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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

#211

Post by brown9-2 »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #107
brown9-2 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also ostensibly the people on the bottom are the easiest to recruit: disaffected, least paid (at least before 200k/yr salaries), perhaps uncommitted to mission or easy to mislead. I don't understand why a low level IT person needs so much access though beyond a need to fix systems - there's no audit control on who is accessing these systems?

200k/yr isn't that high for an IT person with a serious classification. A decent TS/SCI sys admin can be make +300k working for companies that want secret government contracts. It does make them more difficult to bribe though. There was no real access and audit control with Bradley Manning, just unprotected SAMBA shares that contained sensitive data but not Secret data. Top Secret systems do tend to have an audit tra…

300k? Is the clearance that hard to get? Or is it just a sign of how flush the contractors are?

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

#212

Post by tome »

khuey wrote: post #204
tome wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how could a 29-year-old sysadmin have access to all this. Isn't it crazy? It sounds crazy to me.

Who's going to have root access to the machines but the sysadmins?

Yeah I know ... for some reason I thought the NSA machines would somehow be ... more special than that, somehow.

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

#214

Post by [deleted] »

vbo wrote: post #196
mortehu wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can see, this debacle is entirely the fault of one journalist at The Washington Post, and the people who believed his interpretation of some aspects of some PowerPoint slides. A lot of hot air was also generated by people who had forgotten about interception facilities like Room 641A, and thought it was news.

Previous instances of abuse don't legitimise abuse.

[deleted]

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

#215

Post by cubancigar11 »

saalweachter wrote: post #182
[deleted] wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

As Harry Potter in _Methods of Rationality_ observed, non-violent resistance only worked against the British because (at the time; not to say the British haven't had some bloody years) the had no stomach for butchering helpless men. Against the Nazis, however, it would be useless, because their capacity for violence was much higher. So the question you have to ask yourself, before non-violently resisting, is whether…

You do realize that it is not true, right? That British had plenty of appetite for violence. Where do people get this idea that British were compassionate to Indian cause?

Just look for the hero Churchill's view of Indians on the web.

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

#216

Post by jlgreco »

rhizome wrote: post #198
saalweachter wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Harry Potter in _Methods of Rationality_ observed, non-violent resistance only worked against the British because (at the time; not to say the British haven't had some bloody years) the had no stomach for butchering helpless men. Against the Nazis, however, it would be useless, because their capacity for violence was much higher. So the question you have to ask yourself, before non-violently resisting, is whether…

The fact that countering protest strategies (as distinguished from philosophies) are absorbed by the state and its authorities is the reason why marching in the streets and White House petitions and any other marginally (or not) effective approaches no longer work. Though the repercussions remain to be seen, this week we find that leaking is possibly the most effective form of protest available today, and certainly m…

The question that I guess I have is how effective is outing yourself after you have performed the leak?

If the leaker had any chance of remaining secret, then I think I would say that the leaker should choose to remain secret, and in doing so live to fight another day. On the other hand, if the leaker suspects that they will be uncovered regardless, it is probably best to choose the circumstances of your unveiling.

They aren't leakers or really protestors, but it is for the best that the Dread Pirate Roberts remain anonymous. If they had to go public though, it would be better for the headline to be on CNN: "Silk Road Founder [Whoever] Says/Does [Whatever]" rather than, on local news: "Local drug kingpin arrested today. Then later: How little Timmy rescued a kitten."

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

#218

Post by RivieraKid »

pdknsk wrote: post #23

How likely is it he really is in HK, and not in some remote village in Thailand? I'd prefer the latter, but tell the former. If he actually is in HK, China might even offer him asylum and twist this in a huge propaganda victory.

If I was him, I'd move to Iceland.

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

#219

Post by codeulike »

cromwellian wrote: post #81

Seriously, Edward Snowden, China was your first choice to hide from the NSA? Holy shit that was a bad choice for many reasons. I can't think of a worse place to go, other than Russia or Iran with respect to the intense desire of those nations to extract as many secrets about NSA capabilities as possible. These are the most secret of the secret capabilities of US intelligence. He even boasted that he knows many more s…

I doubt he is really where he claims to be

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

#220

Post by danso »

I hope this revelation continues to bring more clarity/transparency to what PRISM (and the other revealed programs) and the role of U.S. communication companies...But I have to say, it's admirable when a whistleblower puts not only actions, but their name and life behind their convictions.
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