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Thread: Intelligence post-Snowden: a debate

  1. #101
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    Default Tossing Down The Glove

    Politico, RNC slams ‘unconstitutional’ NSA spying (By JAMES HOHMANN, 1/24/14):

    The Republican National Committee passed a resolution Friday renouncing “unconstitutional” National Security Agency surveillance programs.

    The resolution, affirmed by a voice vote at the GOP’s winter meeting, was a remarkable move from many of the same party activists who vigorously defended controversial surveillance programs during George W. Bush’s administration.
    ...
    The push to criticize the NSA was spearheaded by Nevada national committeewoman Diana Orrock, a supporter of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
    The resolution has three operative paragraphs:

    RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee encourages Republican lawmakers to enact legislation to amend Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence – electronic, physical, and otherwise - of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;

    RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee encourages Republican law makers to call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying and the committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance as well as hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance; and

    RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee calls upon Republican lawmakers to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs.
    The language in these paragraphs is stronger (versus NSA metadata collection) than the two "liberal" task force reports submitted to the President.

    Regards

    Mike

  2. #102
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    Default Not surprising...

    The RNC resolution renouncing “unconstitutional” National Security Agency surveillance programs.

    Both parties are hearing from the tech community, and the trigger appears to be four-fold:

    1) First, the hijacking of the unencrypted feeds between data centers. And that little 'smiley face' next to Google on the document/PowerPoint image didn't help. That really pissed people off big time.

    2) The NSA has made it personal. They (NSA) have single handedly did more damage to the corporate 'brands' in terms of trust than anything/anybody. Now, as a result, there's a lot of users (and I mean A LOT) who really question each company's commitment to privacy. There's corporate players who are seriously alienated over this issue. And they are making their views known - to everybody. I'm told that when Immigration reform came up recently at a meeting at the WH, a 'quid pro quo' came up from the tech community regarding some of the NSA issues. This is a very terribly serious issue for these folks.

    3) Compromising hardware also has aggregated a whole lot of players in the industry. It's harder to figure out the impact, but it's not nothing. And that also applies to software encryption standards, which the NSA also apparently deliberately tried to weaken. Think about it - potentially every piece of their technology infrastructure is now potentially under suspicion. Has it been compromised?

    4) Then you have got the last issue, and this one has kind of come out of the blue. And this one is kind of an unknown right now. Simply, "Since the NSA is spying on everything, and specifically communications going in/out of the USA to/from foreign nations, why didn't they discover the entire consumer fraud/theft for places like Target, Neiman-Marcus, etc.?"

    It never seemed to occur to these people (NSA) that the theft of 40+++ mil credit cards, and maybe as many as 110++ mil logins/passwords might be one hell of an incredible threat to our national cybersecurity?

    I mean, think about it. If terrorist related groups stole just $10 each from each credit card holder, that's $400 mil dollars. At $100 per, that's $4 bil dollars. Or worse, what happens if the bad guys just start making 'donations' on each stolen credit card to unsavory groups? Can you imagine some poor guy coming home to find Homeland Security camped out in his driveway because his wife just so-called 'donated' $50 to the Al Nusrah Front?

    Put money on the fact that one way or the other, the RNC/Tech Community had some communications somewhere in the process. The message got across to the RNC. The NSA is fast losing friends.

    IMO, Rand Paul knows an issue with staying power when he sees one.

  3. #103
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    Default Lawyer-client comms being monitored

    Watcher in the Middle makes points that few in government either side of the Atlantic and beyond want to see publicly in the foreground.

    One issue that appeared in late 2013 in the UK and swiftly disappeared was whether interception of communications meant lawyer-client contact was being monitored, especially in 'high profile' cases - which may not involve terrorism:
    Lawyer-client communications are protected by legal professional privilege. The courts have made it clear that the confidentiality of such communications is a human right fundamental to the administration of justice.
    Link:http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/...losed-hearings

    The oversight body, the Investigative Powers Tribunal (IPT), one of several separate oversight bodies, last year came under the spotlight for holding proceedings in secret, minus the plaintiff, in a case where secrecy was not an issue. Background:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investi...owers_Tribunal

    Regardless of this case, which with foreign and terrorism aspects may not resonate beyond the legal profession and the "usual suspects", makes one wonder what is being sacrificed for 'security'. Or in this case embarrassment for the state.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 01-26-2014 at 12:10 PM.
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    Default It's becomming an interesting battleground....

    The Tech community knows that it is unlikely to 'win' it's fight against the NSA in a so-called frontal assault. Tried that with the vote in the US House and lost - barely. Course, a whole lot more information has come out since then.

    However, since say, 2002, the Tech community has substantially built up their lobbying presence in DeeCee and elsewhere. Didn't want to, but had no choice.

    Now, it's time to change the rules of the game. The tech community is coming to the realization that the NSA is not their friend. And what the NSA is doing is going directly against their business models, and that means losing business, and money.

    The NSA certainly feels frustrated that they don't feel their 'message' of "benevolent spying", etc. is getting out. That's understandable, but their currently processes are directly negatively affecting entire sectors of the Tech community - and that's business.

    So, the Tech community is starting to move this entire process into the lobbying environment, being that over the last 10 or so years they have built up this enormous presence in DeeCee. For example:

    "So, you want to build a coalition on Immigration reform - it's called, what are you going to do for me? We've got issues too. So, let's talk."

    "You want assistance on ACA? No problem. Oh, btw, we've got a 'little issue' we're somewhat concerned about. We'll talk later."

    Potentially, every hot button issue the pols in either party put out there is going to become a lobbying point for the Tech community.

    This is going to be the legislative equivalent of 'Chinese Water Torture' for the NSA.

    This fight is a long way from over.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Watcher In The Middle View Post
    The Tech community knows that it is unlikely to 'win' it's fight against the NSA in a so-called frontal assault.
    One needs to ask those of the 'tech community' why they just roll over and spread their legs for China yet attempt to challenge the US government's actions.

    Hippocrites... one and all.

  6. #106
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    USA lied to Germany is on article on heise.de. It is needless to say that the whole spying issue has been the hottest topic in German and European IT community, with a very high relative amount of comments. Heise.de has a good claim to be most important IT hub in Germany and it's mags like the c't are very influential. Most of the advertising there is targeting business and professionals.

    There is no doubt that the flood of information, which just goes on giving has big negative impacts on the image of the US, it's key intelligence business and US companies. The Wired article mentioned a couple. It should be safer to switch of to smaller, non-US competitors for partly similar reasons why some use a different platform (disk booted Linux + x programs) for online-banking and privacy. Smaller networks and platforms get not such a high priority from criminals or NSA operators. It should also raise IT and user awerness to implement the still valid and sometimes simple rules to raise the entry barriers.

    I'm quite a bit sceptical about some defensive arguments raised by the big US Tech companies, but there can hardly be any doubt that the US intelligence is trying to get pretty much everything by trying pretty much everything. So a combination of induced cooperation and backdoor access seems rather obvious. In any case the fact that the US has done industrial spionage globally for decades is no secret at all.

    @JMA: It's not quite that simple and I fully understand now the Chinese gov insistence to avoid an US IT hold in China by companies like Google. But all that US-hype about Chinese spystuff is all the more hilarious because it highlighted just what and how much the US did that and even more. The Chinese and others do indeed spy, often a great deal, but the nightmare scenarios about those evil Reds is to a good degree a reflection of the own successes in doing stuff against the interests of others. The USA reminds me of a highly successful burgler which is sitting in a pub musing how evil and dangerous this world full of burglers is and how he had to spend all that money to keep those guys out of his house.

    I think now it is clear why the perhaps most aggressive ITspy countries like the US, Russia and China have arguably been the most defensive when it comes to their own IT landscape. Even the market share of search engines seems to be an indicator.

    Last edited by Firn; 01-27-2014 at 02:13 PM.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

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    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

  7. #107
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    Angry Birds and 'leaky' phone apps targeted by NSA and GCHQ for user data

    As I wrote before they try pretty much everything to get pretty much everything and its activities just gives giving.

    Depending on what profile information a user had supplied, the documents suggested, the agency would be able to collect almost every key detail of a user's life: including home country, current location (through geolocation), age, gender, zip code, martial status – options included "single", "married", "divorced", "swinger" and more – income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level, and number of children.

    The agencies also made use of their mobile interception capabilities to collect location information in bulk, from Google and other mapping apps. One basic effort by GCHQ and the NSA was to build a database geolocating every mobile phone mast in the world – meaning that just by taking tower ID from a handset, location information could be gleaned.

    The information generated by each app is chosen by its developers, or by the company that delivers an app's adverts. The documents do not detail whether the agencies actually collect the potentially sensitive details some apps are capable of storing or transmitting, but any such information would likely qualify as content, rather than metadata.
    It is an absolutely logical way to proceed once you have not the slightest concern about the people's privacy. In some cases it might even be useful for the fight against terrorism. Syria has been a Videowar and through Apps like Youtube, Instagram etc the internet has been flooded with digital data + metadata. With such a broad stream not everything will be done with the proper secrecy, especially by the lower levels who are mostly from an age group who play such games and use such apps. I'm pretty sure navigation apps and map tools are of a specific interest because combined with smartphones with (specific) Gulf data traces & profiles and Syrian or Iraqi SIM cards they might have many interesting stories to tell.

    Overall the sheer width and depth of the efforts and the data fusing makes it a powerful tool to be used against the thousends of terrorists and the billions of the rest of humanity. Fascinating and scary stuff.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

    General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

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    Quote Originally Posted by Firn View Post
    @JMA: It's not quite that simple and I fully understand now the Chinese gov insistence to avoid an US IT hold in China by companies like Google. But all that US-hype about Chinese spystuff is all the more hilarious because it highlighted just what and how much the US did that and even more. The Chinese and others do indeed spy, often a great deal, but the nightmare scenarios about those evil Reds is to a good degree a reflection of the own successes in doing stuff against the interests of others. The USA reminds me of a highly successful burgler which is sitting in a pub musing how evil and dangerous this world full of burglers is and how he had to spend all that money to keep those guys out of his house.
    It is that simple. Both countries - the US and the Chinese - 'spy' on their citizens and Internet users.

    The Tech companies do not have the balls to challenge China though - because they are motivated purely by financial greed. Their pursuit of profits overcomes - in the case of China - their moral judgement.

    Firn, please don't make excuses for these disgusting people.

  9. #109
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    Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
    It is that simple. Both countries - the US and the Chinese - 'spy' on their citizens and Internet users.

    The Tech companies do not have the balls to challenge China though - because they are motivated purely by financial greed. Their pursuit of profits overcomes - in the case of China - their moral judgement.

    Firn, please don't make excuses for these disgusting people.
    To be hones in important fields of the Chinese Tech landscape the behaviour of Western companies like Yahoo and Google has become a moot point. Chinese made hardware - partly with Western components - sold by Chinese carriers and companies dominates all their markets and almost all the searches are made through Chinese engines. While there is a great amount of Chinese private business behind that rapid rise the state/party had it's heavy hand in it. One has just to look at the economic strategy targeting 'growth' industry with the full package of support.

    Chinese companies also dominate the domestic App market. The OS still seems to be a Western stronghold, which has come naturally under attack.

    All in all there seems to a big Chinese push to make the whole tech ecosystem home-grown. It has naturally an economic trade-off, but the red party wants to keep the power within and the US out. That makes of course perfect sense for their internal/party and national security.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

    General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

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    Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the flow of articles on what Snowden has "leaked" and the consequences, so here are two that warrant reading.

    A CSM columnist weighs into the claims made by Greenwald & Snowden:
    Snowden has often insisted that he isn't interested in exposing intelligence programs that have legitimate security concerns behind them and has gone so far as to say that almost none of the NSA's efforts have anything to do with terrorism. Glenn Greenwald, who's worked with Snowden on releasing NSA documents since at least February of last year, has also made that second claim.

    (Later) But his claim that "none of this has anything to do with terrorism" is not reasonable. That's pure nonsense -- as is his attempt to suggest that any revelations of eavesdropping techniques can't do any harm because terrorists already know all about it. Terrorists may know that the US is trying to spy on them as best it can (just as Germany and France know that). But knowing the precise method is another thing altogether.
    Link:http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Secur...e-target-video

    Meantime over here (in the UK) a legal opinion has landed:
    Stratford is a credible, highly regarded QC. If her opinion – give to the all-party parliamentary group on drones, chaired by the Labour MP Tom Watson – committee is right, it appears that the British government may be asking GCHQ employees to carry out illegal acts, which in turn could have very serious consequences.
    Link to the opinion:http://www.brickcourt.co.uk/news-att..._Final_(2).pdf

    Link to Peter Oborne's commentary:http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/pe...ies-to-murder/
    davidbfpo

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    Default Skeletons popping out of US' closet - Part 1

    The author of this piece is not JMM, but pmaitra, an Indian national, who is a moderator on Defense Forum India; who asked me to run it as a guest comment; and who presently is located somewhere in North Carolina.

    Original DFI link.

    Skeletons popping out of US' closet

    Edward Snowden, the man who gave up his job, his family, and his partner, and ended up in Russia, has a lot of fans, and detractors. Some stand by him as a hero, while some call him a traitor. To each his own.

    In this backdrop, one must look at what is going on in the US. This precis will present some facts, and some speculations, and will leave it up to the reader to pick a side.

    On the 4th Amendment

    The National Security Agency, or NSA, has been accused of "unreasonable search," and was declared probably unconstitutional by federal judge Richard J. Leon, who remarked, “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.” Not surprisingly, another federal judge, William H. Pauley III, declared that, "While robust discussions are underway across the nation, in Congress, and at the White House, the question for this Court is whether the Government's bulk telephony metadata program is lawful. This Court finds it is."

    So, which judge is correct? That, is the question.

    Either we accept that there is a constant threat of terror attacks and NSA must be allowed to do what it has been doing, or accept that there is little evidence that NSA has helped prevent terror attacks and is actually used for industrial espionage, causing US companies to lose trust, and eventually, business.

    On the 2nd Amendment

    There has been a concerted effort to portray guns as the single biggest evil in the US today. CNN has also roped in a charming British journalist, Piers Morgan (pronounced: Pie's Mo'gan or "mow-gun" if you will) to champion the cause of the anti-gun lobby. While Piers Morgan has managed to garner much popularity, ended up being almost physically threatened by Alex Jones, he has also been accused on "standing on the graves of the Sandy Hook" victims by Ben Shapiro, a pro-gun activist.

    So, what is this hullabaloo about? Should we limit guns? Are we going in the right direction? Looking at the recent unfortunate events, that seems so. However, historically, the US is going the opposite way.

    The American independence came about as a result of non-conventional armed struggle between Americans and the regime forces of the British government, along with their American loyalists, and the success can be largely attributed to the balance of firepower that the two warring sides had - they both had muskets. Thus, when it came to writing the Constitutions, it was observed that it offered no protection from a tyrannical regime the freedom fighters had just defeated. "Attacking the proposed Constitution for its vagueness and lack of specific protection against tyranny, Patrick Henry asked the Virginia convention, 'What can avail your specious, imaginary balances, your rope-dancing, chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contrivances.'" The story goes on, but let us look at the current scenario. If one were to ensure the same balance as the freedom fighters enjoyed against the then British regime, should the Americans not be allowed to own the very weapons the government has in its disposal? Yes, the ordinary citizens should be allowed to own rifles with standard magazines, including drum magazines, fully automatic assault rifles, sub-machine-guns, machine-guns, sniper and anti-materiel rifles, RPGs, Carl Gustav type RCLs, . . . , and anything that an individual can feasibly own and operate, and don't let this surprise you, it includes fighter jets as well.

    To return to a realistic chime, one should consider the path shown by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mandela, i.e., the path of non-violence as a tool against tyranny. The only problem with these great men's philosophy is the lack of the option to use violence. That is where one needs to rope in the philosophy of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. While non-violence should always be the first option, it would be unwise to exclude violence as an option.

    On the 6th Amendment

    Holding prisoners in a place that is not a war-zone and is under American control, and denying them trial, not telling them what the charges against them are, and not allowing them to see and know who their accuser should be unconstitutional. It has been argued, that it also violates the 5th Amendment and the 8th Amendment. Exception has been made, but concerns remain.

    On the 1st Amendment

    The US is generally a free country and allows everyone to express themselves freely. However, the recent prosecution of Dinesh D'Souza might suggest that the government will use any means it can to stifle any opposition to the government, and not let the Constitution come in the way of the larger scheme of things. This isn't the first time such concerns have been raised. The Internal Revenue Service has come under scrutiny on suspicions that it was being used by the government in politically motivated targeting of people.

    Whistleblowers' character assassination

    We have seen this with Julian Assange, as he was accused of sexual impropriety. Now, Edward Snowden is being, in a not so explicit way, shown as a possible Russian spy. Where is the evidence? "Well, it is classified," seems to be the only answer.

    Why is the government offering plea bargains, when it is one of the parties accused of violation of the people's right? Will the government acquiesce to a referendum on whether Snowden should be given clemency? This seems to be the most logical way out.

    A quasi-hijacking

    US Ambassador to Austria, William Eacho, the brainchild behind this "hijacking," used all the finesses he could muster, by getting the Bolivian President's private jet to be denied entry in France, Spain, and Italy, and having it searched in Vienna, Austria. Austria, being a subservient spineless forgettable European country, could only bow down to the "master," do the bidding, in gross violation of International Law, as well as the basic decorum required in the comity of nations. According to an article in The Guardian, UK, "In revealing a vast Orwellian police state apparatus servicing history's greatest war-making machine, they illuminate the true extremism of the 21st century. Unprecedented, Germany's Der Spiegel has described the Obama administration as 'soft totalitarianism.' If the penny is falling, we might all look closer to home."

    Marijuana, the new cool thing

    Colorado and Washington (the state) have taken steps to gradually legalize, in a controlled fashion, marijuana use. Obama has gone on to equate that with drinking alcohol.

    - to be cont. -

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    Default Skeletons popping out of US' closet - Part 2

    The author of this piece is not JMM, but pmaitra, an Indian national ... etc.


    Putting it all together

    So, we have curbs on freedom of speech, curbs on right to a free, fair, and speedy trial, a neutering of the American people by taking away their guns, unreasonable and warrant-less search, and seizure without the possibility of habeas corpus petitions, and the willingness to take extreme steps, even if it means endangering the life of the president of another country, allowing the people easier access to intoxicating agents, hitherto legally and socially unacceptable.

    The excellent speech by William Binney [Youtube link; JMM: Please spend 90 min and view this speech, which I've linked before] only demonstrates and accentuates the fear that the government, regardless of the party it claims to represent, will always do the bidding of the large corporations, and by extension, will go to war for these corporations, and will also violate the rights of its own citizens for these corporations.

    It appears that the government is anticipating an uprising, and not wanting a "well regulated militia" rising up in arms against what it might perceive as a "tyrannical regime," the government wants to take away the guns, keep the young people busy with marijuana (the inebriate won't fight for a cause) and thus off the streets and from protesting, demonstrate the promise of retribution in the event of criticism of the government, and the resolve to hold people under detention indefinitely. The recent court judgments in favour of the government on issues where so many people have been skeptical about the government raises questions about the Judiciary. Is it really independent?

    Famous and relevant quotes

    "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - John Emerich Edward Dalberg

    "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin

    "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson

    "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." - Gordon Hewart

    ----------------------------------------------

    JMM: That's all, folks !

    Regards

    Mike

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    Quote Originally Posted by Firn View Post
    To be hones in important fields of the Chinese Tech landscape the behaviour of Western companies like Yahoo and Google has become a moot point.

    [snip for brevity]
    Firn I suggest you have missed the point completely.

    I am not discussing China and Chinese behaviour. That is a subject of another discussion.

    I am talking about the "tech companies" who willingly submit to Chinese controls/restrictions and shamelessly operate in the environment of Internet censorship/filtering in a shocking display of trading principles for profit yet while rolling over and spreading their legs for the Chinese these despicable people have the audacity to challenge NSA surveillance.

    You see the hypocrisy?
    Last edited by JMA; 02-01-2014 at 06:48 AM.

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    @jmm99: I enjoyed pmaitras post. The influence of wealthy stakeholders on politics has been for a long time an important topic in political science. Industrial espionage by the US is certainly no surprise at all if one considers the way politics work, especially in the USA and the cold evidence. At least to me it seems rather likely that a US company G with enough lobby power or importance will be able to insert technology X of the foreign competitor S into the list of high-priority NSA targets 'key' to national security.

    @JMA: Yes, I pretty much ignored that point as I found the dominance of Chinese home-grown Tech in China fascinating and surprisingly large.

    I don't know how willingly American companies gave the Chinese government the info it was looking for, but it is pretty clear that after some resistence they (Google!) bend (far) away from their loft statements. That they are now raising their voice against the activities of the NSA is to a good extent hypocrisy - but also necessary PR.

    They have a huge world-wide costumer base and it is one thing to throw even many Chinese activists under their gov. bus but something completely different to help the US government to attack the privacy of billions of their costumers. This is why I partly love capitalism, if money is at stake things can get sometimes pushed quickly into the right direction.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

    General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

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    Default Snowden Doc Reveals How GCHQ/NSA Use The Internet To 'Manipulate, Deceive And Destroy

    A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald, while working with NBC News, revealed some details of a GCHQ presentation concerning how the surveillance organization had a "dirty tricks" group known as JTRIG -- the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group. Now, over at The Intercept, he's revealed the entire presentation and highlighted more details about how JTRIG would seek to infiltrate different groups online and destroy people's reputations -- going way, way, way beyond just targeting terrorist groups and threats to national security.
    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...utations.shtml
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    Default Why the agencies collect metadata

    It is far more than traffic analysis. An interesting short article, the title is a clue 'How the NSA Can Use Metadata to Predict Your Personality'. There's a link to an academic paper, which IMHO appears to extrapolate from a small group of student subjects that prediction follows.

    Link:http://www.defenseone.com/technology...0mbycY.twitter
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    Default Talking with an ex-NSA Director

    Published on the first anniversary of Snowden's revelations (and defection IMHO) an exchange between ret'd General Michael Hayden, NSA Director 1999-2005 & CIA Director 2006-2009 and a UK-based critic and writer:http://www.opendemocracy.net/michael...th-general-mic

    The article is to be part of a series:
    ....this interview contributes to what we intend will become a growing, in depth exploration of the significance of surveillance for the future of humanity across the globe.
    Judge for yourself the content, yes it is mainly about the USA, other appear, notably the UK. Just whether the bulk collection of metadata is useful is a moot point and what its general public impact has been debated here - on this thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=18297
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    Default Ex-NSA "techie" now

    William Binney was the Technical Director of America’s National Security Agency (the NSA) who resigned immediately after 9/11 for reasons he explains in this exchange.
    Link:http://opendemocracy.net/william-bin...william-binney
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    Default The Snowden Operation: Assessing the Damage

    Professor John Schindler offers an assessment:http://20committee.com/2014/07/15/th...ng-the-damage/

    He ends with:
    NSA and U.S. intelligence won’t be getting past the damage wrought by Edward Snowden and his partners for many years, and neither will Western diplomacy and the many businesspeople who did nothing to deserve the loss of income they are now facing, and may be for a long time. It would be wise of senior U.S. Government officials to keep this in mind. Moreover, it’s best to face the painful truth now, because the full story of this debacle will come out eventually. It always does.
    davidbfpo

  20. #120
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    Why with the ability of the NSA does it not use it's power in order to counter the coming massive wave of cyber criminality that is hitting the world's businesses as well as the common man in any country around this globe.

    Fighting this criminal wave that is already out there earning literally Billions in illegal activities seems to be for me far more of a danger than jihadi's that have already known how to avoid the NSA since 2005.

    The ability to shut down or destroy critical infrastructures and or demand money from these companies seems to me to be a far more important place to focus the sheer unlimited internet abilities of the NSA which might win them more friends than what they now have.

    http://news.yahoo.com/massive-malwar...125834620.html

    And it is just not the NSA----this from the UK abilities.

    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...trol-internet/
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-15-2014 at 08:37 PM.

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