NSA Whistle-blower Ed Snowden

[Remius]

Yep.  Because the US would have done the same thing if the tables were turned.  Just some senator thumping his chest.  To be honest, short of being arrested and convicted, Mr. Snowden is getting the next best thing.  life in exile where he will almost certainly see that the grass isn't greener.  In fact it's likely brown with yellow patches.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Further to above, Senator Chuck Schumer accuses Vladimir Putin of having knowledge of the upcoming movements of Snowden and gave approval for Snowden to transit through Russia.

Schumer slams Putin over Snowden

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2013/06/schumer-slams-russia-over-snowden-166815.html?hp=l1

From what I have seen it's not (yet) clear that Mr Snowden has transited through Russia. So long as he stay either connections side (that is doesn't pass through Russian immigration) or is taken from connections side in a diplomatic vehicle to a foreign embassy, then he isn't actually in Russia at all.

 

[cupper]

This morning's Meet The Press lead to an interesting episode of "I know you are but what am I" between David Gregory and Glenn Greenwald which has since devolved into a Twitter war.

Gregory asks the question why shouldn't Greenwald face charges for aiding and abetting Snowden, and Greenwald counters by questioning Gregory's "claim" to being a journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62s9d1T8uM

 

[Edward Campbell]

This morning's Meet The Press lead to an interesting episode of "I know you are but what am I" between David Gregory and Glenn Greenwald which has since devolved into a Twitter war.

Gregory asks the question why shouldn't Greenwald face charges for aiding and abetting Snowden, and Greenwald counters by questioning Gregory's "claim" to being a journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62s9d1T8uM

I just saw the same thing: you can see the sad state of journalism ~ whatever journalism might be ~ when they, the journalists are trying to make one another part of the story.

Kudos, by the way, to the Guardian for breaking the story; it was, still is, news and it is a legitimate thing upon which to report. Given the nature of US law, the decision to move Mr Snowden to HK to tell the story, and to break it from there, probably makes good legal sense: the Guardian would not be prosecuted under HK law for receiving (and publishing) "secrets;" it's not clear to me that the Guadian would be similarly "protected" in the USA in 2013.

 

[cupper]

They definitely could not have done it in the UK, due to the secrecy laws which would have resulted in a D-Notice banning publication being issued if the Gov't felt that UK security was compromised.

 

[cupper]

Ecuador Says NSA Leaker Has Asked For Asylum

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/23/194829002/nsa-leaker-departs-hong-kong-reportedly-headed-to-venezuela

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor accused of leaking classified surveillance information, has asked Ecuador for asylum, the country's foreign minister says.

Snowden left Hong Kong earlier Sunday bound for a "third country," the government in the Asian hub said. He later landed in Moscow.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino Aroca, who is on an official visit to Vietnam, said: (via Twitter post)

The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden

Earlier, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified official from Aeroflot as saying Snowden would fly to Moscow and from there to Cuba on Monday, with an ultimate destination of Caracas, Venezuela. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks also said it was giving Snowden legal counsel and had helped him leave Hong Kong.

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or HKSAR, said in a statement that Snowden departed the territory "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel." It did not say what his destination was.

CNN had a camera trained on the arrival area in Moscow for the Aeroflot flight Snowden was believed to be on, but there was no sign of him. However, The New York Times reported that other passengers on the plane said a black car pulled up on the tarmac after the flight landed; Russia Today, Russia's English-language television station, later reported that the car belonged to the embassy of Ecuador.

On Saturday, the U.S. asked Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, for Snowden's extradition after federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint last week charging him with espionage, theft and conversion of government property in connection with leaks to The Guardian newspaper about secret U.S. electronic surveillance programs.

Despite the extradition request, the HKSAR government said that documents from the U.S. asking for a provisional arrest warrant "did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law."

Hong Kong said it had asked the United States to provide additional information, but "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, [so] there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong," according to the statement.

Hong Kong said it had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure.

Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre confirmed that Hong Kong told the U.S. that Snowden "departed Hong Kong for a third country.

"We will continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel," Chitre said.

WikiLeaks — whose founder, Julian Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations — said on its Twitter feed that it was assisting Snowden.

"Mr. Snowden is currently over Russian airspace accompanied by WikiLeaks legal advisors," it said in a statement issued shortly after Snowden's Aeroflot flight departed Hong Kong.

In a later statement, Wikileaks said Snowden "is bound for the Republic of Ecuador ... for the purposes of asylum."

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Assange as saying that he had "great personal sympathy for Ed Snowden's position" and that he was "thankful to the countries that have been doing the right thing in these matters."

 

[Edward Campbell]

According to CBC Radio News the Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Havana left this morning; it was full of journalists but Mr Snowden was not on board; to add insult to injury the CBC reporter says that the flight is "dry," no booze served.  ;D

The same report says Mr Snowden has not entered Russia; he remains in the airports international connections area, which is outside of Russian customs and immigration.

 

[Robert0288]

haha, The reporters must be bitter.  Fly to Russia, only to have to get on a plane to Cuba hoping for a chance to talk to snowden, only to be stuck in a plane for no good reason as you fly accross the world with nothing to drink.

 

[Edward Campbell]

A confirmatory report here which says:

    "And now, in a national-security version of the Rihanna plane, journalists from AP, AFP, BBC and NBC News, among others, are trapped on a 12-hour flight from Moscow to Cuba. It gets worse:

          * Starting from Feb 10, 2010, the sale of alcohol is suspended on flights to/from Havana, Bangkok, Shanghai, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yuzhno-Sahalinsk, and Khabarovsk.

    And worse (or, really, better?): Thanks to travel regulations in Cuba, they'll have to stay there three days before they'll be allowed to fly back. At least they've got decent entertainment options? (North by Northwest!
    Tarkovsky's Solaris! Episodes of Friends!)

 

[Retired AF Guy]

A confirmatory report here which says:

    "And now, in a national-security version of the Rihanna plane, journalists from AP, AFP, BBC and NBC News, among others, are trapped on a 12-hour flight from Moscow to Cuba. It gets worse:

          * Starting from Feb 10, 2010, the sale of alcohol is suspended on flights to/from Havana, Bangkok, Shanghai, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yuzhno-Sahalinsk, and Khabarovsk.

    And worse (or, really, better?): Thanks to travel regulations in Cuba, they'll have to stay there three days before they'll be allowed to fly back. At least they've got decent entertainment options? (North by Northwest!
    Tarkovsky's Solaris! Episodes of Friends!)

Now we know the truth; the Good Lord does have a sense of humour!!

 

[cupper]

Snowden is stuck in Sheremetyevo Airport for the time being, but his father claims that he would consider returning to the US under specific conditions, such as not being held in custody prior to trial. His Father also is wary of the influence that WikiLeaks personnel are having on his son.

Oh, yeah, and He thinks that his son is not a Traitor. A criminal, yes, Traitor, no.

Snowden’s father on ‘Today’: He betrayed his government, but he’s not a traitor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/snowdens-father-on-today-show-he-has-betrayed-his-government/2013/06/28/d942d404-e000-11e2-963a-72d740e88c12_story.html

The father of fugitive Edward Snowden told NBC News that he believes his son would return to the United States if he were assured that he would not be jailed before trial or subjected to a gag order.

Lonnie Snowden told journalist Michael Isikoff that he has not spoken since April with his son — who is believed to be hiding in a Moscow airport to evade arrest by U.S. authorities.

Edward Snowden went into hiding in early June, after information he provided about U.S. data surveillance programs was published by The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers. He has said he revealed the information because he feared that the programs were violating the rights of private citizens. He has been charged with leaking classified documents.

The portion of the interview that aired on the “Today” show Friday morning did not explain how the elder Snowden had developed his opinion as to the conditions under which his 30-year-old son might return home.

Lonnie Snowden sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. with his suggestions about how to get his son to return to this country, Isikoff reported. In the interview, he said he knew his son had broken the law but does not think he committed treason.

“He has betrayed his government, but I don’t believe that he’s betrayed the people of the United States,” Lonnie Snowden said.

“I love him. I would like to have the opportunity to communicate with him,” he added.

Snowden, a career Coast Guard officer who retired and moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago, told NBC that he did not trust WikiLeaks, the ­anti-secrecy organization that is providing his son with legal and logistical assistance.

“I am concerned about those who surround him,” the father said in the interview. “I think WikiLeaks, if you’ve looked at past history, you know, their focus isn’t necessarily the Constitution of the United States. It’s simply to release as much information as possible.”

Edward Snowden is reportedly seeking asylum from Ecuador. He surfaced in Hong Kong shortly after his leaked information was published, then vanished until he arrived in Moscow last Sunday.

He is believed to have been planning to travel from there to Ecuador, possibly via Cuba. But as a crush of journalists descended on the airport Monday, he did not board the designated Havana-bound flight. He has remained out of public view, as heads of government have verbally jousted over whether he should be extradited to the United States.

 

[Edward Campbell]

It looks like Ecuador may be backtracking.

This Associated press aticle quotes Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa as saying that "Edward Snowden is "under the care of the Russian authorities" and can't leave Moscow's international airport without his U.S. passport," [and] "the Ecuadorean consul in London committed "a serious error" without consulting any officials in Ecuador's capital when the consul issued a letter of safe passage for Snowden" [and] "the consul would be punished." Correa added that "the case is not in Ecuador's hands" and said Snowden must assume responsibility if he broke U.S. laws.

 

[a_majoor]

There are far easier ways to "get" at the NSA and other organs of the Surveillance State:

http://xkcd.com/1223/

 

[Robert0288]

Except you lack the downward deathspiral that Dwarf Fortress can turn into at a drop of a hat.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

From the Wall Street Journal. Re-printed under the Fair Dealings section of the Copyright Act.

Who Helped Snowden Steal State Secrets?
The preparations began before he took the job that landed him at the NSA.

By Edward Jay Epstein
In March 2013, when Edward Snowden sought a job with Booz Allen Hamilton at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, he signed the requisite classified-information agreements and would have been made well aware of the law regarding communications intelligence.

Section 798 of the United States Code makes it a federal crime if a person "knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States" any classified information concerning communication intelligence.

Mr. Snowden took that position so he could arrange to have published classified communications intelligence, as he told the South China Morning Post earlier this month. The point of Mr. Snowden's penetration was to get classified data from the NSA. He subsequently stated: "My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked, that is why I accepted that position."

My question would be, then: Was he alone in this enterprise to misappropriate communications intelligence?

Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr. Snowden was in contact with people who would later help arrange the publication of the material he purloined. Two of these individuals, filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald, were on the Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, among other things, funds WikiLeaks.

In January 2013, according to the Washington Post, Mr. Snowden requested that Ms. Poitras get an encryption key for Skype so that they could have a secure channel over which to communicate.

In February, he made a similar request to Mr. Greenwald, providing him with a step-by-step video on how to set up encrypted communications.

So, before Mr. Snowden proceeded with his NSA penetration in March 2013 through his Booz Allen Hamilton job, he had assistance, either wittingly or unwittingly, in arranging the secure channel of encrypted communications that he would use to facilitate the publication of classified communications intelligence.

On May 20, three months into his job, Mr. Snowden falsely claimed to his employer that he needed treatment for epilepsy. The purpose of the cover story was to conceal his trip to Hong Kong, where the operation to steal U.S. secrets would be brought to fruition.

Mr. Greenwald and Ms. Poitras also flew to Hong Kong. They were later joined by Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks representative who works closely with Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. Mr. Snowden reportedly brought the misappropriated data to Hong Kong on four laptops and a thumb drive. He gave some of the communications intelligence to Mr. Greenwald, who had arranged to publish it in the Guardian, and Mr. Snowden arranged to have Ms. Poitras make a video of him issuing a statement that would be released on the Guardian's website. Albert Ho, a Hong Kong lawyer, was retained to deal with Hong Kong authorities.

This orchestration did not occur in a vacuum. Airfares, hotel bills and other expenses over this period had to be paid. A safe house had to be secured in Hong Kong. Lawyers had to be retained, and safe passage to Moscow—a trip on which Mr. Snowden was accompanied by WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison—had to be organized.

The world now knows that the misappropriation of U.S. communications intelligence began appearing in the Guardian and other publications on June 5, and Mr. Snowden left Hong Kong for the Moscow airport on June 21. A question that remains to be answered: Who, if anyone, aided and abetted this well-planned theft of U.S. secrets?

Mr. Epstein's most recent book is "The Annals of Unsolved Crime" published in March by Melville House.

Article Link

 

[cupper]

Snowden either has a flair for the dramatic, or suffers from paranoia. (or both)

Snowden says he is victim of illegal U.S. persecution

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/07/snowden-says-he-is-victim-of-us-persecution-167463.html?hp=l1

Former security contractor Edward Snowden has written a letter to Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa in which he argues that he has been illegally persecuted by the United States for exposing the National Security Agency's surveillance program, according to a new report from Reuters.

"I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," Snowden wrote in Spanish, according to Reuters. "No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realize a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank."

"While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," he wrote.

This is Snowden's first statement since arriving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport eight days ago. He is believed to have been in the airport's transit zone, legally separate from Russian soil, since his arrival.

Snowden has reportedly applied for politial asylum in Russia, though on Monday President Vladimir Putin said the former contractor would not be granted asylum unless he stopped publishing classified documents, according to a report in The New York Times.

UPDATE (6:08 p.m.): Snowden released the following statement, via WikiLeaks, shortly after Reuters report was published:

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013

Also this news from Moscow as noted in the article above:

Report: Edward Snowden has asked for asylum in Russia

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/edward-snowden-asylum-russia-93622.html?hp=r2_b2

MOSCOW — The Interfax news agency says a Russian consular official has confirmed that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden asked for political asylum in Russia.
Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request Sunday.

Snowden has been caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, has been coy about offering him shelter.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin says Snowden will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, but adds that Snowden has no plan to quit doing so.

 

[Nemo888]

Snowden either has a flair for the dramatic, or suffers from paranoia. (or both)

Snowden says he is victim of illegal U.S. persecution

JSOC is about as extra judicial as you can get. The CIA rendition prisons around the world are not judicial or even legal. To call the drone programs in Yemen, Somalia, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan and  now Mali "legal" makes the word meaningless. America is  the last superpower and they know it. Last time I checked though might did not make right. Snowden's foolishness is that he expects better from the US.

 

[cupper]

:nod:

 

[cupper]

Ooops. Forgot  :sarcasm:

 

[JorgSlice]

If only they had some sort of Whistleblower Protection legislation...  :