Showing posts with label wikileaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wikileaks. Show all posts

Friday, March 24, 2017

Comey Hearing Connects Trump to Russia

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Previous Related Posts:
#RussiaGate Heats Up for Trump
Trump is Putin's Pawn and Puppet
The Pro-Trump FBI
FBI Director Comey Drops Unethical Email Bomb
Trump and the Russian - DNC - Wikileaks Connection

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A hearing on Capitol Hill for FBI Director James Comey connected the Trump Administration to Russian hackers who infiltrated both the DNC and RNC last year during the election, but only used the information to attack the campaigns of Democrats. Comey seems to be trying to redeem himself after his shocking press conference last fall when he mentioned new emails belonging to Hillary Clinton as if she was under investigation, but later admitted they were nothing. Many believe that Comey's actions were a misuse of power to sway an American election, even if he didn't seem to anticipate that he was ruining his own credibility along with the rest of the FBI.

But now it seems that it was Trump and his cronies under investigation since last July for their possible collusion with Russia and Wikileaks in hacking the DNC servers and releasing their emails. This revelation followed Trump's strange accusation that President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower last year, which Comey disputed. It wasn't Obama, but the FBI which had FISA warrants to listen to Trump Tower because of possible treason going on with Putin.

Maybe Comey can finally do something good for his country by setting in motion the impeachment of President Trump.

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Sunday, October 23, 2016

Final Trump vs. Clinton Debate 2016

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And the whole country sighed with relief when it was over.

However, Trump gave a caveat when asked if he would accept the results of the election in November if he loses, as most polls tell us that he will:

Via NPR
When first asked, Trump refused to say yes, replying in part, "I will look at it [the election results] at the time." When pushed on the issue, Trump told Wallace, "I'll keep you in suspense."



Stephen Colbert let him have it on Trump's "suspense":

Oh my God. That's...uh...what's the word?
(Shows tape of Hillary saying "horrifying" during the debate)
That's it! Thank you! Thank you!
(Stephen blows kiss to Hillary/camera - crowd cheers)
I want to make sure I heard that correctly.
(Plays Trump saying "I'll keep you in suspense")
Oh! Oh - Suspense! Democracy's going to end with a cliffhanger. I guess we're all going to have to wait until November 9th to find out if we still have a country! If Donald Trump is in the "mood" for a peaceful transfer of power. Or if he's just going to wipe is fat ass with the Constitution!



The day after the debate, Donald doubled down, saying he would only accept a win, not a loss:

Via NPR
In front of an exuberant crowd Thursday in Delaware, Ohio, Donald Trump again addressed whether he would accept the outcome of the November election.

"Ladies and gentleman I want to make a major announcement today," Trump said, continuing, "I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters, and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election - if I win"



































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Sunday, June 1, 2014

Questions Remain about the #Snowden Interview

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The Inside Snowden interview on NBC didn't put anything to rest so the debate continues about whether the man is a Heroic Patriot, a conniving Putin-Loving traiter or merely a naive Wikileaks dupe. We may never know the whole truth, but interviewer Brian Williams didn't help shed any light because he avoided hard questions such as "Did Glenn Greenwald first suggest that you should steal documents? and "How many lies did you tell in order to get hired at Booz Allen?"

Instead, Williams let his subject ramble on about his sad life as an exile trapped in a foreign land by the United States, as if Joe Biden put him on that plane to Moscow and buckled his seatbelt for him. If you read the quotations below, it is clear that Snowden isn't really "trapped" in Russia.

So Snowden got to say whatever he felt like saying, and the Snowdenistas thought that was just wonderful, as their tweets of support display. But to most people who have followed this story from the beginning, as well as some who knew nothing about him, Snowden's behavior and statements seemed overly rehearsed, slightly arrogant, possibly dishonest, naive (or faux-naive), and maybe just a little crazy.

My previous post about #InsideSnowden:
Snowden Jumps the Shark with NBC Interview

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Snowden said he didn't hurt anyone with his release of documents, and many took him to task for that, since obviously Snowden's actions have reverberated around the globe. But the U.S. can hardly give a public list admitting the damage done to their intelligence capabilities, and Snowden knows this.

Michael Leiter, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, on NBC

I find it naive and pretty gravely mistaken, this belief that what has already come out, (Snowden) can't identify a single individual who was hurt, hence there's been no harm. I think the way the U.S. intercepts information about Syria and Iraq, these terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, how the U.S. intercepts information about the Syrian military, the Russian military, the way the U.S. protects its spies overseas from operating and not being covered by foreign powers - I can't give you the names of people who have been harmed by that, but I think it's really hard if not impossible to say that there hasn't been harm. I think he's both mistaken and naive.

Former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden on CBS "Face the Nation"
"Unquestionable, irreparable, irreversible harm," Hayden said Sunday morning, responding to an interview that Snowden did last week — the former NSA contractor's first in the year since he leaked the documents.
. . . "There is no way that the United States can reveal — without creating far greater harm — what it is we have lost," Hayden said. "What is it he wants us to do? To go out publicly with a list of all of the terrorist targets now that we're no longer covering because of the information that he revealed?"

One of Snowden's casualties might be the security service TrueCrypt that he used for his documents, starting with the so-called "Crypto-Party" in Hawaii before he fled to Taiwan. As of yesterday the website had stopped working all of a sudden. The CIA is probably deconstructing the whole operation:
Forbes: Encryption Tool Endorsed by Snowden Abruptly Shuts Down
TrueCrypt has, for more than a decade, been the program of choice for many security-conscious people, even Edward Snowden. In December 2012, Snowden organized an event – called a CryptoParty – in Hawaii where he talked about how one can use TrueCrypt to keep information safe from prying eyes; a business traveler might use TrueCrypt to protect sensitive files when traveling to make sure that if the computer gets stolen, someone can’t go through their files without the password to unlock them. Today’s advisory comes as a shock to the security community, though no one has been able to confirm its authenticity so far.
. . . The user interface has a similar warning added to it; “WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure.” A quick analysis of the software did not reveal any malicious behavior, though a deeper dive could perhaps provide different results. Older versions of the software would ask users to consider making a donation at the end of the installation process, but this request has since been removed. Additionally, the user manual is no longer included with the software. It seems this new version can only be used to decrypt data and migrate existing encrypted storage volumes, not create new ones.

Snowden insisted to Brian Williams that he was "trained as a spy" in the interview, and indeed he has called himself a spy before in a Guardian UK article, but
National Security Adviser Susan Rice says Snowden was NOT a spy
"He was not trained as a spy," Rice said. "We have no idea where that assertion comes from. And has Edward Snowden done damage? He's done immense damage to the national security of the United States in ways that I wish I could describe in public but I cannot. But indeed the revelations, the illegal unauthorized revelations of Snowden have given our enemies, particularly terrorists, including al-Qaeda, insights into how we gain information and intelligence on them that have enabled them to change the way they operate and be much more difficult to track. That's just one example."

And someone with even more knowledge chimed in to debunk Snowden - a real spy:
Actual Spy Blows Snowden's Bullshit Cover Story
Actual former spy Lindsay Moran (also author of the book Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy), who has actually supported Snowden's actions felt compelled enough by the stink of Snowden's attempt to hitch his wagon to true American heroes that she came out to call him out.
I think he's really, unfortunately giving amunition to his detractors and his critics here, because to me this reads as this kind of typical spy-wannabe claims. For sure he didn't go through the tradecraft training and paramilitary operations training that everybody who's in the clandestine service which is the operative branch of the CIA did.
. . . His claim that he used aliases, I find that very dubious. He wasn't in the Directorate of Operations, he wasn't a human collector of intelligence, and I have never before heard of someone who was in an IT or analyst position using aliases that way or operating the way that actual spies did.
. . . The kind of training that you receive to become a spy is very specific. It's tradecraft training, it takes place at the CIA's top secret training facility, and it's not offered to analysts and certainly not to IT specialists.
(Author of the article for The People's View, Spandan Chakrabarti, adds: If all it takes for him to go off the deep end like this is someone calling him a low-level hacker - that is, if his skin is this thin - just exactly how easy is he to manipulate? And was Snowden - motivated by ego, spotlight and revenge - manipulated by Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and the gang to steal the information he later revealed? Was there more than just information falling into "journalists' " laps? I think you have to ask that question.

Snowden also said he had "no contact" with the Russian government and he is "not a spy" - meaning, I presume, "their spy" given his insistence that he is, indeed, some kind of spy. On the other hand, Snowden isn't in much of a hurry to leave Russia, which is a bothersome detail. His story is that he is stuck there, the victim of the United States Government which revoked his passport. But wait . . .

Michael McFaul, former Ambassador to Russia, via NBC
Why Moscow, why was he there? I note the passive tense, the structure of the sentence, right? "I was stopped in Moscow." But he wasn't stopped in Hong Kong with the same status of passport, I remember that very vividly. So when he (Snowden) is saying "Ask the State Department," well I used to work for the State Department when he showed up in Moscow so I found that very mysterious. If they let him get on the plane in Hong Kong without a valid passport, then why was he forbidden from going on, and who was forbidding him? Right?
Russia's a sovereign country, let me tell you, (after) two years of living there as an Ambassador - they do things their own way. They abide by their own rules and their own laws, and if they want to give him the ability to fly on to Havana they most certainly could have done that. So that was the first piece that struck me.
The second piece was his discussion of his relationship with the government... "I have no relationship to the Russian Government." Well, that's just not true. You don't get to go on a call-in show with the President of Russia and have no relationship with the Russian Government. And by the way, just to remind you, on that call-in show, he asked somewhat naively, "Mr. Putin, do you listen in to telephone conversations of Russian citizens?" But (Snowden) told (NBC) "I know they have a very professional service." So that's rather strange to say you have no relationship to the government yet that kind of interaction happened.
. . . And I would just remind the viewers that his lawyer, when he arrived - Kucherena is his name - somebody well-known to us, is very close to the Russian Government.









Bob Cesca found "13 Bizarre Things in the Snowden Interview" among them this gem:
NSA can observe people drafting a document online and "watch their thoughts form as they type." Let's assume for a second this is true. Reading your thoughts (IEEEEE!!!) is a hyperbolic internet-age method of essentially describing a wire-tap. A police detective can get a court order to have a suspect's phone tapped and listen to that suspect forming thoughts on the phone, too. But to call it a "wire-tap" is too ordinary and familiar, so Ed went with mind-reading.
and more importantly this:
Snowden said he destroyed his documents before going to Russia. This is really strange. I have no idea whether he really destroyed his NSA files, but he did in fact meet with Russian officials in Hong Kong, when he reportedly celebrated his birthday at the Russian consulate. Did he still have his documents at that point?
Earlier, he said his goal was to fly to Latin America, so why did he anticipate being in Russia to the point where he destroyed his documents to prevent Russians from acquiring them? These are all follow-up questions that a journalist who was informed about the details of Snowden's timeline would've asked. Williams was not and therefore did not.

From Benjamin Wittes on Lawfare:
Snowden—earnestness and all—utterly failed to explain certain stubborn, inconvenient facts that make it hard to accept him as the figure he claims to be. Some of these facts he did not challenge at all, as they are too clearly true to brook contest. Some he challenged only weakly. And some Williams did not bother to ask him about at all. The result is a haze over the noble portrait the fugitive paints of himself.
. . . You see, Snowden explains in the interview, the law he violated doesn’t allow the defense he would want to put on. So he’d likely be convicted and serve a very long prison sentence—to which we learn he is not quite so eager to subject himself as Greenwald once admiringly thought. Snowden, of course, explains that he has an entirely selfless reason for not wanting to spend decades in prison. It’s not that he fears it, you understand. But it might scare other whistleblowers out of following his example. Whatever the reason, when push came to shove, Snowden chose not to martyr himself but to flee.
And where did flee? He ran to Moscow. On this point, Snowden’s explanation is particularly obtuse. Ask the State Department why he’s there, Snowden suggests. He was just trying to transit through Russia. It wasn’t his fault that he got stuck in Moscow; this happened because the U.S. government revoked his passport.
The passport revocation is not, in fact, why Snowden is stuck in Moscow. For one thing, the government revoked Snowden’s passport before he ever left Hong Kong. Moreover, it does not mean that he must stay in Moscow. It’s at most the reason why he has a choice between remaining in Moscow and coming back to the United States and facing arrest and lacks the option of finding non-Russian safe haven. He chooses, in other words, to remain in Moscow because he prefers the protection of the dictator there to trial at the hands of his own government.

But WHY did he want to go to Russia in the first place? Iceland and other countries were begging him to be their guest. Well, maybe his relationship with Russia goes back further than he will admit. That's the interesting question posed by John Schindler of 20Committee:
When did Snowden go over to the Russians? by John Schindler
. . . What can be dismissed out of hand is the notion that, while staying in Hong Kong a year ago, Ed met with Russian spies – sorry, “diplomats” – at their consulate there and, all of a sudden, decided to hop a flight to Moscow. Espionage simply does not work that way, folks. We can only guess at what was on Ed’s mind, but those who know the Russian “special services” understand that such a scenario is so implausible that it can be ruled out altogether. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) simply does not allow American intelligence personnel they’ve just met to jump on a flight to Mother Russia. That never happens.
. . . Letting Edward Snowden move to Moscow was a major decision for the Kremlin, one with huge political ramifications. We can be certain that such a decision was not made by a mid-grade SVR officer in Hong Kong, neither was such a choice made quickly by the Russians, particularly under a president who understands counterintelligence very well. The reality is that Edward Snowden’s relationship with Russian intelligence, whatever it exactly is, predated his arrival in Moscow on June 23, 2013, probably by a considerable margin. It did not begin in Hong Kong, but before, possibly long before. It cannot be ruled out that the SVR (or possibly GRU, Russian military intelligence, which is a formidable espionage service its own) initially dealt with Ed in a false-flag operation, masking their true identity for a time, but experts who are acquainted with Russia’s “special services” understand that the Official Narrative, that Ed just up and moved to Moscow, cannot be true.

While Snowden tried to exude an air of honesty, he failed on several counts:
From Nick Morgan, a body language expert, via Business Insider:
"As a body-language expert, I'd say this is a disingenuous performance, which surprised me."
. . . The pitch of Snowden's natural voice is probably a tenor, Morgan said, "and the pitch [during the interview] is lower to sound more authoritative. The result, to me, is fake ... manufactured."
. . . A particularly telling moment came when Brian Williams asked Snowden, "What is your relationship with the host government?" Morgan, who didn't previously know that Snowden's Moscow lawyer is a Putin loyalist linked to the FSB, was struck by Snowden's lack of eye contact and the slowing of his voice as he denied having any relationship with the Kremlin.
"He was obviously lying," Morgan said.
. . . "I wouldn't trust anything the man said," Morgan told Business Insider. "There is something else going on here."

But you don't have to be an expert to see through Snowden's facade:
From "Edward Snowden: Hipster Whistleblower" by Christine Sisto
I could not shake the feeling that Snowden is pretty pleased with himself. And I do not mean “pleased” in the way he intends when he says that he is “comfortable” because he can “sleep at night” knowing he did the right thing for his country. He seems pleased with himself in a pompous way. He reminds me of a hipster traipsing around Brooklyn, superbly proud of himself for having a dictionary-like knowledge of the different varieties of kale, knowledge he obtained in college while seeking a degree in women’s studies.
. . . In conclusion, to those who herald Edward Snowden as a whistleblower-god among men, I would say, be careful about what you believe from this guy.

Snowden's attention-seeking and avoidance of consequences are all we need to know according to James E. Lukaszewski of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
. . . rather than find ways to safely return to the United States and face the consequences of his actions, he has become a media celebrity, complete with advocates, defenders and even co-conspirators who are all in the public view.
Snowden’s NBC interview with Brian Williams is one more step in the Snowden Effect, canonizing the conspirator and minimizing the damage done, while expanding his image as a patriot.
At this writing, the country seems split on the patriot-vs.-traitor question. Neither view can be confirmed until he shows up to face his fate here in the United States.
Two things come to mind. What would a real patriot do (“WWRPD” on a bright red wrist band)? And the example set by Nathan Hale, who was executed as a U.S. spy by the British during our Revolutionary War. “I only regret,” he famously said, “that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
In Snowden’s case, his reframing language is on blaming, demeaning and insulting the United States as the causal factors for what he did. Frankly, I would prefer a little regret from him and his zealous America-hating supporters.


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Friday, February 7, 2014

Define Spy for Us ~ Greenwald and the Snowden Secrets

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Previous Related Posts:
Snowden Finally Leaves Russian Airport
Snowden Supporters Applaud His Empty Chair in Berlin
Greenwald Poutrage: Reuters is a Pro-U.S. Government Activist Ring
Miranda Was Carrying Passwords When Stopped in the U.K.
Was Miranda a Mule or a Journalist?
U.K. Detains Greenwald's Partner, Twitter Wars Erupt
Greenwald Threatens to Spill U.K. Secrets

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The Olympics have begun in Sochi, Russia, but that won't stop the Snowden controversy juggernaut that keeps rolling on both sides of the Atlantic. Is he a traitorous spy putting the U.S. in danger or a hero saving the First Amendment? Is he a Russian Puppet or a pawn of over-zealous journalists who hate the U.S.? Suffice it to say, Edward Snowden still remains a mystery even to the government that used to employ him.



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Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said a week ago that Snowden’s activities have placed the lives of intelligence officers and assets at risk. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said if one were to stack the documents stolen by Snowden it would be three miles high. On Wednesday, Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Texas Republican who is next in line to be the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the damage done by Snowden “will certainly cost billions to repair.”
~ The Daily Beast

For personal gain, (Greenwald is) now selling his access to information, that’s how they’re terming it…. A thief selling stolen material is a thief
. . . If I’m a newspaper reporter for fill-in-the-blank and I sell stolen material, is that legal because I’m a newspaper reporter?
~ House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) talking about journalist and possible Snowden accomplice Glenn Greenwald

If you’re a newspaper reporter and you’re hawking stolen jewelry, it’s still a crime.
. . . It’s an issue that can be complicated if it involves a news-gathering or a news promulgation function.
~ FBI Director James Comey, in reply to Mike Rogers

I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the f***ing principle is enough … On principle I’m going to force the issue
~ Glenn Greenwald, via Brian Beutler on Salon.com







The Public will never know the full cost, and therefore will never be able to truly understand the damage Snowden did. A true 'Patriot,' which he claims to be, would have given the documents to Congress and stayed in the U.S. to face the consequences. He's a coward.
~ A National Security "Insider" quoted anonymously on National Journal

A new website led by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald will launch next week with a focus on the remaining treasure trove of leaked documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
. . . Journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill will work with Greenwald on the publication, which has also added Peter Maass as senior staff writer, Marcy Wheeler as senior policy analyst and Ryan Gallagher as a reporter.
"First Look will uphold the rights of journalists everywhere to report on the sensitive and often controversial information that they learn from sources. We are launching the new site as a public service, committed to reporting on one of the most pressing issues of our time in a transparent and responsible manner," Omidyar and former Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates wrote in the blog post.
~ Mashable

Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment
One reason to stand up for Greenwald is that there is no evidence suggesting that he's acted as anything other than a journalist on the Snowden story. Another reason to defend Greenwald is that whatever one thinks of him personally, or his politics, or his attacks on various mainstream-media figures over the years, prosecuting him as a criminal would set a precedent affecting all journalists.
~ The Atlantic

Snowden has abdicated moral responsibility by handing off much of what he stole to Laura Poitras, a freelance journalist, and Glenn Greenwald, formerly of the Guardian, and allowing them to decide what should be published. Greenwald says encrypted copies also have been given to other parties and that, if something happens to Snowden, "all the information will be revealed and it could be [the government's] worst nightmare."
One problem with the reporting by Greenwald and Poitras has been that, in relying so heavily on the documents supplied by Snowden, it fails to provide context. From reading their stories, for example, you'd know little about official steps to minimize NSA privacy threats.
~ Ex-CIA 70's Whistleblower Frank Snepp





Greenwald is a frequent guest on Russian propaganda organ Russia Today. And Russia has provided safety for his cash cow Snowden, which Greenwald has parlayed into an entirely new media venture funded by libertarian tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar. It takes a special cognitive dissonance to be a gay man who fled the US for its stance on gay marriage to remain silent on a country where homophobia is official state policy.
. . . The fact that Greenwald can dismiss Russia's atrocious human rights record because, in his estimation, it's right in this instance of supporting Snowden should make any real journalist's hair spin. Strange bedfellows are the commonplaces of international relations. But putting lipstick on a pig doesn't make it Marilyn Monroe.
~ Liberal Librarian on The People's View

What are Snowden's prospects of exiting Moscow for a new life in western Europe? Left-leaning politicians, intellectuals and writers have called on the German government to grant him asylum. There was even a campaign to rename a Berlin street next to the US embassy "Snowden Strasse". (An artist erected a new street sign, and posted the video on Facebook.) But Germany's strategic relationship with the US is more important than the fate of one individual, at least in the probable view of Merkel, now chancellor for a third time.
So it is in Moscow that Snowden remains. Kucherena gently reminded the world that if he did try and leave, he would forfeit his asylum status. He is a guest of the Russian Federation, whether he likes it or not. And, in some sense, its captive. No one quite knows how long his exile might last. Months? Years? Decades?
~ Excerpt from "The Snowden Files" by Tony Harding, published in Guardian UK



We know that the Russians target people like Snowden. The actions he took are the sort of thing they would very much like. Now he’s in Moscow where we can’t ask him about it. If they did approach him, they would have concentrated chiefly on developing and exploiting his psychological weaknesses, massaging his ego and corroding his bonds of loyalty to his employer. Once he was fully detached psychologically from the NSA, they would have put him in touch with someone from the Wikileaks or hacker milieu. The effect from their point of view would be like a chemical reaction. No need to do anything much, just stand back and watch.
~ From an interview in InterpreterMag with Edward Lucas, author of the ebook The Snowden Operation: Inside the West’s Greatest Intelligence Disaste

Mr. Snowden's allies—the Snowdenistas, as I term them—lack the skills to keep the material safe, or redact it to limit the damage. Their claims to the contrary are not credible. Moreover, they seem oblivious to the idea that we in the West have enemies and competitors. Yet if we suffer, they gain.
. . . the damage done by Edward Snowden dwarfs the impact of Cold War traitors and defectors. Western agencies now assume that the NSA material is in the hands of Moscow and Beijing, or will get there eventually. Many worthwhile intelligence operations must be shut down or started anew: A serious spy service does not risk lives on the hopeful assumption that the other side will not exploit its blunders.
. . . Far too little attention has been paid to the political agendas of people such as the bombastic Brazil-based blogger Glenn Greenwald, the hysterical hacktivist Jacob Appelbaum and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who cloak their extreme and muddled beliefs in the language of rights, liberties and justice. Their actions are bringing about the greatest peacetime defeat in the history of the West. That is not a noble crusade.
~ Edward Lucas writing for WSJ


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Monday, September 9, 2013

Greenwald Poutrage: Reuters is "Pro-US-Government Activist Ring"


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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Snowden Supporters Applaud his Empty Chair in Berlin

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From RT.com
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been awarded the biennial “whistleblower prize” in Germany, worth some $3,900, in recognition of his “bold efforts” to expose the monitoring of communications data by his former employer.
The prize, last awarded in 2011, was officially bestowed upon the 30-year-old at a ceremony in Berlin which took place Friday, prompting a nine-minute congratulatory video message from Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald on Saturday.

Transparency International Deutschland e.V. contributed towards the award, which is given every two years by the Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW e.V.) and the German Section of the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA e.V.).
Persons are honored who reveal malpractices and dangerous developments for humans and society, and that affect democracy, peace and the environment.
~ Digital Journal



It seems important to say that Edward Snowden is a person of high moral character. I can't really imagine who would be better fitting for this award, not just this year, but almost any year. That isn't to forget about Chelsea Manning, that isn't to forget that other people have not done great service for humanity.
But when I spoke with him this evening, his first question was not about how things would go. He asked me if I had slept. He asked me how I was feeling. And, uh, I told him that I was fine and he said, 'Are you sure?' (laughter in audience) This is a person who really cares about other people.
This is the person who, while he has been attacked and relentlessly smeared by the propaganda machines, he is the person who has thrown himself onto the very gears of that machine. And he has done it for each and every one of us.
~ Wikileaks Internet Activist Jacob Appelbaum while presenting the Whistle-Blower award to Snowden





If I ran the committee, making the choice of who was to receive this award, it would take me probably one and a half seconds at most to have come to the conclusion that he is the only person deserving of the award this year.
. . . I've written a lot about whistle-blowing and thought a lot about it, and there's two real components to whistle-blowing: One is the disclosure of wrongdoing, serious wrongdoing on the part of factions; and the second one is to disclose that wrongdoing at some risk to yourself. . . . (Snowden) embodies both of those as purely as you can imagine.
. . . Really, a single individual who just on his own made a choice that had extreme ripple effects on all sorts of realms that I think to this day are still underappreciated and unknown. And this lesson that any individual, no matter how formidable the adversary seems, no matter entrenched the oppressive institution appears to be, can stand up to that institution and challenge it and shine light on it and bring about real change, I think is a lesson that all kinds of people around the world, from very young to very old, on every continent of the Earth, will take from this.
~ Glenn Greenwald



















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Friday, August 30, 2013

Miranda was carrying Passwords when Stopped in UK

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Previous Related Posts:
Was David Miranda a Mule or a Journalist?
Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger Spins Away
Smashing Hard Drives: the Miranda - Snowden - Guardian Saga Continues
Glenn Greenwald Threatens to spill UK Secrets
UK Detains Greenwald's Partner, Twitter Wars Erupt

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'Which person,' she [Professor McGonagall] said, her voice shaking, 'which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?'
There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks.
Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy-skippered toes, raised his hand slowly in the air.
~ from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter "Flight of the Fat Lady"

From "Extraordinary Court Statement via @davidbarrett and @joshuafoust
  • Statement from senior Cabinet Office civil servant to #miranda case says material was 58000 ‘highly classified UK intelligence documents’
  • Police who seized documents from #miranda found among them a piece of paper with the decryption password, the statement says
  • This password allowed them to decrypt one file on his seized hard drive, adds Oliver Robbins, Cabinet Office security adviser #miranda
  • The Govt believes Edward Snowden, the NSA ‘whistleblower’, “indiscriminately appropriated material in bulk” #miranda
  • The material contains personal information that would allow British intelligence staff to be identified, inc some overseas, it adds #miranda
  • The Govt has had to assume Snowden data is now in the hands of foreign governments, since his travel abroad (to HK and Russia) #miranda
  • Statement specifically says UK but they haven’t finish decrypting yet
  • It is “impossible” for Glenn Greenwald or any other journalist to determine which info could damage UK national security: Robbins statement
  • “The claimant & his associates have demonstrated very poor judgment in their security arrangements with respect to the material…”#miranda
  • “…rendering the appropriation of the material, or at least access to it by other, non-State actors, a real possibility” #miranda
  • “The fact that…the claimant was carrying on his person a handwritten piece of paper containing the password for one of the encrypted files recovered from him is a sign of very poor information security practice,” says Govt statement #miranda
  • Statement implies GCHQ as well as Scotland Yard are working on the electronic media seized from #miranda

From Telegraph UK
David Miranda accused of carrying secrets that threatened spies' lives. This looks bad for Glenn

. . . The Government's accessed just a small portion of an astonishing 58,000 pages of intelligence documents and, according to a witness statement by Oliver Robbins, deputy national security adviser to the Cabinet, it includes: "personal information of UK intelligence officers, any compromise of which would result in a risk to their lives and those of their family members." Robbins argued that if this data had got into the public sphere then it would have made spies and their loved ones vulnerable to attack or recruitment by hostile forces.

. . . Miranda's lawyer said in reply that, "Mr Miranda does not accept the assertions they have made." Presumably, this means that he does not accept the assertion that the data he was carrying threatened UK national security and even the lives of its operatives. Yet this somewhat contradicts something Miranda told The Guardian two weeks ago. Back then, he said, "I don't look at documents. I don't even know if it was documents that I was carrying." So if he didn't look at the documents, how can he know that they didn't include the kind of information that the UK Government alleges?












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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Assange Stars in Bizarre Video



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From Mashable
Julian Assange Gets Wiki With It in Spoof Rap Video
Julian Assange just leaked his sense of humor for all the Internet to see.
The WikiLeaks founder appeared in a spoof rap video, titled "Game of Polls," produced by Juice Rap News. It blends a hip hop beat with the theme from the HBO series Game of Thrones.
After a few minutes of Westeros-esque violence and crass language from actors depicting three top Australian officials — Labor Party leader and current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, his predecessor Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party — Assange appears as himself around the video's 3:30 mark.
. . . The rap gives way to Assange delivering his political platform to the stylings of "You're the Voice," an Australian '80s anthem performed by John Farnham.

From the Juice Media Statement
Thanks to the Ecuadorian people, Julian has a room in the Embassy temporarily set aside for hismedia appearances, complete with green screen and lights - which came in very handy. We were assisted by friends and the WikiLeaks team in filming the scenes inside and outside the Embassy. The entire shoot took half a day and most of the night. As it took place over a Saturday/Sunday, no Ecuadorian staff members were inconvenienced or harmed during the process. :)



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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Bradley Manning is now Chelsea Manning

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Previous Related Posts:
Wikileaks Associate Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison
Bradley Manning Apologizes at Trial



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Complete Statement from Chelsea Manning from NBC Today Show
Subject: The Next Stage of My Life

I want to thank everybody who has supported me over the last three years. Throughout this long ordeal, your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong. I am forever indebted to those who wrote to me, made a donation to my defense fund, or came to watch a portion of the trial. I would especially like to thank Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network for their tireless efforts in raising awareness for my case and providing for my legal representation.

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

Thank you,

Chelsea E. Manning

While Fort Leavenworth, the prison where Manning will serve her sentence, does not offer hormone therapy, (Attorney David) Coombs told host Savannah Guthrie he would fight to ensure his client received the medical treatment she needed. He also said he and Manning had not discussed sex reassignment surgery, and that getting her access to the needed hormones is his priority at this time.
Asked why Chelsea Manning had not made a statement about her gender before the trial was over, Coombs said, “She didn’t want this to be something that overshadowed the case.”
~ MSNBC

The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder.
~ Statement from the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth










































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