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

what is the prerequisite to making a determination on what one should leak and whistleblow? surely this is an issue of personal morality

what is the prerequisite to making a determination on what one should leak and whistleblow? surely this is an issue of personal morality

― Mordy , Friday, July 19, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If a reporter, such as Greenwald, is the one publicising the leaks, then I agree with you, it is personal morality or lack thereof.

What's funny is that there's a 'rumour' of the leaks ruining US-Latin America relations. Most Latin Americans know all the fucked up things the US has done to Latin America and how the US treats that part of the world like their backyard.

A bit tangential, but for Latin Americans, there is already proof of the crimes the US has committed. The leaks would only serve to reinforce this and finally out the English-speaking governments crimes in a way that is in no way refutable.

https://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/5/26/1369583426757/Iraqi-children-take-cover-008.jpg

back: US government
front: rest of the world

wolves lacan otfm

could it be any other way

https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/snowden-unplugged/dab0de95e248669103f78ad090b63fc75edad001/

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, July 18, 2013 7:26 PM (2 days ago)

really might have to just subscribe to this thing. thanks again

News from the James Risen front: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/us/in-major-ruling-court-orders-times-reporter-to-testify.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fpolitics%2Findex.jsonp

mega-ughhhh at that

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/politics/math-behind-leak-crackdown-153-cases-4-years-0-indictments.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

on the reasons behind obama's decision to more aggressively prosecute leakers, and where we're at now

“My background is in the Navy, and it is good to hang an admiral once in a while as an example to the others,” said Mr. Blair, who left the administration in 2010. “We were hoping to get somebody and make people realize that there are consequences to this and it needed to stop.”

need to send a foia request to see how many admirals the navy has hung in the last 50 years

Last month, a federal court granted Chevron access to nine years of email metadata—which includes names, time stamps, and detailed location data and login info, but not content—belonging to activists, lawyers, and journalists who criticized the company for drilling in Ecuador and leaving behind a trail of toxic sludge and leaky pipelines. Since 1993, when the litigation began, Chevron has lost multiple appeals and has been ordered to pay plaintiffs from native communities about $19 billion to cover the cost of environmental damage. Chevron alleges that it is the victim of a mass extortion conspiracy, which is why the company is asking Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, which owns Hotmail, to cough up the email data. When Lewis Kaplan, a federal judge in New York, granted the Microsoft subpoena last month, he ruled it didn't violate the First Amendment because Americans weren't among the people targeted.

Now Mother Jones has learned that the targeted accounts do include Americans—a revelation that calls the validity of the subpoena into question.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/chevron-ecuador-american-email-legal-activists-journalists

WTF?

Wow, I had been following that case. Fuckin chevron.

You didn't expect this to happen?

I didn't expect them to get caught so quick!

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/former-cia-chief-snowdens-leak-is-a-little-like-the-boston-bombers/278066/

that fuck

The End of National Security Reporting

The issue is at what point does Islamic fundamentalism flip-over and become a genuine national security threat? Likewise, at what point does a cultural tendency towards transparency flip-over to become a deep threat inside your system?

lol idk the answer to the first question but the answer to the second one is "immediately", asshole

So, er, this was closer than the administration wanted: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/politics/house-defeats-effort-to-rein-in-nsa-data-gathering.html?ref=politics

I don't know - on NPR this morning they were already saying that it was going to be a tight vote and I'm sure the WH is just happy the President won't have to veto it.

I'm sorry he wasn't put in that position

After spending weeks ardently defending the surveillance efforts, the intelligence committee leaders promised reforms when they begin drafting the intelligence authorization act.

oh thank goodness

my congressman voted for it

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml

so Democrats were 111-83 for Amash, i.e. Warren could run against Rodham for president if she wanted to.

Greenwald on how Bachmann, Pelosi, Obama are natural allies on this issue:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/25/democratic-establishment-nsa

U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/world/europe/edward-snowden.html?_r=0

I hope I don't have to read about the loophole the US gov't will use around this.

http://rt.com/news/snowden-russia-extradite-us-634/

“Russia has never extradited anyone, and will not extradite,” said Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Syria. This. Now we just need another article reminding us of Russia continuing their petroleum exploration in the Arctic.

Let the Games begin.

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2013/07/29/chomsky-praises-snowden-and-condemns-us-hypocrisy/

If you're interested

There's no cryptography thread and I don't think that link merits an entire thread on it...yet.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130727/02332323967/keith-alexanders-lobbying-calls-to-congress-kicked-off-with-joke-about-how-he-already-had-their-number.shtml

Last week we had a story about how Nancy Pelosi helped kill the Amash Amendment to defund the controversial practice of having the NSA collect tons of info on every phone call made, in part by dragging along a bunch of Democratic representatives. Now, the National Review has some of the story from the other side of the aisle, about how the GOP leadership tried very very hard to keep the amendment from even coming to the floor, trying all sorts of procedural tricks. Eventually, it appears that John Boehner allowed the amendment to be voted on after a brief chat with Amash -- though no one seems exactly sure why. Boehner supports the surveillance program and voted against the amendment (which they note is rare, since he normally abstains from such votes).

However, there is one tidbit in the article that struck me as interesting. We'd already mentioned how Keith Alexander of the NSA went on an emergency lobbying campaign with Congressional reps after learning that the amendment would actually come to a vote, but there's this little tidbit to add some color:

Alexander, the NSA chief, was forced to personally lobby members, calling their cell phones and opening with a joke that, yes, he already had their number.

wow, the NSA headquarters sure is a scary-looking monolith. They couldn't have made it look more like an Orwellian Ministry of Freedom if they tried.
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/reuters/2013-07-24t192830z_1_cbre96n1i4v00_rtroptp_3_usa.grid-6x2.jpg

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

So, it's official. The NSA have every single data from chat conversations, what sites you visit, what you look at, etc., which it said it did not have access to nor did it track. Whoops!

Big Brother has a name. And it's called XKeyscore. Hehe!

hey no ackerman byline, aw

man oh man

wow

yeah, that xkeyscore ppt graphic is atrocious.

the crappy powerpoint is what gives it credibility

welp.

the banality of ppt

that ppt is positively David Reesian

proud of greenwald/snowden/whoever for timing the release so well, so that the nsa had time to lie between each phase. idk maybe that's leaking 101 but i never took that.

in the comments of the story somebody's like 'hey why the hell are you giving them a chance to do damage control over and over you should have released this weeks ago' and greenwald said something very journalisty about 'it takes time to confirm and vet each of these documents yada yada,' but i do think its at least in part driven by what you're talking abt dlh

also, in theory, the public would be having a "conversation" about each stage of this as it unfolds.

this is seriously nuts. i'd assumed all the big revelations were out of the way. i wonder wtf's next.

let's just say the xbox one's pr problems aren't over

proud of greenwald/snowden/whoever for timing the release so well, so that the nsa had time to lie between each phase. idk maybe that's leaking 101 but i never took that.

― one yankee sympathizer masquerading as a historian (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, July 31, 2013 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, this is kind of beautiful. it just means the credibility of the "intelligence community" is damaged over and over again.

what's even "funnier" is the senators and congressmen who, without any real knowledge of this stuff, back up whatever the intelligence leaders are saying at the moment. i would not hitch my wagon to these folks if i were a politician right now.

it does seem like with each round another politician gets off the bus, but maybe that's just me projecting.

E-Snow granted asylum by PuttyPut

what's even "funnier" is the senators and congressmen who, without any real knowledge of this stuff, back up whatever the intelligence leaders are saying at the moment. i would not hitch my wagon to these folks if i were a politician right now.

are Dianne Fienstein's aides resigning in protest?