Monitoring NSA in de VS en erbuiten, deel 8

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D-notice system to be reviewed in wake of Edward Snowden revelations

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Officials are planning to review the historic D-notice system, which warns the media not to publish intelligence that might damage security, in the wake of the Guardian's stories about mass surveillance by the security services based on leaks from the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Sources said Jon Thompson, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, was setting up an inquiry into the future of the committee, raising fears that the voluntary censorship system also known as the DA-notice could be made compulsory.

The committee is supposed to be consulted when news organisations are considering publishing material relating to secret intelligence or the military. It is staffed by senior civil servants and media representatives, who give advice on the publication of sensitive stories.

The MoD declined to say why the future of the committee was being considered, but minutes of its latest meeting say: "The events of the last few months had undoubtedly raised questions in some minds about the system's future usefulness."

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NSA and GCHQ target 'leaky' phone apps like Angry Birds to scoop user data

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The National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have been developing capabilities to take advantage of "leaky" smartphone apps, such as the wildly popular Angry Birds game, that transmit users' private information across the internet, according to top secret documents.

The data pouring onto communication networks from the new generation of iPhone and Android apps ranges from phone model and screen size to personal details such as age, gender and location. Some apps, the documents state, can share users' most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in the material even sends specific sexual preferences such as whether or not the user may be a swinger.

Many smartphone owners will be unaware of the full extent this information is being shared across the internet, and even the most sophisticated would be unlikely to realise that all of it is available for the spy agencies to collect.

Dozens of classified documents, provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden and reported in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica, detail the NSA and GCHQ efforts to piggyback on this commercial data collection for their own purposes.

Scooping up information the apps are sending about their users allows the agencies to collect large quantities of mobile phone data from their existing mass surveillance tools – such as cable taps, or from international mobile networks – rather than solely from hacking into individual mobile handsets.

Exploiting phone information and location is a high-priority effort for the intelligence agencies, as terrorists and other intelligence targets make substantial use of phones in planning and carrying out their activities, for example by using phones as triggering devices in conflict zones. The NSA has cumulatively spent more than $1bn in its phone targeting efforts.

The disclosures also reveal how much the shift towards smartphone browsing could benefit spy agencies' collection efforts.

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GCHQ taught NSA how to monitor Facebook, Twitter in real time – Snowden leak

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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.

The leaked documents are from a GCHQ publication titled ‘Psychology: A New Kind of SIGDEV’ (Signals Development). Published by NBC News on Monday, the papers detail a program dubbed ‘Squeaky Dolphin,’ which was developed for analysts working in “broad real-time monitoring of online activity.”

Sources told NBC that the British have proven their ability to both directly monitor the world’s web traffic cable and use a third party to view the data stream and extract information from it.

Representatives from the companies in question said they have not provided any data to the government of the United Kingdom under this program, either voluntarily or involuntarily. One person who wished to remain anonymous said that Google, the company that owns YouTube, was “shocked” to discover the UK may have been “grabbing” data for years.

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NASA and Britain’s GCHQ Mapping “Political Alignments” of Millions of Smartphone Users Worldwide.

New information made public by Edward Snowden reveals that the governments of the United States and United Kingdom are trawling data from cellphone “apps” to accumulate dossiers on the “political alignments” of millions of smartphone users worldwide.

According to a 2012 internal UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) document, the National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ have been accumulating and storing hundreds of millions of user “cookies” —the digital footprints left on a cellphone or computer each time a user visits a web site—in order to accumulate detailed personal information about users’ private lives.

This confirms that the main purpose of the programs is not to protect the population from “terrorism,” but to facilitate the state repression of working class opposition to widening social inequality and social counterrevolution. The programs do not primarily target “terrorists,” but workers, intellectuals, and students.

The collection of data regarding the “political alignment” of cellphone users also suggests that the governments of the US and UK are keeping lists of those whose “political alignments” are of concern to the government. Previous revelations have shown how the NSA and GCHQ “flag” certain “suspects” for additional surveillance: the most recent revelation indicates that suspects are “flagged” at least in part based on their “political alignment.”

The legal rationale behind this process points to a growing movement to criminalize political thought in the US and UK.

If, as the revelations indicate, determining a user’s “political alignment” is a primary goal of this program, then it is also likely a factor in determining whether the government has a “reasonable, articulable suspicion” that the user is a “terrorist suspect.” If this is the case, the web sites a user visits may raise the government’s level of suspicion that the user is engaged in criminal activity, and may thereby provide the government with the pseudo-legal pretext required to unlock the content of all his or her phone calls, emails, text messages, etc.

Such a rationale would amount to a flagrant violation of both the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Not only does the Fourth Amendment protect against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” but the First Amendment also proscribes the government from monitoring individuals based on their political beliefs. The elimination of such a fundamental democratic right would be a dangerous step towards the imposition of a police state dictatorship.

The new report also details the depth of the mobile-app spying operation.

A 2009 “brute-force” analysis test performed by the NSA and GCHQ of what the New York Times describes as a “tiny sliver of their cellphone databases” revealed that in one month, the NSA collected cellphone data of 8,615,650 cellphone users. Data from the GCHQ test revealed that in three months, the British had spied on 24,760,289 users. Expanded to a full year, this data shows that in 2009, the NSA collected data from over 103,000,000 users, while GCHQ collected data from over 99,000,000 users: and this coming from only a “tiny sliver” of a month’s data!

“They are gathered in bulk, and are currently our single largest type of events,” one leaked document reads.

The program—referred to in one NSA document as “Golden Nugget!”—also allows the governments to receive a log of users’ Google Maps application use. Such information allows the intelligence apparatus to track the exact whereabouts of surveillance victims worldwide. One chart from an internal NSA slideshow asks: “Where was my target when they did this?” and “Where is my target going?”

An NSA report from 2007 bragged that so much geo-data could be gathered that the intelligence agencies would “be able to clone Google’s database” of all searches for directions made via Google Maps.

“It effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system,” a 2008 GCHQ report noted.

Additional presentation material leaked by Snowden shows that in 2010 the NSA explained that its “perfect scenario” was to “target uploading photo to a social media site taken with a mobile device.” The same slide asks, “What can we get?” The answer, according to the same presentation, includes the photographs of the user, buddy lists, emails, phone contacts, and “a host of other social networking data as well as location.”

The agencies also use information provided by mobile apps to paint a clear picture of the victim’s current location, sexual orientation, marital status, income, ethnicity, education level, and number of children.

GCHQ has an internal code-name system for grading their ability to snoop on a particular cellphone user. The codes are based on the television show “The Smurfs.” If the agencies can tap the phone’s microphone to listen to conversations, the codename “Nosey Smurf” is employed. If the agencies can track the precise location of the user as he or she moves, the codename “Tracker Smurf” is used. The ability to track a phone that is powered off is named “Dreamy Smurf,” and the ability to hide the spy software is coded “Paranoid Smurf.”

That the intelligence agencies have cheekily nicknamed codes in an Orwellian surveillance program after animated characters from a children’s show is a telling indication of the contempt with which the ruling class views the democratic rights of the population of the world.

Additionally, the agencies have been tracking and storing data from a series of cellphone game applications, including the popular “Angry Birds” game, which has been downloaded over 1.7 billion times.

The tracking of data from online games like “Angry Birds” further reveals that these programs are not intended to protect the population from “terrorism.” It would be indefensible for the NSA and GCHQ to explain that they suspected to glean information about looming Al Qaeda plots from a mindless cellphone game.

Yet this is precisely how the NSA has attempted to justify these programs.

“The communications of people who are not valid foreign intelligence targets are not of interest to the National Security Agency,” an agency spokeswoman said. “Any implication that NSA’s foreign intelligence collection is focused on the smartphone or social media communications of everyday Americans is not true. Moreover, NSA does not profile everyday Americans as it carries out its foreign intelligence mission.”

In an added indication of its anti-democratic character, the US government is therefore employing the technique of the “Big Lie” by denying what has just been proven true.

In reality, the revelations have further exposed President Barack Obama’s January 17 speech as a celebration of lies.

The president told the nation that the spying programs do “not involve the NSA examining the phone records of ordinary Americans.” He also said that the US “is not abusing authorities to listen to your private phone calls or read your emails,” and that “the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security.”

He added in reference to the “folks” at the NSA that “nothing I have learned [about the programs] indicated that our intelligence community has sought to violate the law or is cavalier about the civil liberties of their fellow citizens.”

But the evidence is mounting that the governments of the US and UK are compiling information regarding the “political alignments” of hundreds of millions across the globe. All those responsible for carrying out such a facially anti-democratic campaign—including President Obama, David Cameron, their aides, and the leaders of the security apparatus—must face criminal charges and immediate removal from office.

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FBI Appears To Have Collected Tormail's Entire Email Database... And It's Using It

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We've mentioned in the past that, for all the focus on the NSA lately, the FBI may be equally, if not more, worrisome for its willingness to collect tons of data on everyone and use it. Back in August, it became pretty clear that the FBI had compromised the Tor Browser Bundle, and had effectively taken over Freedom Hosting -- a popular hosting provider for dark web tor sites -- in order to push out malware that identified Tor users. A month later, it was confirmed that it was the FBI behind the effort, which led to the closing of Freedom Hosting.

Now there are new reports, suggesting that along with Freedom Hosting, the FBI was able to get the full database of emails on TorMail, a popular tor-based email service that used Freedom Hosting and was shut down at the same time Freedom Hosting went down. The reports point to a new lawsuit, in which the FBI was able to get a search warrant to search TorMail using its own copy of the database -- which it clearly had obtained at an earlier date. This basically means that the FBI has a pretty easy time searching all those emails if it needs to:

. The tactic suggests the FBI is adapting to the age of big-data with an NSA-style collect-everything approach, gathering information into a virtual lock box, and leaving it there until it can obtain specific authority to tap it later. There’s no indication that the FBI searched the trove for incriminating evidence before getting a warrant. But now that it has a copy of TorMail’s servers, the bureau can execute endless search warrants on a mail service that once boasted of being immune to spying.

This again highlights one of the problems of the "collect it all" approach. Rather than merely targeting a specific individual or group, the FBI now has all of those emails sitting in a database. Even if it's getting a warrant to search, it's now searching its own database, rather than having to go out to get the information from others who might challenge the requests.

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Huge swath of GCHQ mass surveillance is illegal, says top lawyer

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GCHQ's mass surveillance spying programmes are probably illegal and have been signed off by ministers in breach of human rights and surveillance laws, according to a hard-hitting legal opinion that has been provided to MPs.

The advice warns that Britain's principal surveillance law is too vague and is almost certainly being interpreted to allow the agency to conduct surveillance that flouts privacy safeguards set out in the European convention on human rights (ECHR).

The inadequacies, it says, have created a situation where GCHQ staff are potentially able to rely "on the gaps in the current statutory framework to commit serious crime with impunity".

At its most extreme, the advice raises issues about the possible vulnerability of staff at GCHQ if it could be proved that intelligence used for US drone strikes against "non-combatants" had been passed on or supplied by the British before being used in a missile attack.

"An individual involved in passing that information is likely to be an accessory to murder. It is well arguable, on a variety of different bases, that the government is obliged to take reasonable steps to investigate that possibility," the advice says.

The opinion suggests the UK should consider publishing a Memorandum of Understanding with any country with which it intends to share intelligence.

This would clarify what the intelligence can be used for under British law, and how the data will be stored and destroyed.

The legal advice has been sent to the 46 members of the all-party parliamentary group on drones, which is chaired by the Labour MP, Tom Watson.

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"We consider the mass interception of external contents and communications data is unlawful. The indiscriminate interception of data, solely by reference to the request of the executive, is a disproportionate interference with the private life of the individuals concerned."

Last June, Snowden leaked thousands of files about the surveillance activities of GCHQ and its US counterpart the NSA.

One of the key revelations focussed on Operation Tempora, a GCHQ programme that harvests vast amounts of information by tapping into the undersea cables that carry internet and phone traffic passing in and out of the UK. GCHQ and Hague, have repeatedly insisted the agency acts in accordance with the law.

Last year Hague told MPs: "It has been suggested GCHQ uses our partnership with the US to get around UK law, obtaining information that they cannot legally obtain in the UK. I wish to be absolutely clear that this accusation is baseless."

However, the legal advice poses awkward new questions about the framework GCHQ operates within, the role of ministers and the legality of transferring bulk data to other spy agencies.

The advice makes clear Ripa does not allow GCHQ to conduct mass surveillance on communications between people in the UK, even if the data has briefly left British shores because the call or email has travelled to an internet server overseas.

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ECA_Legion twitterde op dinsdag 28-01-2014 om 23:11:43 It's not just you nsa.gov appears to be Down via #Anonymous reageer retweet

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r3v3r3nd_m4yh3m twitterde op dinsdag 28-01-2014 om 23:30:15 STEAL THIS TWEET nsa.gov #TANGODOWN #Anonymous #ProtectSnowden #FreeAnons #OpBlitzkrieg We Are Legion #AntiSec #LulzSec reageer retweet

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Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

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Philips werkte jarenlang intensief samen met NSA-spionnen

Elektronicaconcern Philips heeft jarenlang intensief samengewerkt met de Amerikaanse inlichtingendienst NSA. Philips verkocht beveiligde telefoons aan de Nederlandse overheid, waarvan de versleuteling afkomstig was van de Amerikaanse spionnen en hun Britse collega's (de GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters).

De telefoons zijn tot een paar jaar geleden door het Nederlandse leger en op ambassades gebruikt. De NSA bevond zich in het hart van het Nederlandse militaire en diplomatieke verkeer. Philips liep in zekere zin aan de leiband van de NSA, zo beschrijft onderzoeksjournalist en Philips-biograaf Marcel Metze in een artikel dat vandaag in De Groene Amsterdammer verschijnt.

Uit archiefonderzoek en gesprekken met voormalige medewerkers van Philips-dochter Ultra Sonore Fabricage Afdeling (USFA), de cryptografische afdeling van het concern, blijkt dat het bedrijf wel met de Amerikanen moest samenwerken. Zonder de NSA-input maakten de Nederlanders geen kans op opdrachten van NAVO-landen.

Encryptiemachines
Dus nam Philips de NSA aan boord, toen het begin jaren tachtig encryptiemachines ging bouwen voor de NAVO en meedong naar een grote order (200 miljoen gulden) voor een nieuw communicatienetwerk voor het Nederlandse leger. Philips leverde in de jaren daarna onder de codenaam Zodiac mobiele verbindingen, telefooncentrales en duizenden digitaal beveiligde telefoons aan het leger. De telefoons waren zeer vernieuwend: ze verhaspelden de woorden meteen tijdens het spreken. Ook het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken nam de telefoons af.

De NSA leverde een met de GCHQ ontwikkeld versleutelingsprogramma voor de telefoons, Saville, dat ingebakken in drie chips in de apparaten werd ingebouwd. Er waren slechts enkele medewerkers bij Philips die het algoritme kenden.

Overigens zat de NSA-code in alle apparatuur van de NAVO-landen. 'De NSA had die order gewonnen, zij waren gewoon de beste', zegt hoogleraar computerbeveiliging Bart Jacobs van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen.
Of de Amerikanen hun kennis misbruikt hebben is niet duidelijk. Betrokken Philips-medewerkers zeggen daarvan niet op de hoogte te zijn. Als de Amerikanen opzettelijk een zwakke plek (een 'achterdeur') in de software zouden hebben ingebouwd, zou dat henzelf ook kwetsbaar hebben gemaakt zegt Jacobs. 'Want zij gebruikten de apparaten zelf ook binnen de NAVO.'

Achterdeurtjes
Uit documenten van Snowden is vorig jaar gebleken dat de NSA graag dergelijke achterdeurtjes inbouwt in commerciële encryptiesoftware. Zo bleek vorig jaar dat de NSA ook een zwakke plek had laten maken in een algoritme van het bedrijf RSA. De commissie die president Obama adviseerde over de NSA pleitte er in december voor dat de dienst zich niet meer bemoeit met encryptiesoftware bij bedrijven. Of de NSA nog steeds apparatuur levert aan NAVO-landen is niet bekend. Jacobs: 'Ik kan me niet voorstellen van niet.'

Philips wil hierop niet inhoudelijk reageren, omdat het archief van de betrokken dochter USFA in 1989 via de verkoop van Holland Signaal is beland bij het Franse Thomson. Ook noemt een woordvoerder delen van het verhaal speculatief. 'Wij zien op grond hiervan geen aanleiding om eigen onderzoek te beginnen.'

Een woordvoerder van het ministerie van Defensie zegt dat het 'niet meer dan logisch is' dat bondgenoten met elkaar kunnen praten. 'Dan is het ook niet raar dat diensten voor encryptie van communicatieapparatuur met bedrijven samenwerken.'

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James Clapper Suggests Journalists Could Be Edward Snowden's 'Accomplices'

NEW YORK -– Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and his “accomplices” to return leaked documents during a hearing on Wednesday.

"Snowden claims that he’s won and that his mission is accomplished," Clapper said, according to a transcript from the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, posted by the Washington Post. "If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents that have not yet been exposed, to prevent even more damage to U.S. security."

So who, exactly, are Snowden’s “accomplices?”

Guardian national security editor Spencer Ackerman, among others, questioned on Twitter whether Clapper was referring to journalists.

HuffPost put the question to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which didn't rule out that journalists could be considered "accomplices."

The office's public affairs director Shawn Turner said in an email that “director Clapper was referring to anyone who is assisting Snowden to further threaten our national security through the unauthorized disclosure of stolen documents related to lawful foreign intelligence collection programs.”

The suggestion that Snowden is conspiring with journalists, rather than acting as their source, has come up ever since the National Security Agency surveillance story broke last spring.

In June, "Meet the Press" host David Gregory asked journalist Glenn Greenwald about having "aided and abetted" Snowden, language that suggests the reporter was a participant in a crime. Earlier this month, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) described Greenwald as Snowden's "accomplice."

Members of Congress and government officials have long claimed, both anonymously and in TV interviews, that China and Russia likely obtained the leaked NSA documents and that Snowden may be a spy. Snowden was the eighth person charged under the Espionage Act for leaking information during the Obama administration.

Despite generating headlines, Snowden's critics haven't provided direct evidence to back up such claims. Last week, Snowden told The New Yorker that allegations he's a Russian spy are "absurd."

But Snowden did provide documents last year to Greenwald, and journalists Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman. The ongoing NSA coverage has detailed the extent of U.S. surveillance and sparked a worldwide debate.

The Guardian, where Greenwald previously worked, provided a subset of the documents to The New York Times and ProPublica. Meanwhile, Poitras and Greenwald, who are believed to have the full set, have continued reporting on specific documents with news organizations around the world. On Monday, for instance, Greenwald co-wrote an NBC News story about how the British government could spy on Facebook and YouTube users.

It doesn’t seem possible that all the documents could be returned by Snowden. Snowden has said he gave what he had to journalists in Hong Kong, so he no longer was carrying the documents when he arrived in Russia, where he remains under temporary asylum.

Still, the idea that Snowden might be capable of securing the leaked information has been floated before by a top government official.

Last month, NSA task force head Rick Ledgett told “60 Minutes” that any conversation with Snowden about amnesty could only take place if there were “assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured.”

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NSA spied on Copenhagen UN climate summit – Snowden leak

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The document was published on an internal NSA site on the first day of the Denmark conference, December 7, 2009, and stated that “analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries’ preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberation within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies.”

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French Surveillance Programs Eerily Echo The NSA's, Right Down To Codifying Unconstitutional Collections

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As the NSA leaks have expanded to detail spying activities in other countries, those governments affected have had a variety of reactions. In some cases, legitimately questionable tactics were exposed (potential economic espionage in Brazil, tapping German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone) and the responses were genuinely outraged. In other cases, the outrage was temporary and somewhat muted, suggesting these countries were allowing the NSA to take the heat for their own questionable surveillance programs aimed at their citizens.

When news broke of the NSA acquiring millions of metadata records from French phone companies, the response from the French government seemed like little more than an attempt to shift the focus off its own PRISM-esque collection programs. In response, the ODNI delivered a statement that rebutted the word salad created by an algorithmic translation of the original French article. Plausible deniability via translation tech. The NSA couldn't have asked for a better setup.

But the story swiftly faded into the background. The minimal outrage failed to sustain itself and was soon swept away by the exposure of more NSA documents. One French telco, Orange, has declared its intentions to sue the NSA for tapping its undersea cables, but further reaction from the government has remained almost nonexistent.

That the heat failed to stay on the NSA may prove to be a problem as more details have surfaced suggesting the French government respects its citizens no more than the US government does. Making things a bit messier is the fact that the French intelligence agencies' actions aren't subject to judicial control but rather answer solely to the executive branch (as it were) directly. While our judicial oversight may be more "rubber stamp" than "check and balance," it at least helps prevent agencies from operating completely under the cover of executive decisions.

But the limits, or lack thereof, are nearly identical to those of the NSA. According to its 2006 anti-terrorist law, agencies do not need warrants to access data or perform investigations that fall under the scope of the anti-terrorism legislation. Needless to say, the law has since expanded to cover even more data and content.

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CSEC used airport Wi-Fi to track Canadian travellers: Edward Snowden documents

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A top secret document retrieved by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and obtained by CBC News shows that Canada's electronic spy agency used information from the free internet service at a major Canadian airport to track the wireless devices of thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they left the terminal.

After reviewing the document, one of Canada's foremost authorities on cyber-security says the clandestine operation by the Communications Security Establishment Canada ( CSEC) was almost certainly illegal.

Ronald Deibert told CBC News: "I can't see any circumstance in which this would not be unlawful, under current Canadian law, under our Charter, under CSEC's mandates."

The spy agency is supposed to be collecting primarily foreign intelligence by intercepting overseas phone and internet traffic, and is prohibited by law from targeting Canadians or anyone in Canada without a judicial warrant.

As CSEC chief John Forster recently stated: "I can tell you that we do not target Canadians at home or abroad in our foreign intelligence activities, nor do we target anyone in Canada.

"In fact, it's prohibited by law. Protecting the privacy of Canadians is our most important principle."

But security experts who have been apprised of the document point out the airline passengers in a Canadian airport were clearly in Canada.

CSEC said in a written statement to CBC News that it is "mandated to collect foreign signals intelligence to protect Canada and Canadians. And in order to fulfill that key foreign intelligence role for the country, CSEC is legally authorized to collect and analyze metadata."

Metadata reveals a trove of information including, for example, the location and telephone numbers of all calls a person makes and receives — but not the content of the call, which would legally be considered a private communication and cannot be intercepted without a warrant.

"No Canadian communications were (or are) targeted, collected or used," the agency says.

In the case of the airport tracking operation, the metadata apparently identified travelers' wireless devices, but not the content of calls made or emails sent from them.

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Footage released of Guardian editors destroying Snowden hard drives

GCHQ technicians watched as journalists took angle grinders and drills to computers after weeks of tense negotiations

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The bizarre episode in the basement of the Guardian's London HQ was the climax of Downing Street's fraught interactions with the Guardian in the wake of Snowden's leak the biggest in the history of western intelligence. The details are revealed in a new book published next week The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by the Guardian correspondent Luke Harding. The book describes how the Guardian took the decision to destroy its own Macbooks after the government explicitly threatened the paper with an injunction.

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"It was purely a symbolic act. We knew that. GCHQ knew that. And the government knew that," Johnson said. He added: "It was the most surreal event I have witnessed in British journalism."

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How Edward Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower

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Once Obama became president, Snowden came to dislike him intensely. He criticised the White House's attempts to ban assault weapons. He was unimpressed by affirmative action. Another topic made him even angrier. The Snowden of 2009 inveighed against government officials who leaked classified information to newspapers – the worst crime conceivable, in Snowden's apoplectic view. In January of that year, the New York Times published a report on a secret Israeli plan to attack Iran. The Times said its story was based on 15 months' worth of interviews with current and former US officials, European and Israeli officials, other experts and international nuclear inspectors.

TheTrueHOOHA's response, published by Ars Technica, is revealing. In a long conversation with another user, he wrote the following messages:

"WTF NYTIMES. Are they TRYING to start a war?"

"They're reporting classified shit"

"moreover, who the fuck are the anonymous sources telling them this? those people should be shot in the balls"

"that shit is classified for a reason"

"it's not because 'oh we hope our citizens don't find out' its because 'this shit won't work if iran knows what we're doing'"

Snowden's anti-leaking invective seems stunningly at odds with his own later behaviour, but he would trace the beginning of his own disillusionment with government spying to this time. "Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good," he later said.

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NY Times' Jill Abramson: Obama Crackdown Has Created 'Freeze' On Reporting

New York Times editor Jill Abramson once again condemned the Obama administration's crackdown on leaks, saying that the government's treatment of Edward Snowden has scared potential sources and created a "real freeze" on reporting.

Abramson said at a Columbia University School of Journalism panel Thursday that Snowden has brought into question matters of source protection, media shield laws and had a “profound effect on journalism,” the Wrap reported Friday.

One of the effects, Abramson said, is that The New York Times is forced to “hit the breaks a bit" now that larger issues of national security are involved.

The issue of U.S. government spying and whistleblowers came to a head last June when Edward Snowden first leaked the NSA documents revealing massive government surveillance programs and collection of phone and Internet records. Snowden sought asylum in Russia to escape espionage charges against him in the U.S. and claims he is still facing "significant threats" for his actions.

Snowden's story, and government crackdown on leakers as a whole, is what Abramson says now has other whistleblowers hesitant to come forward, significantly changing the relationship between sources and journalists.

"A real freeze is setting in on what had been to this point, I think, a healthy discourse between sources and journalists," she said. "Journalists are saying, ‘I will go to jail to protect your identity.... These words are now being uttered.”

Also with Abramson at the conference was Janine Gibson, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, the website Snowden leaked documents to that exposed the NSA surveillance. Abramson pointed out that the Obama administration has administered seven leak investigations to date, which is twice that of any other previous administration, according to the Wrap.

"The original, the ordinary way of chilling journalism won’t work," she said. "We’re not any more going to be worried about naming names. It’s going to be about proving that you’re not a co-conspirator."

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Canadian Gov't Responds To Spying Revelations By Saying It's All A Lie And Calling Glenn Greenwald A 'Porn Spy'

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We've seen various government officials act in all sorts of bizarre ways after revelations of illegal spying on their own people (and foreigners), but none may be quite as bizarre as the response from the Canadian government, following the release late last night from the CBC (with help from Glenn Greenwald) that they're spying on public WiFi connections. That report had plenty of detail, including an internal presentation from the Canadian electronic spying agency, CSEC. In the Canadian Parliament today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary, Paul Calandra, decided to respond to all of this by by insisting it's all a lie and then flat out insulting both the CBC and Glenn Greenwald.

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If you can't watch the video, here's what he says:

Mr. Speaker, last night the CBC aired a misleading report on Canada's signals intelligence agency, Communications Security Establishment Canada. These documents were stolen by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden and sold to the CBC by Glenn Greenwald. Canada's signals intelligence agency has been clear that the CBC story is incorrect, yet the CBC went ahead and published it anyway.

Here are the facts: Before the story aired, CSEC made clear that nothing in the stolen documents showed that Canadians' communications were targeted, collected, or used, nor that travellers' movements were tracked.

In addition, CSEC's activities are regularly reviewed by an independent watchdog who has consistently found it has followed the law.

Why is furthering porn-spy Glenn Greenwald's agenda and lining his Brazilian bank account more important than maintaining the public broadcaster's journalistic integrity?

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Senior US congressman Mike Rogers: Glenn Greenwald 'a thief'

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Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, suggested Greenwald was a “thief” after he worked with news organizations who paid for stories based on the documents.

“For personal gain, he’s now selling his access to information, that’s how they’re terming it … A thief selling stolen material is a thief,” Politico quoted Rogers as saying after a committee hearing on Tuesday. Rogers said his source for the information was “other nations' press services”.

Greenwald said that the claim was foolish, unfounded, and designed to intimidate journalists. “The main value in bandying about theories of prosecuting journalists is the hope that it will bolster the climate of fear for journalism,” he tweeted Tuesday.