omnibus PRISM/NSA/free Edward Snowden/encryption tutorial thread

Wolves, I actually thought along similar lines, but I didn't want to shake the boat.

Then I thought, well, he did create a dead man's switch, which might be an indication that there is information he doesn't want to necessarily release, but which I think is now out of his hands, in a roundabout way.

So, yes, I agree. To call Snowden a 'doofus' sounds silly, but he might've made a mistake if the above is correct.

But we've not got a clue, as his purpose for all of this might be to ultimately release everything and ruin US relationships with just about every single Latin American country and various important trade partners.

Personally, his decision to go with Russia makes sense to me, even though there are drawbacks/trade-offs.

Wolves, I don't understand your post. Personally, I don't care where he ends up or what he leaks, if that's your issue. I just meant that he's been trying to land asylum in Russia, and Russia said it would only grant him asylum on condition he stop leaking. But if his stuff has been stolen or compromised, then he obviously has no power to stop it from leaking. Which may screw him out of Russian asylum. Hence, doofus, since his sloppiness (maybe) will prevent him from getting what he wants. He's not slow-witted or stupid, but he certainly may have been foolish or, ultimately, inept.

Here's a good one from yesterday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/18/white-house-silent-renewal-nsa-court-order

At Wednesday's hearing, Litt was asked by Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House judiciary committee, if the administration thought if a surveillance program "of this magnitude … could be indefinitely kept secret from the American people?"

"Well," Litt replied, "we tried."

I want to see these people (officials and senators) faces on huge posters with what they did and plan to do with the NSA.

Freeway billboards in California!

"I'm Keith B. Alexander, and I lost 50 pounds with the Lap-Band™! I read your email."

Wolves, I don't understand your post. Personally, I don't care where he ends up or what he leaks, if that's your issue. I just meant that he's been trying to land asylum in Russia, and Russia said it would only grant him asylum on condition he stop leaking. But if his stuff has been stolen or compromised, then he obviously has no power to stop it from leaking. Which may screw him out of Russian asylum. Hence, doofus, since his sloppiness (maybe) will prevent him from getting what he wants. He's not slow-witted or stupid, but he certainly may have been foolish or, ultimately, inept.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, July 19, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My interpretation of the situation is this: now that Snowden has leaked everything, he can happily agree to Russia's orders, since he has nothing else to leak. The question is whether Snowden purposely leaked everything in order to make it public or if he wants some of it unreleased or used kind of like 'blackmail'. Personally, I believe he wants all of it released, so it is just how it will be released, whether it is by someone killing him or a third-party releasing it. I think it's kind of an all-or-nothing thing. The release of information is also being carefully planned, so it is spread out in various intervals, because if everything was released from the get-go, people would forget about it. The way it is being released now, bit by bit in intervals, it's a constant reminder to society of the monster that is the NSA. Also, it serves as a game where the US gov't tries to rationalise, defend, and justify its actions, and then more info is leaked that shows that the US gov't is constantly lying.

I think it is mind game for him and a way to release himself morally, at least partially, from whatever harm the US gov't now may suffer due to his leaks. Russia knows this. Russia still does not play well with the US and if anything atrocious is released about the US, Russia can say Snowden agreed to no longer release info which he had control of henceforth. It is a very sneaky strategy, but it works.

I think he must be aware that the "russians" are just as bad as the "americans and partners" or the "chinese" and the switch is insurance against them all.

this is not about the people, you or me wherever we are, problem is what appear to be national governments, and who they represent. "they" have the same interests against "us". tectonic movements. thanks to this poor man, we know for certain that the structure is already in place, it works. on the other side, notice the ever increasing number of spontaneous mass insurrections from such disparate places? europe, middle east, latin america. it is not coincidence IMHO.

Does anyone really believe that Putin cares if he leaks more information or not? I assumed he just said that to mollify Obama and he'll either give Snowden asylum or not based on whatever practical political calculations are important to him.

Earlier in this thread Josh was busy carrying on regarding how Snowden should have foreseen in advance everything that has happened. I am now waiting to read "Snowden awaits a meeting in Russian airport with ilxor Josh in Chicago. Josh is the world's foremost expert on how and what one should leak and whistleblow, where one should announce that from, and how to seek asylum, and how to secure all the remaining information one has on their person."

Eh, who gives a fuck. I know because I am Snowden. There, I said it. Encrypt this, dorks.

what is the prerequisite to making a determination on what one should leak and whistleblow? surely this is an issue of personal morality

what is the prerequisite to making a determination on what one should leak and whistleblow? surely this is an issue of personal morality

― Mordy , Friday, July 19, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If a reporter, such as Greenwald, is the one publicising the leaks, then I agree with you, it is personal morality or lack thereof.

What's funny is that there's a 'rumour' of the leaks ruining US-Latin America relations. Most Latin Americans know all the fucked up things the US has done to Latin America and how the US treats that part of the world like their backyard.

A bit tangential, but for Latin Americans, there is already proof of the crimes the US has committed. The leaks would only serve to reinforce this and finally out the English-speaking governments crimes in a way that is in no way refutable.

https://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/5/26/1369583426757/Iraqi-children-take-cover-008.jpg

back: US government
front: rest of the world

wolves lacan otfm

could it be any other way

https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/snowden-unplugged/dab0de95e248669103f78ad090b63fc75edad001/

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, July 18, 2013 7:26 PM (2 days ago)

really might have to just subscribe to this thing. thanks again

News from the James Risen front: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/us/in-major-ruling-court-orders-times-reporter-to-testify.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fpolitics%2Findex.jsonp

mega-ughhhh at that

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/politics/math-behind-leak-crackdown-153-cases-4-years-0-indictments.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

on the reasons behind obama's decision to more aggressively prosecute leakers, and where we're at now

“My background is in the Navy, and it is good to hang an admiral once in a while as an example to the others,” said Mr. Blair, who left the administration in 2010. “We were hoping to get somebody and make people realize that there are consequences to this and it needed to stop.”

need to send a foia request to see how many admirals the navy has hung in the last 50 years

Last month, a federal court granted Chevron access to nine years of email metadata—which includes names, time stamps, and detailed location data and login info, but not content—belonging to activists, lawyers, and journalists who criticized the company for drilling in Ecuador and leaving behind a trail of toxic sludge and leaky pipelines. Since 1993, when the litigation began, Chevron has lost multiple appeals and has been ordered to pay plaintiffs from native communities about $19 billion to cover the cost of environmental damage. Chevron alleges that it is the victim of a mass extortion conspiracy, which is why the company is asking Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, which owns Hotmail, to cough up the email data. When Lewis Kaplan, a federal judge in New York, granted the Microsoft subpoena last month, he ruled it didn't violate the First Amendment because Americans weren't among the people targeted.

Now Mother Jones has learned that the targeted accounts do include Americans—a revelation that calls the validity of the subpoena into question.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/chevron-ecuador-american-email-legal-activists-journalists

WTF?

Wow, I had been following that case. Fuckin chevron.

You didn't expect this to happen?

I didn't expect them to get caught so quick!

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/former-cia-chief-snowdens-leak-is-a-little-like-the-boston-bombers/278066/

that fuck

The End of National Security Reporting

The issue is at what point does Islamic fundamentalism flip-over and become a genuine national security threat? Likewise, at what point does a cultural tendency towards transparency flip-over to become a deep threat inside your system?

lol idk the answer to the first question but the answer to the second one is "immediately", asshole

So, er, this was closer than the administration wanted: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/politics/house-defeats-effort-to-rein-in-nsa-data-gathering.html?ref=politics

I don't know - on NPR this morning they were already saying that it was going to be a tight vote and I'm sure the WH is just happy the President won't have to veto it.

I'm sorry he wasn't put in that position

After spending weeks ardently defending the surveillance efforts, the intelligence committee leaders promised reforms when they begin drafting the intelligence authorization act.

oh thank goodness

my congressman voted for it

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml

so Democrats were 111-83 for Amash, i.e. Warren could run against Rodham for president if she wanted to.

Greenwald on how Bachmann, Pelosi, Obama are natural allies on this issue:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/25/democratic-establishment-nsa

U.S. Tells Russia It Won’t Torture or Kill Snowden

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/world/europe/edward-snowden.html?_r=0

I hope I don't have to read about the loophole the US gov't will use around this.

http://rt.com/news/snowden-russia-extradite-us-634/

“Russia has never extradited anyone, and will not extradite,” said Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Syria. This. Now we just need another article reminding us of Russia continuing their petroleum exploration in the Arctic.

Let the Games begin.

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2013/07/29/chomsky-praises-snowden-and-condemns-us-hypocrisy/

If you're interested

There's no cryptography thread and I don't think that link merits an entire thread on it...yet.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130727/02332323967/keith-alexanders-lobbying-calls-to-congress-kicked-off-with-joke-about-how-he-already-had-their-number.shtml

Last week we had a story about how Nancy Pelosi helped kill the Amash Amendment to defund the controversial practice of having the NSA collect tons of info on every phone call made, in part by dragging along a bunch of Democratic representatives. Now, the National Review has some of the story from the other side of the aisle, about how the GOP leadership tried very very hard to keep the amendment from even coming to the floor, trying all sorts of procedural tricks. Eventually, it appears that John Boehner allowed the amendment to be voted on after a brief chat with Amash -- though no one seems exactly sure why. Boehner supports the surveillance program and voted against the amendment (which they note is rare, since he normally abstains from such votes).

However, there is one tidbit in the article that struck me as interesting. We'd already mentioned how Keith Alexander of the NSA went on an emergency lobbying campaign with Congressional reps after learning that the amendment would actually come to a vote, but there's this little tidbit to add some color:

Alexander, the NSA chief, was forced to personally lobby members, calling their cell phones and opening with a joke that, yes, he already had their number.

wow, the NSA headquarters sure is a scary-looking monolith. They couldn't have made it look more like an Orwellian Ministry of Freedom if they tried.
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/reuters/2013-07-24t192830z_1_cbre96n1i4v00_rtroptp_3_usa.grid-6x2.jpg

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

So, it's official. The NSA have every single data from chat conversations, what sites you visit, what you look at, etc., which it said it did not have access to nor did it track. Whoops!

Big Brother has a name. And it's called XKeyscore. Hehe!

hey no ackerman byline, aw

man oh man

wow

yeah, that xkeyscore ppt graphic is atrocious.

the crappy powerpoint is what gives it credibility

welp.

the banality of ppt

that ppt is positively David Reesian