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Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

guardian.co.uk

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Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#121

Post by Nrsolis »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #39
spodek wrote: post #9

" Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said. " Thoughtful people brave enough to blow whistles seem to be the greatest check on what looks like a secret, unaccountable, illegal centralization of power based on lies from the top of the gov…

I think it's almost certain the guy will have some problems not long in the future. One question that comes to mind is how a supposed intelligence organization allowed someone who subscribes to EFF thinking even come to know about this surveillance. Shouldn't the NSA be doing some kind of screening to make sure the people they hire don't have ideals diametrically opposed to their practices?

Uh, I think you're confusing "ideals" with "lawful behavior".

You can be a supporter of the EFF and believe that the work the NSA is doing is necessary and good for the country. I worked on Lawful Interception systems and I had no problem with their use as long as a COMPETENT COURT was the one regulating it.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#122

Post by cdooh »

I'm not American but from where I sit this guy represents bravery of the highest order and the tenacity(sp?) of the American spirit. I'd be extremely proud to associated with him. He represents what we -the rest of the world- most value about America, freedom of speech, expression and calling out wrong damn the consequences.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#123

Post by khuey »

brown9-2 wrote: post #106
khuey wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's probably not a bad move. China is one of the few countries in the world that would conceivably refuse to extradite him and protect him from retaliation. I think it's telling that Hong Kong is not in any way, shape, or form on the way from Hawaii to Iceland.

Pretty sure the Chinese would want to know everything he does in exchange for that.

Probably!

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#124

Post by cromwellian »

cromwellian wrote: post #86

How could a CIA employee not know the blackmail techniques the CIA uses to recruit agents? All intelligence agencies leverage debt, criminal records, marital infidelity, or closeted gay behavior as leverage to "turn" a foreign agent. This has been documented by numerous ex-CIA employees, like Bob Baer. So his turning point was finding out a Swiss Banker was setup in a bar for a fall, and then offered a way out in exc…

Not sure why people are voting this down. That and the "using pillowcases against eavesdropping" bit in the story are curious given any NSA employee should know about TEMPEST.

I feel there's some embellishment going on about how a guy went from security guard to master computer security dude, yet didn't know about basic signals intelligence techniques and who was also naive about well known techniques that all intelligence agencies use to flip people?

Tell me, whoever voted this down, would you take a job at a spook agency without reading James Bamford or Bob Baer? More than likely, you'd take a job at once of these agencies because you romanticized the descriptions of spying in them.

Agreeing to work for the CIA and NSA as opposed to the FBI pretty much says you're going to work at a "do be evil" organization. That's their whole mission, to do things outside of the law.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#125

Post by hannibal5 »

brown9-2 wrote: post #104
hannibal5 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't do much sensitive stuff without systems administrators knowing the secrets, unless you want to do the actual work by yourself. To have access to all the stuff he has, he must have top-secret classification and he might be be part of few Special access programs (SAP). Having already classification and begin part of relevant SAP's when working in CIA/NSA might make him very valuable for private companies.

If the US government reads IT workers into the SAP programs then we really are doomed. For now I'll stick with Occum's Razor - the guy had no idea what he was looking at and assumed the worst.

Many SAP programs are very technical in nature. For example, technicians working with GPS satellites, nukes or IT infrastructure may need access to compartmented information.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#127

Post by grey-area »

electic wrote: post #40

Neither NBC News or CNN is showing this on their front page. Odd.

And at the time of writing, this is the biggest story on the NYT home page:

Theme Parks Let In the V.I.P.’s http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/business/at-universal-park...

A Story about the price of tickets at theme parks.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#128

Post by waterlesscloud »

joanojr wrote: post #105
tome wrote: post #45

"I sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email" "I had access to the full rosters of everyone working in the NSA, the entire intelligence community and undercover assets all around the world, the locations of every station, we have what their missions are" Wow, is this guy for real? It sounds crazy.

Yeah that part made me shutter, why the hell would he bring that up? Is he trying to bait the US Gov somehow?

It does read like a shot across the bow.

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#129

Post by [deleted] »

mindcrime wrote: post #22
spodek wrote: post #9

" Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said. " Thoughtful people brave enough to blow whistles seem to be the greatest check on what looks like a secret, unaccountable, illegal centralization of power based on lies from the top of the gov…

By the way, I don't know about anybody else, but for the first time I can think of, I'm seriously concerned about the consequences of posting support for somebody like this online. I don't know how things will play out years down the road and who will do what with this information. I don't know about you, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. As far as I'm concerned, Edward Snowden is an American hero and deserves…

[deleted]

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

#130

Post by wellboy »

venomsnake wrote: post #65

Any rumors of legal defense fund for him? I have a feeling he will need it and I am more than willing to donate.

I can very well imagine indiegogo will work and show the will of the people, similar as the NYT Ad for Istanbul
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