Edward Snowden - The NSA leaker, Fascinating

[Bummer]

It would appear an order of shellfish was delivered by room service...

Edward Snowden gone from Hong Kong hotel, whereabouts unknown

 

[rambone]

Alleged US security officials said NSA leaker, journalist should be 'disappeared'

When asked for his reaction to the alleged comments that reporter Glenn Greenwald and the 29-year-old leaker himself should be "disappeared," Snowden told the newspaper:

"Someone responding 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."

 

[hornadylnl]

Weren't we just begging to disappear Assange?

 

[mrjarrell]

Here's hoping he hasn't been kidnapped by anyone and is free and headed to a safe place.

 

[mulsas]

Surely this guy had this all planned out before going public. This will be really interesting to follow.

 

[rambone]

Hong Kong Baffled by Snowden’s Hideout | Wall Street Journal

The U.S. so far hasn’t issued a request for Mr. Snowden’s extradition. The Justice Department on Sunday said it had started a criminal investigation into the case.

“Hong Kong is the worst place in the world for any person to avoid extradition, with the possible exception of the United Kingdom,” said one lawyer who’s worked on a dozen extradition cases both in the U.K. and Hong Kong, citing a number of murder and drug smuggling cases in which Hong Kong authorities have helped render suspects back to the U.S. While an exception for political cases exists, lawyers said Monday they weren’t aware of any specific instances in which it had been tested.

 

[mrjarrell]

He needs to head to Ecuador or, maybe, Iceland. Somewhere that the US is not a trusted entity.

 

[NSA 308]

I'd like to know how in the hell a 29 year old high school dropout with a GED is making $200,000 working for a major defense contractor as as an infrastructure analyst for the NSA, after having served as a technical officer in the CIA. He also supposedly had access to files on the entire intelligence community and their assets.

Really, who IS this guy?

10 things we know about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden - Need to know, Uncategorized, World - Macleans.ca

 

[HeadlessRoland]

The real question is whether there is enough manpower to even analyze most of what they have gathered. Obama is gutting the Intelligence agencies. Over a million intelligence analysts have been let go. DIA has lost 80% of their manpower. CIA has lost about 30% and NSA about 40%.

Remember that Bill Clinton cut the civil service in half, from 3 million to 1.5 million. Most civil servants only manage. Most of the work is done by contractors. Until Obama started cutting, there were 8.5 million contractors. The excuse is the Sequestor. However Sequestor only requires less than 10% cuts, not 40 to 80%!

HUMINT Operations on the Brink of Extinction Due to Sequester | SOFREP

So, and this is outside the argument of whether the government should have been doing this at all, they do not have the manpower to do what they claim they are doing. Which makes me wonder if this is some form of trick.

If you can effectively use technology to do the job that hundreds of thousands of people used to do, then of course it makes sense to fire hundreds of thousands of superfluous staff.

The only thing that has largely spared us from an Orwellian bureaucracy is the inefficiency of that bureaucracy, and now they're making it more efficient.

 

[Trooper]

If you can effectively use technology to do the job that hundreds of thousands of people used to do, then of course it makes sense to fire hundreds of thousands of superfluous staff.

The only thing that has largely spared us from an Orwellian bureaucracy is the inefficiency of that bureaucracy, and now they're making it more efficient.

Except that technology can not replace analysts. At some point it takes a human to make sense of the data. It is one of the myths (lies) that the left likes to push that humans are no longer needed. That technology can do everything, solve all problems. And what you can not use technology against, then you past laws to restrict. And if laws do not work then talk it to death.

 

[TEK]

The brave men are finally stepping forward. I just wish they would have done it before the election so that we could have true change. This one man may go down in history as the one who changed everything and brought the constitution back. He said s not an whole like Bradley Manning either from the sound of things.


www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

james bamford wrote a big article in wired magazine in march 2012 that laid most of this out clearly enough. it was also part of the debate surrounding patriot act's initial renewal. general hayden testified to congress in 2011 that the NSA was vacuuming up huge amounts of data without warrants because they did not consider a passive dragnet of everything a "search" which is preposterous but went by unchallenged for the most part

why all the bedwetting over this now, I am not sure. I oppose government violations of the bill of rights but i really dont understand why this is considered really new news

 

[TEK]

btw 'systems adminstrator" is a title for a network geek. i dont know anythign about nsa but I have several friends who are network geeks. most of them had their network and systems training outside academe. no doubt there are system admins on this board who are shooters. in fact one of my old shooting buddies was a pricing analyst and gave that crap job up to become a systems analyst. another kinsman was a mech engineer laid off from motor city over a decade ago. another, the sharpest one I know, is a GED dropout too. ... someone else could probably speak to this better than me.

he seems intelligent and probably comes from intelligent stock. acc to wiki his father was a coast guard officer and he grew up in maryland and the opportunities to make connections there is obvious

 

[EnochRoot43]

i really dont understand why this is considered really new news

As someone who has known about Room 641A and ECHELON for years, I am thrilled at a reputable insider has defected and is telling the world the exact same things that I have been called a nutcase for sharing with people.

 

[Kagnew]

Knowing a bit about the NSA's procedures, the whole thing doesn't worry me in the least. The thing which does bother me is the fact that they have had to resort to hiring "contractors" like this slug to do their leg work. There was a time when such field work was the realm of the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group and the Air Force Security Service. Sadly enough, they were all effectively done away with in the mid-70s.

 

[drillsgt]

Knowing a bit about the NSA's procedures, the whole thing doesn't worry me in the least. The thing which does bother me is the fact that they have had to resort to hiring "contractors" like this slug to do their leg work. There was a time when such field work was the realm of the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group and the Air Force Security Service. Sadly enough, they were all effectively done away with in the mid-70s.

The more of these "slugs" the better.

 

[cobber]

Knowing a bit about the NSA's procedures, the whole thing doesn't worry me in the least. The thing which does bother me is the fact that they have had to resort to hiring "contractors" like this slug to do their leg work. There was a time when such field work was the realm of the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group and the Air Force Security Service. Sadly enough, they were all effectively done away with in the mid-70s.

It doesn't worry you that the federal government now has arrogated general warrant powers to the King's soldiers?

Somehow I don't think anyone in the US was doing this kind of "field work" in the 70s. If so, what were US Armed Forces doing spying on American citizens anyway?

Anyone who isn't worried about this has good company in Diane Feinstein and John McCain.

why all the bedwetting over this now, I am not sure. I oppose government violations of the bill of rights but i really dont understand why this is considered really new news

Um, IRS leaking information to private advocacy groups, for instance? Bloomberg and his cyber-wired NYC nanny state? UBS, leading to gun registry, combined with IRS-Obamacare, combined with Prism?

 

[Hoosierkav]

So you would argue to keep Obama in office? Or what is your solution to this?

Not a single bit.

I would argue simply that we need to not look with uncautioned giddiness at the next election. Things seem ripe for a third party candidate to come in and save the day... to give us exactly what we are looking for.

 

[jdmack79]

He donated $500 to Ron Paul's campaign in 2012.

NSA whistleblower donated money to Ron Paul | The Daily Caller

 

[Kagnew]

Somehow I don't think anyone in the US was doing this kind of "field work" in the 70s. If so, what were US Armed Forces doing spying on American citizens anyway?

I didn't say that work was being done only in the 70s.

 

[Trooper]

Knowing a bit about the NSA's procedures, the whole thing doesn't worry me in the least. The thing which does bother me is the fact that they have had to resort to hiring "contractors" like this slug to do their leg work. There was a time when such field work was the realm of the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group and the Air Force Security Service. Sadly enough, they were all effectively done away with in the mid-70s.

After Vietnam, most of the Army's intel assets were disbanded. A lot had to do with the Church commission. LBJ abused the Intel community, using it for political purposes. Especially Counter Intel agents (HUMINT).

Up until the mid '70s, soldiers did everything. After Vietnam much of that work went to civil service who was mostly made up of retired senior NCOs. That was the case until the 1990s when Bill Clinton cut the civil service in half. Then created the contractor program. LOGCAP, which Haliburton operated under (it was the fourth contract under that program during Iraq), did all Logistics such as maintenance, supply, communications and transportation. We used LOGCAP assets during Desert Storm for example.

Now we have about 1.5 million civil servants and 8.5 million contractors. The military is mostly not doing much of the major work. Seen too many soldiers on guard duty while a contractor does their work.