Edward Snowden – A fucking HERO
Another public service announcement here on the blog today, because certain things just need to be said. This man Edward Snowden is a fucking hero. Imagine the balls one must have to do what Snowden did for the people of the USA, and indeed the entire fucking world. Exposing the NSA and CIA in the way he did requires an absolutely massive pair of balls. The mass we can estimate his balls must have far exceeds Rob Galbraith’s balls, which I’ve talked about before. Whereas Galbraith needed a wheelbarrow to carry his balls around, I believe Snowden’s balls are so massive they distort the very fabric of space-time around them. I’ve drawn a diagram below to explain to you what I mean.
Edward Snowden has MASSIVE balls (click image for larger view)
Einstein was the first to predict this phenomenon many years ago. And today we’d likely be able to observe this if we could see Snowden’s balls. Due to the incredible mass and density of his balls, space-time becomes distorted around them, and as a result objects that are behind his balls would appear to be next to them when viewed from the front.
Humankind in general is now indebted to Snowden for his heroism. It’s like he says:
Q: Why did you decide to become a whistleblower?
A: “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.”
“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.”
And neither am I, and neither should all of you! It’s like I mentioned in my post about the Apollo XI One Light Workshop: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
And Snowden is a good man. Nothing like the fucking coward Neil Armstrong who fucking died taking all his secrets with him while letting evil continue to fuck up our lives on a daily basis:
I have absolutely no respect for people like Armstrong. They’re fucking cowards. It’s because of people like him that we’re living in the fucked up world that we live in today. It’s because of the fucking cowards like Armstrong that this blog exists today. Except for Galbraith, all the fucking girliemen in this industry were too afraid to stand up against Canon Inc. You should be ashamed of yourself. All ‘o ya!! Remember this quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.“
Obviously I can respect people like Snowden. The world would be a much better place if everyone could be like him, instead of being the fucking pussies you all are.
And if you fuckwads continue to be the sheeple that you are, it’s gonna get worse. Even a fucking gaming console is about to be utilized by the NSA and CIA to monitor you 24 hours a day. Just read up on what Microsoft has planned for you and your children with their Xbox One:
The spying concern wasn’t groundless. The new Kinect can see in the dark, pick out human voices in a noisy living room and read your heartrate just by looking at your face. It was unveiled by Microsoft last week as a fixture of the fall-releasing Xbox One. The thing has to be plugged in for the console to work, and is in some way already checking out what’s going on in the room it’s in.
[…]
Keep in mind that all of this is part of a much bigger global spying policy being implemented by the elite; the NSA Prism program is just a small part of that larger policy. Microsoft has participated in a number of meetings with the Bilderberg group and the names of its executives, such as chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie, have appeared on the secret attendee lists many times. If you don’t know what the Bilderberg group is, you may want to read up on them. That the chief research officer of Microsoft would be joining their meetings and be a member of its steering committee shouldn’t be a surprise. Undoubtedly the policies set forth by the Bilderberg group are brought back by Mundie to Microsoft for implementation in their technology, and that’s how gamers end up with the fucking big brother spy console that is the Xbox One.
You can say whatever you want about Canon Inc., but we’d never dare to do what Microsoft is doing here. Being economically raped, like Microsoft is doing to gamers, is one thing — and Canon Inc. has certainly been doing its fair share of economic raping — but fucking spying on people and sharing their personal data and all communications with the NSA and CIA in FUCKING SECRET while you FUCKING LIE AND DENY you’re doing it is a whole different story.
Pay attention to what’s going on, share and ACT. ACT!!
Fake Chuck Westfall 
Amen, sir. I knew I could count on you on this one. We gotta question our reality the whole time. It’s the only way we can preserve our values and our future as free men and women. Keep the excellent work. (Even if we sometimes make mistakes ourselves).
Thanks man, share as much as possible. It’s easy to be a pussy and keep ur mouth shut, while the world gets fucked up even more. People need to think about what kind of a world they want to leave behind for their grandchildren. Will you be able to look them in the eyes and honestly say you did your best? These are questions everyone should ask themselves.
Chuck, I never thought I’d say it, but right on! We’re in total agreement. And for once your use of strong language is justified.
Still, don’t you think it’s just a little quaint to claim that NASA has somehow kept the biggest fraud in human history totally secret for over 40 years when they can’t keep a lid on stuff like this? Snowden is only the latest spook to confirm publicly what those of us who know the technology and what it can do and who watch the signs have known for a long time. In fact, I’m quite surprised at the strength of the reaction given how little he has really said, yet I’m grateful for his heroic courage in saying it.
NASA was able to keep it a secret because of the fucking pussies in that generation, like Cantard said in the comment below: “It’s people your age fucking it up for everyone else. You fucking gen X dickwads with that massive fucking chip on your shoulder.”
Dude’s fucking right. The next generation isn’t going to take this crap. Call them indigo or crystal children, whatever u want. It’s gonna be fucking war. They’re going to look you in the eyes and tell you how disappointed they are that you stood by and watched the world get fucked even more and did nothing. And they might not forgive you either and u’ll most certainly lose their respect. Snowden is just one of the firsts of many more to come.
Chuck, give me a break. You’ve just been handed a big sanity test for your NASA conspiracy beliefs, and you just flunked it.
How do you suppose the development of the atomic bomb, with over 100.000 people directly involved, was kept a secret?
It’s people your age fucking it up for everyone else. You fucking gen X dickwads with that massive fucking chip on your shoulder. I blame fuck sticks like you fake chuck. It’s your fucking fault. I can’t wait for the day when you pole smokes start dying the fuck off.
No NO NO!!! not again with your shit!
We’ve been through it with the moon posts, why did you have to start it again!?
WTF is going on over there at Canon?! Why do you have time to spend on shit like that?!
I bet it’s something horrible. I’m switching to Nikon just to be safe.
You know, it doesn’t surprise me that the fuckwads at NASA use Nikon gear up on the ISS. If you’re going to fool people you might as well do it using crap gear.
If fucking fake fucking chuck fucking westfall has time to spend on these subjects, this means canon is in deep shit. I’d rather have nikon’s tumor of a camera instead of dead canon stuff.
You have to admit that they do return some pretty stunning pictures despite using Nikon. I’m told they have to replace those cameras every so often because of accumulated radiation damage to the sensors. So yes, they’re really in space. You can even see the ISS yourself if you go look at the right time. Several amateur astronomers have taken telescopic pictures of the ISS that clearly show its size and structure; one even had an astronaut on EVA.
Check out the top banner on the homepage and the top right corner. That’s gonna remain there forever.
Sign this: https://optin.stopwatching.us/
It’s nothing new that we are being spied on a daily basis by the NSA and other organizations. Also during any presidential mandate end of term there is always a whistleblower or someone that will leak information on purpose for the general public interest.
Sometimes, the organizations that are being asked to spy on people hire 3rd party companies. For example with Microsoft, anything that is in a judicial context is being done by a company named Harte Hanks located in Austin Texas. They can for example change the DNS of your email address and all email exchanges will be received in their own mailbox. Of course they can do it only if there is a subponea, from what I was told by these people working over there. Still pretty much freaky that we are being watched in permanence through the door’s lock.
Also with our new smartphones, they do send information in permanence to your phone provider: the GPS location is recorded (so they track our moves) and every contact information is uploaded as well to their database. I just found out lately that it was possible to upload directly your contact from the gateway of the phone provider with different SIM cards, and it seems like people don’t even care anymore.
The human being has always been obsessed in managing information, because information is knowledge; and i could understand for a specific frame such as terrorism prevention, but the information used is done on Americans that are innocent. And it went to a point that everybody in this country has information loaded somewhere in the archives of the US government, and that is unacceptable.
Screw it, i’m off today and i am going to drink a beer.
I just watched the video link to find out more about this guy. Well i am afraid to say he will have the same faith than Assange from wikileak, the US gov will seek for his extradition and if they can’t they will send the CIA or a third-party agency in Hong Kong to bring him back to the US. If this guy wants to get out of this story, he will have to be watched in permanence by the chinese intelligence and cannot even be in contact with his own family. Hong Kong is relatively free from mainland China (Chinese have to get a permit to go over there) and Hong Kong has its own laws separated from China, but in this context it is the chinese government that will have the last word, so it was a good move from this guy to seek refuge in HK (loopholes with laws).
I also asked Chinese how they feel about this guy. For them it’s funny to see that a Democracy has the same level of intolerance as their own government. But who cares, the word Democracy has never been a reality and it stopped to exist the last time it was a little over 2000 years ago (with the Greeks). Also from the information i was able to get in the chinese newspapers, this guy is accused by the US to sell information to China (and it would be more about the american infrastructure and internet securities).
I hope this guy won’t regret what he did. Also please remember me next time I deal with the NSA or the CIA or even the DOD or the Pentagon, and it’s on a daily basis in my line of work, I will make sure to put them on hold for a couple of hours.
On a personal point of view, a few years ago, I almost worked for the CIA, I was an expert in terrorist infiltration and dismantled a few terrorist networks in France and Egypt. Unfortunately I was required to get the american citizenship and I was never able to get it for legal reasons that i can’t disclose here because …. everything written on the internet is archived and will be saved in my profile. And after living the nightmares of being watched and feeling like my life had stopped because i was not feeling free at all, I can perfectly relate to what this guy is feeling right now. Trust me, mentally it is absolutely depressing, and in the end you start hating these multiple secret organizations.
On another note, not that I don’t like the USA, I feel good with my american fellows, but I really think it’s time for me to go back to France and move on with my life, and start a different job in which i don’t have to deal with the US government on a daily basis.
Take care guys.
86 Nikon Image Space accounts compromised, Nikon issues an apology
Nikon wants to give away your personal info as well. Bunch of cock smokes.
Do your a hero to … Yes big brother is out there but the melting of ice caps
Increased co2 and methane release and man kind help us if the theming haylein converse stops Re far far bigger problems. Norther Europe could be heading for a new Ice age as a result of Global warming… How ironic!
Snowden is actually leaving for Ecuador. It’s going to be interesting because we are going to see which countries are able to counter-attack the US in judicial battles or even without international law or bilatteral agreement, we just need to count the countries that are politically in total disagreement with the USA. If i were him, i would fly to Iran instead or I would have stayed in China or HK.
Constitutionally the right to spy on people includes everything that transits to the US, it is written in a special amendment of the US constitution. The problem though, when the Founding Fathers started writing the constitution, there was no Internet yet and the amendment can be applied without any issue on a technological point of view with incoming packets, although if they monitor incoming packets, they can also monitor outgoing packets and this encompass therefore US citizens.
I wish this guy good luck, eventually he will get caught, and that will be unfortunate for him, it will be a special jury in an undisclosed location outside the US territory with special agents working for the government and he will be persecuted with torture. Just thinking about that, makes me mad.
Bet CIA KGB FBI NSA not to mention King John Yull all have massive files on Snowden.. Probably under FW …he’ll even ASIO and ASA have files ..but those will be on Wikeleaks site latter!
They say Prism cannot be used to target intentionally any Americans or anyone in the US, and stress that it is supervised by judges.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23045790
Wrong statement again. Anyone working for these third party agencies can log in easily and do whatever they want without supervision. A friend of mine was telling me how easy it is to do anything on these systems without proper authorization and without being caught. Usually they have to have access with a subponea but with bad intention they can do anything they want and find out themselves the private life of anyone living inside and outside the USA. Maybe I will tell you guys in details how this can be achieved. Also these guys that do that are usually monitored and anything they do is recorded, but there are some exceptions.
Going to work.
I’m still following this Snowden’s story, I usually do not watch the news because they are always full of it, but this story is interesting.
New rule: so you lost the copies of your naked pictures on your hard-drive? No problem ask the NSA to restore them, they have a backup of your activities on the internet!!!
BERLIN – The US National Security Agency ( NSA) not only monitors the communication of European citizens, but also has an eavesdropping program targeting the European Union (EU) offices, German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.
The magazine cited confidential documents it was partly able to obtain from US whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former CIA agent fled to Hong Kong last month and revealed a NSA-operated classified surveillance project code-named PRISM, which can trace worldwide e-mails and phone calls.
A document dated September 2010 and classified as “strictly confidential” showed how the NSA spied the EU’s diplomatic mission in Washington, it said.
Eavesdropping bugs were installed in the EU buildings and the internal computer network was infiltrated, through which the American intelligence can get access to EU meetings, e-mails and internal documents, it added.
The EU representation at the United Nations in New York was also under similar surveillance, the magazine said.
In addition, the US intelligence also keeps regular eavesdropping and monitoring of the Justus Lipsius building, the headquarters of the Council of the European Union, it said.
The classified phone and internet surveillance program, disclosed by The Guardian and The Washington Post, has sparked an outcry in Europe over concerns about intrusion into the privacy of individuals.
The EU has warned the Obama Administration of “grave adverse consequences” to the rights of the European citizens from the spy scheme and demanded “swift and concrete” answers.
The US intelligence scandal has also stirred massive controversies in the country about the balance between privacy and national security.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2013-06/30/content_16690295.htm
Aren’t we supposed to be allies? WTF.
Who said “I keep my enemies close, but my friends even closer”? (Or was it the other way around?)
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST
“The document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls but also gaining access to documents and emails.
The document explicitly called the EU a “target”.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/29/us-usa-eu-spying-idUSBRE95S0AQ20130629?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637
On Sunday, Mr. Assange said in an interview on the ABC program “This Week” that more secrets would surface from the material taken by Mr. Snowden.
“Look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage,” Mr. Assange said, speaking from London. “Great care has been taken to make sure that Mr. Snowden can’t be pressured by any state to stop the publication process.”
wow thanks google for bringing me to a good laugh that is this site .. lol you guys need to seriously focus on your own lives (aka Real Life!) and stop typing about drama queens that in the end have no effect on anything .. lol
By discussing this we ARE focusing on Real Life. If you did that too the world will be that much closer to paradise.
I love this man.
“The government of the United States of America has built the world’s largest system of surveillance. This global system affects every human life touched by technology; recording, analysing, and passing secret judgment over each member of the international public.
It is a grave violation of our universal human rights when a political system perpetuates automatic, pervasive and unwarranted spying against innocent people.
…
No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realise a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank.
Please accept my gratitude on behalf of your government and the people of the Republic of Ecuador, as well as my great personal admiration of your commitment to doing what is right rather than what is rewarding.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/edward-snowden-letter-president-ecuador
“Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden broke his silence on Monday for the first time since fleeing to Moscow to say he remains free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.
In a letter to Ecuador seen by Reuters, Snowden said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance program, PRISM, but made it clear he did not intend to be muzzled.
“I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest,” he said in an undated letter in Spanish sent to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/01/us-usa-security-snowden-putin-idUSBRE9600QP20130701
What a brave guy. I was checking the image satellite of the NSA in Maryland, they employ tens of thousands of people over there, it is the biggest spy agency from all other the world. I can’t comprehend how come more people could not even leak what’s going on with this program, i guess their paycheck is enough to keep their mouth shut.
Paycheck and fear…
it becomes clear who are and who aren’t pussies and US lapdogs: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/06/edward-snowden-venezuela-asylum
Edward Snowden offered asylum by Venezuelan president
Nicolás Maduro says whistleblower has ‘told the truth in spirit of rebellion’, while Nicaragua also weighs asylum offer
Bolivia will follow Venezuela’s stance on Edward Snowden without an inch of doubt. Snowden, although he leaked some top secret documents and as i told you a few days ago, is going to be the symbol of who is going to cooperate with the US. Chances are very slim for the US and Snowden might even be able to get the Europeans against the will of the US for transparency issues. Some countries will follow because they were victim of meddling in their own geopolitical sphere; we could name a few ones: Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama (that is owned by the Chinese), Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. Let’s forget about Colombia that loves receiving american dollars and Mexico (although the south is more anti-american). On the European side, well we got the french “socialists” government and the Germans that will use diplomatical ressort because they are accountable on the Vox Populi (voice of the people, democratically). Let’s forget about Italy that has always been a corrupted government, and the Poles and Romania.
Basically we got the same shit over and over that happened during the Iraq war through a new problem: we are being spied by the US government with diffferent organizations channels such as the NSA, but we could also encompass the CIA and the FBI and DISA and the DOD, just to name a few ones.
Historically, that is nothing new. I remember back then in 1991 that the US was spying against the French, because a society from Montpellier was going to sell some metallic cylinder to the “president” Saddam Hussein (sorry but the US always employs this word for his allied friends when they are just a bunch of sick dictators such as Mussaref in Pakistan and other sick fucks from Uzbekistan or the son of the bitch of Mubarak in Egypt), and they were afraid these cylinders were going to be used to transform enrich uranium for an atomic bomb. Back then all the emails traffic was transiting through Dallas TX. Also Canada that is a very close allie to the US has always been spied on (yes incredible), and it’s not even in the PRISM program: every phone conversation is being recorded by the US government no matter where we are located. The way that things can be changed is when there is a new government that is against the US, they will change the codes of their satellite or put into space new satellites. In Canada I remember this woman that was talking about an event and she said that it was a “blow” and she got red-flagged by the NSA. At the NSA level, there are some keywords that are being recorded, in different foreign languages, and they match these words to establish a profile. Once the profile has been established they will monitor the conversations to find out the authenticity of their actions if it turns out to be a good or a bad one (it’s called SIGNINT in computer language).
So at my level, since i am in touch with all these organizations, the dominance of Information Technology on a spying level is getting bigger and bigger. The US government emphasized tremendously on these activities because they can do it technologically. I will give you just one example: the boom of storage and faster disk access of the last 5 years has “exploded” on the orders of the US government. Sometimes they will blow 10 million dollars of equipment at the NSA so that they can upgrade they new equipment to spy on people. Also the cost to spy on each citizen in the US is estimated at $100 per year and the information is being kept for a few years but it might be extended to a few decades if technology keeps allows it. Some people in the US will cost more money to the US but they only account for 1%.
Finally, i would like to invite one of my russian host that worked for the European and US government so that he can give you a real insight of what is going on in your country but so far he has been declining the invitation.
As a quick conclusion, please keep in mind this: everything that you write on the Internet is being recorded, everything that you said on the phone is being recorded, every phone conversation has a cross result from A to C even if A and B has nothing to do with B and C, but on a spying level, this is how it usually works, and that is unfortunate for all of us who are innocent.
Lapdogs? i call them poodles 🙂 BTW I just found out that Snowden is not welcome in France and he should not put a step in Europe. Assholes of Europeans.
I was just checking the Internet right now on what’s going on with Snowden with some LATAM countries. The Europeans want to kidnap Snowden and offer his head on the platter to the USA. Over there, there is a legal international law over flights and it allows Europeans to land without problem and use their diplomatic immunity. I won’t go into details, but I informed the embassies of Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Suriname and Brazil not to grand flights to Europeans over there. I’m tired of this shit.
Here is what i officially got:
According to Wikileaks and the BBC, Snowden has submitted a request for political asylum to 21 countries:
Austria
Bolivia
Brazil
China
Cuba
Ecuador
Finland
France
Germany
Iceland
India
Italy
Ireland
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Norway
Poland
Russia (withdrawn)
Spain
Switzerland
Venezuela
I bet $100 that Snowden will be in Latin America… with some political influences, even if some countries are going to forge his passport and they are going to make sure to bypass international laws.
I have read a report about all the outrage the so-called “Snowden revelation” have triggered in Europe. I was particularly amused by German politicians asking why New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the UK were *allegedly* excluded from the NSA spying program while Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has ordered a massive security sweep of the EC offices.
What massive load of bovine excreta!!
First, let me assure you that all the European politicians have known for *years* that the US spies on them. The French, in particular, have lost many juicy contracts to the USA because of successful US spying.
Second, all European governments participate to various degrees in one form or another of electronic spying. Even independent Switzerland has its own mini-ECHELON called Onyx.
Third, all European politicians and government officials know that continental Europe is a US colony and that while NATO countries can play at the silly “partnership game”, some are more equal then others, in this case: it is an Anglo Empire, for and by Anglos, and all others can go a screw themselves.
Fourth, European intelligences services share massive amount of data with each other and, of course, with the Anglo “Big Brothers”. That is also something which every single European politician or government official knows.
So why the big hysteria? Why all the dramatic posturing?
For one simple reason: European politicians and government officials do not want the general population of Europe to realize that the entire continent is just a pathetic, submissive and fully controlled US colony, run by local satraps who all, repeat, ALL work for Uncle Sam!
That is what is going on. Uncle Sam does not want the US public know that there is no such thing as private communications in the USA, while European politicians do not want the European public to know that they are all prostitutes working for the Anglos.
As for Snowden, I have said so before, and I will repeat it here: he did not “reveal” anything. Don’t take my word on it, but you can trust Putin who openly said so as have quite a few Russian experts including and at least one former FAPSI official, Duma members, and others. Snowden was a junior sysadmin for CIA, NSA and Booz Allen Hamilton who knew far less than any medium ranked Russian intelligence official would know. His “revelations” are only “revelations” for the general public, not for professionals.
The sweep of EC offices ordered by Barroso is just part of some kind of ridiculous Kabuki theater aimed at convincing the European public that EU officials are both upset and determined. Let me tell you this: Barroso knows full well that the NSA does not need to put bugs in his office to snoop on his telephone calls or emails.
What we are fed by the politicians and their corporate media is absolute, total and unadulterated baloney. Crap. Bull. Nonsense. Garbage. Call it whatever you want, but for Heaven’s sake do not take that seriously.
I find it revolting that not a single European politician, NOT ONE, has had the guts to say what I wrote above. They all know it, every single one of them, and yet they are playing “raped virgins”…
Disgusting beyond words.
And since I am french and European by accident, I will incite the whole European population to mass-demonstrate against the vigilant forces and kick their ass.
You do know France has their own PRISM right? http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/07/04/revelations-sur-le-big-brother-francais_3441631_3224.html
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/90075/fransen-hebben-op-prism-gelijkend-afluisterprogramma-draaien.html
And even Britain:
http://mashable.com/2013/06/21/gchq-spy-agency-taps-global-internet/
God I fukkan love Sasha Grey
God save the Americans from the Americans!
In a letter dated June 13 and published Tuesday by Firedoglake, the imprisoned CIA vet salutes Snowden for his recent disclosures of classified documents detailing some of the vast surveillance programs operated by the United States’ National Security Agency.
“Thank you for your revelations of government wrongdoing over the past week,” Kiriakou writes. “You have done the country a great public service.”
“I know that it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders right now, but as Americans begin to realize that we are devolving into a police state, with the loss of civil liberties that entails, they will see your actions for what they are: heroic.”
http://rt.com/usa/kiriakou-snowden-letter-leak-618/
“If you have a window on your computer, the US government can see right through it.”
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States’ “worst nightmare” if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.
“Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,” Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.
“The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/journalist-snowden-documents-could-become-the-united-states-worst-nightmare-2013-7
Microsoft worked hand-in-hand with the United States government in order to allow federal investigators to bypass encryption mechanisms meant to protect the privacy of millions of users, Edward Snowden told The Guardian.
According to an article published on Thursday by the British newspaper, internal National Security Agency memos show that Microsoft actually helped the federal government find a way to decrypt messages sent over select platforms, including Outlook.com Web chat, Hotmail email service, and Skype.
The Guardian revealed that Microsoft worked with intelligence agencies in order to let administrators of the PRISM data collection program easily access user intelligence submitted through its cloud storage service SkyDrive, as well as Skype.
“Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio,” the journalists wrote.
http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/
A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA “help information” trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html
FUCK YEAH
How long will it take?
A Swedish sociology professor has nominated Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that awarding the former NSA employee would correct Nobel Committee’s mistake in giving the award to President Barack Obama in 2009.
According to a translation of the letter published by the Daily Mail and RT.com, Umeå University professor Stefan Svallfors wrote the committee that Snowden has made the world safer in releasing information about United States surveillance.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/edward-snowden-nobel-peace-prize-94158.html#ixzz2Z95QNT82
“Those US intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia,” Morales said in a Saturday speech.
“It was recommended to me that I not use email, and I’ve followed suit and shut it down,” the Bolivian president added.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/14/313815/us-hacked-bolivian-officials-emails/
Despite the size and scope of Edward Snowden’s NSA whistleblowing, there’s little sign of Washington DC changing its practices, and even less of an indication that any of its European allies will actually hold it to account.
Germany Flip-Flops
Germany’s change of direction on this issue reveals a lot about the scale of the problem. Angela Merkel’s initial public response seemed to be that of outrage. “We are no longer in the cold war,” said Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert. “If it is confirmed that diplomatic representations of the European Union and individual European countries have been spied upon, we will clearly say that bugging friends is unacceptable”(Guardian July 1, 2013).
Merkel’s public façade didn’t hold up for long after Snowden revealed in Der Spiegel magazine only days later that the US and Germany were in fact partnering in the global spy network. “They are in bed with the Germans, just like with most other Western states”, the German magazine quotes Snowden as saying, adding that the NSA has a Foreign Affairs Directorate which is responsible for cooperation with other countries (RT July 8, 2013). The Der Spiegel report also indicated how German Federal Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and NSA work together.
http://rt.com/op-edge/nsa-network-global-fascism-167/
Germany’s president, who helped expose the workings of East Germany’s dreaded Stasi secret police, said whistleblowers like U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden deserved respect for defending freedom.”The fear that our telephones or mails are recorded and stored by foreign intelligence services is a constraint on the feeling of freedom and then the danger grows that freedom itself is damaged,” he said.
“We are a democratic state with the rule of law with basic rights. Freedom is one of these basic rights.”
YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
“MOSCOW — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden thanked Russia for granting him temporary asylum Thursday and said “in the end the law is winning.
The former defense contractor left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where he has been holed up since June 23, and went by taxi to an undisclosed location.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/01/nsa-edward-snowden-russia-temporary-asylum/2607737/
I hope he’s very careful. I wouldn’t put it past our government to go into Russia and kidnap him (or worse) in violation of local law.
I’ve been like you guys exhausted with work, 10 hours work a day (i’m glad to work OT) then i have to study for my phreaking exams since i am a Microsoft engineer working for a big hardware company in Texas.
So just to be short, for the french case, we are being invaded in France on a daily basis with many spying agencies but it’s not as invasive unlike the USA,it is extremely transparent; I don’t know how i should put that up, there has been historical context that shape our behavior and our mindset on how we should perceive a situation; France and the USA share almost the same constitution, the french constitution was written by your Founding Fathers around 1789 in France after we separated the Church from the State after nearly 7 centuries of demonization coming from the Inquisition. By the way France and the US were closely tight together during the enlightment’s century until someone fucked it up for all of us; at this time we were looking in History from the same eyes, which is quiet different nowadays (geopolitical b/s between Europe and the US, you know how it goes…)
So how is it difference in France when it comes to spying?
Contrary in the US, in France there is no checks and balances over there, we don’t know exactly what they do, and they don’t have to declassify information unlike the US, it is all done under the table, nobody knows anything about it, there is no supervision from the People, and there has never been a leak, and to top it off, nobody cares about it, we don’t give a flying A. We live in a complete different system since the vocation of the government is to take care of its own citizens and it is perfectly acceptable. I don’t think there is a country more secretive than France when it comes to spying of course; yes they are a bunch of morons over there, I hate the french socialists, I hated the Sarkozy government as well, I hate all their b/s. French society is way too complicated: “you can’t do this because you studied that, you can’t study this because you haven’t done that”. It’s a dead end in this french system. If you want to work for the french goverment, OMG it is completely different from the american system: they will most likely hire you from the Sorbonnes University in Paris, or the napoleonian school from Saint-Cyr, or the ENA (it is a government school made for government people), this is the best way to construct the french Republic, by granting them access to power when they got their training. Are these people being brainwashed? Of course they are. It’s very easy to enroll bright people in their 20s or 30s to shape the fundamental french vision, and after we got 5 different french republic in France, the 4th one did not work out as well, the 5th since 1958 i believe is still working because we learned from our experience, and we keep brainwashing these people. The french government got tools to modify our train of thoughts, and it’s been a favorite tool from the neocons in the US that has never been implemented (Thank God, if there is one, i pray it will never emerge in the USA).
For the case of Snowden, he is in Russia now, he will be watched by the ex-KGB (FSB now) and the whole country is on alert. Forget about the undercover CIA squads, they won’t be able to attack the sovereignty of Russia. He is all good. Since his heroic act, while the USDOJ would love to grill him on a chair, I’m pretty sure he doubled the volumes of his balls and needs now at least 2 or 3 women to rub them, he’s going to be a rocktzar (yes a rocktzar) for a while. He won’t be able to go back to the USA though, but who cares. If he thinks he did the right thing, then let him be. A man is only free when his conscience does not lie to himself, this is real freedom of the spirit. At least i am sure he will be able to find a much better paid job in IT in the russian homeland, and his backups on the NSA strategy might help other countries to rethink how they have to defend themselves from being spied (that’s another story).
Cheers…. And more later ….
Here is another example why the US government is lying on our records. I just did a simple test with google with some keywords and here are the results: You’ve visited this page 3 times. Last visit: 6/12/07. More than 6 years later, they know where the heck i was and what i did on google. How does it work? You can send a single signon through only 1 account and it will recognize all your accounts you are associated with it. It’s a technology that has been done by Microsoft that was used by the US government way before they deployed it to the public since Active Directory was on stage, during the year 2000. It is a demonic tool called Active Directory Federation Services, yet I haven’t heard anyone denouncing this tool in the USA. This is one of the tools that is used by the NSA. You can for example sign in on 2 different accounts, yet a 3rd party account will recognize your digital footprint on both account and you will get a nice database at the NSA with all your records and phony names.
Usually we can be tracked by IP addresses, MAC Addresses or ADFS, and VPN as well. The reforms that happened after 911 (Pat Riot Act) also happened in the digital world.
…etc
good night.
AAAAW YEAH STAND UP TO THOSE FUCKWADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“A Texas-based email service reportedly used by National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden said it was shutting down Thursday, explaining in a cryptic message that it would rather go out of business than “become complicit in crimes against the American people.”
The statement posted online by Lavabit owner Ladar Levison hinted that the Dallas-based company had been forbidden from revealing what was going on.
“I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision,” Levison’s statement said. “As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.”
The post didn’t name Snowden or refer to any particular investigation, but the statement’s timing — and other material in the public domain — suggest that Lavabit shut down in protest at the U.S. government’s pursuit of the 30-year-old leaker, whose disclosures have blown the lid off the NSA’s secret domestic surveillance.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/email-service-linked-edward-snowden-shuts-19909311
Film director Oliver Stone—who has made no secret of his liberal political views—called President Barack Obama a “snake” for his role in National Security Agency spying programs that have become, he said, more about silencing protestors than finding terrorists.
“Obama is a snake,” Stone told an audience in Tokyo on Monday. “He’s a snake. And we have to turn on him.”
“The Boston Marathon, they were so busy tracking down potential protestors…that they missed the bombers,” Stone told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “It’s never about terrorists, it always becomes about the way J. Edgar Hoover did it; he brought all the weight of government to bear against protestors. He didn’t like protestors. He thought they were left-wing communists. He never could find the proof, but by the time the Vietnam War came around, as you know, 500,000 people were on the list, and they were being eavesdropped on. And where are we now? Same place.”
Stone said that admitted NSA leaker Edward Snowden “is a hero to me. He sacrificed his well-being for the good of us all” and that Russia’s Vladimir Putin did the right thing by granting Snowden asylum, according to PressTV.
“I’m proud of him for doing it,” Stone said of Putin and Russia. “We need more countries to stand up to the U.S.”
Stone also called Snowden a hero last month and said it’s “a disgrace that Obama is more concerned with hunting him down Snowden than reforming these George Bush-style eavesdropping techniques.”
Last summer in the lead up to the 2012 Republican National Convention, Stone said he’d vote for Ron Paul over Obama if Paul secured the GOP nomination. Stone suggested that Paul was the “only one” who’s “saying anything intelligent about the future of the world.”
Relations between Russia and the U.S. have been frosty since the Snowden asylum decision, with Obama abruptly canceling a meeting with Putin, which was taken as a snub.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/14/obama-is-a-snake-and-we-have-to-turn-on-him-says/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share+Buttons
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Lavabit’s webpage bears a warning from Ladar Levinson, its founder: “Without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.“
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130816/14533924213/feds-threaten-to-arrest-lavabit-founder-shutting-down-his-service.shtml
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE.
There are 2 american journalists that are able to leak the NSA documents, one of them is Glenn Greenwald, and I was told he is being detained in the UK but i don’t have the confirmation 100% yet. So let’s put it this way, no journalist can land in Europe, some of these countries signed some cooperation agreements a few years ago under Bush during the Iraq war and they give free transit to the FBI in these countries (the UK, Italy, and the most recent country is France). For the Middle-East there is also Turkey and the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and i am pretty sure there are over countries as well.
It wasn’t Greenwald himself, but his partner, David Miranda. He was returning home to Rio from having met Laura Poitras in Berlin (she’s the other reporter working with Greenwld).
This will all be made into a movie someday. Amazing.
Yep my mistake. The thing that i do not understand, it’s been a very long time that the NSA is engaged into these activities, as far as i can tell since 1991/1993 at least during the Desert Storm Operation (Iraq war), the emails were already monitored and were gathered in Dallas TX until they decided to split their traps. It’s not only a “military” issue with the NSA, there is a huge spying program to gain business contracts against other countries: from living memory i remember this french company from Montpellier that was trying to sell huge cylinders to Saddam Hussein and the deal did not happen because the NSA was thinking it might be an uranium enrichment program, and that was not the case at all. Under such circumstances it’s very hard to prove it’s not the case since they use the military pretext. What i learned unfortunately there will be always a guy from the NSA that will come up with wrong allegations to stop these deals. Some people over there sex up intelligence so that it can be used for other purposes, and these purposes once they are on records will pop up and will be used for geopolitical goals. I’ve seen some examples in Texas to deliberately sex up intelligence to make them fall on the anti-terrorism frame. It is of course unethical but fabricated proofs will help the gov to get the population’s opinion. And we can’t do anything against that, unless we play their games and start hacking their own records and make it public. And this is what Snowden did, but now the gov is trying to shut them up on a legal way first….
I am just hoping that someone will have the guts to spread the documents on the P2P within a few weeks. Unfortunately after reading the US constitution many times, the spying program is half-legal and half-unconstitutional. There is a technological way to make it transparent but i really doubt the gov will do that, because information has to be a whole and cannot be just some pieces of a puzzle.
How vital is this information? The NSA has never been able to prevent 911, and the government knew they were going to be attacked (which makes me wonder why intelligence failed without going into conspiracy theories), and the plot of the Boston attackers was to my deepest regrets successful. Needless to say that Mc Veigh’s plans were also executed without problem. So with such a vast program the NSA program has been failing, and the ones that were successful never made it to mainstream media.
…etc
Honestly I am planning to go back to France. The judicial system is corrupted in the USA, either people do not do their job or they abuse of the system. I am not allowed to leave the country for at least 18 months, but since I am not a US citizen, i can freely leave the country if they don’t withhold my passport in the USA. Will have to check with my lawyer about the consequences though.
Snowden wins whistleblower award in Germany
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been awarded the biennial “whistleblower prize” in Germany, worth some $3,900, in recognition of his “bold efforts” to expose the monitoring of communications data by his former employer.
The prize, last awarded in 2011, was officially bestowed upon the 30-year-old at a ceremony in Berlin which took place Friday, prompting a nine-minute congratulatory video message from Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald on Saturday.
“If I ran the committee, making the choice of who was to receive this award, it would take me probably one and a half seconds at most to have come to the conclusion that he is the only person deserving of the award this year,” said Greenwald, who published Snowden’s leaks, in the honorific speech released in response to the news.
“He told me in good conscience that he could not sit by quietly and allow privacy and Internet freedom to be destroyed while doing nothing about it.”
According to the latest Snowden leak, the NSA and its British counterpart have circumvented the encryption methods used to secure emails, chats and essentially most Internet traffic that was previously thought to be protected from prying eyes.
The price tag for such an endeavor, the Guardian reported, is around a quarter-of-a-billion dollars each year for just the US, and involves not just intricate code-breaking, but maintaining partnerships with the tech companies that provide seemingly secure online communication outlets.
“The files show that the National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have broadly compromised the guarantees that Internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable to criminals or governments,” James Ball, Julian Borger and Glenn Greenwald reported for the Guardian.
Outside of the shadowy collaboration with Silicon Valley companies, the governments have also reportedly employed supercomputers capable of decrypting codes commonly used by the most popular online protocols, including HTTPS, voice-over-IP and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
“For the past decade, NSA has lead [sic] an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies,” a 2010 GCHQ document referenced by the Guardian reads. “Vast amounts of encrypted Internet data which have up till now been discarded are now exploitable.”
http://rt.com/usa/nsa-gchq-encryption-snowden-478/
The NSA also devotes considerable resources to attacking endpoint computers. This kind of thing is done by its TAO – Tailored Access Operations – group. TAO has a menu of exploits it can serve up against your computer – whether you’re running Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, or something else – and a variety of tricks to get them on to your computer. Your anti-virus software won’t detect them, and you’d have trouble finding them even if you knew where to look. These are hacker tools designed by hackers with an essentially unlimited budget. What I took away from reading the Snowden documents was that if the NSA wants in to your computer, it’s in. Period.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-how-to-remain-secure-surveillance
With all this in mind, I have five pieces of advice:
1) Hide in the network. Implement hidden services. Use Tor to anonymize yourself. Yes, the NSA targets Tor users, but it’s work for them. The less obvious you are, the safer you are.
2) Encrypt your communications. Use TLS. Use IPsec. Again, while it’s true that the NSA targets encrypted connections – and it may have explicit exploits against these protocols – you’re much better protected than if you communicate in the clear.
3) Assume that while your computer can be compromised, it would take work and risk on the part of the NSA – so it probably isn’t. If you have something really important, use an air gap. Since I started working with the Snowden documents, I bought a new computer that has never been connected to the internet. If I want to transfer a file, I encrypt the file on the secure computer and walk it over to my internet computer, using a USB stick. To decrypt something, I reverse the process. This might not be bulletproof, but it’s pretty good.
4) Be suspicious of commercial encryption software, especially from large vendors. My guess is that most encryption products from large US companies have NSA-friendly back doors, and many foreign ones probably do as well. It’s prudent to assume that foreign products also have foreign-installed backdoors. Closed-source software is easier for the NSA to backdoor than open-source software. Systems relying on master secrets are vulnerable to the NSA, through either legal or more clandestine means.
5) Try to use public-domain encryption that has to be compatible with other implementations. For example, it’s harder for the NSA to backdoor TLS than BitLocker, because any vendor’s TLS has to be compatible with every other vendor’s TLS, while BitLocker only has to be compatible with itself, giving the NSA a lot more freedom to make changes. And because BitLocker is proprietary, it’s far less likely those changes will be discovered. Prefer symmetric cryptography over public-key cryptography. Prefer conventional discrete-log-based systems over elliptic-curve systems; the latter have constants that the NSA influences when they can.
Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google expressed unease Friday about the National Security Agency’s ability to bypass online security systems that protect the privacy of internet users.
Yahoo said in a statement that if such an effort by the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ to compromise encryption privacy protections used online exists, “it offers substantial potential for abuse.” Microsoft and Google also both signaled concern and an unawareness of the intelligence agencies’ encryption-thwarting methods.
The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica published Thursday information obtained from Edward Snowden outlining how the agencies have circumvented the encryption methods used to secure emails, chats, and essentially most internet traffic that was previously thought to be protected. In addition, a GCHQ team has worked to infiltrate encrypted traffic on the “big four” service providers: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft’s Hotmail (now known as Outlook), and Facebook.
“We are unaware of and do not participate in such an effort,” a Yahoo spokesman said Friday. “Yahoo zealously defends our users’ privacy and responds to government requests for data only after considering every applicable objection and in accordance with the law.”
A Microsoft spokesperson said, “We have significant concerns about the allegations of government activity reported yesterday and will be pressing the government for an explanation.”
Microsoft and Google are currently teaming up on a lawsuit against the US government for the right to reveal more information about official requests for customer data by American intelligence. The companies are set to file legal briefs in the case on Monday.
As for the encryption revelations, a spokesman for Google said, “The security of our users’ data is a top priority. We do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems. As for recent reports that the US government has found ways to circumvent our security systems, we have no evidence of any such thing ever occurring. We provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law.”
Google is ramping up its efforts to encrypt all information passing through its system, The Washington Post reported late Friday. The effort was started last year but was accelerated in June when it was revealed via Snowden’s leaks that Google and other companies are legally compelled to share data with the NSA through its PRISM program.
Google did not comment on how much the initiative will cost, nor did they offer clues as to the scope of the project or what exact technology will be used. The effort is expected to be completed soon, months ahead of schedule.
http://rt.com/usa/encryption-compromised-yahoo-google-microsoft-530/
The NSA has reportedly been most successful in accessing iPhone user data, and at times has been able to hack into the computer used to sync with the mobile device. This allows the agency to run a mini-program dubbed “scripts,” which enables additional access to at least 38 more iPhone features.
The documents noted that similar successes took place using BlackBerry mobile devices. According to the report, 2009 was the only year that the NSA had a problem accessing BlackBerry data. That lack of access was due to changes in the way the company compressed data. But in March 2010, the NSA was able to hack back in, celebrating with the word “champagne!”
The spy agency also hacked its way into the BlackBerry’s mail system, which is known to be extremely secure. The report may be damaging to the Canadian company, which has always stated that its mail system is impenetrable.
In response, BlackBerry officials said that they have not built a “back door pipeline” into the system and stated that it was not their place “to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic.”
http://rt.com/news/nsa-smart-phones-spying-563/
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McAfee: “I also back his balls.”
The fact is if you’re a domestic company, you don’t deal with the NSA directly. You deal with the FBI. It’s actually put the FBI in what I think is a tenuous, unethical position because they’re now the slaves to two masters: they do the work on behalf of the Department of Justice in terms of domestic law enforcement investigations, and they do the work of the NSA by interacting with companies like my own who cooperate here domestically. If I were a foreign company, the NSA either would have broken into my servers electronically or found a local asset to do it for them physically. That’s part of the reason I didn’t want to move my system abroad. At least here in the US they try and use the court system to compel you to do stuff. But it’s pretty scary to think about what lengths they’re willing to go to conduct these investigations.
http://rt.com/usa/govt-implications-internet-control-lavabit-752/
FUCK YEAH
As the inventor of the global system of inter-connectivity known as the web, with its now ubiquitous www and http, Berners-Lee is uniquely qualified to comment on the internet spying revealed by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
In an interview with the Guardian, he expressed particular outrage that GCHQ and the NSA had weakened online security by cracking much of the online encryption on which hundreds of millions of users rely to guard data privacy.
He said the agencies’ decision to break the encryption software was appalling and foolish, as it directly contradicted efforts of the US and UK governments to fight cybercrime and cyberwarfare, which they have identified as a national security priority. Berners-Lee also said it was a betrayal of the technology industry.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/tim-berners-lee-encryption-spy-agencies?CMP=fb_gu
Germans’ confidence in the US as a trustworthy partner has plummeted following the NSA scandal, while Edward Snowden, who exposed America’s spying on its allies, is considered a hero by 60 percent of the population, a poll shows.
The recent chain of scandals over US global snooping has seriously damaged the opinion of Germans about their longtime ally.
http://rt.com/news/germany-lose-trust-us-snowden-431/
To avoid surveillance, the first four Americans to visit Edward Snowden in Moscow carried no cell phones or laptops. They flew coach on Delta from Washington with tickets paid for by Dutch computer hackers. After checking into a preselected hotel not far from Red Square, they waited for a van to pick them up for dinner.
None could retrace the ride that followed, driven by anonymous Russian security men, nor could any place the side door of the building where the trip ended. They passed through two cavernous ballrooms, the second with a painted ceiling like the Sistine Chapel, and emerged into a smaller space with salmon-colored walls and oil paintings in golden frames—like Alice in Wonderland, remembers one of the group. There at the bottom of the rabbit hole, in rimless glasses, a black suit and blue shirt with two open buttons at the collar, stood the 30-year-old computer whiz who had just committed the most spectacular heist in the history of spycraft.
Read more: Runner-Up: Edward Snowden The Dark Prophet | TIME.com http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/runner-up-edward-snowden-the-dark-prophet/#ixzz2nBXHdq23
An NSA Coworker Remembers The Real Edward Snowden: ‘A Genius Among Geniuses’
The anonymous NSA staffer’s priority in contacting me, in fact, was to refute stories that have surfaced as the NSA and the media attempt to explain how a contractor was able to obtain and leak the tens of thousands of highly classified documents that have become the biggest public disclosure of NSA secrets in history. According to the source, Snowden didn’t dupe coworkers into handing over their passwords, as one report has claimed. Nor did Snowden fabricate SSH keys to gain unauthorized access, he or she says.
Instead, there’s little mystery as to how Snowden gained his access: It was given to him.
“That kid was a genius among geniuses,” says the NSA staffer. “NSA is full of smart people, but anybody who sat in a meeting with Ed will tell you he was in a class of his own…I’ve never seen anything like it.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/16/an-nsa-coworker-remembers-the-real-edward-snowden-a-genius-among-geniuses/?partner=yahootix
Edward Snowden has offered to help Brazil investigate US spying on its soil in exchange for political asylum, in an open letter from the NSA whistleblower to the Brazilian people published by the Folha de S Paulo newspaper.
“I’ve expressed my willingness to assist where it’s appropriate and legal, but, unfortunately, the US government has been working hard to limit my ability to do so,” Snowden said in the letter.
“Until a country grants me permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak out,” he said.
Snowden – currently living in Russia, where he has been granted a year’s asylum until next summer – said he had been impressed by the Brazilian government’s strong criticism of the NSA spy programme targeting internet and telecommunications worldwide, including monitoring the mobile phone of the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff.
…
“When a person in Florianópolis visits a website, the NSA keeps track of when it happened and what they did on that site. If a mother in Porto Alegre calls her son to wish him luck with his exam, the NSA can save the data for five years or longer. The agency can keep records of who has an affair or visits porn sites, in case it needs to damage the reputations of its targets.”
He added: “Six months ago, I revealed that the NSA wanted to listen to the whole world. Now the whole world is listening, and also talking back. And the NSA does not like what it is hearing.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/edward-snowden-brazil-spying-asylum?CMP=fb_gu
You better watch out,
You better not Skype,
You better log out,
Yeah you better not type,
NSA is coming to town.
“I acted on my belief that the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,” Mr. Snowden said. “Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.” – Edward Snowden 12/16/13
http://iroots.org/2013/12/16/edward-snowden-responds-to-federal-judge-ruling-against-nsa/
“What a lot of this spying is about has nothing to do with terrorism and national security. That is the pretext. It is about diplomatic manipulation and economic advantage.”
The NSA also follows people who express “radical ideas,” Greenwald said. The spy agency collects data on their “visits to pornographic sites” and their “sexual chats online with people who they’re not married to” in order to later discredit them, Greenwald said.
http://rt.com/news/greenwald-eu-parliament-testimony-424/
(Reuters) – As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.
Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a “back door” in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-usa-security-rsa-idUSBRE9BJ1C220131220
REALLY GOOD READ
Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith took to his company’s blog and called the NSA an “advanced persistent threat” — the worst of all fighting words in U.S. cybersecurity circles, generally reserved for Chinese state-sponsored hackers and sophisticated criminal enterprises.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html?hpid=z1
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who prompted a worldwide debate when he leaked a cache of top secret documents about US and UK spying, has recorded a Christmas Day television message in which he calls for an end to the mass surveillance revealed by his disclosures.
The short film was recorded for Channel 4, which has 20-year history of providing unusual but relevant figures as an alternative to the Queen’s Christmas message shown by other UK broadcasters. It will be Snowden’s first television appearance since arriving in Moscow.
The address, to be broadcast at 4.15pm on Christmas Day, was filmed in Russia – where Snowden is living after being granted temporary asylum – by Laura Poitras, a film-maker who has closely collaborated with him on the NSA stories.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/edward-snowden-channel-4-christmas-day-message?CMP=fb_gu
Here Is Edward Snowden’s Christmas Message
Hi, and Merry Christmas. I’m honored to have the chance to speak with you and your family this year.
Recently, we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide mass surveillance, watching everything we do.
Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book — microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us — are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go.
Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person. A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves — an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that’s a problem, because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.
The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it. Together, we can find a better balance. End mass surveillance. And remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.
For everyone out there listening, thank you, and Merry Christmas.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alternative-christmas-message/4od
Well, he’s not a hero actually. Neither was Aldrich Ames, John Walker, and Bradelina Manning. May they all share the same cell, or better – gallows. End of the day they violated their security agreements, which no one forced them to sign. Guess you’re not too keen on contracts either eh?
I’m not too keen on contracts that attempt to silence people when unethical/illegal things are happening. In that case you can go fuck yourself.
swearing is an example of people who limited means of expressing themselves a form of dislexia I suppose…or just lazy..,
MUST SEE!!!!!!!!!!!
German Television Channel NDR does an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f93_1390833151
Do your a hero to … Yes big brother is out there but the melting of ice caps
Increased co2 and methane release and man kind help us if the theming haylein converse stops Re far far bigger problems. Norther Europe could be heading for a new Ice age as a result of Global warming… How ironic!
Selling mistooks
Should have read Thermo Hayline Conveyor .. Check it out and increased glAcier melt Greenland on the net..