The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
YouTube Added: Feb 11, 2014
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Abby Martin takes a look at the corporate media’s fearmongering regarding the Sochi Olympics with RT political commentator Sam Sacks, who breaks down the latest intelligence hearings regarding the worldwide ‘threats’ Congress is most focused on: Snowden.
– The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program (The Intercept, Feb 10, 2014):
By Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald
The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.
According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.
Read moreJeremy Scahill And Glenn Greenwald: The NSA’s Secret Role In The U.S. Assassination Program
– In 1972, the CIA Director Relabelled “Dissidents” As “Terrorists” So He Could Continue Spying On Them … And Nothing Has Changed (Washington’s Blog, Feb 7, 2014):
For 500 years, government spying has always aimed at crushing dissent.
Likewise, the U.S. government has long used anti-terror laws to crush dissent and protect the powers-that-be.
As Edward Snowden said:
These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.
He’s right. And see this.
FYI.
– How Edward Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower (Guardian, Feb 1, 2014):
He was politically conservative, a gun owner, a geek – and the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in history. In this exclusive extract from his new book, Luke Harding looks at Edward Snowden’s journey from patriot to America’s most wanted
TheTrueHOOHA wanted to set up his own web server. It was a Saturday morning, a little after 11am. He posted: “It’s my first time. Be gentle. Here’s my dilemma: I want to be my own host. What do I need?”
Soon, regular users were piling in with helpful suggestions. TheTrueHOOHA replied: “Ah, the vast treasury of geek knowledge that is Ars.” He would become a prolific contributor; over the next eight years, he authored nearly 800 comments. He described himself variously as “unemployed”, a failed soldier, a “systems editor”, and someone who had US State Department security clearance.
Read moreHow Edward Snowden Went From Loyal NSA Contractor To Whistleblower
– Footage released of Guardian editors destroying Snowden hard drives (Guardian, Jan 31, 2014):
GCHQ technicians watched as journalists took angle grinders and drills to computers after weeks of tense negotiations
New video footage has been released for the first time of the moment Guardian editors destroyed computers used to store top-secret documents leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Under the watchful gaze of two technicians from the British government spy agency GCHQ, the journalists took angle-grinders and drills to the internal components, rendering them useless and the information on them obliterated.
– GCHQ taught NSA how to monitor Facebook, Twitter in real time – Snowden leak (RT, Jan 27, 2014):
British intelligence officials can infiltrate the very cables that transfer information across the internet, as well as monitor users in real time on sites like Facebook without the company’s consent, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
The internal documents reveal that British analysts gave instruction to members of the National Security Agency in 2012, showing them how to spy on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in real time and collect the computer addresses of billions of the sites’ uploaders.
Read moreGCHQ Taught NSA How To Monitor Facebook, Twitter In Real Time
This is how the elitists do it …
… as described in John Perkin’s book …
@Amazon.com: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
@Amazon.de: Bekenntnisse eines Economic Hit Man: Unterwegs im Dienst der Wirtschaftsmafia
They send an economic hitman which offers new leaders of foreign countries $200 million (… or more if deemed necessary; It’s probably much more today, because of inflation.) for their ‘cooperation’.
If they refuse to ‘cooperate’ here come the jackals.
See also:
– The Extended Confessions Of Economic Hit Man John Perkins (Video)
So Glenn Greenwald may well have had to choose been $250 million or death.
Understandably he took the money.
He unlike some South American leaders that did resist the U.S. (… and died!!!) has not even a security apparatus behind him that could possibly protect him from the NSA & the CIA.
– Greenwald’s big mysterious PayPal payday (Brasscheck TV):
I guess alternative journalism does pay
NSA crusader may have something to hide
The speakers here are Sibel Edmonds, Guillermo Jimenez, and James Corbett
The issue:
Why has one of the chief shareholders of PayPal – a company known to cooperate with the NSA – given Glenn Greenwald and friends $250 million – yes one quarter of a billion dollars – to start a new news agency?
With all due respect to Greenwald, why is he so sensitive about the matter and unwilling to discuss the rather obvious conflict of interest openly?
There’s nothing wrong with making money. Nothing wrong with making a lot of money. But this is a little weird to say the least.
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– More Israel disclosures in Snowden’s trove of ‘significant stories’ – Greenwald (RT, Jan 7, 2013):
Glenn Greenwald, the investigative journalist who first published Edward Snowden leaks, said that the NSA whistleblower still has “a huge number of very significant stories to reveal,” including those relating to Israel.
“There definitely are stories left that involve the Middle East, that involve Israel. The reporting is going to continue at roughly the same pace that has been happening,” the former Guardian journalist said in an interview with Channel 10 television station that aired Monday night.
Read moreGlenn Greenwald: More Israel Disclosures In Snowden’s Trove Of ‘Significant Stories’
– Appelbaum: ‘Scary’ NSA will spy on you – every which way they can (RT, Dec 30, 2013):
Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum revealed what he calls “wrist-slitting depressing” details about the National Security Agency’s spy programs at a computer conference in Germany on Monday where he presented previously unpublished NSA files.
Appelbaum is among the small group of experts, activists and journalists who have seen classified United States intelligence documents taken earlier this year by former contractor Edward Snowden, and previously he represented transparency group WikiLeaks at an American hacker conference in 2010. Those conditions alone should suffice in proving to most anybody that Appelbaum has been around more than his fair share of sensitive information, and during his presentation at the thirtieth annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg on Monday he spilled his guts about some of the shadiest spy tactics seen yet through leaked documents.
Read more‘Scary’ NSA Will Spy On You – Every Which Way They Can
– Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit (Der Spiegel, Dec 29, 2013):
Part 1: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit
The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.
In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn’t budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410.
Read moreMeet The Top NSA Hacking Unit: ‘TAO’, The Office Of ‘Tailored Access Operations’
– IT firms lose billions after NSA scandal exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden (Independent, Dec 30, 2013):
The National Security Agency scandal exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden has cost American technology companies billions of dollars in lost revenue as governments and companies in its important export markets of Asia refuse to entrust the handling of sensitive data to US companies. An analysis of financial filings from technology giants IBM and Cisco by The Independent on Sunday reveals the two businesses have seen sales slump by more than $1.7bn (£1.03bn) year-on-year in the important Asia-Pacific region since Mr Snowden revealed in June that US companies had been compromised by the NSA’s intelligence-gathering in the clandestine Prism programme.
“US companies have seen some of their business put at risk because of the NSA revelations,” said James Kelleher of equity research firm Argus Research.
Read moreIT Firms Lose Billions After NSA Scandal Exposed By Whistleblower Edward Snowden
– Greenwald: US, British media are servants of security apparatus (RT, Dec 27, 2013):
Journalist Glenn Greenwald condemned the mainstream media during an address at a German computer conference on Friday and accused his colleagues of failing to challenge erroneous remarks routinely made by government officials around the globe.
Thousands of attendees at the thirtieth annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg packed into a room to watch the 46-year-old lawyer-turned-columnist present a keynote address delivered less than seven months after he started working with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Read moreGlenn Greenwald: US, British Media Are Servants Of Security Apparatus
– US government steps up attack on exposure of NSA spying (WSWS, Dec 24, 2013):
The report issued last Wednesday by a White House panel on US surveillance programs has set the stage for an intensified effort to suppress any further revelations of illegal government spying.
The report largely endorsed the National Security Agency’s operations, hailing the “patriotism” of the operatives who are collecting and stockpiling private information on every American citizen and virtually the entire population of the world. This whitewash came two days after a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s mass collection of telephone records violated the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution’s prohibition of “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Within hours of the report’s issuance, the Obama administration was in court in a further attempt to shut down any legal challenge to the massive violation of privacy rights.
Read moreU.S. Government Steps Up Attack On Exposure Of NSA Spying
– Edward Snowden’s Alternative Christmas Message To The World (ZeroHedge, Dec 25, 2013):
Edward Snowden’s Christmas message, conveyed to the world courtesy of the UK’s Channel 4, from his Russian exile is simple: “end mass surveillance.” Alas, in a world in which social media exhibitionism is the norm, is his message increasingly falling on deaf ears? After all, there is a Duck Dynasty scandal, or a Justin Bieber retirement at any given moment, both of which are far more important than the loss of all personal privacy and the supreme reign of Big Brother.
– $10m NSA contract with security firm RSA led to encryption ‘back door’ (Guardian Dec 20, 2013):
• Flawed formula enabled agency to crack into products
• RSC and NSA decline to comment
As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the National Security Agency arranged a secret $10m contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.
Documents leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers, to create a “back door” in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.
Read more$10 Million NSA Contract With Security Firm RSA Led To Encryption ‘Back Door’
– A Conspiracy So Vast (Lew Rockwell, Dec 12, 2013):
By Andrew P. Napolitano
Readers of this page are well aware of the revelations during the past six months of spying by the National Security Agency (NSA). Edward Snowden, a former employee of an NSA vendor, risked his life and liberty to inform us of a governmental conspiracy to violate our right to privacy, a right guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
The conspiracy he revealed is vast. It involves former President George W. Bush, President Obama and their aides, a dozen or so members of Congress, federal judges, executives and technicians at American computer ISPs and telecoms, and the thousands of NSA employees and vendors who have manipulated their fellow conspirators. The conspirators all agreed that it would be a crime for any of them to reveal the conspiracy. Snowden violated that agreement in order to uphold his higher oath to defend the Constitution.
– NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking (Washington Post, Dec 10, 2013):
A slide from an internal NSA presentation indicating that the agency uses at least one Google cookie as a way to identify targets for exploitation. (Washington Post)
The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using “cookies” and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The agency’s internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.
Read moreNSA Uses Google Cookies To Pinpoint Targets For Hacking
– ‘The Guardian’ falls under the shadow of McCarthyism (EL PAIS, Dec 8, 2013):
The persecution of the UK newspaper over the NSA espionage case shows how the Cameron administration has moved away from moderation
The internet offers many definitions of McCarthyism, named after US Senator Joe McCarthy, who launched a campaign of persecution against alleged communists and traitors between 1950 and 1954, during the Cold War. Let us drop the part about the communists and focus on the traitors instead. Now, consider what is happening to British daily The Guardian for exposing the mass citizen surveillance conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, and for publishing a portion of the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines McCarthyism as “the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence” or as “the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition.” Either definition could apply to The Guardian, now the victim of a campaign launched by the secret services and encouraged by media industry rivals, as well as by UK Prime Minister David Cameron with the inestimable help of the Conservative Party and the odd Labour member.
Read more‘The Guardian’ Falls Under The Shadow Of McCarthyism
– Spies worry over “doomsday” cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden (Reuters, Nov 25, 2013):
British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.
The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.
The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Read moreEdward Snowden’s ‘Doomsday Cache’ Has British And US Intelligence Officials Worried
– NSA infected 50,000 computer networks with malicious software (NRC, Nov 23, 2013):
The American intelligence service – NSA – infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information. Documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this.
A management presentation dating from 2012 explains how the NSA collects information worldwide. In addition, the presentation shows that the intelligence service uses ‘Computer Network Exploitation’ (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations. CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware, malicious software.
– Fisa court order that allowed NSA surveillance is revealed for first time (Guardian, Nov 19, 2013):
A secret court order that authorised a massive trawl by the National Security Agency of Americans’ email and internet data was published for the first time on Monday night, among a trove of documents that also revealed a judge’s concern that the NSA “continuously” and “systematically” violated the limits placed on the program.
The order by the Fisa court, almost certainly its first ruling on the controversial program and published only in heavily redacted form, shows that it granted permisson for the trawl in part beacause of the type of devices used for the surveillance. Even the judge approving the spying called it a “novel use” of government authorities.
Another later court order found that what it called “systemic overcollection” had taken place.
Read moreFISA Court Order That Allowed NSA Surveillance Is Revealed For First Time
– The Internet Is Now Weaponized, And You Are The Target (ZeroHedge, Nov 15, 2013):
By now, thanks to Edward Snowden, it is common knowledge and not just conspiracy theory, that every bit of information sent out into the wired or wireless ether is scanned, probed, intercepted and ultimately recorded by the NSA and subsequently all such information is and can be used against any US citizen without a court of law (because the president’s pet secret NISA “court” is anything but). Sadly, in a country in which courtesy of peak social networking, exhibitionism has become an art form, the vast majority of Americans not only could not care less about Snowden’s sacrificial revelations, but in fact are delighted the at least someone, somewhere cares about that photo of last night’s dinner. However, it turns out that far from being a passive listener and recorder, the NSA is quite an active participant in using the internet. The weaponized internet.
Because as Wired reports, “The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks.” And the primary benefactor: the NSA – General Keith Alexander massive secret army – which has now been unleashed against enemies foreign, but mostly domestic.
Enter the QUANTUM program….
Read moreThe Internet Is Now Weaponized, And You Are The Target
– The U.S. Secret State and the Internet: “Dirty Secrets” and “Crypto Wars” from “Clipper Chip” and ECHELON to PRISM (Global Research, Nov 10, 2013):
Back in the 1990s, security researchers and privacy watchdogs were alarmed by government demands that hardware and software firms build “backdoors” into their products, the millions of personal computers and cell phones propelling communication flows along the now-quaint “information superhighway.”
Never mind that the same factory-installed kit that allowed secret state agencies to troll through private communications also served as a discrete portal for criminal gangs to loot your bank account or steal your identity.