Snowden warns future generations will have 'no concept of privacy'

[MJP]

I don't like being surveilled in any way by the state. I certainly was not aware of the extent it was practiced and I doubt most others in the general public were either until Snowden revealed it. The ship may have sailed but it still can be sunk.

Maybe Forbes is a credible enough source -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/30/the-nsa-reportedly-has-total-access-to-your-iphone/

They'll be lawsuits over all this. NSA agents will be suing the government for millions in punitive damages for the mental anguish resulting from being endlessly exposed to Facebook tweets and facile Mumsnet posts.

[lomatopo]

Former NSA whistleblowers plead for chance to brief Obama on agency abuses

The group of four intelligence specialists - William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis and Kirk Wiebe - who worked at the NSA for “a total of 144 years, most of them at senior levels” stressed in the letter the need for Obama to address what they’ve seen as abuses that violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and that have made proper, effective intelligence gathering more difficult.

“What we tell you in this Memorandum is merely the tip of the iceberg,” the group, calling themselves the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), wrote. “We are ready – if you are – for an honest conversation. That NSA’s bulk collection is more hindrance than help in preventing terrorist attacks should be clear by now despite the false claims and dissembling.”

“Surely you intuit that something is askew when NSA Director Keith Alexander testifies to Congress that NSA’s bulk collection has ‘thwarted’ 54 terrorist plots and later, under questioning, is forced to reduce that number to one, which cannot itself withstand close scrutiny.

http://rt.com/usa/nsa-obama-whistleblowers-letter-337/

Full text of the letter: http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/07/nsa-insiders-reveal-what-went-wrong/

Edited January 9, 2014 by lomatopo

[Asiantravel]

Shouldn't every American be exceedingly angry about this?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

[MJP]

Shouldn't every American be exceedingly angry about this?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

I think American taxpayers should be exceedingly angry over quite how big and how divisive and how expensive the US Government has become.

All of this nonsense costs a fortune. It's no wonder the US debt ceiling keeps being pushed through the roof.

[Asiantravel]

Shouldn't every American be exceedingly angry about this?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

I think American taxpayers should be exceedingly angry over quite how big and how divisive and how expensive the US Government has become.

All of this nonsense costs a fortune. It's no wonder the US debt ceiling keeps being pushed through the roof.

But I'm not talking about the money? More of that can be printed at any time.

I'm talking about the very private information about individuals being made available to an entirely different country. It is scandalous

[MJP]

Shouldn't every American be exceedingly angry about this?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

I think American taxpayers should be exceedingly angry over quite how big and how divisive and how expensive the US Government has become.

All of this nonsense costs a fortune. It's no wonder the US debt ceiling keeps being pushed through the roof.

But I'm not talking about the money? More of that can be printed at any time.

I'm talking about the very private information about individuals being made available to an entirely different country. It is scandalous

Oh agreed, that too. The world is completely off its face these days.

[F430murci]

Hero my arse

-----------

House Intelligence chairman hints at Russian help in Snowden leaks

He was stealing information that had to do with how we operate overseas to collect information to keep Americans safe. And some of the things he did were beyond his technical capabilities -- a fact which Rogers said raises more questions. How he arranged travel before he left. How he was ready to go, he had a go bag, if you will.

Rogers added that he believes there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB (Russian security service) agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence.I don't think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/18/22352480-house-intelligence-chairman-hints-at-russian-help-in-snowden-leaks?lite

[Scott]

A post with profanity has been removed.

Disguised profanity is still profanity.

[lomatopo]

Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End

WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down.

The findings are laid out in a 238-page report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, that represent the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/politics/watchdog-report-says-nsa-program-is-illegal-and-should-end.html

[lomatopo]

NSA leaker Edward Snowden denies accusation he spied for Russia

Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden has denied intimations from U.S. politicians that he colluded with Russian intelligence operatives to steal classified information from the National Security Agency.

In a rare interview said to have been conducted via encrypted email from his refuge in Moscow, Snowden told the New Yorker magazine that "this ‘Russian spy’ push is absurd." When he arrived in Moscow in June, his U.S. passport had been canceled and he was stuck in a transit no-man's land at Sheremetyevo International Airport for 40 days while Russian authorities mulled his request for asylum, Snowden told the magazine.

"Spies get treated better than that," he said of his less-than-enthusiastic welcome last summer.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-edward-snowden-russia-spy-allegations-20140122,0,936831.story

[lomatopo]

NSA phone record collection does little to prevent terrorist attacks, group says

An analysis of 225 terrorism cases inside the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has concluded that the bulk collection of phone records by the National Security Agency “has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism.”

The study, to be released Monday, corroborates the findings of a White House-appointed review group, which said last month that the NSA counterterrorism program “was not essential to preventing attacks” and that much of the evidence it did turn up “could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional [court] orders.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-phone-record-collection-does-little-to-prevent-terrorist-attacks-group-says/2014/01/12/8aa860aa-77dd-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html

[lomatopo]

Rogers added that he believes there's a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB (Russian security service) agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence.I don't think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB.

It seems strange that with all the power of the government and its various security services, that they are unable to offer single, solitary piece of evidence to support these odd ramblings of Mr. Rogers, and Ms. Feinstein? I assume if they did have even a remote connection they could produce it, rather than going on the Sunday talkies in an attempt to discredit Mr. Snowden with unsubstantiated accusations? Why am I reminded of Sen. McCarthy's claim of, "I hold in my hand"? Mr. Rogers should don his sweater and head back to his strange neighborhood.

[OZEMADE]

I don't know why he is stating future generations, a lot of the current generation don't know that they are tracked and photographed on a daily basis. You are tracked daily to and from work, you are also tracked and photographed whilst travelling around the country and the world via many means.