Tag: NSA

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Politics

Jon Stewart’s NSA Apology to World Leaders

Snowden’s NSA leakage is hitting world leaders hard, as word is slowly coming out that many of these leaders may have been spied on by the US government. Some, in their own way demanded an apology.

Jon Stewart did the honors.

“You want an apology? Fine. We’re sorry,” Stewart said, before adding, “that you forgot that we’re kind of d*cks.”

Pointing to a “camera” over his desk, Stewart argued that for the U.S. to tap German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was relatively small potatoes.

“If it makes you feel any better, our government isn’t doing anything to you that they’re not doing to us,” Stewart said. “They’re spying on our studio, and I’m literally saying that into a camera that’s going to broadcast that. It seems kind of redundant.”

Besides, he argued, these types of dealings were par for the course with the U.S.

“Have you met us?” Stewart asked. “Meddling in your affairs for our national self-interest is kind of our thing. What part of, ‘Everything we’ve done since the Monroe Doctrine’ don’t you get?”

Stewart also knocked nations like Pakistan, Germany and France for complaining about the U.S.’ activities given their own dirty laundry.

“Do I really have to justify myself to a country that invaded Poland because they thought Poland was looking at them funny?” Stewart demanded of Germany. “So get over it — or better yet, turn that frown upside down. Don’t think of us as an overly aggressive, paranoid superpower; think of us as what anyone’s looking for in a partner: a good listener. A great listener. The best listener in the history of the world.”

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edward snowden Politics

The Edward Snowden Effect: America’s Allys Angry

One can only wonder if this was the outcome Snowden wanted all along.

The United States’ ambassador to France Charles H. Rivkin has been summoned by the French foreign minister following claims made by the Le Monde newspaper group Monday that the National Security Agency spied on millions of French citizens.

Le Monde made the allegations it said based on documents it secured from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at a European Union foreign ministers meeting that the ambassador has been asked to go to the foreign ministry in Paris “immediately” to explain the allegations.

According to the report, over a 30-day period between December last year and January 2013 the NSA’s top-secret “US-985D” program intercepted data on over 70 million phone calls made in France.

“When a telephone number is used in France, it activates a signal which automatically triggers the recording of the call. Apparently this surveillance system also picks up SMS messages and their content using key words,” the French newspaper reported, explaining how the NSA collects the information.

Le Monde said that when it presented its evidence to authorities in the U.S. no comment was offered.

France’s Interior Minister Manuel Vallas was said to have described the revelations as “shocking.”

On Sunday, a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, also based on documents leaked by Snowden, said that the U.S. had infiltrated the e-mail system of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The Mexican government vowed to send what the Associated Press called a “diplomatic note” to the Washington as a result.

Thanks Eddie!

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Politics

Where In The World Is Edward Snowden

Apparently, the NSA snitch didn’t board his flight to Havana Cuba.

Boarding is over. Aeroflot agent says Snowden not on plane.
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) June 24, 2013

11:18pm BST—Max Seddon of the Associated Press says that he is standing next to Snowden’s seat on the flight – and “he ain’t here”.

12:33pm BST—

Miriam Elder sends more from Interfax and its “source familiar with Snowden’s situation”: “Snowden is probably already outside the Russian Federation. He could have flown on a different place. It is unlikely journalists could become witnesses to his flight.”

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Bush hypocrisy Politics

Fox Hypocrite Sean Hannity on NSA – Then and Now

Welcome to hypocrisy 101.

For today’s lesson, we bring you Sean Hannity from Fox News, as he went out of his way to point out how unpatriotic Democrats were for not agreeing with NSA when Bush was in charge. Fast forward to today and we’ll see the same Sean Hannity, going out if his way to point out hiw wrong NSA is now that Obama is in charge.

Only on Fox Fix News would you see hypocrisy at this level.

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edward snowden News

Edward Snowden Fired for Being a Moley Mole

Well, that wasn’t the exact reason given by his former employer Booz Allen Hamilton, when they issued a statement confirming that Edward Snowden – the 29 year old who took responsibility for leaking national secrets to the media and to the world- was fired on Monday. According to the statement, Mr. Snowden was fired for “violations of the firm’s code of ethics and firm policy.”

In other works, Snowden was fired for being a mole.

The company said that Snowden, who had been assigned to a team in Hawaii for less than three months, was earning a salary “at a rate of $122,000.” Snowden claimed he made about $200,000, a figure that could have included overtime pay and other bonuses.

Snowden, a computer technician from Maryland who previously worked for the CIA and the National Security Agency, had been holed up in a sleek hotel in Hong Kong for weeks before checking out on Monday. His whereabouts are unknown.

He and his girlfriend moved out of their rented bungalow in a Honolulu suburb on May 1 after the owner told them he wanted to sell the property, a real estate agent told The Times. Neighbors in the middle-class Waipahu neighborhood said in interviews that the couple had lived there for a few months but kept mostly to themselves.

Snowden told Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which reported many of his leaks, that he had left Hawaii without telling his girlfriend where he was going.

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Politics

Obama Administration Held 22 Meetings with Congress on NSA Program

Obama administration officials held 22 separate briefings or meetings for members of Congress on the law that has been used to justify the National Security Agency’s controversial email monitoring program, according to data provided by a senior administration official.

According to the official, the sessions that took place over the course of 14 months starting in October 2011 touched on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which gives the attorney general and director of national intelligence the authority to gather intelligence on non-U.S. citizens for up to one year. Section 702 has been cited by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as the legal basis for the NSA’s PRISM program, which has allowed the government to track email communication data.

The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed the existence of the PRISM program and another data-monitoring action last week. In defending PRISM from criticism, Clapper stated that U.S. citizens were not, and are not, targeted for the data dragnet. He and others have also insisted that Congress has had ample opportunity to review the program and provide feedback.

To buttress that claim, the senior administration official — discussing the matter only on condition of anonymity — sent over the following list of meetings and briefings that took place.

10/19/11: Meeting with Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Staff
1/10/12: House Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed)
1/11/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed)
3/5/12: Meeting with Nancy Pelosi
3/8/12: Meeting with Harry Reid Staff
3/15/12: Law Briefing for Senate Judiciary Committee staff
3/15/12: Briefing for Senate Leadership Staff
3/21/12: Meeting with Mitch McConnell Staff
3/23/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at NSA
3/27/12: Meeting with Jim Langevin
3/28/12: Meeting with Jan Schakowsky
3/29/12: Thompson Meeting*
3/29/12: Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall Meeting
4/10/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing (in Virginia)
4/20/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at FBI
5/4/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing
5/31/12: House Judiciary Committee FAA Hearing (unclassified)
6/7/12: House Judiciary Committee MEMBER Briefing (classified)
6/11/12: Meeting with Patrick Leahy Staff
6/21/12: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing (classified)
7/18/12: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse/Richard Blumenthal Meeting
12/10/12: Akaka Meeting
* The Washington Post reported the meeting as with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.).

Categories
Domestic Policies News Politics Technology

The High Tech Flower Children Are High

The naivete of the computer geniuses who thought they were extending the ethos of the counterculture by creating an open, honest, democratic society with the Internet is rather stunning. The tech giants were the ones who promoted connectivity, but were never quite as open as they purported when it came to how they were using our data. A look through history should have warned them that any technology from telegraph, the telephone and video started out unregulated and public, but ultimately was taken over by the hucksters, the monetized and, yes, the government. Never forget that the government can open your mail if they suspect a plot, and always remember that the government has opened mail even if they didn’t have a reason. So it is today with computer technology.

And even when the tech people did warn us, we didn’t listen.

“In 1999, Scott McNealy, the chief executive of Sun Microsystems, summed up the valley’s attitude toward personal data in what became a defining comment of the dot-com boom. “You have zero privacy,” he said. “Get over it.”

But the naive attitude continues:

Mr. McNealy is not retracting that comment, not quite; but like Mr. Metcalfe he is more worried about potential government abuse than he used to be. “Should you be afraid if AT&T has your data? Google?” he asked. “They’re private entities. AT&T can’t hurt me. Jerry Brown and Barack Obama can.”

AT&T and Google can’t hurt me? Think again Scott. They can raise my bill with bogus charges or keep track of ads I click on and use that data against me if they want. It’s then up to me to cleanse my own record. The government can go after me too, but they don’t have the financial incentive to do so. Guess which one I’m more afraid of?

The people who brought us the computer revolution were smart, but were perhaps too smart. Their bias was toward maintaining data and recovering information if the system crashes. That’s why you truly cannot erase the footprints you make on your machine or in cyberspace. Now that the Congress has passed laws and the courts have upheld their legality, it should surprise no one that the government is mining the data in the name of national security.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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edward snowden Politics

Edward Snowden – NSA Whistleblower Comes Forward – Video

A 29-year-old man who said he is behind the leaks exposing NSA surveillance on American citizens revealed his identity Sunday in an interview with The Guardian.

Edward Snowden, a former CIA communications expert and current defense contractor living in Hawaii, said that he released the documents to alert the American public about what is being done in their name.

“I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building,” Snowden said to The Guardian.

Snowden told his superiors at Booz Allen and Dell, a firm where he earned $200,000 a year working on a contract with the NSA, that he was seeking treatment for his epilepsy and would need some time off. He then left on a plane bound for Hong Kong.

Snowden set up a meeting with Guardian reporters in his hide out after releasing documents last week on the NSA collecting telephone information from Verizon Wireless customers, and the PRISM program, which allows the government to tap into the servers of major internet companies in the U.S. and UK.

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Bush Dick Cheney Domestic Policies News Politics Technology

And This Is A Surprise, Why?

Yes, I try to be a good liberal every chance that I can, but honestly, I can’t help but think that this NSA surveillance business is a big yawn. We live in an electronic, connected world. We provide information via phone, cable TV, Internet, e-mail, texts, check boxes (especially after we’ve all thoroughly read the 28 page privacy statement that all website provide us with), billing address is same as mailing address online forms when we buy something, credit card information (stored on a third party server), Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Tumblr, picture sharing sites and on and on and on.

Now we learn that the government, in the name of national security and with the acquiescence of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, has gathered this data (I believe that “scooped” is the reigning cool-person way to describe it) and could use it to discover patterns in our behavior. If they wanted to. It’s disturbing, but I cannot share the outrage. I saw it coming, and when I was a corporate technology trainer in the 1990s, I made a point of warning every student who sat in my class that everything they did on a computer, whether on the Internet or in a Word document, was fair game for any eyes that wanted to pry. This is ever more true today. People ignored or minimized this at their peril. And this was before September 11, when the corporations and government had even less of an excuse to watch us.

Okay, perhaps I’m being naive and obtuse and blind and I’m ignoring dangers that other can clearly see, but I don’t think so. Maybe this article is absolutely wrong, but again, I don’t think so.  Yes, I understand that there’s a difference between willingly giving your data and the government mining for it, and I certainly don’t want the government to get used to taking data that citizens have not freely given it, but in a way, we have.

This is also part of our history, and has been going on since the Alien and Sedition Acts. And the 1917 Espionage Act. When we signed on to Truman’s Doctrine of containing Communism, we tacitly agreed that the government could check that we were loyal. Joseph McCarthy went too far and was too reckless. Richard Nixon did similar things, but he was elected VP and president and had J. Edgar Hoover to both support and threaten him. When they went too far, the Congress reined them in. So it will be today.

The problem now is that the threat of attack is too real and the consequences too terrible to let our guard down for even a second. The Chinese and Iranians are conducting cyberattacks that threaten our systems. How would you like the government to respond? By only following the bad people? That’s like asking the police to only shoot or arrest bad guys. Most times it happens, but when it doesn’t we react with a fury that sometimes ignores facts or circumstances. The same is true today. The NSA’s job is to conduct information-gathering and use that data to find patterns of behavior that might lead to terrorism. To say that they should not be gathering all of the data that they can is counterproductive.

That the press has reported this story based on a whistle-blowers actions shows that our system still works. The government will be held accountable. At this point, that’s good enough for me.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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