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Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

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Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#281
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wifi dongle in particular supports packet injection, and supports aircrack-ng for penetration testing.

Indeed and cheap enough to throw away after each project for improved opsec.

Why would you care about opsec for consensual "penetration testing"?

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assange is an attention whore. I had such high hopes for wikileaks but it was, in the end, a vehicle for him to promote himself.

You think Assange put himself at as much risk as he did to promote himself? He spent 7 years locked in an embassy (to great detriment to his health and was arguably worse then jail), is now in jail, and is facing at least life in prison, if not the death penalty. You really think he did all that just to promote himself and for some attention?

It's not like we think everything through when we set out on a journey. He probably went in with good intentions but was blinded by the lights of fame.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#283
post #261
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your words do nothing to counter the argument of the comment you were replying to. The fact that the vast majority of the documents leaked were completely unrelated to domestic surveillance is as strong an indicator as we can get that he was specifically trying to damage the NSA, and any claims otherwise are PR.

drone strikes on people based on heuristics over metadata was the kind of logic that was operating at the highest levels of the intelligence apperatus, and not even congresspeople assigned to intel committees were aware of it. people should know about the kind of insane stupidity that they get up to overseas that make the country less safe. or what, do you really think that that kind of stuff is what's keeping the te…

This is a strawman, and isn't relevant to my argument at all. GP of my original comment never made the claim that the NSA/US weren't doing bad stuff (outside of domestic surveillance), only that Snowden was trying to damage them.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say exactly this. It's amazing how many Americans honestly think it's clear that Snowden is a "bad guy" because he's close to the Russians. Likewise Assange was pushed into a position that made him very unlikable to the US center-left (he could have probably played his hand a bit better). So mainstream American's are distrustful of both and pretty much everyone hates Assange.

I love that Trump's DoJ hounding Assange into British custody and unsealing a huge indictment against him has done nothing to shake many Democrats' faith that Assange is some kind of Trump/Putin stooge.

[deleted]

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#285
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The threat isn't corporations In a thread about surveillance, why are you drawing a dichotomy between different surveillers and basically giving one a pass? They're both prongs of the same threat! On the collection side, every bit vacuumed up commercially is available for use by the government. And on the use side, there is little difference between a government proper and corporations that have achieved enough pow…

Corporate surveillance is only a problem because it will sooner or later feed in to government surveillance. If I could wave a wand and stop that happening I'd be fine with corporate surveillance; I'm annoyed but not threatened by the idea that someone will study my every movement trying to sell me things I want. I'm threatened if the extremely arbitrary government decides that I'm an undesirable for some reason. > c…

> ... trying to sell me things I want.

"want". Do you actually desire them, or were you persuaded/tricked into it? :)

Also do not underestimate the influence of corporations:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst#Spanis...

* https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kochland-examin...

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about you answer some of your own questions.

1) I don’t have a clean link to the book 2) Yes Russian speaking folks are in our IC, military, private sector etc. and are certain to have been in his orbit 3) someone could ask mr Omidyar Given his connections to Booz and his level of intelligence (punahou grad along with Obama etc) He could be a total patriot at heart and it would be difficult to know the difference. Shit, maybe Pierre is a triple agent, a regular…

So, all speculation? I mean based on what he has released he's an american patriot. I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.

Of course the US govt will try smear him and cover up after he exposed their actions.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#287

I can't speak for the US but this man has shifted so much of the political debate in my country and I think also in the EU in general. If you talked about the massive surveillance from governments people tossed you aside as a paranoid lunatic. After Snowden no one could ignore you anymore and privacy is an aspect in any public debate.

Much discussion on this topic relies on popular sentiment and media reporting. The redacted and declassified Congressional report should be considered a primary source and contradicts many common beliefs about Mr. Snowden: https://www.congress.gov/114/crpt/hrpt891/CRPT-114hrpt891.pd... The Executive Summary provides a good overview. In contrast to the Amazon book page that claims he helped "build" the system, it appe…

It's really hard to take that report seriously. It basically reads as FUD against snowden. This is what CIA and NSA agents are trained to do professionally.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#288

I can't speak for the US but this man has shifted so much of the political debate in my country and I think also in the EU in general. If you talked about the massive surveillance from governments people tossed you aside as a paranoid lunatic. After Snowden no one could ignore you anymore and privacy is an aspect in any public debate.

Much discussion on this topic relies on popular sentiment and media reporting. The redacted and declassified Congressional report should be considered a primary source and contradicts many common beliefs about Mr. Snowden: https://www.congress.gov/114/crpt/hrpt891/CRPT-114hrpt891.pd... The Executive Summary provides a good overview. In contrast to the Amazon book page that claims he helped "build" the system, it appe…

Why would any non US citizen care about what the Congress has to say about it ? They don't care about any of us in the slightest.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#289
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the contrary, I think the fact that you think both Snowden and Assange are Russian agents demonstrates that the administrations response was actually quite effective.

I was going to say exactly this. It's amazing how many Americans honestly think it's clear that Snowden is a "bad guy" because he's close to the Russians. Likewise Assange was pushed into a position that made him very unlikable to the US center-left (he could have probably played his hand a bit better). So mainstream American's are distrustful of both and pretty much everyone hates Assange.

Clapper and Brennan (the ones who were in charge and bungled the Snowden and Assange cases) being hired on by major networks as pundits is apparently enough to shift the narrative.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#290
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The threat isn't corporations In a thread about surveillance, why are you drawing a dichotomy between different surveillers and basically giving one a pass? They're both prongs of the same threat! On the collection side, every bit vacuumed up commercially is available for use by the government. And on the use side, there is little difference between a government proper and corporations that have achieved enough pow…

Corporate surveillance is only a problem because it will sooner or later feed in to government surveillance. If I could wave a wand and stop that happening I'd be fine with corporate surveillance; I'm annoyed but not threatened by the idea that someone will study my every movement trying to sell me things I want. I'm threatened if the extremely arbitrary government decides that I'm an undesirable for some reason. > c…

In the same vein, corporate surveillers are roughly bound by law; government surveillers... aren't.

For example, EU corporations are required by GDPR to comply with deletion requests, unless they are asked to retain the data by a government.

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