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Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

theguardian.com

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Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#31

Post by denova »

I completely understand all the criticism toward this piece, and I don't think I would ever publish anything like this without at least some hard evidence, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he were completely right about his assumptions. Thinking skeptically about everything is a good habit, but sometimes the consequence of thinking like an intelligent reasonable person is that you forget how bafflingly stupid the world can really be.

Are all of the author's suspicions totally unfounded? Yeah, probably, because he has no good evidence to back them up. Do they lead to a narrative that is completely unreasonable and absurd? Absolutely. But it's also possible that the people who are spying on him are behaving in a way that is completely unreasonable and absurd, and are just competent enough to cover their tracks so a layperson won't have any evidence on them.

I don't have a ton of confidence in what I'm saying right now, but uh... I just don't blame him too much, is all. I definitely wouldn't dismiss him as a bad journalist or anything.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#32

Post by egypturnash »

poopsintub wrote: post #9
thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. Keyboards don't beep. 2. There are lots of more reasonable explanations for text getting deleted than "state agency wanted to play a juvenile prank on me and be glaringly obvious about it". A stuck key, an intermittent short across some of the leads caused by the coffee he spilled all over his keyboard (conjecture on my…

Windows beeps when you're pressing keys at the same time or just holding them down. I don't know the exact situations but I remember a "hot keys" notification popping up. Let's consider the article is true and words were being deleted as he wrote them. How ridiculous is that? A. disconnect from the internet. B. The whole manuscript could be deleted with a few keystrokes if wanted. Why would someone sit there and dele…

So here is something I found by typing 'internet keyboard spy hardware' into google: http://www.spyemporium.com/key-stroke-logger-keygrabber-spy-... - it's a tiny little usb gizmo that intercepts keyboard input and barfs it to wifi via its own radio. This one dumps a huge log when its controller asks for it; it's not hard to imagine there might be similar devices that might do a constant broadcast of keystrokes, and insert keystrokes as well.

If we accept the thesis that he is being watched by Someone, then it's definitely not a stretch to imagine that something like this has been installed in his computer(s). I mean, he left his laptop in a hotel safe that didn't lock all day long, while he felt like he was being stalked. And left it there all the next day while hanging out with someone he suspected was a spy. What got put on it, in terms of hardware or software?

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#34

Post by suprgeek »

Is it now a sign of times that where previously most ppl (including me) would have dismissed this piece as

1) Does not understand technology so is committing some basic error leading to this

2) Making this sh$t up

3) Has a prankster who is close by.

Instead now I am almost betting that it was the NSA/GCHQ/Five Eyes/CIA who is behind these shenanigans?

Thank you Edward Snowden (for the hundredth time) for giving us hard evidence of the illegal and ineffective behavior on the Govt's part. You have also (unfortunately) fundamentally raised the bar on tin-foil hat debunking.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#35

Post by thaumaturgy »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #21
thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. Keyboards don't beep. 2. There are lots of more reasonable explanations for text getting deleted than "state agency wanted to play a juvenile prank on me and be glaringly obvious about it". A stuck key, an intermittent short across some of the leads caused by the coffee he spilled all over his keyboard (conjecture on my…

>This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. The guy doesn't seem like a computer expert. Don't dismiss his speculation merely because he's unable to explain what he observed as an engineer or programmer would. 2. There are always lots of more reasonable explanations for any suspicious activity than spying. This will be true for almost every case of actual spying…

His lack of technical expertise is a very good reason to doubt his conclusions.

We've consulted on a few local cases of suspected computer sabotage. (Hurray for small-town politics.) In only one did we find actual evidence of wrong-doing; in every single other one, the case was an otherwise reasonable person whose suspicions were being fueled by a knowledge of I.T. based only on what they've seen on TV, in the movies, or read in magazines.

What Snowden did was remarkable specifically because it involved a huge pile of evidence. Conspiracy theorists are quick to point to this and say, "see, see, we've been right all along, and we're still right", but they don't understand that being right without any evidence is useless.

So articles like this one pollute the discussion that we all get to have thanks to Snowden's and Greenwald's efforts. Articles like this one erode their achievements.

This journalist doesn't seem to have consulted even one technical expert; he doesn't seem to have inspected the safe to gather any evidence whatsoever that it was tampered with; he doesn't seem to have taken a picture of a supposed spy who was assigned to take him around a city. In short, this journalist is not in any way contributing to the discussion that we get to have over the state's surveillance capabilities.

He's written a book about Snowden. He should know better.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#37

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

yrochat wrote: post #25
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. The guy doesn't seem like a computer expert. Don't dismiss his speculation merely because he's unable to explain what he observed as an engineer or programmer would. 2. There are always lots of more reasonable explanations for any suspicious activity than spying. This will be true for almost every case of actual spying…

Looks like someone deleted number 3.

I prefer to count in powers of two, at least up to five.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#39

Post by oceanstone »

vinceguidry wrote: post #28
oceanstone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this were an operation, it'd be more likely to be GCHQ. Keep in mind, GCHQ sent the NSA the Yahoo webcam photos, for use in XKEYSCORE. The two are close allies. The CIA on the other hand, competes with the NSA for resources and jurisdiction. Right now the NSA's budget dwarfs that of the CIA, since data collection and SIGINT have been prioritized over HUMINT. Technology advances and cost reductions might have encou…

Except that the CIA does have an office in Rio, whose station chief is known for these kinds of tactics, as is written in the article. I think also you're overstating how much the CIA might be competing with the NSA. Sure, at the highest levels, this might be true, but in the trenches, operatives share everything. I doubt anyone in the CIA truly resents the NSA and they'd happily help each other out like this.

He experienced the deletions after returning to his home, in the UK.

I certainly might be. It's interesting to consider though.

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