Topic: PRISM and Fed spying

[trapeze]

Whistleblower comes forward.

And he's in communist China hiding out.

Wow...brave and yet stupid.

[Glock32]

Even if you were to accept the phony argument that it's no big deal because "if you've got nothing to hide", that defense falls flat on the fact that government databases routinely end up exposing personal information of people through either incompetence or deliberate leaking.

How can anyone trust government to do anything? If the government says it's sunny you damn well better bring an umbrella.

[warpmine]

Even if you were to accept the phony argument that it's no big deal because "if you've got nothing to hide", that defense falls flat on the fact that government databases routinely end up exposing personal information of people through either incompetence or deliberate leaking.

How can anyone trust government to do anything? If the government says it's sunny you damn well better bring an umbrella.

Pertaining to this regime, I only trust it f**k up everything that was good and decent.

[Alphabet Soup]

Whistleblower comes forward.

And he's in communist China hiding out.

Wow...brave and yet stupid.

He's 29 - still an idealistic puppy. I bet he's doing some serious "who really are the bad guys" thinking right about now...

[charlesoakwood]

According to Clemons, four men sitting near him were discussing an intelligence conference they had just attended, and turned to the topic of the NSA leaks. One said that both the reporter and leaker should be “disappeared,” a term used to describe secret murders and abductions carried out by authoritarian governments. Clemons said on Twitter the suggestion seemed to be “bravado” and a “disturbing joke.” He said that the officials were talking loudly, “almost bragging.”

[charlesoakwood]

Uh Oh, the Fox is in the hen house and the hens are all a twitter.

Breitbart - “I have grave concerns over the privacy of communications between staff and their member of Congress. All of our communications go through Verizon or ATT to reach our Blackberries." The staffer added, "Through a blanket seizing of these communications, the NSA is permanently intercepting and storing privileged material. This rasies further constitutional issues regarding separation of powers."

[Libertas]

Uh Oh, the Fox is in the hen house and the hens are all a twitter.

Breitbart - “I have grave concerns over the privacy of communications between staff and their member of Congress. All of our communications go through Verizon or ATT to reach our Blackberries." The staffer added, "Through a blanket seizing of these communications, the NSA is permanently intercepting and storing privileged material. This rasies further constitutional issues regarding separation of powers."

Remember, the Gubmint Man refused to answer Congress if it was spying on them.  Gosh, I wonder why?

O/T - We should set up a IAL Lexicon thread, we got some good new ones!

'Soup - "fractional disparity".   

Trap - "DumbassCare"   

And for anybody getting zapped by prism - "Prism'd"!

And remember, the government could use this data to extort...and hell they don't even have to have anything...just the suggestion they do (or can make something up) could do the trick!

The Untouchables (10/10) Movie CLIP - Here Endeth the Lesson (1987) HD

[trapeze]

Via the AoS ONT here is a linkf to Legal Insurrection's collection of privacy tools...

In light of the recent hubbub about the NSA having access to pretty much all your communications, the first question seems to be not “How can they do that?” because let’s face it…they aren’t supposed to.  You know it and I know it.  The question is not even “Do they CARE that they aren’t supposed to be doing this?” because they don’t.  The only real question is “How can I stop them from doing it to me?”

That is what this post is all about–making your communications secure from prying eyes.

We get it, Joe Citizen.  You want your privacy.  You want to be able to talk on the internet without everyone and their mother at the InsertAlphabetAgencyHere looking at it.

You’re mad about the NSA snooping.  You aren’t advocating a violent overthrow of the government.

You’re not running a domestic terrorism group (well, there are those new DHS criteria…).  You’re not even sending around emails
about what a dismal failure President Obama’s administration is (THIS hour, anyway).  You just want to be able to chat with friends, conduct your financial business, and argue with your spouse without Big Daddy Gummint all up in your biz.  Believe it or not, that’s your right.

Harry “Who Cares” Reid may blow it off and say the government’s been “doing that stuff for years,”but we’ve got a news flash for Harry: just because you’ve been doing it a while doesn’t make it any more okay.  Ask Ted Bundy … oh, wait.

[Sectionhand]

Whistleblower comes forward.

And he's in communist China hiding out.

Wow...brave and yet stupid.

He's 29 - still an idealistic puppy. I bet he's doing some serious "who really are the bad guys" thinking right about now...

There's a lot about this guy's "background" which doesn't pass the smell test .

[Libertas]

Via the AoS ONT here is a linkf to Legal Insurrection's collection of privacy tools...

In light of the recent hubbub about the NSA having access to pretty much all your communications, the first question seems to be not “How can they do that?” because let’s face it…they aren’t supposed to.  You know it and I know it.  The question is not even “Do they CARE that they aren’t supposed to be doing this?” because they don’t.  The only real question is “How can I stop them from doing it to me?”

That is what this post is all about–making your communications secure from prying eyes.

We get it, Joe Citizen.  You want your privacy.  You want to be able to talk on the internet without everyone and their mother at the InsertAlphabetAgencyHere looking at it.

You’re mad about the NSA snooping.  You aren’t advocating a violent overthrow of the government.

You’re not running a domestic terrorism group (well, there are those new DHS criteria…).  You’re not even sending around emails
about what a dismal failure President Obama’s administration is (THIS hour, anyway).  You just want to be able to chat with friends, conduct your financial business, and argue with your spouse without Big Daddy Gummint all up in your biz.  Believe it or not, that’s your right.

Harry “Who Cares” Reid may blow it off and say the government’s been “doing that stuff for years,”but we’ve got a news flash for Harry: just because you’ve been doing it a while doesn’t make it any more okay.  Ask Ted Bundy … oh, wait.

Good link.  We've probably passed the point at which everyone should have been using these tools, but, perhaps later is still better than not.

[RickZ]

There's a lot about this guy's "background" which doesn't pass the smell test .

More than a lot is fishy about his background.  95% is fishy.  The holder of a GED who worked as a security guard all of a sudden has a $200K a year tech job?  In Hawaii?  I know America is the Land of Opportunity but sheesh!

From Doug Ross, via GateWayPundit, here's his resume.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-resume-of-nsa-whistleblower-edward.html

No, let’s examine the reported resume of Snowden (dates are estimated):

• Raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina and later moved to Maryland.

• Attended a community college, but never completed his coursework and never graduated from high school.

• 2003-2004: U.S. Army, discharged after training accident

• 2005: NSA, Security Guard, University of Maryland.

• 2006: CIA, IT security.

• 2007-2009: CIA, diplomatic cover, Switzerland.

• 2009-2013: NSA Contractor, Dell and later Booz Allen Hamilton.

• Salary: around $200,000.

What? Seriously? So a guy who never even graduated from high school (he later reportedly earned a G.E.D.) and started his professional career as a security guard, got hired by a couple of defense contractors and — at age 29 — was making $200K a year?

If this story is true, I don't know what's more bizarre: the leak itself or the sheer profligacy of the federal spending machine.

[Libertas]

Whistleblower comes forward.

And he's in communist China hiding out.

Wow...brave and yet stupid.

He's 29 - still an idealistic puppy. I bet he's doing some serious "who really are the bad guys" thinking right about now...

There's a lot about this guy's "background" which doesn't pass the smell test .

Like what?

Like a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton and Dell came into this knowledge?

I am thinking he is likely a willing proxy for somebody much higher in the food chain.

Like how he got these documents?

Again, the story line seems very weak, again, likely BS to cover his real source.

Like fleeing to Hong Kong, instead of a better non-extradition treaty nation?

Oh, becuase most of the other non-extradition treaty nations are sh*tholes...like most of Africa.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_countries_have_no_extradition_treaties_with_the_United_States

ETA - "If this story is true, I don't know what's more bizarre: the leak itself or the sheer profligacy of the federal spending machine." - RickZ

Yeah, we haven't seen any evidence of profligate spending.

I say this guy was recruited and compensated to do exactly what he did by a big fish upstream.

[RickZ]

One interesting comment at Doug Ross:

This "Edward Snowden" is a snow job. The name is fake, a computer-generated one, with the repeating letters w-d-e. Repeating clusters of letters common in computer-generated names, which is also the thumbprint all over the Sandy Hook hoax. The guy's presentation is rehearsed. He is an actor, and not a very good one.

Don't know how true that is as I've never worked with any random name generating programs.  But I do find it odd that you have EDWard snoWDEn.  My belief in coincidences is fast approaching zero.

I have no idea what the Sandy Hook comment means.

[Libertas]

One interesting comment at Doug Ross:

This "Edward Snowden" is a snow job. The name is fake, a computer-generated one, with the repeating letters w-d-e. Repeating clusters of letters common in computer-generated names, which is also the thumbprint all over the Sandy Hook hoax. The guy's presentation is rehearsed. He is an actor, and not a very good one.

Don't know how true that is as I've never worked with any random name generating programs.  But I do find it odd that you have EDWard snoWDEn.  My belief in coincidences is fast approaching zero.

I have no idea what the Sandy Hook comment means.

Fits my theory.

As to the Sandy Hook stuff...I know there is dispute over early reports about an AR, if it was in the school, left in the car...

IW has this about still no report and shady goings on in covering up evidence -

http://www.infowars.com/six-months-on-and-still-no-sandy-hook-report/

http://www.infowars.com/state-of-connecticut-crafts-special-act-to-hide-sandy-hook-evidence/

 

[warpmine]

That would be hard covering up this time as far as weapon choice was, we have pics of him with the AR with traditional upper with handle. and hundreds of witnesses. I'm want to see why the mental illness thing never made it to the background check or like everything else, it was secured because he was underage at the time. Seems to me that an individual that has serious anger issues with propensity to do harm to others is a risk for possession of any type of firearm.

Next up, his mother. Didn't she know her son having a firearm or two be a problem for someone with anger problems. They said he was angry at the father and parents in general for divorce so why go out an kill indiscriminately after you've offed your parents and brother. Chances are, he's the sole reason the separation came about, but we'll have to wait to see if court willing to release reasoning for divorce.

[charlesoakwood]

Backgrounder:
                          Wired; 03.15.12, 7:24 PM - Rather than Bibles, prophets, and worshippers, this temple will be filled with servers, computer intelligence experts, and armed guards. And instead of listening for words flowing down from heaven, these newcomers will be secretly capturing, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the world’s telecommunications networks. In the little town of Bluffdale, Big Love and Big Brother have become uneasy neighbors

[Libertas]

Spontaneous mass outbreak of arson...burn the sumbich down.

Would the Sons of Liberty of Yore do any less in their day?

[Libertas]

Dude pulled another Claude Rains?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-whistleblower-drops-sight-faces-legal-battle-192837160.html

James (Syphilis) Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told NBC that the Fleaks Federal Government spy programs on its citizens "violate a sacred trust for this country. The damage that these revelations incur do to the people and the Constitution is are huge catastrophic.  The citizens of the United States have every right, nay, the duty, to end this madness by any means necessary!"

FIFY fothermucker!

[warpmine]

"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things ... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded," Snowden told the Guardian, which published the video interview with him, dated June 6, on its website.
1) You don't have to live in this society at all, you can go somewhere else.
and
2) You may not have a choice in the matter, your life means as much to Onegroid as the pos he disposed of in Yemen with drone strike.

I'm personally split on this action. Was it heroic or betrayal?

I hate what our government has morphed into.
I hate traitors.
I love it when somebody gives Obama a black eye.
WTF was he put into a position where he could do this?

I suppose all in all, i couldn't give a rat's sh*t at this point what happens as everything she does is an affront to God. Baby murdering, sexual deviancy, Satan worshipping socialists that care more about how I don't live to their expectations than protecting me from the Muslim horde they keep shipping over from Sandniggerdom.

My response to the US government is, wait for it........

 

[ChrstnHsbndFthr]

I was split on this too. Now I am convinced that although this man may have thought he did right, he did not. There are methods that can be actual whistle blower routes if you believe something is illegal. You are not required to do it. What he did damaged intelligence collection. ALL THREE branches were involved in the oversight.  I am still open to new information, but with what I know now, this young man may have unwittingly betrayed his country.