance because they are such bastions of internet freedom," he said sarcastically.

More at http://rt.com/news/ecuador-correa-us-snowden-306/

The US will not try to intercept NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s flight, President Barack Obama said during his tour to Africa.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Source: http://rt.com/usa/obama-jet-snowden-intercept-325/

Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked — RT Op-Edge

By Rick Falkvinge

Excerpt:

Most people in the United States aren't aware that their country is acting like their hated high school bully to most of the rest of the world. The few who do tend to take it with humor: bumper stickers have been seen satirizing this as "Be nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country", playing on the media spin that every war of aggression to maintain Pax Americana is about "bringing democracy" somewhere.

So when one man, Edward Snowden, reveals to the world that the Empire stands naked and that it really has been behaving like a bully, wiretapping everybody wholesale, there are shockwaves. But that's where the similarities with the folklore tale ends. Where the naked emperor cringed and realized the game was up, the naked Empire instead chooses to keep rewarding sucking up, pretending that nothing has been revealed at all, and to punish the whistleblower at all costs as a warning to others.

http://rt.com/op-edge/snowden-us-secrets-truth-317/

Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald 1m
On Dec 31, 2012, one NSA unit celebrated having "processed its One Trillionth metadata record": almost 50% from 2012

NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama

By Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman

• Secret program launched by Bush continued 'until 2011'
• Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days
• Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-data-mining-authorised-obama

John Cassidy ‏@TNYJohnCassidy 17m
Read @NYTImesCohen on "The Service of Snowden." Pity the Times didn't run it in the U.S. edition.

The Service of Snowden - New York Times

By Roger Cohen

Excerpt:

So what is Snowden? A self-aggrandizing geek who betrayed his country and his employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, exposed the United States to greater risk of terrorist attack, and may now — wittingly or unwittingly — have made his trove of secrets available to China and Russia, nations that are no longer enemies but are rival powers?

Or a brave young American determined to fight — at the risk of long imprisonment — against his country’s post-9/11 lurch toward invasion of citizens’ lives, ever more intrusive surveillance, undifferentiated data-hauling of the world’s digital exhaust fumes (for storage in a one-million-square-foot fortress in Utah), and the powers of a compliant secret court to issue warrants for international eavesdropping and e-mail vacuuming?

www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/global/the-service-of-snowden.html

Falkvinge ‏@Falkvinge 19m
Ed #Snowden doesn't deserve "pardon". That's what you give redeemed criminals.
Snowden deserves streets named after him.
-- Anon commenter

Ecuador renounces trade benefits from US Congress - The Associated Press

Excerpt:

Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress.

The announcement by Communications Minister Fernando Alvarez comes at a moment when Ecuador faces U.S. pressure to avoid granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Alvarez told a news conference that the trade deal had become "a new instrument of blackmail."

"In consequence, Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces said preferences."

The program, initially meant to help Andean countries aiding in the fight against drugs, was facing an uphill fight for renewal. Alvarado did not explicitly mention a separate effort to win trade benefits under a presidential order.

Alvarez said his country "does not accept threats from anybody, and does not trade in principles, or submit to mercantile interests, as important as they may be."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ecuador-renounces-trade-benefits-us-congress

Tom Parfitt ‏@parfitt_tom 1m
Just got home after a 49-hour stint at Sheremetyevo airport seeking Snowden. Still none the wiser as to where he is exactly.

http://www.inquisitr.com/818110/nsa-leaks-encouraged-al-qaeda-to-make-changes-officials-claim/

Now Ecuador is announcing that it's refugee travel pass wasn't valid, placing Snowden in true limbo land at the mercy of Putin. I can only hope that he and Harrison have struck up a hot love affair to pass the time in that cramped capsule hotel.

"Officials on Thursday acknowledged that the Ecuadorean embassy in London had issued a June 22 letter of safe passage for Snowden that calls on other countries to allow him to travel to asylum in Ecuador. But Secretary of Political Management Betty Tola said the letter is invalid because it was issued without the approval of the government in the capital, Quito.
She also threatened legal action against whoever leaked the letter about granting asylum to a leaker of documents.
"This demonstrates a total lack of coordination in the department of foreign affairs," said Santiago Basabe, a professor of political science at the Latin American School of Social Sciences in Quito. "It's no small question to issue a document of safe passage or a diplomatic document for someone like Snowden without this decision being taken directly by the foreign minister or president."
Other analysts saw not confusion but internal divisions in the Ecuadorean government. Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank focused on Latin America, said many in Washington believed that Correa, a leftist elected to a third term in February, had been telegraphing a desire to moderate and take a softer tack toward the United States and private business.
Harder-core leftists led by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino may be seeking to maintain a tough line, Shifter said, a division expressing itself in confusing messages.
"I think there really are different factions within the government on this," Shifter said. "Correa wants to become more moderate. That has been the signal that has been communicated in Washington."
Tola told reporters the safe-conduct pass "has no validity and is the exclusive responsibility of the person who issued it" and Snowden's asylum application hadn't been processed because he was not in Ecuador as required by law."

http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/wo...cle_7c57f699-9cdc-5b62-bf72-3c4d7e34c2bd.html

The "letter of passage" was obviously a rather lame CIA op, calculated to cause confusion. Even Cryptome fell for it.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/27/snoopers-charter-zero-chance-law
Good news for Uk fags.
Also a discussion of the possible repercussions for US dominance of cloud based hosting+the Uk's position as Main hub.

Um, what was actually said was 'we've got [at least] 12 months'.
Zero chance of it being reintroduced now.
But high chance of attempted reintroduction later.
Because that is always the way.

Tempora is probably legal, RIPA regulates nothing, and there is no oversight...
Great coverage from Caspar Bowden as always, and from McKay...
Particularly moving was seeing Alastair Morgan get up and discuss possible eavesdropping on conservations having legal privilege concerning his murdered brother (what a case), and related convo re Doreen Lawrence and her son's/family's case.

Also a pertinent reminder - from the guy from Index on Censorship - of how we used to have a public interest defence under the Official Secrets Act, and how/why that was taken away. We need it back. As Caspar said, it's only through whistleblowers that we find out any of this stuff. And as David said, "the reaction by government to whistleblowers is now vicious and vindictive".

I didn't hear much in the way of good news.

Restricted web access to The Guardian is Armywide, officials say

The Army admitted Thursday to not only restricting access to The Guardian news website at the Presidio of Monterey, as reported in Thursday's Herald, but Armywide.

Presidio employees said the site had been blocked since The Guardian broke several stories on data collection by the National Security Agency.

Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks."

He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative "network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

Continued at www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_23554739/restricted-web-access-guardian-is-army-wide-officials

Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 11m
"I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," Obama said about Snowden. I don't think Snowden needed to hack ... he

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 10m
had system admin rights.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 6m
So this Obama quote will demonize all hackers. I think it's a real bad thing.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 5m
And I don't think he was hacking... we all know once you have root on *nix or admin rights on Windows, it's game over.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 26s
The AUSA wanted me to go through a CIA debriefing when I was busted in Raleigh. WTF? Hacking cell phones was now a National Security threat?

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 1m
I told them NO of course. And it was never brought up again.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 2m
I guess that was the War Games era and where the major threat was whistling the launch codes to start WWIII.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 2m
I haven't seen any evidence that Snowden was a hacker. He obviously knew how to manage systems as an admin.

Kevin Mitnick ‏@kevinmitnick 25s
So now the uninformed public will associate the word "hacker" with NSA spy. What BS.

WSJ: Assange mucking up Snowden's getaway?

"Russian officials have said he remains in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, and have said he should move along. The question now is where Mr. Snowden—stripped of his U.S. passport and apparently without an Ecuadorean travel document—can go.
The validity of any Ecuadorean travel document, or "safe pass," has been the subject of intense speculation this week. Mr. Assange said this week Ecuador issued such a document to Mr. Snowden and Ecuadorean officials haven't denied it exists. But officials have said that such a safe conduct pass, if it is in Mr. Snowden's possession, isn't valid.
On Tuesday, Alexis Mera, the legal adviser to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, was sent a correspondence from an address bearing Mr. Narvaez's name. "Dear Alexis," read the note, which included a copy of an Ecuadorean safe-conduct pass issued in Mr. Snowden's name, "I am responding to your request."
Another email from the same account, dated Wednesday and addressed to the legal adviser as well as to a presidential spokesman, said: "I trust you received the requested document yesterday." Mr. Narvaez was in Moscow at the time, according to the message.
But by then, Ecuadorean officials were publicly disputing that Mr. Snowden had been given such travel papers—a position voiced most strenuously by Mr. Correa on Thursday. Even if such a document existed, the president said, "the person who issued it will be totally without authority and [the document] would have no validity."
He added: "What is the validity of a safe conduct pass issued by a consul in London for someone to leave from Hong Kong to Moscow? None."
Mr. Correa—who has previously championed Mr. Snowden for what he called his efforts to shed light on massive U.S. spying efforts—also implied Thursday that the fugitive former intelligence analyst didn't have a clear path to Ecuador.
"The situation of Mr. Snowden is a complex situation and we don't know how he will solve it," Mr. Correa said at a news conference. He reiterated that Mr. Snowden needs to arrive in Ecuadorean territory so his request for asylum can be processed.
WikiLeaks has previously said it is organizing the travel for Mr. Snowden and has provided him legal aid. But according to one document reviewed by the Journal, Mr. Assange has also suggested to top Ecuadorean officials how to manage the whole public relations side of the Snowden matter.
Mr. Assange's role has raised hackles among Ecuadorean officials. In one of the internal correspondences, Ecuador's ambassador to the U.S., Nathalie Cely, appeared to tell presidential spokesman Fernando Alvarado that communications should be handled better. "I suggest talking to Assange to better control the communications," read a note addressed from Ms. Cely. "From outside…[Assange] appears to be 'running the show.' "

In a message attributed to Mr. Assange that was conveyed to Ecuadorean foreign minister Ricardo Patiño and other top officials, the WikiLeaks founder apologizes "if we have unwittingly causing Ecuador discomfort in the Snowden matter."
"There is a fog of war due to the rapid nature of events. If similar events arise you can be assured that they do not originate in any lack of respect or concern for Ecuador or its government," the note attributed to Mr. Assange read.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323419604578571601908964678.html

My comment: It looks like Assange may really be irritating his hosts throwing his weight around. Also, it has been suggested before that Assange is deep cover CIA or a tool somehow - anyway if Snowden takes a fall under his travel protection, it doesn't hurt this argument. Why won't Wikileaks famous human rights lawyer help Snowden, and why not explain why - where's the transparency there? All of this back and forth from Ecuador seems petty. If Snowden is free to move on as Putin states, why can't he load right into an untouchable Ecuadorean Embassy car skipping the process of showing a passport and go to their embassy in Moscow and continue with his asylum bid. It seems that Correa really isn't welcoming another asylum headache on his turf.

Disagree. We had already thought we had killed the Comms Data Bill. It's a zombie bill.
Remember 2010? Remember how we were told it was against this government's policy?
Just like with a certain other law I could name, it just keeps on popping its head up again, repeatedly driven by a certain individual at the Home Office who - surprisingly enough! - refuses to lie down and die.

And frankly, if Tempora etc. and Prism are legal, because all the legislation already in existence seems drawn up in a way to allow anything, then the Comms Data Bill is the hundreds and thousands on the cake that really doesn't alter the flavour.

Caspar repeatedly referred to Europe's failure - at any level - to take any notice of what had been happening, what he has been telling them about.
And while Germany is probably the best off, in cloud terms - you know about Germany, right?, German law? - at present we are also stealing their data. And Angela is angry.

UK citizens now have to fight to get back some of the rights they had even 20 years ago.
And to try to get some control or oversight over all this stuff. The Foreign Secretary can arrange what amounts to long-term fishing expeditions across the entire population and nobody knows about it, including any of your political representatives. They found out when we did. Because of Ed.

US cloud? Ah, yes, raised by one person in the audience. The mood would be one of impact, but reality would appear to be a case of all your base are belong to us.

"nailinpalinnow, post: 2323986, member: 27797"

Nails .. I love ya, but seriously? maybe he is being a little hard ass because there is a man's life and liberty at stake. Also, would it make a lot of sense to say, that if you were in his shoes, would you really want to destroy yourself by getting us extremely fucking pissed.?

I agree with you.
But snowdon has given us the ammo we needed.

Edward Snowden's father: My son is not a traitor - NBC

The father of Edward Snowden acknowledged Friday that his son broke U.S. law, but maintained that he is not a traitor for releasing classified information about the government’s previously secret surveillance programs.

“At this point I don't feel that he's committed treason. He has in fact broken U.S. law, in a sense that he has released classified information,” Lonnie Snowden told NBC’s Michael Isikoff in an exclusive interview that aired on TODAY. “And if folks want to classify him as a traitor, in fact he has betrayed his government. But I don't believe that he's betrayed the people of the United States. “

Snowden said he has told Attorney General Eric Holder through his lawyer that his son will return home if the Justice Department promises not to detain him before a trial nor subject him to a gag order. He also wants his son to select where a trial will take place.

Continued at www.today.com/news/edward-snowdens-father-my-son-not-traitor-6C10480514

Agreed. For now.
But if we're not careful, we're going to need another Snowden.

Note that only one UK national news outlet reported yesterday's event at Westminster. (But then, the MPs we had present were fringe, frankly. Always have been, always will be. It's their strength, and their weakness.)
Although, it has to be said, there was a well-respected rep from one other MSM who will probably be using material gleaned, at some point. (It was an opportunity for some interesting side-convos, that may not generate heat or light for some time.)

On a lighter (sad but funny and true) note: Tom Watson said he had MPs coming up to him asking what metadata was. Yes. It's all a bit Tim-nice-but-dim at Westminster.
[Some MPs think that IP address means Intellectual Property address. I kid you not.]

If you have an MP, please help in educating her/him. Ask to have a surgery meeting, for example. You can ask for help with materials etc. from Open Rights Group.

And as Tom Watson MP said repeatedly yesterday, please, please join Open Right Group (ORG) and help to pay for somebody to fight all this shit from day to day. ORG is currently trying to put together funds to pay for a legal officer on a very basic salary.
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/

ORG can do stuff like inform all MPs about the issues, 101-style, in language that they will understand. But it's grass-roots funded and needs your cash, however little.

Liberty have gone to court and hopefully the 8 year long IFF case gathers momentum (not holding my breath on that one)
Children have been caught up in this metadata sweep.
It's something I have just started looking at.
I don't think parents would want there kids info on a Intelligence database.

fuckin nigger with a smaller nigger should go fuck himself

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/obama-edward-snowden-hacker_n_3515562.html

Of course children have been caught up.
We now have pensioners, and probably also children, who knows, on the 'domestic extremist' database too. (Nominally 'police' but actually a private company, ACPO ha! No accountability there either.)

It's been good to see Liberty return to its NCCL civil liberties roots. I was a child of that era.

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blo...rights-campaigner-of-the-year-with-38-degrees
http://www.liberty-human-rights.org...-human-rights-heroes-in-annual-awards-cer.php

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/obama-edward-snowden-hacker_n_3515562.html]


Obama continues to go down in my estimation. How low can you fall?

Snowden was in no way a hacker.

Obama is proving to be an idiot mouthpiece of certain security services with some highly suspect, anti-democratic agendas of their own.
Does he not have a brain with its own thought-stuff?? It's looking highly unlikely.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/1...e-pentagon-papers-to-bradley-manning-to-prism

Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald 9m
Watch the Guardian's editors @arusbridger & @janinegibson explain the publishing of the NSA stories to Charlie Rose.

Aww, lovin' right back at ya for using my pet name ; ) and I don't disagree. I really don't have anything to offer on this but my turn at the inevitable "guess the inner thoughts" game. I am though, vastly entertained and along with Kilia quite intrigued. I assume you are talking about Correa when you say "in his shoes" and not S or A. Actually, Putin holds all the cards at this juncture and is the Dealer as well. Correa is much more likely to care about pissing Big Daddy off than worry over the Noisy Neighbor up north (or the wooless, squealing pig as Putin so dryly put it). I wonder if Putin has showed Snowden his Superbowl ring yet? I'll bet he can be one persuasive SOB when he wants to be. Snowden is a valuable asset and I believe he will be treated as such. Imagine the crowing for Russia when it becomes clear that the intelligentsia in America can defect in the opposite direction than the days of the Cold War. Putin revels in those types of victories.

Also: Where in the world is Miss Sarah Harrison? She has a passport, she can fly anywhere. She is greatly attached to Wikileaks and the Ecuadorean embassy, her movements can be tracked. Is she still with Snowden wherever he is? Apparently so, which tells me minimally that he's in no serious physical trouble.

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Been away from the internets for a few days (it happens.) Listening to the media regarding the "leaks" disgusting. He is a whistleblower, ahem. Anyways- I hope you all will contact your rep. I did, heard nothing back even though she didn't vote for the patriot act. IMHO, it's too quiet and the media is scaring me.

I got old Don Young (R) who doesn't like to be in session, so he is not there when one needs him.