DOCTOR ZIMBARDO posted:

Yeah the "oh most Americans are too racist to care" reaction is laughably idiotic and borderline racist itself. Especially in the absence of anyone actually saying "so what, they're Muslim".

Tezzor posted:

One can't help but suspect that the reason these ostensible lefties are so non-interested in a story about illegal racist discrimination is that they were really hoping to be validated as relevant by they or their leaders being the targets of government surveillance.

Winkle-Daddy posted:

Or it's because unlike when these stories first broke they were front page news on everything from the New York Times to Yahoo! and unfortunately the current revelations have been largely ignored. But sure, those speculating that the lack of reaction is because this country is full of racists are the real racists.

Tezzor posted:

They are not just disappointed because no one will care, if the list was a bunch of radical commies and environmentalists the general population wouldn't care either. They are disappointed because they fantasized about being validated by oppression.

Tezzor posted:

They are not just disappointed because no one will care, if the list was a bunch of radical commies and environmentalists the general population wouldn't care either. They are disappointed because they fantasized about being validated by oppression.

size1one posted:

Or maybe I wanted better assurances that the government isn't violating rights guaranteed by the 4th amendment even in the absence of oppression. Seeing as how I fit the NSA's description of suspicious foreigner (I'm a linux & TOR user, who frequents "suspicious" websites, has a foreign sounding name, and a foreign born wife, who makes frequent overseas calls to places including the middle east) my expectation that they'll respect those rights is zero. But thanks for the condescension, it's much appreciated.

"Earnest" White House Press Secretary posted:

MR. EARNEST: Well, Julie, it’s precisely because we do take these intelligence matters and reports related to purported intelligence matters into our broader national security very seriously that I’m not in a position to comment on them. Again, any sort of comment on any purported intelligence activity would place at risk U.S. assets, U.S. personnel, and the United States’ national security. So I’m just not in a position to comment on it.

We do continue to be in touch with the Germans at a variety of levels, including through law enforcement, diplomatic, and even intelligence channels. We’re in touch because we recognize the value and the strong partnership that exists between the United States and Germany. That partnership covers a variety of issues, including national security and intelligence-sharing matters. So we value --

General Keith Alexander, the then director of the NSA, was briefed that the Guardian was prepared to make a largely symbolic act of destroying documents from Edward Snowden last July, new documents reveal.

The revelation that Alexander and Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, were advised on the Guardian's destruction of several hard disks and laptops contrasts markedly with public White House statements that distanced the US from the decision.

White House and NSA emails obtained by Associated Press under freedom of information legislation demonstrate how pleased Alexander and his colleagues were with the developments. At times the correspondence takes a celebratory tone, with one official describing the anticipated destruction as "good news".

On 20 July 2013, three Guardian editors destroyed all copies of the its Snowden material held in London (video), under the supervision of two GCHQ staff following a period of intense political pressure in the UK.

The decision to destroy the UK copies of the material was taken in a climate of advancing legal threats from Cabinet Office and intelligence officials. The Guardian and its publishing partners, which included the New York Times and the not-for-profit news organisation ProPublica, held other copies of the material in the US, and continued reporting revelations from the documents.

When the Guardian revealed it had destroyed several computers a month later in August, the White House spokesman Josh Earnest initially remarked it was hard to "evaluate the propriety of what they did based on incomplete knowledge of what happened" but said it would be hard to imagine the same events occurring in the US.

"That's very difficult to imagine a scenario in which that would be appropriate," he concluded.

However, heavily redacted email correspondence obtained by AP reporter Jack Gillum shows senior NSA officials celebrating the destruction of the material, even before it had occurred.

An email to Alexander from Rick Ledgett, now deputy director of the NSA, has the subject line "Guardian data being destroyed", and is dated 19 July, a day before the destruction of the files. Most is heavily redacted, but Ledgett remarks: "Good news, at least on this front."

A day later, hours after the material was destroyed, Alexander follows up with Ledgett, asking: "Can you confirm this actually occurred?"

Later that day, Clapper emails Alexander under the same subject line, saying: "Thanks Keith … appreciate the conversation today".

The remainder of the emails are redacted, including the subject lines in many cases, meaning it is unclear who from the British government briefed the senior NSA and White House staff on the destruction, or whether US officials had any input to the decision to encourage destruction of journalistic material.

A spokeswoman for the Guardian said the revelation of the US-UK correspondence on the destruction was disappointing.

"We're disappointed to learn that cross-Atlantic conversations were taking place at the very highest levels of government ahead of the bizarre destruction of journalistic material that took place in the Guardian's basement last July," she said. "What's perhaps most concerning is that the disclosure of these emails appears to contradict the White House's comments about these events last year, when they questioned the appropriateness of the UK government's intervention."

The NSA and GCHQ declined to respond to AP's requests for comment on the email exchange.

The National Security Agency has acknowledged it retains a record of e-mail communications from former contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden, but says those records are exempt from public disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

In a letter responding to a June 27 FOIA request from The Desk, the NSA’s chief FOIA officer Pamela Phillips wrote that while the agency has retained records related to Snowden’s employment as a contractor, they are being withheld from public examination because, among other things, releasing the records “could interfere with law enforcement proceedings, could cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, could reveal the identities of confidential sources or would reveal law enforcement techniques and procedures.”

Other records are being withheld because those documents were “also found to be currently and properly classified…and remains classified TOP SECRET, SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL.”

The letter marks the first time the NSA has publicly acknowledged retaining communication and employment records related to Snowden’s time as a contractor.

The Desk‘s original FOIA request was for “and and all e-mails sent by Edward Snowden using the e-mail address ejsnowd@nsa.ic.gov to any and all NSA officials, including officials at the Office of General Counsel, for the time period between January 1, 2013 and June 1, 2013.” Though the request did not specify records related to Snowden’s claim that he raised concerns about the legality clandestine NSA surveillance programs, Phillips wrote that “there are no e-mails indicating that Mr. Snowden contacted agency officials to raise concerns about NSA programs.”

The agency has made similar statements in the past: Last December, the NSA told Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman that Snowden raise no questions about surveillance programs with superiors during his time as a contractor.

“After extensive investigation, including interviews with his former NSA supervisors and co-workers, we have not found any evidence to support Mr. Snowden’s contention that he brought these matters to anyone’s attention,” an agency official told Gellman.

But the NSA walked back this claim after an NBC News broadcast in May in which Snowden asserted the agency had e-mail records in which he repeatedly raised concerns about secret spy programs. Shortly after the interview was broadcast, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence de-classified one e-mail record in which Snowden writes to a superior with a question about legal authorities.

That e-mail, the NSA claimed, proved that Snowden did not act as a whistleblower. The agency clarified its position to say it had no records of Snowden raising direct concerns about the legality of NSA spy programs, something Snowden has refuted.

“The NSA’s new discovery of written contact between me and its lawyers — after more than a year of denying any such contact existed – raises serious concerns,” Snowden told NBC News in a follow-up e-mail. “It reveals as false the NSA’s claim to Barton Gellman of the Washington Post in December of last year.”

Snowden is currently holed up somewhere in Russia under temporary political asylum. He fled to Hong Kong shortly before the first set of stories were published based on thousands of classified documents he took during his time as an NSA contractor. He was en route to a different location when the U.S. government suspended his travel visa, stranding him in Russia.

The NSA informed The Desk that the agency has a process for appealing FOIA requests that are denied or to challenge the withholding of certain records. The Desk will be taking advantage of this process.

quote:

At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney

Dum Cumpster posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/the-ultimate-goal-of-the-nsa-is-total-population-control

quote:

Edward Snowden has revealed that he witnessed “numerous instances” of National Security Agency (NSA) employees passing around nude photos that were intercepted “in the course of their daily work.”

"You've got young enlisted guys, 18 to 22 years old,” Snowden said. “They've suddenly been thrust into a position of extraordinary responsibility where they now have access to all of your private records. In the course of their daily work they stumble across something that is completely unrelated to their work in any sort of necessary sense. For example, an intimate nude photo of someone in a sexually compromising position. But they're extremely attractive.

“So what do they do? They turn around in their chair and show their co-worker. The co-worker says: ‘Hey that's great. Send that to Bill down the way.’ And then Bill sends it to George and George sends it to Tom. And sooner or later this person's whole life has been seen by all of these other people. It's never reported. Nobody ever knows about it because the auditing of these systems is incredibly weak.

Broken Machine posted:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/snowden-nsa-employees-routinely-pass-around-intercepted-nude-photos/

Dr.Caligari posted:

You know what, maybe all of these releases and 'leaks' were just a test to see just how docile the US population is What does it take for people to say 'This isn't worth it'?

Broken Machine posted:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/snowden-nsa-employees-routinely-pass-around-intercepted-nude-photos/

The Intercept posted:

*COLLECTION*


• AIRWOLF - YouTube profile, comment and video collection.
  
• ANCESTRY - Tool for discovering the creation date of yahoo selectors.
  
• BEARTRAP - Bulk retrival of public BEBO profiles from member or group ID.
  
• BIRDSONG - Automated posting of Twitter updates.
  
• BIRDSTRIKE - Twitter monitoring and profile collection.
  
• BUGSY - Google+ collection (circles, profiles etc.)
  
• DRAGON'S SNOUT - Paltalk group chat collection.
  
• EXCALIBUR - Acquires a Paltalk UID and/or email address from a Screen Name.
  
• FUSEWIRE - Provides 24/7 monitoring of Vbulliten forums for target postings/online activity. Also allows staggered postings to be made.
  
• HACIENDA - A port scanning tool designed to scan an entire country or city.
  
• MOUTH - Tool for collection for downloading a user's files from Archive.org.
  
• SEBACIUM - A system to identify P2P file sharing activity of intelligence value.
  
• SPRING BISHOP - Find private photographs of targets on Facebook.
  
• SYLVESTER - Framework for automated interaction / alias management on online social networks.
  
  
  *EFFECTS CAPABILITY*
  
  
• ANGRY PIRATE - A tool that will permanently disable a target's account on their computer.
  
• BUMPERCAR+ - BUMPERCAR operations are used to disrupt and deny internet-based terror videos or other material. The technique employs the services provided by upload providers to report offensive materials.
  
• BOMB BAY - Capability to increase website hits/rankings.
  
• BADGER - Mass delivery of email messaging.
  
• BURLESQUE - Capability to send spoofed SMS text messages.
  
• CLEAN SWEEP - Masquerade Facebook Wall Posts for individuals or entire countries.
  
• CLUMSY BEEKEEPER - Some work in progress to investigate IRC effects.
  
• CHINESE FIRECRACKER - Overt brute login attempts against online forums.
  
• CONCRETE DONKEY - Capability to scatter an audio message to a large number of telephones, or repeatedly bomb a target with the same message.
  
• GATEWAY - Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website.
  
• GESTATOR - Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube).
  
• GLITTERBALL - Online Gaming Capabilities for Sensitive Operations. Currently Second Life.
  
• PITBULL - Large scale delivery of a tailored message to users of Instant Messaging services.
  
• POISONED DAGGER - Effects against Gigatribe. (a P2P network)
  
• PREDATORS FACE - Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers.
  
• ROLLING THUNDER - Distributed Denial Of Service using P2P.
  
• SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE - Perfect spoofing of emails from Blackberry targets.
  
• SERPENTS TONGUE - Fax message broadcasting to multiple numbers.
  
• SILVERBLADE - Reporting of extremist material on DAILYMOTION.
  
• SILVERLORD - Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.
  
• SKYSCRAPER - Production and dissemination of multimedia via the web.
  
• SLIPSTREAM - Ability to inflate page views on websites.
  
• STEALTH MOOSE - Tool to disrupt target's Windows machine. Logs how long and when the effect is active.
  
• SUNBLOCK - Ability to deny functionality to send/receive email or view material online.
  
• SWAMP DONKEY - Tool that will silently locate all predefined types of files and encrypt them on a targets machine.
  
• UNDERPASS - Change outcome of online polls.
  
• WARPATH - Mass delivery of SMS messages.
  
  
  *WORKFLOW*
  
  
• NAMEJACKER - A web service and admin console for the translation of usernames between networks. For use with gateways and other such technologies.
  
  
  *ANALYSIS TOOLS*
  
  
• BABYLON - Tool that bulk queries web mail addresses and verifies whether they can be signed up for.
  
• ELATE - Suite of tools for monitoring target use of the auction site eBay. These tools are hosted on an internet server, and results are retrieved by encrypted mail.
  
• TANGLEFOOT - Tool which bulk queries a set of online resources. This allows analysts to quickly check the online presence of a target.
  
  
  *TECHNIQUES*
  
  
• CHANGELING - Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity.
  
• HAVOK - Real time website cloning allowing on-the-fly alterations.
  
• SPACE ROCKET - A programme covering insertion of media into target networks.
  
• RANA - Provides CAPTCHA-solving via a web service. This is intended for use by BUMPERCAR+ and possibly in the future by SHORTFALL, but anyone is welcome to use it.
  
• LUMP - A system that finds the avatar name from a Second Life AgentID.
  
  
  *HONEYPOTS AND SHAPING*
  
  
• DEADPOOL - URL shortening service.
  
• LONGSHOT - File upload and sharing website.
  
• MOLTEN MAGMA - CGI HTTP proxy with ability to log all traffic and perform HTTPS Man in the Middle.
  
• NIGHTCRAWLER - Public online group against dodgy websites.
  
• PISTRIX - Image hosting and sharing website.
  
• WURLITZER - Distribute a file to multiple file hosting websites.
  

quote:

Don't treat this like a catalogue. If you don't see it here, it doesn't mean we can't build it.

Sudo Echo posted:

I wonder what would happen if you made a big microwave reflector and put it in front of one of those protestor microwaves.

quote:

*HONEYPOTS AND SHAPING*

DEADPOOL - URL shortening service.
LONGSHOT - File upload and sharing website.
MOLTEN MAGMA - CGI HTTP proxy with ability to log all traffic and perform HTTPS Man in the Middle.
NIGHTCRAWLER - Public online group against dodgy websites.
PISTRIX - Image hosting and sharing website.
WURLITZER - Distribute a file to multiple file hosting websites.

quote:

CHANGELING - Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity.
SPACE ROCKET - A programme covering insertion of media into target networks.

Dr.Caligari posted:

These two are the most alarming to me. You could permanently ruin an innocent persons reputation/life using these.. And what could that person say? "I didn't do it"? "The government did it"?

Thats hosed.

Dr.Caligari posted:

These two are the most alarming to me. You could permanently ruin an innocent persons reputation/life using these.. And what could that person say? "I didn't do it"? "The government did it"?

Thats hosed.

Jacobin posted:

News that Glenn Greenwald is coming to New Zealand to speak on the 15th next month is making some waves here.

quote:

BODY-LANGUAGE EXPERT: I Would Not Trust Anything Snowden Said To NBC

Winkle-Daddy posted:

This seems like a strange thing to have lied about.

tentative8e8op posted:

Mr. Edward Epstein's writings are used as the basis for a few of these as well. I'm going to wait for better information before I'll believe your link, sorry.

quote:

While the nomination process appears methodical on paper, in practice there is a shortcut around the entire system. Known as a “threat-based expedited upgrade,” it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to elevate entire “categories of people” whose names appear in the larger databases onto the no fly or selectee lists. This can occur, the guidelines state, when there is a “particular threat stream” indicating that a certain type of individual may commit a terrorist act.

quote:

The list of government entities that collect this data includes the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is neither an intelligence nor law-enforcement agency. As the rulebook notes, USAID funds foreign aid programs that promote environmentalism, health care, and education. USAID, which presents itself as committed to fighting global poverty, nonetheless appears to serve as a conduit for sensitive intelligence about foreigners. According to the guidelines, “When USAID receives an application seeking financial assistance, prior to granting, these applications are subject to vetting by USAID intelligence analysts at the TSC.” The guidelines do not disclose the volume of names provided by USAID, the type of information it provides, or the number and duties of the “USAID intelligence analysts.”

Aurubin posted:

What was fun about this was that if multiple agencies had placed you on a list, and you challenged it, they all had to agree to take you off. Incredibly easy to get on, incredibly hard to get off. Like the guy who had been fingered for being everything from the Zodiac Killer to the Unabomber.

Aurubin posted:

What was fun about this was that if multiple agencies had placed you on a list, and you challenged it, they all had to agree to take you off. Incredibly easy to get on, incredibly hard to get off. Like the guy who had been fingered for being everything from the Zodiac Killer to the Unabomber.

The Intercept posted:

The NSA’s New Partner in Spying: Saudi Arabia’s Brutal State Police

The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world’s most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency’s plans “to provide direct analytic and technical support” to the Saudis on “internal security” matters.