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On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

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Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#151
post #129
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how the two countries antagonistic to the USA that he was supposed to travel between cared about such a formality, isn't it.

The passport control officers care, yes. That's their job. Once it got escalated past them, onto Putin's desk, Snowden wasn't going anywhere. Why would he let a juicy trading chip like that go?

The scandal was watched globally as it unfolded. By the time of his arrival to Sheremetyevo his future FSB minders were getting tired of twiddling their thumbs at the gate.

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#152

The weirdest thing is that Drake had already whistleblown about the program in 2005. It was front page on the NYT and WP. But 8 years later everybody seemed to have completely forgotten that and acted like Snowden was revealing something new.

And 20+ years earlier in Bamford's The Puzzle Palace most the capabilities were laid out, but also forgotten to maybe the previous generation?

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#153
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See [1] (from 1:14:43). The difference was Binney's system (ThinThread) being designed to quickly filter out most data and retain only a relatively small amount of targeted data. The result being the target had to be specified before the data could be collected. The other system (Trailblazer) was designed to capture and retain as much data as possible, and allow targeting to occur against this enormous buffer after t…

This is likely the most telling premise of all Intel collection ever. One should only operate on the premise that this is defacto

[flagged]

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#154
post #98
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of comments you read on reddit are written and/or upvoted by bots. No wonder they are trying to shift the narrative to be more pro-US. Eglin Military base was some time ago biggest source of traffic on Reddit. It’s up to you what you make of that

> Most of comments you read on reddit are written and/or upvoted by bots I don't think that's true yet. At least regarding the portion of comments written; I have no idea about the votes.

There’s an important distinction here. Most of the comments you read. You being the general you. Most people will read a few dozen comments at most. These comments are overwhelmingly written by bots or inauthentic participants in subreddits like r politics. And they’re the most visible because these same groups also upvote them inauthentically

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#155
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if it's in a 'I can't believe they would be doing it, really?' territory (black ops, black sites, torture, drone killings, ...), they make a movie about it, effectively normalizing the action for the audience.

"They"? Is Hollywood now part of Pentagon/NSA/...?

https://worldbeyondwar.org/the-pentagon-and-cia-have-shaped-...

The Pentagon and CIA Have Shaped Thousands of Hollywood Movies into Super Effective Propaganda

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unof...

How Hollywood became the unofficial propaganda arm of the U.S. military

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2022...

New documentary scrutinizes Pentagon-Hollywood relationship — but is it propaganda?

https://www.jstor.org/stable/45129369

The Historical Roots of CIA-Hollywood Propaganda

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/26/top-gun-for-hir...

Top Gun for hire: why Hollywood is the US military’s best wingman

https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-ho...

How a Hollywood star lobbies the EU for more surveillance

The European Union debates a new law that could force platforms to scan all private messages for signs of child abuse. Its most prominent advocate is the actor Ashton Kutcher.

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#156
post #115
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then perhaps the US shouldn't have forced him to stay in Russia?

According to what I am reading on Wikipedia about the specific timeline, the US revoked his passport before he left Hong Kong. He claims he was planning to fly to Ecuador and was just going to pass through Moscow. And yet there are direct flights from Hong Kong to Ecuador. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Flight_from_the... The US government is not responsible for him flying to or staying in Russia.

The US government is responsible for its track record of completely failing to provide constitutional rights as part of its justice system to people in snowdens position, and Snowden has every right to not subject himself to a broken and corrupt system

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#157
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snowden was behaving like a Russian propagandist in late 2021 and early 2022. He was repeating Russian lies that they were totally not going to invade etc.

It is funny how all comments (including mine) pointing out that fact are heavily down-voted without any counterarguments. I know the rules, so I won't insinuate any kind of "shilling", but that really makes you think...

I downvote it because it’s been repeated a dozen times and there’s a lack of intellectual honesty to say that a prediction that Russia wouldn’t invade is the same as spreading Russian propaganda for deliberate and malicious reasons. I can’t be bothered to explain it more than this because any ability to not see this means I’m wasting my time explaining it further

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#158
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree he repeats Russian propaganda and it's sad. It diminishes his previously clear and rational portrayal of what he knew of the NSA. It was clear that Russia lining their tanks up on the border and stress testing the Ukrainian response to an invasion was not going to be a bluff. Why give your enemy the chance at trial run? This was the message from US and UK intelligence and they were right. I understand why he…

How often does the US put military equipment on the borders of countries like Russia and China without invading? All the time

What are you talking about? Can you provide one example of the US doing a buildup on the Russian or Chinese border that was even a quarter the size of the Russian buildup ahead of their full-scale invasion?

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#159
My knowledge of him comes primarily from news articles and the Citizen Four documentary (which I highly recommend) but my perception is that whatever his intentions were I'm amazed at how smartly he did everything. He literally fought the US government and got the best case scenario anyone can practically hope for which is that he's alive and not in Guantanamo.

Re: On the 10th anniversary of the Snowden revelations

#160
post #158
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often does the US put military equipment on the borders of countries like Russia and China without invading? All the time

What are you talking about? Can you provide one example of the US doing a buildup on the Russian or Chinese border that was even a quarter the size of the Russian buildup ahead of their full-scale invasion?

At literally any given time, including right now, the US has a wide combination of aircraft carriers and submarines and other vessels in striking distance and with enough nuclear arms to flatten the entirety of China. It terms of destructive power it’s significantly higher than what Russia has built up
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