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Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

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Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#61
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree on slowing down his writing. think about the federalist papers for a second. Someone needed to wrote them to convince a nation about our beloved constitution. Since all eyes are on Snowden, he has the best ability to sway many minds about what he believes and what I believe to be right.

Shouldn't the interpretation of our Constitution be left to the Supreme Court? I mean, the Constitution explicitly grants the Court those powers.

Do you really trust the supreme court these days? 7 men and women designed to decide the fate of our country?

also, the supreme court has no say in this. Its the fisa court....

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#62
post #41

Edward Snowden makes me proud of my country, and the people that fight for it. But he also makes me ashamed of my Government and the people that hide behind it.

This.

Please no This'ing on HN. Write something or just upvote.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#63
post #52
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To offer an opposing view: I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture. That is a huge claim. I do not imagine that his training involved being tortured to make sure. If he's wrong, there could be dire consequences for the US. You might even say his ego is writing checks his body can't cash.

Such training does not exist anywhere on this planet. Edit: I already mentioned SERE training in a higher level post. It's pretty intense, but still, the most valuable lesson you learn is that everyone will end up talking. I was simply commenting on the possibility of a person resisting torture. If that person has some sort of safety mechanism in place, the torturer might not be able to get the information he wants,…

The training is right here:

1) Write some software that destroys your data if you don't login every x hours.

2) Under duress, stall for x hours.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#64
Everyone's focusing on the fact that Snowden claims he is torture-proof, when in reality he never said that. He said that he "cannot" be tortured into revealing information he is protecting.

For example, Glenn Greenwald may hold a private key which must be used IN CONJUNCTION with Snowden's key to decrypt the information Snowden has. It's possible/probable that Snowden does not have access to the secrets he protects without Greenwald's key, as well as possibly many other keys. He may have a network of people he's made part of the group such that any two of them plus Snowden can decrypt the information, but Snowden himself can't without two keys plus his own, and he could make it such that his key is required in the group of three to decrypt. Hopefully someone else here can provide the name for this kind of encryption (something like n-key encryption, it's escaping me currently) and a link to how it works, but this is all very sound and entirely doable from a math standpoint.

So no, Snowden himself isn't torture proof, but his security is, if he's doing something like what I outlined above. They'd have to go after Glenn Greenwald too, or whoever else is involved, before gaining access to the intel.

Edit: This link[3] might explain it slightly better, but I once read a great primer on the topic, filled with examples and was pretty simple to understand (the layman could grasp at least the concept). I'll add more links as I find more info.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_multi-party_computation

[2] http://www.iacr.org/archive/eurocrypt2001/20450279.pdf

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_cryptosystem

[4] http://www.tcs.hut.fi/Studies/T-79.159/2004/slides/L9.pdf

[5] https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/CS5430/2013sp/L.SecretSha...

(thanks ##crypto for the help!)

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#65
It's always interesting to me that as a new statement from Snowden to the press comes out, most comments on Hacker News take him totally at his word, and assume that his interpretation of events and policy is by far the interpretation most likely to be true. Because I was already past Snowden's current age and current experience level in living in other countries by the time Snowden was born, I see a lot of holes and a lot of callow bravado in much of what he is saying. I hope he is correct that the information that he claims to have extracted from NSA servers cannot be extracted from him against his will, but I don't assume that to be true in the absence of evidence. That's an extraordinary claim, so it requires extraordinary evidence. Some aspects of Snowden's story do NOT look like a thoughtful plan to defend freedom and fair play around the world, but rather a haphazard rash move by Snowden to see what he can get away with. The high degree of cooperation many countries appear to be giving the United States so far in efforts to have Snowden return to the United States for legal proceedings suggests that quite a few experienced national leaders with very different constituencies to represent agree that there is more harm in Snowden being on the loose than in his standing trial to weigh his claims against United States law.

P.S. Remember, I was one of the rather few HN members to go out in public to protest the NSA on Restore the Fourth evening here in the United States. I can be appalled by some of what I read about the NSA without agreeing that Snowden is taking the best approach to doing something about that.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#66
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't the interpretation of our Constitution be left to the Supreme Court? I mean, the Constitution explicitly grants the Court those powers.

Do you really trust the supreme court these days? 7 men and women designed to decide the fate of our country? also, the supreme court has no say in this. Its the fisa court....

If we're not following the rule of law, what laws should we follow? Who should interpret our laws?

The Supreme Court has the power to issue an order called a “writ of mandamus” to deal with lower courts that overstep their legal authority.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#67
post #50
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To offer an opposing view: I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture. That is a huge claim. I do not imagine that his training involved being tortured to make sure. If he's wrong, there could be dire consequences for the US. You might even say his ego is writing checks his body can't cash.

[deleted]

You can make a process where you breaking down and cooperating with the enemy is not enough to reveal the info.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#68
What I find interesting here is that a former Senator is commending a dissident from the United States and wishing him good luck in evading the government and seeking asylum from the US.

Lots of respect for Senator Gordon Humphrey for speaking out with what will be a very unpopular opinion in Washington. I'd like to hear the same from UK politicians past or present on Tempora, but have heard nothing of consequence from any of them.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#69
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree on slowing down his writing. think about the federalist papers for a second. Someone needed to wrote them to convince a nation about our beloved constitution. Since all eyes are on Snowden, he has the best ability to sway many minds about what he believes and what I believe to be right.

Shouldn't the interpretation of our Constitution be left to the Supreme Court? I mean, the Constitution explicitly grants the Court those powers.

For legal purposes, sure, but if the people disagree with the court's decision there are ways to change things. We could amend the constitution, we could throw it out and write a new one, we could change the makeup of the court, etc. Legally the ultimate authority on the interpretation of the constitution rests with the Supreme Court, but the citizens of this nation are free to express what they want out of the constitution.

We are allowed to disagree with the court, we are allowed to voice our disapproval, and we are allowed to try to rally others to our cause. The Supreme Court is not some kind of heavenly authority, they are just as capable as making the wrong decision as any other branch of government.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#70
post #47
post #3

"Further, no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China). You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that info…

>You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture. I have several close friends and family members who have been to SERE(Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) School. One of the first things you learn, is that EVERYBODY talks when they are being tortured. Forget all of the nonsense you see in movies and television shows. If Putin wants to know what Edward Snowden knows, he w…

You can not reveal what you do not know.
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