Nsa Contractor Identifies Himself As Source

[Publicus]

Trapped In Moscow Airport Transit Zone: An Orwellian Adventure

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/moscow-transit-zone_n_3518384.html?utm_hp_ref=travel

From the article:

The woman at the transit desk raises an eyebrow and stares at my flight itinerary, which includes a 21-hour layover in Moscow before a connection to Ukraine. "Why would ANYONE stay here in transit for so long? There are so many earlier connections you could have taken. This is strange behavior."

After a nearly two-hour wait inside the terminal, a bus picks me up – only me – from the transit area. We drive slowly across the tarmac, through a barrier, past electronic gates covered in barbed wire and security cameras.

Also, speaking of Edward Snowden,

How Edward Snowden Is Helping Obama: The NSA leaker's travels through China, Russia and beyond tilt public perception in the president's favor.

http://www.theroot.com/views/how-edward-snowden-helping-Obama

From the article:

You can't blame Snowden for leaving town, but you don't have to think that he's a traitor (I don't) to still be put off by the fact that he chose (China-controlled) Hong Kong and Russia -- our erstwhile "frenemies" -- as the first stops on his escape route, rather than heading straight to Ecuador, where he's seeking asylum now. It's a sequence that makes it look as if his agenda included more than just starting an earnest civil liberties debate.

And when it comes to that debate, Snowden looks a little less like a freedom fighter and a little more like a dilettante now that it's been reported that just a few years ago, he was denouncing anyone who leaked classified information -- saying that anyone who did the same thing he's doing now should be "shot in the balls."

[F430murci]

PRISM is just one arm of the giant data collection octopus:

http://reflets.info/prism-lets-have-a-look-at-the-big-picture/

Does anyone really need for Facebook to know exactly where you anytime you post. I stopped using Facebook for these and other reasons. Why is it okay for Facebook to monitor every aspect of your life such as websites visited, search history, likes, dislikes, friends, where you are at and etc., but bad for government to do when they are charged with national security.

Such a question ... Mercy me !!! Because Facebook is a Private Enterprise - one that I can choose to be a member of or not.

I have a government of MY Country spying on me. Done in my opinion - illegally - done even in excess of the far too generous laws that allow it... done on a wholesale basis and done with disregard of the rights of American Citizens...

For some reason, you chose or just want to be angry at government or perhaps Obama, but the picture is much bigger and private companies at one time had less rights to snoop on us than government. NOT any more. Make them immune to liability and they will do more stuff like this in the name of collecting it for government.

You're taking the discussion off topic ... but obviously you have no concept of a person exercising an option of voluntarily joining a private club - big as it is - called Facebook - knowing and accepting their policies by agreement versus being a citizen of a country that is supposed to be restricted by rules in the Constitution from invading the privacy of citizens. Please go open a new topic thread on this subject if you wish to gain such an understanding. I'm going to get back to the subject - Snowden and his revelations about the NSA.

Cool. The awesome thing about US is a person's right to exercise being ignorant, angry about government and spout of half truth rhetoric that misses the point. In China, it will get you shot. In Russia, it will get you imprisoned. God bless America and I mean this without any sarcasm. You guys win. Your too exhausting.

[Loptr]

Europe is furious. After it calms down, action will follow

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-officials-furious-at-nsa-spying-in-brussels-and-germany-a-908614.html

Wonder why the UN has not said a word yet.

Germany, and the world, demands answers.

What they will get is a standard response from the US govt that they will look into to it. What they will really do is try and get their hands on Snowden to find out exactly what he has. They will then tell the world exactly what Snowden has told the world. Nothing more.

They won't dare say what they have done at this time because if they lie about it they can be caught out by what Snowden has and the shitteth will hit the faneth in a lot more ways.

The US won't dare say what has been happening......yet.

Isn't it a nice way to treat allies, spy on their govt. There I was thinking it was all in the name of preventing terrorism. So much for trusting their allies.

We all, who can read between the lines, know that there're interesting communications about 911 in the files. Guess it will be revealed to destroy any doubts for what it really was.

Not to get too far off topic, but anyone that has taken the time to pull back the layers on the 911 attacks knows that the facts are much different that what was spoon fed to the public. Yet they insult our intelligence with the 911 Commission report, much the same way they covered up the JFK assassination. The government's position is that we are all sheep and should just accept whatever they tell us. They hold the power because we gave it to them. Sad state of affairs.

[Scott]

Topic is closed for cleanup.

And suspensions.

Re-opened.

[Credo]

I would guess that Snowden is releasing information through Wikileaks. His 4 computers couldn't contain the amount of information he seems to say he has.

[Baloo22]

So, Snowden is reportedly now asking Russia for "asylum". Perhaps we will get a chance to really see how well Barrack and Hillary's "Reset Button" has worked out!

[mania]

I would guess that Snowden is releasing information through Wikileaks. His 4 computers couldn't contain the amount of information he seems to say he has.

Not so sure about that.

Even a cheap laptop carried 300GB these days as their main drive

That is a ton of space when one considers not long ago full desktops came with

a 4 GB hard drive

Add a couple of these in his pocket & the storage is massive

http://blog.laptopmag.com/kingston-announces-worlds-largest-usb-3-0-thumb-drive

Edited July 2, 2013 by mania

[Ulysses G.]

So, Snowden is reportedly now asking Russia for "asylum". Perhaps we will get a chance to really see how well Barrack and Hillary's "Reset Button" has worked out!

Now that Putin has already drained Snoden's computers, he may be open to some sort of an "arrangement" with Obama.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Ulysses G.

[NeverSure]

Many laptops have a multibay which will take a second HDD. There are 1 TB HDD's available for laptops. So 4 laptops could have 8 TB of storage not counting any USB drives on hand. I'd say that's enough to do some damage.

Remember, this guy is a computer geek.

[Credo]

I am quite surprised that the NSA would let people bring computers into the facility. It sounds like they need to do some serious beefing up of security.

Not good for a security facility to have bad security.

[mania]

I am quite surprised that the NSA would let people bring computers into the facility. It sounds like they need to do some serious beefing up of security.

Not good for a security facility to have bad security.

It has been written in reports he took the info out on thumb drives

[Ulysses G.]

Didn't he use a flash stick at work and move the information to his computer at home?

Edited July 2, 2013 by Ulysses G.

[mania]

Didn't he use a flash stick at work and move the information to his computer at home?

Yes he used thumb drives

While I do not agree with what the NSA does ( if these reports are all true )

I do understand that network specialists are usually allowed thumb drive.

Reason being that in large systems administrators & specialist use thumb drives

for various tasks both on & off site as required.

That is where is it gets complicated. If the NSA will conduct such acts they will now need

people intelligent enough to screen all drives coming & going. BUT there will always be a need

for admins to have access. When wrong is perceived to exceed justifiable right there will always be

folks like Snowden who will stop, turn & say Enough.

It is IMHO what defines America

Edited July 2, 2013 by mania

[JDGRUEN]

As a former bank IT team member, high security networks have software agents to prevent reading from or writing to flash drives or storage devices not integral to the computer. This can be overridden if one is knowledgeable and cleaver - but the over riding process would normal set off an alert... But a super geek might even be able to get around that...

[Publicus]

Edward Snowden: The Real Jason Bourne?

http://thediplomat.com/asia-life/2013/07/edward-snowden-the-real-jason-bourne/

Hollywood has approached Australian born actor Liam Hemsworth to play Snowden.

A Hong Kong moviemaker has already produced this epic now showing on U-Tube, all five minutes of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWVGDBeR42I

There's money to be made here.

[Sing_Sling]

Look forward to watching it

[Publicus]

Secretly. Nope. Just some had their head in the sand for many years. Government has been collecting data from Internet companies for years. Nothing secret about it.

4th is applicable to companies like Facebook working in conjunction with government. I don't like anyone invading my privacy. The government, however, would have no interest in me, but companies like Facebook actually would from an economic perspective and they are collecting some serious data on us.

Facebook's goal is to collect data on every aspect of everything you do, purchase, look at and etc. on the web. I cannot imagine why this would not offend people so concerned about their privacy unless privacy is not the REAL issue.

Of course it offends.

But as you say, you know it does that so it is your choice if you join. FB would not use that info against you if you said anything bad about the govt. It is the govt that wants those records so they CAN use it against you. Not for marketing purposes.

There is a difference.

I know Publicus is only defending this program because he is infatuated with puppy love for Obama and can see no wrong in anything he does.

Why do YOU defend this.....do you really think there is a terrorist plot being hatched by the members of the parliament in Germany?

Edward Snowden Blows It

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/06/20/edward-snowden-blows-it/

You misrepresent me.

I don't know why you misrepresent me, my motives, my intentions, my own purposes, but you do misrepresent me.

You oversimplify. You try to present me as thinking only in absolute terms, black or white.

You attempt to degrade my intellect, age and character with this term "puppy love." You try to make me to be a sycophant of a politician, Prez Obama.

Do you intend to try to be offensive, degrading, impudent? Regardless, that's what you are being.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Publicus

[geriatrickid]

So, Snowden is reportedly now asking Russia for "asylum". Perhaps we will get a chance to really see how well Barrack and Hillary's "Reset Button" has worked out!

Now that Putin has already drained Snoden's computers, he may be open to some sort of an "arrangement" with Obama.

I think it goes well beyond that. Did you notice Putin's term "American partners" when he laid down the facts of life to Snowden.

For a very long time, successive US governments have not been willing to listen to the advice of Putin and Russia who were battling Islamic fundamentalists long before the USA got busy with the Gulf Wars I & II and Afghanistan. The Americans didn't learn from the Russian disaster in Afghanistan and have been making some of the same mistakes the Russians did and warned about

Some Americans just can't accept the fact that other countries may have expertise and skills. It was Russia that warned of the consequences of getting to overjoyed by the Arab spring. The US Senators pushing for more involvement in Syria, have ignored Russia's concerns about the role of fundamentalist groups in the civil war.

I don't think Snowden gave the Russians anything more than they already had. The Russians knew about the US programs and probably had a chuckle over the mock disbelief expressed by Germany and France. Both countries have "spied" on US interests. Rather, I think that Putin is very old school and subscribes to the code of honour amongst professional spies. You do what you do and you keep quiet about it. Russia owes a favour to Canada, Australia, the UK NZ and the USA, ever since it was caught red handed collecting top secret intelligence courtesy of the Canadian traitor. When that even happened, there was no public accusation made by the Canadian or US governments as the spying was taking place in the key Canadian atlantic facility. Rather, the affair was handled in a low key manner, although the Canadian naval Lt. has since been court martialed and sent away for a long time. Doesn't anyone find it odd that no one in the EU has mounted quite the same protests about the UK which had a similar program in place? The Guardian also reported that the UK's GCHQ operation codenamed Tempora had been running for 18 months and " a larger collection of data than the US, tapping in to 200 fibre-optic cables to give it the ability to monitor up to 600 million communications every day." The take away from this is that the spy business likes to keep its spying quiet and it is bad form to have squealers like Snowden loose.

[geriatrickid]

As a former bank IT team member, high security networks have software agents to prevent reading from or writing to flash drives or storage devices not integral to the computer. This can be overridden if one is knowledgeable and cleaver - but the over riding process would normal set off an alert... But a super geek might even be able to get around that...

Maybe the security was outsourced to India?

Then again, when I deal with our own IT personnel, I do wonder if one of the job criteria is a personality disorder.

[Publicus]

People consider to press for honorary Citizienship for Edward Snowden. Maybe France or Germany.

Intel insiders: Europeans spying on us, too

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57591922/intel-insiders-europeans-spying-on-us-too/

European spies have been spying on the U.S. for years, according to two former intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss espionage programs. They said such spying includes tracking senior U.S. officials to see what they are doing in countries like France and Germany, which have both complained bitterly about the EU reports.

German intelligence tracks both U.S. diplomats and high-level U.S. military and counterterrorist officials on German soil, in part to make sure the Americans aren't overstepping their bounds, one of the officials said.

Nor is France innocent when it comes to espionage and spying on Americans, said former CIA officer Bob Baer, who was stationed in Paris for three years. "The French intelligence service used to break in regularly when I was in Paris into rooms of U.S. businessmen to image their computers," he said.

France’s 'hypocritical' spying claims 'hide real scandal'

http://www.france24.com/en/20130702-france-usa-spying-snowden-hollande-nsa-prism-hypocritical

While China tops the list of countries engaging in cyber-espionage, according to a report published February by the US secret services, France shares second place with Russia and Israel, leading Foreign Policy magazine to describeFrench president Francois Hollande’s outrage as “pretty hilarious".

At the time, then-CIA director Stansfield Turner qualified French intelligence as “the most predatory service in the world, now that the old Soviet Union is gone.”

And the Americans are not the only country to have complained about French espionage.

In a 2009 US diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks, an unnamed German CEO of a satellite manufacturer was quoted calling France “the evil empire, stealing technology, and Germany knows this”, adding that French industrial spying was doing as much damage as anything coming from Russia or China.

The "Red October" Campaign - An Advanced Cyber Espionage Network Targeting Diplomatic and Government Agencies

http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/785/

Edited July 3, 2013 by Publicus

[simple1]

As a former bank IT team member, high security networks have software agents to prevent reading from or writing to flash drives or storage devices not integral to the computer. This can be overridden if one is knowledgeable and cleaver - but the over riding process would normal set off an alert... But a super geek might even be able to get around that...

Maybe the security was outsourced to India?

Then again, when I deal with our own IT personnel, I do wonder if one of the job criteria is a personality disorder.

It has already been queried by a senior US security official why anyone working at NSA would be able to work their without the USB ports disabled/removed on their IT devices. I used to work for a major US IT hardware and systems vendor in the banking industry and some secure work environments insisted that USB ports were not supplied. As has been said centralised/distributed network monitoring can pick up or block any unauthorised changes or attempts to change configurations, both hardware/software, as well as unauthorised data access or downloads. It was a complete IT security policy failure by NSA & their contractor/s not to have completely complied to the COBIT framework

Edited July 3, 2013 by simple1

[NeverSure]

As a former bank IT team member, high security networks have software agents to prevent reading from or writing to flash drives or storage devices not integral to the computer. This can be overridden if one is knowledgeable and cleaver - but the over riding process would normal set off an alert... But a super geek might even be able to get around that...

Maybe the security was outsourced to India?

Then again, when I deal with our own IT personnel, I do wonder if one of the job criteria is a personality disorder.

It has already been queried by a senior US security official why anyone working at NSA would be able to work their without the USB ports disabled/removed on their IT devices. I used to work for a major US IT hardware and systems vendor in the banking industry and some secure work environments insisted that USB ports were not supplied. As has been said centralised/distributed network monitoring can pick up or block any unauthorised changes or attempts to change configurations, both hardware/software, as well as unauthorised data access or downloads. It was a complete IT security policy failure by NSA & their contractor/s not to have completely complied to the COBIT framework

If this was Microsoft Server, and if Snowden had admin privileges, I can think of at least ten ways he could have copied that info. That's assuming he truly knew how the system works. Let's just assume that the files were on the server as would be normal, and he was a member of "the group" that had access to the files, or more likely a member of the "admin group."

Just for giggles, lets start with a network enabled USB hub.

[simple1]

As a former bank IT team member, high security networks have software agents to prevent reading from or writing to flash drives or storage devices not integral to the computer. This can be overridden if one is knowledgeable and cleaver - but the over riding process would normal set off an alert... But a super geek might even be able to get around that...

Maybe the security was outsourced to India?

Then again, when I deal with our own IT personnel, I do wonder if one of the job criteria is a personality disorder.

It has already been queried by a senior US security official why anyone working at NSA would be able to work their without the USB ports disabled/removed on their IT devices. I used to work for a major US IT hardware and systems vendor in the banking industry and some secure work environments insisted that USB ports were not supplied. As has been said centralised/distributed network monitoring can pick up or block any unauthorised changes or attempts to change configurations, both hardware/software, as well as unauthorised data access or downloads. It was a complete IT security policy failure by NSA & their contractor/s not to have completely complied to the COBIT framework

If this was Microsoft Server, and if Snowden had admin privileges, I can think of at least ten ways he could have copied that info. That's assuming he truly knew how the system works. Let's just assume that the files were on the server as would be normal, and he was a member of "the group" that had access to the files, or more likely a member of the "admin group."

Just for giggles, lets start with a network enabled USB hub.

You would hope that NSA would be a touch more sophisticated than installing vanilla flavoured Microsoft Server whose config security flaws are well known.

[mania]

Edward Snowden's father writes open letter to NSA whistleblower in Moscow

As regards your reduction to de facto statelessness occasioned by the Executive Branch to penalize your alleged violations of the Espionage Act, the United States Supreme Court lectured in Trop v. Dulles (1958): "The civilized nations of the world are in virtual unanimity that statelessness is not to be imposed as punishment for crime."

Edited July 3, 2013 by mania

[mania]

Edward Joseph Snowden is and remains a citizen of the United States.

His passport was revoked.

Snowden is not a stateless person. Snowden's right to hold a U.S. Passport was revoked by its issuing authority,

No one in the government of the United States is talking of or even considering removing Edward Snowden's citizenship. There isn't any constitutional process by which the U.S. government may remove a citizen's citizenship.

There is no question whatsoever that Edward Snowden will remain a citizen of the United States unless or until he himself may abandon it in favor of the citizenship of another country. Only Edward Snowden of his own free will and conscious decision can change his citizenship, i.e., cease to become a U.S. citizen. Snowden also has lost his right to become a dual citizen of the United States and one other country (which the Department of State officially discourages anyway).

Yes I understand he is still a US citizen so not literally stateless.

Yet while in a foreign country with no passport in regards to travel he is in a sense stateless.

Albeit I am sure the US would be happy to fly him home to the USA

Yes the US will not revoke his citizenship as there is no pathway for that unless he first obtains another.

I have never heard of a case where he has lost his ability to renounce his US citizenship if someone did grant him citizenship in another country.

I doubt he would want dual citizenship at this point.

You know you may have stumbled on an excellent idea for him

If a country gave him citizenship & diplomatic security he could fly out

Now that would be a good ending for the movie

It is not like the US has not done similar

When they claimed Raymond Davis had diplomatic immunity only later to admit he was

a CIA contractor not a diplomat.

Edited July 3, 2013 by mania

[Credo]

Changing his identity would not change who he is any more than an alias changes who someone actually is.

I believe in the Assange thread, it was pointed out by someone that he cannot be given diplomatic immunity. I don't remember the exact reasons, though.

[mania]

Changing his identity would not change who he is any more than an alias changes who someone actually is.

I believe in the Assange thread, it was pointed out by someone that he cannot be given diplomatic immunity. I don't remember the exact reasons, though.

Yes he could not be diplomatically immune from the existing charges anymore than Assange of his.

But those charges dont seem to be the reason he now has travel problems. The reason is lack of passport

Edited July 3, 2013 by mania

[Credo]

I believe his passport was revoked after or at the same time as the charges against him were filed with Hong Kong.

He was then, as I understand it, provided with travel papers by another country, maybe Ecuador? Which got him as far as Russia.

He now has no travel papers from Ecuador and no passport from the US.

[NeverSure]

It has already been queried by a senior US security official why anyone working at NSA would be able to work their without the USB ports disabled/removed on their IT devices. I used to work for a major US IT hardware and systems vendor in the banking industry and some secure work environments insisted that USB ports were not supplied. As has been said centralised/distributed network monitoring can pick up or block any unauthorised changes or attempts to change configurations, both hardware/software, as well as unauthorised data access or downloads. It was a complete IT security policy failure by NSA & their contractor/s not to have completely complied to the COBIT framework

If this was Microsoft Server, and if Snowden had admin privileges, I can think of at least ten ways he could have copied that info. That's assuming he truly knew how the system works. Let's just assume that the files were on the server as would be normal, and he was a member of "the group" that had access to the files, or more likely a member of the "admin group."

Just for giggles, lets start with a network enabled USB hub.

You would hope that NSA would be a touch more sophisticated than installing vanilla flavoured Microsoft Server whose config security flaws are well known.

Well, since Microsoft has more than 90% of the market worldwide in that area, I'd say the chances are good.

My step son works at the big Goggle server farm in The Dalles, Oregon. I got a tour. All of the servers we as clients use are Unix, but in the office where they keep track of employees and biz, it's Microsoft Server with Active Directory, and all of the desktops are Win 7 Ultimate.

What else is there, really, that works for that purpose and also for which such a high proportion of people are trained? Seriously. What else?

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.