US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Tracy Riddle]

This is a fascinating article. I've never even heard of this guy before, which shows you just how secretive NSA is.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06...erwar/all/

This is the undisputed domain of General Keith Alexander, a man few even in Washington would likely recognize. Never before has anyone in America's intelligence sphere come close to his degree of power, the number of people under his command, the expanse of his rule, the length of his reign, or the depth of his secrecy. A four-star Army general, his authority extends across three domains: He is director of the world's largest intelligence service, the National Security Agency; chief of the Central Security Service; and commander of the US Cyber Command. As such, he has his own secret military, presiding over the Navy's 10th Fleet, the 24th Air Force, and the Second Army.

Alexander runs the nation's cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US's inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government's forefinger. "What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks," he said at a recent security conference in Canada. "I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in."

[Magda Hassan]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While working for U.S. intelligence agencies, Edward Snowden had another secret identity: an online commentator who anonymously railed against citizen surveillance and corporate greed.
Throughout the eight years that Snowden worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency contractors, he posted hundreds of messages on a public Internet forum under a pseudonym.
"I can't hope to change the way things are going by overtly complaining, writing letters, or blowing things up," Snowden wrote in 2003 in response to a discussion about corporate greed on the Ars Technica online forum.
"That's not the way a good person does things. I will, however, do what I can with the tools that are available to me."
New information discovered by Reuters about Snowden's employment record, online postings and education comes as U.S. lawmakers grill intelligence officials about how a 29-year-old high school dropout managed to gain access to such top secrets as the NSA's electronic surveillance programs.
According to sources briefed on the matter, Snowden was employed by an unidentified classified agency in Washington from 2005 to mid-2006, by the CIA from 2006 to 2009, when he primarily worked overseas, and by Dell Inc from 2009 to 2013, when he worked in the United States and Japanas an NSA contractor.
He was also a prolific commentator on technology forum Ars Technica, posting approximately 750 messages using the screen name "The True HOOHA" from late 2001 to 2012.
Most of the postings were not political in nature: he dispensed advice about government careers, polygraphs and the 2008 stock market crash. He claimed to own the same gun as James Bond and posted glamour photos of himself. He jokingly compared the video console Xbox Live to NSA surveillance.
One of his postings, however, dealt with the now familiar issue of corporate compliance with government eavesdropping programs. On February 4, 2010, while working for Dell, Snowden commented on a discussion about a major technology company that allegedly was giving the U.S. government access to its computer servers.
"It really concerns me how little this sort of corporate behavior bothers those outside of technology circles," Snowden wrote. "Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types."
It is not clear if his former employers knew about his online persona. The CIA, NSA, Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton - which most recently employed Snowden - declined to comment.
One former national security official said the government should have scrubbed his record harder. But Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the NSA, said holding such views did not automatically disqualify someone for a sensitive government job.
"Maybe the government will have to look at that again but that's a difficult thing to decide," Baker said.
UNDER SCRUTINY
According to the sources, Snowden told employers he took computer classes at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earned a certificate from the University of Maryland's campus in Tokyo, and expected in 2013 to earn a master's degree in computer security from the University of Liverpool in England.
A Johns Hopkins spokeswoman said she could not find a record of Snowden's attendance but he may have taken correspondence courses for which records are not kept. A Maryland official confirmed Snowden attended at least one summer class. A Liverpool spokeswoman said Snowden registered for an online master's degree in computer security in 2011, but did not complete it.
Born in 1983 in North Carolina, Snowden grew up in a Maryland suburb near the NSA headquarters. He left high school in 10th grade and later earned a G.E.D. At 18, he worked as a webmaster for Ryuhana Press, a start-up promoting Japanese anime artists.
Snowden began posting on Ars Technica on December 29, 2001. He sought technical help for his work at the anime site and a website company called Clockwork Chihuahua.
As early as 2002, Snowden wrote online of his desire to work in Japan: "It is pretty far-fetched, but I've always dreamed of being able to make it in Japan."
An avid gamer, he posted on the ethics of video game piracy in 2003: "I feel the mega corporation is promoting hyper-materialism and I don't like that. That means I want to punish the company in any way I can."
"Legality does not factor into this, getting away with it (OMG dispensing justice LOL!) in order to do it again does," Snowden added. "If my actions contribute to driving the corporation I view as "evil" into the ground, I'll sleep easier at night knowing I have (in my mind) done society a service."
On Ars Technica, Snowden gave more advice than he sought. To others hoping to land U.S. government jobs, he bemoaned high living costs and commuting hassles in Washington.
"My life is great except for the fact that while I'm making twice the average income, I could not afford a house in my zip code without robbing a bank," he wrote in 2006.
And he wrote of life: "We're all in this crazy boat together. Best of luck, comrade."
(Reporting by John Shiffman and Mark Hosenball in Washington, and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Robin Respaut in New York; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson, Tiffany Wu, Doina Chiacu)
http://news.yahoo.com/while-working-spie...12830.html

[Peter Lemkin]

From the article on Head of NSA, above

"and putting the kill switch under the government's forefinger"

. Hey, folks, they are talking about shutting down the internet...or which parts of it or which of us they don't want using it!...and they apparently have that power now. Most of the large switching/routing nodes on the internet are either US or UK and Israeli owned and operated. A few are in Europe. Very few are elsewhere at the moment. Think you can build your own one? Good luck. We ARE talking about dark times ahead! I know some think there is enough redundancy in the Internet and enough of it outside the USA for this not to be possible. This is not my understanding, with the exception of little corners of it - but only the insider experts, like Snowden, know for sure. If they think they have a 'kill switch', they likely do. Some of the legislation passed or attempted to be passed lately on the Internet and its use would have or has given certain authorities in the US Executive [and private companies!] the permission to limit internet flow or shut it off, based on content and who's getting or sending it. Beware!:curtain: And if they really want to get nasty [oh, come on, these are honest men...HA!], much of internet traffic now travels at some point on a US owned satellite which, again, can be used to selectively or entirely shut down the internet. The military and corporations that work for it and the intelligence community all have their own 'internet' with their own satellites, etc. for it. See the quote by MM, below.....he died before the internet really took off, but somehow knew....

[Lauren Johnson]

This blog post points out more oddities and speculates:

Friday, June 14, 2013

Snowden and the war between the CIA and the Pentagon

"Did someone help Ed Snowden punch a hole in the NSA?" by Jon Rappoport:

"Snowden worked for the CIA. He was pushed up the ranks quickly, from an IT position in the US to a posting in Geneva, under diplomatic cover, to run security on the CIA's computer systems there.

Then, Snowden quit the CIA and eventually ended up at Booz Allen, a private contractor. He was assigned to NSA, where he stole the secrets and exposed the NSA.

The CIA and NSA have a long contentious relationship. The major issue is, who is king of US intelligence? We're talking about an internal war.

Snowden could have been the CIA's man at NSA, where certain CIA players helped him access files he wouldn't have been able to tap otherwise."

"NSA leaker: are there serious cracks in Ed Snowden's story?" by Jon Rappoport

"Did the CIA give the NSA documents to Ed Snowden?" by Jon Rappoport

The two big oddities in the Snowden story are his remarkable employment history and his remarkable access to high-level secrets for somebody who was a relatively low-level employee of an outside contractor. Snowden was recruited as a CIA asset at an early age, probably is still a CIA asset today, and could very easily have been manipulated by the CIA into a position where he could plausibly pose as a whistleblower against the NSA. This does not impugn his personal credibility or the credibility of his information, but answers some big mysteries about how he came to be the face of all the secrets.

Barry just replaced the #2 at the CIA with an outsider: "President Obama's pick for the CIA's second-in-command once held erotica nights at her Baltimore bookstore" She replaces a career CIA guy who retired, in the words of John Brennan, "to spend more time with his family and to pursue other professional opportunities". Standard firing words. A thirty-three year CIA veteran replaced by Barry with an erotica expert.

Ever since 9/11, the CIA has been losing power and influence to the Pentagon. Most recently, Barry is moving the current jewel of American might, the drone program, from the CIA to the Pentagon. The NSA is part of the Pentagon (something that is seldom mentioned). The way things are going, erotica may be all the CIA has left.

http://xymphora.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/...tagon.html

[Peter Lemkin]

Hong Kong protest backs ex-CIA whistleblower Snowden

Supporters of Edward Snowden carried placards and chanted slogans

Continue reading the main story

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Hundreds of people in Hong Kong have marched to the US consulate in support of ex-CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The protesters demanded that local authorities protect Mr Snowden, who is in hiding in Hong Kong.
Mr Snowden's leaks revealed that US agencies had systematically gathered vast amounts of phone and web data.
He also gave an interview to a local newspaper alleging that US intelligence had been hacking into Chinese computer networks.
Protesters and local politicians have demanded clarification from the US government on the allegations, the BBC's Jennifer Pak reports.
'Big Brother'"Hong Kong is one of the few places in China where internet freedom is still OK. Now the American government is hacking into us," one protester said. "That is a crime against human rights."
Another man brought a poster containing a picture of US President Barack Obama and the words "Big Brother is watching you".
Continue reading the main story

Who is Edward Snowden?

• Age 29, grew up in North Carolina
  
• Joined army reserves in 2004, discharged four months later, says the Guardian
  
• First job at National Security Agency was as security guard
  
• Worked on IT security at the CIA
  
• Left CIA in 2009 for contract work at NSA for various firms including Booz Allen
  
• Called himself Verax, Latin for "speaking the truth", in exchanges with the Washington Post
  

• Profile: Edward Snowden
  

Mr Snowden told the South China Morning Post this week that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had led more than 61,000 hacking operations worldwide, including many in Hong Kong and mainland China.
He said targets in Hong Kong included the Chinese University, public officials and businesses.
Mr Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong shortly before the highly sensitive leaks surfaced and has vowed to fight any attempt to extradite him to the US.
"I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality," Mr Snowden told the Post, which said the interview was carried out in a secret location in Hong Kong.
"My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."
In a US Senate hearing earlier this week, NSA director Keith Alexander defended the internet and telephone data snooping programmes, saying they had disrupted dozens of terror plots.
Intelligence officials have insisted agents do not listen in on Americans' telephone conversations. And they maintain the internet communications surveillance programme, reportedly code-named Prism, targeted only non-Americans located outside of the US.
Although the information leaked by Mr Snowden has angered the US government, so far he has not been charged by the authorities, nor is he the subject of an extradition request.
Hong Kong's government says it does not comment on individual cases but will follow any request according to the law, our correspondent reports.
Analysts say any attempts to bring Mr Snowden to America may take months and could be blocked by Beijing.

[Peter Lemkin]

My Creeping Concern that the NSA Leaker Edward Snowden is not who he Purports to be…

By Naomi Wolf
Global Research, June 15, 2013
NaomiWolf.org

Region: USA
Theme: Intelligence, Police State & Civil Rights

I hate to do this but I feel obligated to share, as the story unfolds, my creeping concern that the NSA leaker is not who he purports to be, and that the motivations involved in the story may be more complex than they appear to be.

This is in no way to detract from the great courage of Glenn Greenwald in reporting the story, and the gutsiness of the Guardian in showcasing this kind of reporting, which is a service to America that US media is not performing at all.

It is just to raise some cautions as the story unfolds, and to raise some questions about how it is unfolding, based on my experience with high-level political messaging.

Some of Snowden's emphases seem to serve an intelligence/police state objective, rather than to challenge them.
a) He is super-organized, for a whistleblower, in terms of what candidates, the White House, the State Dept. et al call message discipline.' He insisted on publishing a power point in the newspapers that ran his initial revelations. I gather that he arranged for a talented filmmaker to shoot the Greenwald interview. These two steps which are evidence of great media training, really PR 101′ are virtually never done (to my great distress) by other whistleblowers, or by progressive activists involved in breaking news, or by real courageous people who are under stress and getting the word out. They are always done, though, by high-level political surrogates.
b) In the Greenwald video interview, I was concerned about the way Snowden conveys his message. He is not struggling for words, or thinking hard, as even bright, articulate whistleblowers under stress will do. Rather he appears to be transmitting whole paragraphs smoothly, without stumbling. To me this reads as someone who has learned his talking points again the way that political campaigns train surrogates to transmit talking points.
c) He keeps saying things like, "If you are a journalist and they think you are the transmission point of this info, they will certainly kill you." Or: "I fully expect to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act." He also keeps stressing what he will lose: his $200,000 salary, his girlfriend, his house in Hawaii. These are the kinds of messages that the police state would LIKE journalists to take away; a real whistleblower also does not put out potential legal penalties as options, and almost always by this point has a lawyer by his/her side who would PROHIBIT him/her from saying, come get me under the Espionage Act." Finally in my experience, real whistleblowers are completely focused on their act of public service and trying to manage the jeopardy to themselves and their loved ones; they don't tend ever to call attention to their own self-sacrifice. That is why they are heroes, among other reasons. But a police state would like us all to think about everything we would lose by standing up against it.
d) It is actually in the Police State's interest to let everyone know that everything you write or say everywhere is being surveilled, and that awful things happen to people who challenge this. Which is why I am not surprised that now he is on UK no-fly lists I assume the end of this story is that we will all have a lesson in terrible things that happen to whistleblowers. That could be because he is a real guy who gets in trouble; but it would be as useful to the police state if he is a fake guy who gets in trouble.'
e) In stories that intelligence services are advancing (I would call the prostitutes-with-the-secret-service such a story), there are great sexy or sex-related mediagenic visuals that keep being dropped in, to keep media focus on the issue. That very pretty pole-dancing Facebooking girlfriend who appeared for, well, no reason in the media coverage…and who keeps leaking commentary, so her picture can be recycled in the press…really, she happens to pole-dance? Dan Ellsberg's wife was and is very beautiful and doubtless a good dancer but somehow she took a statelier role as his news story unfolded…
f) Snowden is in Hong Kong, which has close ties to the UK, which has done the US's bidding with other famous leakers such as Assange. So really there are MANY other countries that he would be less likely to be handed over from…
g) Media reports said he had vanished at one point to an undisclosed location' or a safe house.' Come on. There is no such thing. Unless you are with the one organization that can still get off the surveillance grid, because that org created it.
h) I was at dinner last night to celebrate the brave and heroic Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Several of Assange's also brave and talented legal team were there, and I remembered them from when I had met with Assange. These attorneys are present at every moment when Assange meets the press when I met with him off the record last Fall in the Ecuadoran embassy, his counsel was present the whole time, listening and stepping in when necessary.
Seeing these diligent attentive free-speech attorneys for another whisleblower reinforced my growing anxiety: WHERE IS SNOWDEN'S LAWYER as the world's media meet with him? A whistleblower talking to media has his/her counsel advising him/her at all times, if not actually being present at the interview, because anything he/she says can affect the legal danger the whistleblower may be in . It is very, very odd to me that a lawyer has not appeared, to my knowledge, to stand at Snowden's side and keep him from further jeopardy in interviews.
Again I hate to cast any skepticism on what seems to be a great story of a brave spy coming in from the cold in the service of American freedom. And I would never raise such questions in public if I had not been told by a very senior official in the intelligence world that indeed, there are some news stories that they create and drive even in America (where propagandizing Americans is now legal). But do consider that in Eastern Germany, for instance, it was the fear of a machine of surveillance that people believed watched them at all times rather than the machine itself that drove compliance and passivity. From the standpoint of the police state and its interests why have a giant Big Brother apparatus spying on us at all times unless we know about it?

[Magda Hassan]

Lauren posted the same or a similar article further above. Much more to go on than Scott Creighton's original article. Still room for doubt though. Time will tell.

[Peter Lemkin]

One strange thing - no matter which way one 'comes down' on Snowden, is the very SLOW [apparent] response of the USG against him - in any measurable way other than verbal condemnations. As Wolf points out, his lack of a lawyer anywhere in sight..or even a close friend when he meets seems odd. However, Assange used the wording 'We've been in contact with HIS PEOPLE'...whatever that exactly means, it seems to imply he is not there alone...but could have been an evasive device on Assange's part for obvious reasons. Of course, his ultimate fate will likely tell the 'tale'...and in many ways help to determine the fate of many of us....

[Magda Hassan]

I think Geoffrey Robinson has stepped in to the picture. He is also one of Assange's lawyers.

[Peter Lemkin]

I think Geoffrey Robinson has stepped in to the picture. He is also one of Assange's lawyers.

I can find no reference to that...which means nothing about it being either true or not. It is both strange, interesting and unconfirmed that Assange/Wikileaks had any contact with Snowden yet. One would think, however, that no matter who he is and how brave or 'covered' he is, he'd like the assistance and advice of a lawyer these days...if only to witness his being subject to rendition, extradition, or killed.

I think we can all agree he [Snowden] is nowhere in middle ground...he is either a hero modern historical proportions or a very clever bit of psyop by the same old-same old psyop Group! Interestingly, in both the US and UK he seems to have about 40% thinking he doesn't deserve any extreme punishment and about 30% thinking he should be from imprisoned for life to hung....that leaves another 30% who don't know what the **** to think about him or modern life, these days...... all this with the caveat that one can so design a pole to get the answers skewed the way one wants.