Edward Snowden & The N.S.A Revelations

Byrnzie

Now we see Britain and Sweden showing their true colours. We always knew the British government were America's poodle obediently wagging it's tail at every instance, but it's interesting to see Sweden falling into step too. I wonder what Julian Assange will be making of this? And to think that there are still people who believe the charges Sweden brought against Assange are anything but bullshit?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... -nsa-prism


NSA leaks: UK blocks crucial espionage talks between US and Europe

First talks to soothe transatlantic tensions to be restricted to data privacy and Prism programme after Britain and Sweden's veto

Ian Traynor in Vilnius
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 July 2013

Britain has blocked the first crucial talks on intelligence and espionage between European officials and their American counterparts since the NSA surveillance scandal erupted.

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA's Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans....

ajedigecko

is this how ww3 unfolds and are these the initial steps of ww3? the whole world is upset. just a thought.

be safe amigo.

Byrnzie wrote:

Now we see Britain and Sweden showing their true colours. We always knew the British government were America's poodle obediently wagging it's tail at every instance, but it's interesting to see Sweden falling into step too. I wonder what Julian Assange will be making of this? And to think that there are still people who believe the charges Sweden brought against Assange are anything but bullshit?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... -nsa-prism


NSA leaks: UK blocks crucial espionage talks between US and Europe

First talks to soothe transatlantic tensions to be restricted to data privacy and Prism programme after Britain and Sweden's veto

...is this how ww3 will unfold? or is this just the initial steps of ww3? just a thought.

be safe amigo.


Ian Traynor in Vilnius
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 July 2013

Britain has blocked the first crucial talks on intelligence and espionage between European officials and their American counterparts since the NSA surveillance scandal erupted.

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA's Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans....

Guitar92player

He has been offered asylum by Venezuela.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/ame ... ?hpt=hp_t1

dignin

Guitar92player wrote:

He has been offered asylum by Venezuela.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/ame ... ?hpt=hp_t1

Good news, I hope he can make it there.

Guitar92player

dignin wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

He has been offered asylum by Venezuela.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/ame ... ?hpt=hp_t1

Good news, I hope he can make it there.

I hope he doesn't.

Byrnzie

Guitar92player wrote:

dignin wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

He has been offered asylum by Venezuela.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/ame ... ?hpt=hp_t1

Good news, I hope he can make it there.

I hope he doesn't.

Why? Would you prefer that your government get away with operating in total secrecy, and in possible violation of the law? Why would you possibly want that? Do you work for the government?

Guitar92player

Byrnzie wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

dignin wrote:

Good news, I hope he can make it there.

I hope he doesn't.

Why? Would you prefer that your government get away with operating in total secrecy, and in possible violation of the law? Why would you possibly want that? Do you work for the government?

We already discussed my views, Byrnzie. :fp: :roll:

Yes, he informed the public of what the gov't was doing, but he DID give up a defense strategy, regardless if it's a defense against something that rarely happens.

"Possible violation." Everyone here is innocent until proven guilty, which they are not proven guilty yet, so nothing wrong has happened.

dignin

Run Snowden! Run!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... ZpUZ_O_Nz4

mickeyrat

Byrnzie wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

dignin wrote:

Good news, I hope he can make it there.

I hope he doesn't.

Why? Would you prefer that your government get away with operating in total secrecy, and in possible violation of the law? Why would you possibly want that? Do you work for the government?

his going to jail is the sacrifice he makes for this. He was in the wrong for doing something right.

Byrnzie

Guitar92player wrote:

he DID give up a defense strategy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... 25b2ebf321

Edward Snowden: '...let's be clear: I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target. Not only that, when NSA makes a technical mistake during an exploitation operation, critical systems crash. Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting? So we can potentially reveal a potential terrorist with the potential to kill fewer Americans than our own Police? No, the public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the "consent of the governed" is meaningless.'


Do you think James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress under oath, or is it just Edward Snowden that you feel needs to be prosecuted for exposing the lies of the government to the American people and the World?

Byrnzie

This pretty much sums it up. And judging by the recent remarks coming out of Germany and France that indicate they'll continue towing Washingtons line, the article is spot-on.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/07 ... g-roberts/

Has Washington’s Arrogance Undone Its Empire?
Paul Craig Roberts
July 1, 2013



No one likes a bully, and Washington’s NATO puppets have been bullied for six decades. British prime ministers, German chancellors, and French presidents have to salute and say “yes sir.”

They all hate it, but they love Washington’s money; so they prostitute themselves and their countries for Washington’s money. Even a person of Winston Churchill’s stature had to suck up to Washington in order to get his bills and his country’s bills paid.

But what the bought European leaders are finding is that Washington doesn’t pay enough for the prostitution required. One year out of office Tony Blair was worth $35 million dollars. But that’s not enough to get Blair on the waiting list for $50 million 200 foot yachts, to have a chalet in Gstaad, $50 million penthouses in Paris and New York, and a private plane to fly between them, or to wear a $736,000 Franck Muller watch on his wrist, sign his name with a $700,000 Mont Blanc jewel-encrusted pen, and drink $10,000 “martinis on a rock” (gin or vodka poured over a diamond) at New York’s Algonquin Hotel.

In a world in which every member of the Forbes Four Hundred is a billionaire plus or multi-billionaire, $35,000,000 just doesn’t cut it. In 2006 the manager of one hedge fund was paid $1,700,000,000 for one year’s thieving. Another 25 were paid $575,000,000 for their skills in front-running trades. $35 million is probably the annual budget for their household servants.

The British seem content in their role as Washington’s favorite lackey, but France and Germany have not enjoyed that role. France’s last real leader, General de Gaulle, would have nothing to do with it and refused to join NATO. Germany, dismembered with East Germany occupied by the Soviets, had no choice. Germans’ gratitude to President Reagan for their unification resulted in re-unified Germany falling under Washington’s hegemony.

However, if news reports from Berlin are true, Germany has had enough. The catalyst was Edward Snowden’s revelations that Washington spies on everyone including its allies, both Germany and the EU in particular. Moreover, Washington uses Britain as the Trojan Horse within the EU as a backup spy in case NSA misses something.

According to news reports, the German, French, and EU governments are upset to find out that their extreme subservience to Washington has not protected them and their citizens from being spied upon. Here they are, fighting Washington’s wars in far distant Afghanistan, the fate of which is completely unrelated to their own, and what does Washington do but embarrass them by spying on the personal lives of their citizens.

Who does the Merkel government represent, Germans are asking, Germans or the NSA? Why does the Merkel government kowtow to Washington? The next question will be: “what does Washington’s spies have on Merkel?”

With the German government put on the spot by Washington’s betrayal, news headlines are: “Germany Ready to Charge UK and US Intelligence Over Bugging Operations.”

Little wonder Washington and its media whores hate Edward Snowden. “A spokesman for the [German] Federal Prosecutor said the office was preparing to bring charges against” the UK and US intelligence services. In light of the Snowden affair, it will be wonderful if Germany issues arrest warrants and Washington and London refuse to extradite its NSA and UK spy operatives who have violated every law and every trust.

The German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenburger, demanded an “immediate explanation” why Washington was applying to Germany policies “reminiscent of the actions against enemies during the Cold War.”

The president of France has said that France will not again cooperate with Washington on any issue until France receives “full assurances” that Washington will cease spying on France.

The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the EU Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, demand Washington’s answer to Snowden’s revelations that Washington has betrayed its own allies.

The question that must be asked is: do any of these protests from politicians who are almost certain to be on Washington’s payroll mean anything, or are they just make-believe protests to quiet the domestic European populations who have been betrayed by their elected leaders? Why would the French president and the German justice minister think any reassurance from Washington meant anything? When in human memory has Washington told the truth about anything? When has Washington’s reassurance meant anything?

The Tonkin Gulf? Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? Iranian nukes? Assad’s sarin gas attack? FBI orchestrated “terror attacks”? It is a proven fact that the US government lies every time it opens its mouth. Compared to Washington, Stalin, Hitler, Tojo, Mao, Castro, Chavez, and Pol Pot were truthful.

Washington’s reply to Europe’s demands for explanation is: “We will discuss these issues bilaterally with EU member states,” but “we are not going to comment publicly on specific alleged intelligence activities.”

You know what that means. Bilateral means that Washington is going to talk with each EU country separately, using the information NSA has obtained to blackmail each complainant into silence. Whereas the EU together could stand up to Washington, separately the countries can be browbeat and offered more money or threats that illicit love affairs will be revealed to shut them up. Washington is betting on its power to intimidate individual countries with the threat of isolation and being cut off from money. If the EU countries agree to the secret bilateral explanations from Washington, the affair will end and the spying on Europe will continue while Washington and the EU politicians deny that the spying continues.

By now the entire world must know that Washington is not merely lawless, but also totally out of control, reveling in arrogance and hubris, driven by desires for hegemony over the entire world. Washington is so paranoid and distrustful that it doesn’t even trust its own citizens or the European puppet governments that it has bought and paid for.

Washington is the only government that has ever used nuclear weapons, and Washington used them against a defeated government that was trying to surrender. Today the craziness in Washington is much worse. Decision-making councils are full of crazed neoconservative war-mongers, such as National Security Advisor Susan Rice, a threat to humanity. Washington think tanks and media are over-represented by neoconservatives such as William Kristol who wants to know “what good are nuclear weapons if you can’t use them?”

The sleazy European politicians and media who took Washington’s money provided for their own economic security, but they betrayed the security of the entire world. By enabling Washington’s hegemony, they unleashed Washington’s arrogance. This arrogance now threatens not merely the independence of every country but life on earth.

Instead of meeting unilaterally alone with Washington, the European countries should stand together. After all, supposedly there is an EU. If there is an EU, Washington should meet with the EU, not with its constituent parts individually, no one of which can stand up to Washington’s intimidation and bribes...

Byrnzie

Guitar92player wrote:

he DID give up a defense strategy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... obo-spying

'...The vast majority of the GuardianUS's revelations thus far have concerned NSA domestic spying: the bulk collection of telephone records, the PRISM program, Obama's presidential directive that authorizes domestic use of cyber-operations, the Boundless Informant data detailing billions of records collected from US systems, the serial falsehoods publicly voiced by top Obama officials about the NSA's surveillance schemes, and most recently, the bulk collection of email and internet metadata records for Americans. Future stories in the GuardianUS will largely continue to focus on the NSA's domestic spying.

But contrary to what some want to suggest, the privacy rights of Americans aren't the only ones that matter. That the US government - in complete secrecy - is constructing a ubiquitous spying apparatus aimed not only at its own citizens, but all of the world's citizens, has profound consequences. It erodes, if not eliminates, the ability to use the internet with any remnant of privacy or personal security. It vests the US government with boundless power over those to whom it has no accountability. It permits allies of the US - including aggressively oppressive ones - to benefit from indiscriminate spying on their citizens' communications. It radically alters the balance of power between the US and ordinary citizens of the world. And it sends an unmistakable signal to the world that while the US very minimally values the privacy rights of Americans, it assigns zero value to the privacy of everyone else on the planet.

This development - the construction of a worldwide, ubiquitous electronic surveillance apparatus - is self-evidently newsworthy, extreme, and dangerous. It deserves transparency. People around the world have no idea that all of their telephonic and internet communications are being collected, stored and analyzed by a distant government. But that's exactly what is happening, in secrecy and with virtually no accountability. And it is inexorably growing, all in the dark. At the very least, it merits public understanding and debate. That is now possible thanks solely to these disclosures.'

Byrnzie

Guitar92player wrote:

..but he DID give up a defense strategy, regardless if it's a defense against something that rarely happens.

Conversations on the phone or on line between totally innocent people are not a 'defense strategy'. Paying attention to Russia's TWO warning about the elder of the brothers who set up those bombs during the Boston marathon, and subsequently failing to ask for a legitimate court order to check their email (the older brother sent out e-mails asking for info on how to build a bomb) would have been "intelligence".

Instead the NSA was too busy at the time spying on the peaceful Occupy protests.

ajedigecko

Byrnzie wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

..but he DID give up a defense strategy, regardless if it's a defense against something that rarely happens.

Conversations on the phone or on line between totally innocent people are not a 'defense strategy'. Paying attention to Russia's TWO warning about the elder of the brothers who set up those bombs during the Boston marathon, and subsequently failing to ask for a legitimate court order to check their email (the older brother sent out e-mails asking for info on how to build a bomb) would have been "intelligence".

Instead the NSA was too busy at the time spying on the peaceful Occupy protests.

And tea party organizations.

If this level of government disregard of the Constitution does not unify us. I wonder what can?

unsung

Word is he just landed in Venezuela. I hope he is safe.

Byrnzie

unsung wrote:

Word is he just landed in Venezuela. I hope he is safe.

Where did you hear that?

peacefrompaul

Byrnzie wrote:

unsung wrote:

Word is he just landed in Venezuela. I hope he is safe.

Where did you hear that?

I'm seeing various tweets that he has landed, but nothing solid.

peacefrompaul

All I have right now is this...

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/20 ... nfo%2FpAvI

The Al Jazeera news agency is reporting that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has safely landed in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered asylum to the former U.S. intelligence contractor on Friday who was believed to be waiting in transit at a Moscow airport.

Guillermo Thomas who is a spokesman for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela told aljazeera.com that Snowden is currently in the country and that he is thrilled to be there. “We are very blessed to have Mr. Snowden in our country, it is a pleasure,” Thomas said. “There were no direct flights across the Atlantic from Moscow to Venezuela. The only flight for Snowden to avoid U.S. extradition was to travel through Cuba. We would like to thank our friends in Cuba for making this journey possible and such a success.” Thomas continued, “Mr. Snowden is a hero and should be treated as one. We are pleased to provide this hero a home where he can live and be safe.”

Unfortunately, I can't find anything on Al Jazeera English or Arabic.

Maybe we will see something official here in the coming hours.

Byrnzie

Edward Snowden – video interview, Part 2: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2 ... -interview

Byrnzie

Alan Dershowitz is such an unmitigated, greasy little toad:


http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/7 ... operations

I wanted to turn to a moment on CNN’s Piers Morgan last month when Morgan asked Alan Dershowitz, the attorney and Harvard professor, if anything Glenn Greenwald has done as a journalist "borders on criminality." This was Dershowitz’s response.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Well, it doesn’t border on criminality; it’s right in the heartland of criminality. The statute itself does punish the publication of classified material if you know that it’s classified. And so, Greenwald, in my view, clearly has committed a felony. And for him to take umbrage at the question—now, he’s right, though, that the government doesn’t usually go after the publishers. They don’t go after The New York Times, The Washington Post in the Pentagon Papers case, though they could have. They don’t go after other newspapers in the WikiLeaks case, though they could have. They have made a discretionary decision to go after the leaker, but not the publisher. But, look, Greenwald’s a total phony. He is anti-American. He loves tyrannical regimes. And he did this because he hates America. This had nothing to do with publicizing information.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s attorney Alan Dershowitz. Glenn Greenwald, your response?

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, first of all, it’s really quite amusing that somebody who poses as a civil libertarian would go on CNN and say that journalists are committing felonies by reporting on what the government is doing, almost as funny as a journalist like David Gregory, a self-professed journalist like David Gregory, making the same sort of suggestion. And, I mean, look, Alan Dershowitz is one of the country’s most bloodthirsty radicals. He advocated for torture warrants. He supports all forms of Israeli aggression. And if I weren’t being attacked by the Alan Dershowitzes of the world, I’d be genuinely concerned. And all that really is about is some personal resentment over his effort to censor a BDS—Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—event at Brooklyn College, and I defended Brooklyn College’s academic freedom, and we won, and he lost, and he’s still bitter. But, you know, the broader point that he’s trying to make is essentially that if you shine light on what the United States government is doing in the dark, that that somehow makes you anti-American. And, to me, everything about the Constitution is devoted to checking and limiting abuses of power by the United States government. That’s why the freedom of the press is guaranteed in the First Amendment. It’s a pure vindication of what are supposed to be our—the defining American values to do the kind of reporting that we’re doing.