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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

#41

Post by tomjen3 »

yoster wrote: post #17

This guy did a very brave thing for us. Hopefully, nothing bad happens to him and his decision to not be anonymous is fucking insane...

I don't think it is as insane as you might think. He is guessing that the government would figure out who it was that leaked the information and then they would come after him.

The original law was on incredibly shaky ground however and the goverment isn't likely to want this issue to end up in court ever, so they would have to either terminate him (the nine-milimeter kind of termination) or prosecute him for child porn or something like that, or disappear him. Right now his name is published everywhere so they can't really do any of these things.

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

#42

Post by bcn »

Q: Washington-based foreign affairs analyst Steve Clemons said he overheard at the capital's Dulles airport four men discussing an intelligence conference they had just attended. Speaking about the leaks, one of them said, according to Clemons, that both the reporter and leaker should be "disappeared". How do you feel about that?

In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit — Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) June 8, 2013

A: "Someone responded to the story said 'real spies do not speak like that'. Well, I am a spy and that is how they talk. Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process – they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general."

-From the written Q & A, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblowe...

The tweet by Steve Clemons- https://twitter.com/SCClemons/status/343392529913356289

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

#43

Post by Create »

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…

Whenever Amira Hass tries to explain her vocation as a journalist, she recalls a seminal moment in her mother's life. Hannah Hass was being marched from a cattle train to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen on a summer's day in 1944. "She and the other women had been 10 days in the train from Yugoslavia. They were sick and some were dying. Then my mother saw these German women looking at the prisoners, just looking. This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable 'looking from the side'. It's as if I was there and saw it myself." Amira Hass stares at you through wire-framed glasses as she speaks, anxious to make sure you have understood the importance of the Jewish Holocaust in her life.

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

#44

Post by tomjen3 »

selamattidur wrote: post #6

Hong Kong as his safe harbor from the U.S. government. I wonder what Kim Dotcom would say about that.

There is a difference. China isn't too interested in a trade war over copyright infringement, but it is also an up-and comming world power, so they might decide that the propaganda win is big enough that they are going to keep him.

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

#45

Post by tome »

"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.

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

#47

Post by brown9-2 »

lawdawg wrote: post #24

Bravo Edward, and yet very little is said about PRISM at all. When will we finally get to the bottom of what PRISM actually is? When will the public get access to the entire set of slides? How much exactly did Edward know about PRISM, or did he just stumble onto these slides and assume the worst? So many questions, so few answers. Hopefully the coming weeks sheds more light onto this.

A lot of info is out there if you can sift through the breathless hyperbole: http://m.theweek.com/article.php?id=245360

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

#48

Post by pmorici »

schiang wrote: post #33

If the US govt decides to prosecute Edward Snowden, doesn't that basically confirm every single accusation is true? So far there's been a lot of denials from all parties involved. The govt is in a tough position.

No, they would likely be prosecuting him for taking the documents that he gave to the reporters. I don't see how that would confirm the media's interpretation of those documents some of which appear to be slide decks absent the context of the verbal presentation that probably went with them. From this article it doesn't sound like he thinks anything legally improper is currently going on. His point seems to be that if someone decided to change the law tomorrow and do away with our rights then the technology is in place to implement that very quickly.

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

#50

Post by mortehu »

lawdawg wrote: post #24

Bravo Edward, and yet very little is said about PRISM at all. When will we finally get to the bottom of what PRISM actually is? When will the public get access to the entire set of slides? How much exactly did Edward know about PRISM, or did he just stumble onto these slides and assume the worst? So many questions, so few answers. Hopefully the coming weeks sheds more light onto this.

> When will we finally get to the bottom of what PRISM actually is?

Is there any particular reason why you don't believe the fact sheet from the Director of National Intelligence[1] or Marc Ambinder[2]?

According to these sources (selected excerpts):

> PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program.

> PRISM is a kick-ass GUI that allows an analyst to look at, collate, monitor, and cross-check different data types provided to the NSA from internet companies located inside the United States.

> All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.

1. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8dPmI7DfkxMejNyazZYMl93dlk/...

2. http://theweek.com/article/index/245360/solving-the-mystery-...

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