omnibus PRISM/NSA/free Edward Snowden/encryption tutorial thread

i'm on board with The World Is On Fire thesis, but iatee otm that the article is kinda hand-wavey

building a conspiracy on random quotes from the PR document the DoD releases seems like a bad plan

certainly the government is forecasting a variety of strategic scenarios for the future, climate-driven unrest among them, and the ongoing surveillance of/application of anti-terror laws & techniques against environmental activists is very real as well. the convergence of these two things does worry me quite a bit. reading that snippet of that forecast in that way, though, strikes me as a little Alex Jones-y.

yah

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters this week that Obama “certainly believes that Director Clapper has been straight and direct in the answers that he’s given.”

depends on what your definition of 'wittingly' is, man

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fdChg4P1wWY/0.jpg

man why do still from 1999 look like 1980

Should note that The Daily Banter, which I've never heard of, has been at this stuff all.week.

Two writers from that site have a podcast "The Bubble Genius Bob & Chaz Show" that seems to be 100% devoted to attacking Greenwald and Sirota.

So we learn more about the confrontation in Ashcroft's hospital room in 2004.

Yep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html?hpid=z1

Oops, same linked article. Nucleon!

When the NSA aims for foreign targets whose communications cross U.S. infrastructure, it expects to sweep in some American content “incidentally” or “inadvertently,” which are terms of art in regulations governing the NSA. Contact chaining, because it extends to the contacts of contacts of targets, inevitably collects even more American data.

Current NSA director Keith B. Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. have resolutely refused to offer an estimate of the number of Americans whose calls or e-mails have thus made their way into content databases such as ­NUCLEON.

The Post has learned that similar orders have been renewed every three months for other large U.S. phone companies, including Bell South and AT&T, since May 24, 2006. On that day, the surveillance court made a fundamental shift in its approach to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits the FBI to compel production of “business records” that are relevant to a particular terrorism investigation and to share those in some circumstances with the NSA. Henceforth, the court ruled, it would define the relevant business records as the entirety of a telephone company’s call database.

The Bush administration, by then, had been taking “bulk metadata” from the phone companies under voluntary agreements for more than four years. The volume of information overwhelmed the MAINWAY database, according to a classified report from the NSA inspector general in 2009. The agency spent $146 million in supplemental counterterrorism funds to buy new hardware and contract support — and to make unspecified payments to the phone companies for “collaborative partnerships.”

When the New York Times revealed the warrantless surveillance of voice calls, in December 2005, the telephone companies got nervous. One of them, unnamed in the report, approached the NSA with a request. Rather than volunteer the data, at a price, the “provider preferred to be compelled to do so by a court order,” the report said. Other companies followed suit. The surveillance court order that recast the meaning of business records “essentially gave NSA the same authority to collect bulk telephony metadata from business records that it had” under Bush’s asserted authority alone.

you know it's bad when cold-blooded corps would rather be forced to do the thing rather than being paid off to do the thing

otm

the name of the game is managing liability

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/16/gchq-intercepted-communications-g20-summits

wow. am i just naive or is that a massive story?

seems like a big deal to me

I'm more amused that they still had documentation about it than the fact that they actually did it, tbh

Their powerpoint slides appear to be just as self-congratulatory as those of any other UK govt dept.

Some comments are saying this is commonplace behaviour by governments at this kind of high-level meeting. I have no clue whether that's true, and if so, how much of an idea the delegates themselves would have about it.

iirc Peter Wright's Spycatcher book outlined MI-5 domestic spying on foreign dignitaries, I have no doubt it's as true now as then

"yknow spies, buncha bitchy little girls"

wikileaks revealed that hillary clinton had approved spying on u.n. leaders so it's not exactly surprising

good post, and not just for the david simon stuff

https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/06/persuading_david_simon/

i've gotta admit i'm dyyyin to know what else is in that docu archive

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/turkey-russia-g20-spying-gchq

it's hard to know if they're actually mad or just drumming up nationalist rah rah mad

or they feel compelled to do something so that they don't seem like weak pushovers

Turkey probably legit angry. Would be surprised if Russia didn't know about it months ago but you have to keep up appearances.

two terrible countries to piss off if you plan to do something about syria

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/is-james-risen-real-journalist-or.html

NY Times reporter James Risen versus the inside the beltway folks on NBC's Meet the Press

Bob Medici Schiffer yesterday devoted a segment to showing how Snowden is NOT Rosa Parks and MLK Jr.

Schieffer was an asshole even before he lost his marbles, lotta that around CBS News the last 30 years or so.

any yall following this live q&a w/dude btw

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-nsa-files-whistleblower

xpost

is he even considered a real journalist?

he co-wrote a good early Reagan bio depicting how the man was out to lunch. Reagan too.

One of his frequent guests:

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120109224754/muppet/images/4/4a/Bob_SchiefferAndKermit.jpg

Lots out there on the internet re his friendships with Cheney and with W Bush:

http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/story-of-the-da.html

During the ’90s, Schieffer also struck up a friendship with George W. Bush when his brother Tom—now the U.S. ambassador to Australia—became partners with the future president in the Texas Rangers. Bob and W. went to ball games together, played golf, attended spring training. “He’s a great guy—that doesn’t mean I agree with him,” says Schieffer, adding that the situation became “a little awkward” when Bush ran for the White House but that he’s never gotten favorable treatment.

What's worse, Bush not only rewarded Bob's brother Tom with the ambassadorship to Australia from 2001-2005, but later made him US ambassador to Japan,

do you even report, bro

dave weigel of slate thinks snowden is a 'useful idiot' for red china:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/17/snowden_veers_into_useful_idiocy.html

man can someone retire that fucking phrase already

yeah, fuck this 'useful idiot' idiom. if you think he's a traitor, don't dance around it.

https://medium.com/state-of-play/bb27db32ae38

Two weeks ago, when the Guardian first leaked a Verizon court order to hand over its call metadata, a national debate began about privacy and security. Since then those leaks have continued, and they still drive the conversation. But much of that initial reporting turned out to be wrong — so much, in fact, that I’m starting to wonder if it’s approaching journalistic malfeasance.

so this turned out not to be true?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589495-38/nsa-spying-flap-extends-to-contents-of-u.s-phone-calls/

They told Nadler he heard it wrong.

good post, and not just for the david simon stuff

https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/06/persuading_david_simon/

― caek, Monday, June 17, 2013 7:54 AM (Yesterday)

^^ booming post

Can we retire the use of "traitor," too? I mean, are we at war with China? Pretty sure we're not.

i think you mean "red china"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGv2wqJJmbc

you don't have to be at war w/ a country for someone to commit treason on their behalf

i don't think it's a particularly broad reading to say that snowden violated the espionage act

P. sure there's a constitutional and legal definition of "treason" to which "violating the espionage act" doesn't even come close.

For everyone's edification though just in case.