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

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

Schumer is still under the illusion that the US has as much power in the world as it had in the Sixties. He's living in the past, mahnnn.

i don't know where he got the crazy idea that beijing might have been involved in hong kong's decision to let snowden leave, though. he must have some sort of top secret nsa intelligence that the rest of us have no idea about

True, but it's people like Schumer who just do not understand what this is about. This is not about "oooohhh China's no picknick either!", this effectively is about how the US deals with dissidents; exactly the same way like China or Russia do. Capture them, try them, lock 'em up. The US isn't any holier than "the hand of Beijing" when it concerns this. As is proven by himself. Manning, Agee, Drake, Assange to thread.

I believe the hand of Schumer is involved in lotsa Wall St jagoffs

Can we send David Gregory and Schumer to Russia

and send Dianne Feinstein too, please

I'd actually keep the current Supreme Court and trade the other two branches

Reading anti-Snowden comment threads is a hugely demoralizing experience. People just bending over backwards in the name of authoritarianism. And if Cheney's outing of CIA informant or Clapper's recent perjury is brought up, they get a free pass cos apparently the law only counts if it's in favor of State power.

And the argument that PRISM disclosures simultaneously

1) something everyone already knew about anyways and does nothing to damage our global position

and

2) puts the US at a huge disadvantage and is equivalent to TREASON

scooter libby got a free pass?

Wikipedia:

"On June 5, 2007, the presiding trial judge, Reggie B. Walton, sentenced Libby to 30 months in federal prison, a fine of $250,000, and two years of supervised release, including 400 hours of community service,[14][15][16][17] and then ordered Libby to begin his sentence immediately.[18] On July 2, 2007, when Libby's appeal of Walton's order failed, President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact."

The money for the fine could probably have been raised from wealthy Bush/Cheney backers, so the 400 hours of community service were his only tangible forfeit. Not quite a free pass, but much worse than what Snowden would get.

much worse better than

"we've changed our passwords"

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/23/sunday_shows_what_you_missed/

Booz Allen Hamilton still needs to get a return-on-investment: After Profits, Defense Contractor Faces the Pitfalls of Cybersecurity

WASHINGTON — When the United Arab Emirates wanted to create its own version of the National Security Agency, it turned to Booz Allen Hamilton to replicate the world’s largest and most powerful spy agency in the sands of Abu Dhabi.

It was a natural choice: The chief architect of Booz Allen’s cyberstrategy is Mike McConnell, who once led the N.S.A. and pushed the United States into a new era of big data espionage. It was Mr. McConnell who won the blessing of the American intelligence agencies to bolster the Persian Gulf sheikdom, which helps track the Iranians.

“They are teaching everything,” one Arab official familiar with the effort said. “Data mining, Web surveillance, all sorts of digital intelligence collection.”

Yet as Booz Allen profits handsomely from its worldwide expansion, Mr. McConnell and other executives of the government contractor — which sells itself as the gold standard in protecting classified computer systems and boasts that half its 25,000 employees have Top Secret clearances — have a lot of questions to answer.

The blowback from this is going to suck.

@russian_market 20m

BOARDING IS OVER. SNOWDEN DIDN'T SHOW UP. POOR CNN & BCC JOURNALISTS WHO ARE FLYING TO CUBA NOW....HASTA LA VISTA!

Twitter is hilarious now. Reporters ON THE PLANE tweeting Snowden ISN'T on the plane. Plane already on its way to Havana...

awesome

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/statuses/349106511257161729