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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-charges-snowden-with-espionage/2013/06/21/507497d8-dab1-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html

what can one say, but, welp

http://i.guim.co.uk/n/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/6/21/1371831337646/Edward-Snowden-composite--009.jpg
http://i.guim.co.uk/n/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/6/21/1371831337646/Edward-Snowden-composite--009.jpg
http://i.guim.co.uk/n/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/6/21/1371831337646/Edward-Snowden-composite--009.jpg

yo dawg we heard you like espionage so we charged you with espionage after hiring you to perform espionage

if you knew this is Bam's SEVENTH Espionage Act prosecution, raise yr hand. (Wilson through Dubya: 3.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/22/snowden-espionage-charges

I don't think Snowden should be charged, but either you or Greenwald are trying to be misleading here, because he says something very specific:

Prior to Barack Obama's inauguration, there were a grand total of three prosecutions of leakers under the Espionage Act

Note he's confining that statement to "leakers," however he's defining that, but either he -- or, I think, you -- are trying to imply that only three PEOPLE have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act, since 1917, which is . . . not true.

nope, just my mistranscription, my fault

no access to Wiki now, but wasn't Eugene Debs convicted under the EA?

yes -- the sedition act of 1918 was actually an amendment to the espionage act, so initially it was used almost entirely against antiwar activists (AFAIK no actual german spies were ever caught and convicted under the act.)

no one was successfully prosecuted for leaking to the press until this guy, in 1985: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Loring_Morison

Not sure if this is the thread for it, but uhm... uh oh...

In an email sent hours before his death in a single-car L.A. crash, journalist Michael Hastings wrote that his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.”

According to the email, sent to KTLA, Hastings wrote he was working on a “big story” and was going to disappear. He told his colleagues that if the FBI came to interview them, they should have legal counsel present.

remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNdW2V5V8W4

Danny Casolaro, yes defo. Not seem the dramatic re-enacted video though.

god BCCI is one of the great forgotten scandals of the last twenty years.

Hastings wrote he was working on a “big story” and was going to disappear. He told his colleagues that if the FBI came to interview them, they should have legal counsel present.

max to thread

Speculative article stoking more fears: Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks

yeah. iatee doesnt like that article.

Roseanne Barr ‏@TheRealRoseanne
here's what happened: the 2 (or 3) factions in r government set up the tech2 spy on each other-& each invented their own opposition, 4 gov$

snowden out

wikileaks twitter is saying they're helping him

out of what

frying pan and into fire

N.S.A. Leaker Leaves Hong Kong on Flight to Moscow

I guess he's attracted to Putin's strong commitment to killing journalists.

It's not his last stop. I think his main interest is in not being arrested by the fascist dick.

ok now i have a mental picture of a penis with a hitler mustache, thanks

here we go:

Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/20/194513/obamas-crackdown-views-leaks-as.html#.Ucb6zZymU0M#storylink=cpy

“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.

The FISA Court that Obama and some of Congress is proud of:

All 11 of the current members were tapped by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Ten were originally appointed to the federal bench by Republican presidents. Six are former prosecutors.

“The judges that are assigned to this court are judges that are not likely to rock the boat,” said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge from Massachusetts who teaches at Harvard Law School. Gertner, a former defense and civil rights lawyer named to the bench by Democrat Bill Clinton, added: “All of the structural pressures that keep a judge independent are missing there. It’s ­one-sided, secret, and the judges are chosen in a selection process by one man.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-secretive-surveillance-court-rare-scrutiny-in-wake-of-nsa-leaks/2013/06/22/df9eaae6-d9fa-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story_1.html

Ugh, getting so sick of people on twitter saying "So Snowden wants to go to Russia/Cuba/Ecuador, yeah?! Not exactly free havens, free speech paradises, good human rights countries amirite?!"... It is totally beside the point.

Afaict only thing Snowden wants now is to stay out the blood thirsty hands of USA justice. The enemy of the enemy is his friend. In this particular case, free journalism has little to do with it. Snowden just wants to reside somewhere where he can stay out of USA's hands. And with reason.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNcBma5CAAEt0Jf.gif:large

Dutch cartoon figures Fokke & Sukke (yeah the names are a pun):

Fokke & Sukke have a tip for Snowden

Fokke: If you never want to appear in front of an American judge, there is only one place you can go...
Sukke: Guantánamo Bay

Damnit, cartoon's gone

The joke works without an image thought tbh

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/le_bateau_ivre/BNcBma5CAAEt0Jf.png

Dutch cartoon figures Fokke & Sukke (yeah the names are a pun):

Fokke & Sukke have a tip for Snowden

Fokke: If you never want to appear in front of an American judge, there is only one place you can go...
Sukke: Guantánamo Bay

Dutch cartoon figures Fokke & Sukke (yeah the names are a pun):

Fokke & Sukke have a tip for Snowden

Fokke: If you never want to appear in front of an American judge, there is only one place you can go...
Sukke: Guantánamo Bay

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/david-gregory-glenn-greenwald-crime_n_3486654.html

Nilmar

tho i agree with lbi and the notion that he is being 'hypocritical' is retarded.....it seems doubtful that he can remain safely in russia

whether he gets leaned on to make pro-putin statements or present a death to amerikka show on russia tv or whatever

Otm.

is there any precedent for someone disclosing government secrets in a western nation being given asylum elsewhere?

Ugh, getting so sick of people on twitter saying "So Snowden wants to go to Russia/Cuba/Ecuador, yeah?! Not exactly free havens, free speech paradises, good human rights countries amirite?!"

OTM. Dude leaked this stuff to the press, he didn't mail a Flash drive of it to the Tabliban, he gave it to the supposedly free press that is supposedly protected by our so-effing-awesome freedoms that sets us apart from those horrible savages in the rest of the world. Why is Russa and China so much worse than the US? Cos they relentlessly spy on their own people? Cos they threaten whistle-blowers in the almighty name of State Security?

The fact that this guy has been working in national surveillance and probably knows the secret workings of most gov'ts of the world and chooses NOT to remain in "Freedom Lovin' 'Merica" just really underlines how far we've gone, how much like the dreaded horrors of the Soviet State or the Red Menace we have become. If any moment deserves a "Wake up, sheeple", this is it.

Philip Agee comes to mind.

xp

xp Exactly Adam! That's the thing. I see a lot of Obama supporters still clinging to the idea of 'Obama is the leader of the FREE world, of the greatest FREE nation", when in fact he's no better than his predecessors. As an outside I can truly say, if America had a republican president now the world would go all "oh yeah, BIG surprise". But not it is actually a BIG surprise, and people squirm their way into apologetics. This is way more of a 'wake up sheeple' moment than there ever has been.

There was an interesting interview with former NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake on Dutch telly yesterday. Asked if Obama is better or worse than Bush/Cheney, he said "worse, definitely. At least Bush/Cheney didn't hide the fact they wanted to spy on people more. It's like Obama wants it both ways: a) pretend he's a liberal president that holds privacy in high regard, and b) be seen as a tough president fighting trrrrism.

*But noW it is actually a BIG surprise etc

yeah i think it's possible to absolve snowden for finding sanctuary where he can whilst being cognizant that russia and china are rather worse than the united states

Oh I agree. It's just such a lame tu quoque to pull: "but but but look at China and Russia! They ain't sweethearts either!" While true, it is completely beside the point.

so people get that Moscow is likely a layover, right?

chuck schumer is angry

"The fact that [Russian officials] allowed him to land, indicates that we are not in a place of cooperation," Schumer said on CNN's State of The Union. He added that this could have "serious consequences" for Russian-U.S. relations.

Schumer also said he is "very disappointed" in Hong Kong's decision to let him leave, adding that he believes the "hand of Beijing" was involved here.

Russia & China not being evil enough for the US

"He added that this could have "serious consequences" for Russian-U.S. rleations"

Russia/Poetin: http://files.myopera.com/drlaunch/albums/37656/o-rly001.jpg