Ed Snowden Explains To Former Senator, Who Emailed In Support, That No Foreign Gov't Can Access His Documents

from the aiding-the-enemy? dept

Wed, Jul 17th 2013 6:47am — Mike Masnick

While the government and defenders of the NSA surveillance program continue to want to paint Ed Snowden out to be a spy and trying to "aid the enemy," public opinion continues to side with Snowden and believe that he's a clear whistleblower, calling attention to government excess. Glenn Greenwald has published a fascinating email exchange between Snowden and former Senator Gordon Humphrey, who apparently sent an unsolicited email to Snowden to thank him for exposing government wrongs.

Mr. Snowden,

Provided you have not leaked information that would put in harms way any intelligence agent, I believe you have done the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States Constitution.

Having served in the United States Senate for twelve years as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee, I think I have a good grounding to reach my conclusion.

I wish you well in your efforts to secure asylum and encourage you to persevere.

Kindly acknowledge this message, so that I will know it reached you.

Regards,
Gordon J. Humphrey
Former United States Senator
New Hampshire

Think about this for a second. Here is a former US Senator -- a member of the Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Judiciary Committees -- telling Snowden that he supports his effort, agrees that the surveillance program is a "massive violation" of the Constitution, and wishes him well in finding a country that will protect him from the US. That's really rather incredible, but it shows just how far the current US government is taking things in trying to demonize Snowden. Humphrey recognizes that the leak helped expose a questionable program, hasn't "aided our enemies" and is supporting Snowden remaining outside the hands of US law enforcement.

Snowden's response, by the way, is quite eloquent, and presents Snowden's arguments even better than I've seen him express them elsewhere. He also, strongly, refutes the claim that many have made that Snowden must have given the contents of the documents he copied to the Chinese or the Russians. He notes that keeping such things secret is his specialty, and he set things up carefully to avoid anyone else getting their hands on the documents:

Mr. Humphrey,

Thank you for your words of support. I only wish more of our lawmakers shared your principles - the actions I've taken would not have been necessary.

The media has distorted my actions and intentions to distract from the substance of Constitutional violations and instead focus on personalities. It seems they believe every modern narrative requires a bad guy. Perhaps it does. Perhaps, in such times, loving one's country means being hated by its government.

If history proves that be so, I will not shy from that hatred. I will not hesitate to wear those charges of villainy for the rest of my life as a civic duty, allowing those governing few who dared not do so themselves to use me as an excuse to right these wrongs.

My intention, which I outlined when this began, is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them. I remain committed to that. Though reporters and officials may never believe it, I have not provided any information that would harm our people - agent or not - and I have no intention to do so.

Further, no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China).

You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture.

With my thanks for your service to the nation we both love,

Edward Snowden

Of course, it's one thing to claim that they cannot get access to the documents, and a different thing to actually keep those documents safe. However, given everything Snowden has done so far, it's shown that he was exceptionally careful in how he's acted with the release of the documents to date, and I have little doubt that he's taken significant precautions to keep them out of the hands of those governments, contrary to the claims of those who are seeking to tar and feather him.

Separately, Greenwald contacted Humphrey to confirm the email, and Humphrey provided even more on his thoughts about Snowden which are worth publishing:

Mr. Greenwald,

Yes. It was I who sent the email message to Edward Snowden, thanking him for exposing astonishing violations of the US Constitution and encouraging him to persevere in the search for asylum.

To my knowledge, Mr. Snowden has disclosed only the existence of a program and not details that would place any person in harm's way. I regard him as a courageous whistle-blower.

I object to the monumentally disproportionate campaign being waged by the U.S. Government against Edward Snowden, while no effort is being made to identify, remove from office and bring to justice those officials who have abused power, seriously and repeatedly violating the Constitution of the United States and the rights of millions of unsuspecting citizens.

Americans concerned about the growing arrogance of our government and its increasingly menacing nature should be working to help Mr. Snowden find asylum. Former Members of Congress, especially, should step forward and speak out.

Regards,
Gordon Humphrey

It seems unfortunate that we live in a country where the reaction to Snowden is considered reasonable by some. Yes, the government is clearly embarrassed by the leaks, but that's because it's now clear they were hiding things that either they shouldn't not have done in the first place, or which should never have been hidden. Embarrassment is a terrible feeling, but it's no excuse for turning a whistleblower into a fugitive.

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Filed Under: asylum, constitution, ed snowden, encryption, glenn greenwald, gordon humphrey, nsa, nsa surveillance, security, whistleblower

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Ninja (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 6:34am

Stupidity
You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture.

I'll leave that for us to reflect over. What the US are doing is not only an absurd in terms of freedom of speech and so on but by trying to isolate him they are leaving him wide open to exactly this - potentially unfriendly governments to try to extract stuff from him under torture. It's sheer stupidity.

It seems unfortunate that we live in a country where the reaction to Snowden is considered reasonable by some.

I've read an article from Mat Honan in Wired about when he was epically hacked. The article itself is fascinating but the most interesting part is the follow ups. He writes about how passwords must die as a lone form of security measure (which is a fairly reasonable idea in its own) but during the article he keeps throwing the idea that we must give up privacy for greater security. You see, he went through great distress and this is driving his rant. Much like fear of some unnamed ethereal enemy drives these people who find it reasonable. Until they are affected by a surveillance system that's put in place to placate their hysteria. In some ways I think the Govt strategy can be turned against themselves. If people are so sensitive and easily scared then why not spread the word on how bad this can be? A little history class wouldn't harm anybody ;)
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Obligatory Grammar Nazi, 17 Jul 2013 @ 6:59am

Double-negative detected:

but that's because it's now clear they were hiding things that either they shouldn't not have done in the first place
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Rikuo (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 6:59am

Just in case some moron turns up here in the comments and says that Snowden is a spy for Russia/China/Insert-Your-Favourite-Country-Here...let me ask you this

If Snowden has all this intelligence and was working with XYZ...why is he stuck in the transit zone of a Russian airport? If he was working with China, why did they let him leave Hong Kong? If he's working with Russia, why is he still in the airport and not somewhere in Moscow proper?
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- Tim Griffiths (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:19am
  
  Re:
  Puts on tin foil hat
  
  false flaaaaags man...
  
  Takes off tin foil hat
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- Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:25am
  
  Re:
  My guess is that Snowden is in no man's land in Russia so that he stays protected from potential assassins or Chechen terrorists who would want that information he's holding.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:30am
    
    Re: Re:
    But the main/principle/overarching reason he's in Russia is in the hope he can be protected from the USA.
    
    Only a tiny number of people find that as horrifying as they should.
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    - Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:48am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      As long as he's stuck in a airport where there are way too many people to identify suspicious looking characters...he will be safe. It would be extraordinarily dangerous for Snowden to be out on Red Square in Moscow.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:01am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Just like Tom Hanks.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:08am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Presuming he's actually able to move about freely...
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:42am
  
  Re:
  Why even care about Snowden at all, even if you think that he is a traitor? He's just one man, and the USA has much bigger problems to solve right now.
  
  The USA has been caught spying on both Americans and foreigners. It spied on diplomats and engaged on industrial espionage. Furthermore, it was shown that American companies willingly gave the NSA special access to customer private data.
  
  Do you know what that means? No business will ever trust any of your software companies again (at least in the short/mid term).
  
  And on top of that, the USA created an international incident just because Snowden might have been on some plane headed to Bolivia. Now you have a situation boiling in South America (which, in case you Americans forgot, is right under you).
  
  The USA should be focusing on fixing their credibility problem, not going on a witch-hunt.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 11:13am
    
    Re: Re:
    The USA should be doing a lot of things, but it's probably not going to. Its current leaders are interested in self-aggrandizement, not good government.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:35am

Amazing
I can access, you can access them, they have even been posted here on Techdirt !!

But somehow foreign governments can not access them !
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- Marcel de Jong (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:55am
  
  Re: Amazing
  So, you have actual access to the data that Snowden was talking about? Do you work for the NSA?
  
  He only showed that there was such a system in place, and not the actual contents of said system.
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- Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:57am
  
  Re: Amazing
  Snowden trained operatives in DIA...which deals with training people how to keep clammed up under the most extreme tortures that China can give...which is why he likely left Hong Kong so abruptly.
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  - aldestrawk (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:16am
    
    Re: Re: Amazing
    I think what Snowden is saying is not that he would tough-it-out under torture and not crack but that he, alone, does not have the keys to decrypt the documents. I am speculating here, but it is entirely possible to double-encrypt a file such that two keys are needed for a full decryption. That would mean that he has arranged for other people to hold keys that are needed to decrypt at least part of his cache of secret documents. This may only apply to the items he has with him physically. A country or organization (+ torture) may find out his key and the names of the folk he partnered with, but without access to them there is no full decryption.
    This only leaves out the fail-safe mechanism if Snowden is killed. For that, there might be a cache of copies that are encrypted in the same manner but without a key that only Snowden knew.
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    - Hephaestus (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:42am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Amazing
      He mentioned his setup is more subtle than that. Which mean multiple file subsets, with multiple people (or programs) holding multiple keys, and a main file with all documents in case of his death. The files are probably already widely distributed.
      
      This allows for different levels of disclosure based on disappearance, arrest, deportation, death, etc. His press conference was more than likely a proof of life event to prevent disclosure.
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      - aldestrawk (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:57am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Amazing
        Agreed, I was simplifying the scheme to just explain the possibility and advantage of double encryption.
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- aldestrawk (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:35am
  
  Re: Amazing
  What you are ignoring is that there are a subset of the documents which Snowden intended and has released or still intends to release to the public. All those document that are intended to be released were already in the hands of other people he was working with. There is a larger subset which he doesn't intend to release. These comprise the "insurance policy", with strong encryption protecting them from being read by any government, organization, or individual.
  What I have suggested is that this subset is doubly encrypted with Snowden only possessing one of the keys. They could torture him and get the key, but that would still not be enough to read the documents.
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Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:45am

Security clearance
I'm very glad he's keeping the information preserved.

Here's the thing I'm seeing...and please understand I'm completely for what Snowden is doing. He has information that he likely had to go above his own security clearance to obtain. While policies are not one bit classifiable information, the procedures in this case are. These procedures give information on how to access the metadata the NSA has collected. While he did in fact legally blow the whistle, his security clearance was not that of obtaining the encryption codes to access said procedures.

The only illegal part was obtaining the information and moving it off the premises without proper security clearance.

Now before anyone jumps on me for pointing this out, it should be noted that law makers and the US Government and major media are conflating all this to make it look like Snowden is a dangerous James Bond like spy who just lost his license to kill and has gone rogue. I hate conflation.

In my view, because Snowden is keeping preserved (meaning he's keeping the data he has that can be used against us quite safe), he should be cleared of all charges of espionage and honestly, everything else the US Government has accused him of thus far.
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- Ninja (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:06am
  
  Re: Security clearance
  The only illegal part was obtaining the information and moving it off the premises without proper security clearance.
  
  This poses two problems, one of them necessarily true:
  
  1- Govt security is lousy allowing Snowden o others to hack their way through the system regardless of clearance.
  2- He had clearance and what you are saying is incorrect.
  
  Both are damning ;)
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  - Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:33am
    
    Re: Re: Security clearance
    Your first conjecture is quite possibly the case. It pays to have relatives on the inside ;-)
    
    The thing is, only his supervisors had access to policy and procedures taken off premises...Snowden's supervisors told people "do this" and in the NSA you are never encouraged to question the orders that come from your superiors. I mean this is a government agency that has the policy "Never Say Anything" which means you don't people why they have to do what you say. Snowden suspected something was wrong with what he was being told to do and did in fact have to gain unauthorized access to get the damning information.
    
    My admiration of him is the simple fact that he vowed to preserve the classified information he took with him. The moment he breaks preserve, that's when we can start properly labeling him as a traitor. Thank God he he was the supervisor of DIA training.
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  - Hephaestus (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:55am
    
    Re: Re: Security clearance
    The simple explanation is often the correct one. Since he was an IT admin he had access to the entire system he was administering, no real hacking required.
    
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/us/job-title-key-to-inner-access-held-by-snowden.html ?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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    - Ninja (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Security clearance
      O true, I forgot that bit. So I take it I misunderstood the clearance part here as a technical clearance when it was really a hierarchical one (as in he shouldn't go there even if he did have full access as a sys admin). In which case what Wally said makes more sense.
      
      Thanks for the tip!
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out_of_the_blue, 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:49am

"government is clearly embarrassed by the leaks"?
That's not clear to me or some who claim to be familiar with limited hangout psyops. As Noami Wolf wrote: what's the point of having an NSA if your citizens aren't terrrorized by it? And fact is that most Americans just ignore all news, shrug off these "leaks", as they did with Binney and Sibel Edmonds, while the rest, especially politicians, say internal spying is good and need more of it.

In running this piece, you further the apparently intended narrative that there even are opposition forces in gov't, but you don't know that. Snowden, Greenwald, whoever could all be unwitting dupes. -- You don't even suspect nothin', just swallow the story whole.

SO until actually SEE something from Snowden's "leak" that didn't know years ago, remain highly skeptical.

By the way, look at how this continues to shift to useless drama of Snowden's exile, and statements by Greenwald that Snowden has enough to bring down the US gov't, and so on -- but hedged now that he won't and can't even under torture reveal it to enemies! Those are mere words, diverting at best from the actual everyday SPY STATE apparatus -- including commercial front, Google.
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- Ninja (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:08am
  
  Re: "government is clearly embarrassed by the leaks"?
  While you do have a point you have to mix your delusions in it. And oh the surprise, there you are masterbating with Google's dildo again!
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FM HIlton, 17 Jul 2013 @ 7:52am

Ensuring silence
The USA should be focusing on fixing their credibility problem, not going on a witch-hunt.

No, you don't understand: if the United States is embarrassed at being caught out in this horrible exposure of their most secret programs, they must find, capture, prosecute and then silence the perpetrator.

"It is vital! It is our duty to silence all traitors, lest they tell the people the truth! Let us destroy this rogue, and keep him from destroying our carefully built house of cards!

That is why they're doing all they can to make him into the image of a traitor: he told the truth.

But that doesn't mean everyone believes them. I don't, for sure, and I'm glad the former Senator from NH doesn't either.

There should be more of the public figures coming out in support of the truth.
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Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:00am

Nobel Prize for Peace
It should be noted that Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I hope the following is his speech if he wins:

"If history proves that be so, I will not shy from that hatred. I will not hesitate to wear those charges of villainy for the rest of my life as a civic duty, allowing those governing few who dared not do so themselves to use me as an excuse to right these wrongs."
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- Ninja (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:11am
  
  Re: Nobel Prize for Peace
  *looks at Obama*
  
  Right. I hereby nominate my dog for the Nobel Peace Prize. Notice I don't have a dog.
  
  Btw, nothing personal Wally it's just that I completely lost any faith or sense of credibility towards Nobel Prizes lately...
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  - Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:37am
    
    Re: Re: Nobel Prize for Peace
    The judges felt it a bit hasty to give Obama the prize in 2009 and they cited that race might have had something to do with it. So the view will be much later than usual.
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Rapnel (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:02am

evening rant
Every day I'm scrounging through countless news reels looking for anything remotely resembling decisive actions that attempt to drive the direction of this country back from whence it came.

Congress is corrupted by cash, the people are idiots, the president is a puppet and the conditions for an actual, honest to goodness, mom and apple pie police state are not only ripe but they are prevalent, present, armed and dangerous and their reach clearly is without limits.

Who, in their right mind, is so afraid of TERRORISTS(!) that they could give less than half a shit about the foundations of freedom? Who? Because I, for one, would like to know who the enemy truly is.

WHERE ARE THE IDIOTS!?
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:04am
  
  Re: evening rant
  There seems to be a large crossover with the pro-IP crowd.
  
  I suppose that makes sense. After all, what better way to ensure that everyone has paid the proper license fee for everything they do, see, or say, than constant surveillance?
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Vidiot (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:11am

My kind of Senator
Note to self: Need to plan a road trip to New Hampshire, simply to seek out Sen. Humphrey and shake his hand.
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- Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:55am
  
  Re: My kind of Senator
  That would be New London or Lake Sunapea
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technomage (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:15am

He's got the 'golden carrot' to secure asylum, though by his own admission, he won't use it. I honestly believe that the information he has locked away, is actively being sought by these foreign governments that started saying they would grant asylum. When those offers were redacted, I would bet that it was because Snowden wasn't willing to pay the price of admission with the documents he has. The US should be more worried about the countries that first offered and then dropped the potential asylum, as these countries are, in my opinion, the ones looking to get an 'edge' over the US. The 'golden carrot' is also the same reason he's not been silenced yet.
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- Wally (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 8:42am
  
  Re:
  "He's got the 'golden carrot' to secure asylum, though by his own admission, he won't use it. I honestly believe that the information he has locked away, is actively being sought by these foreign governments that started saying they would grant asylum. When those offers were redacted, I would bet that it was because Snowden wasn't willing to pay the price of admission with the documents he has."
  
  He's already paid the price for it. He's lost his job, his wife, his son, his summer house in Hawaii, pretty much everything! He's stuck himself to living at an airport to make sure he stays alive.
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Beta (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:09am

" I will not hesitate to wear those charges of villainy for the rest of my life as a civic duty..."

This should be carved in stone somewhere. Schoolchildren should read it. It should be part of a pledge.
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- James (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 12:44pm
  
  Re:
  re: wearing charges of villainy ...
  
  You left out the part about "doing so for those who were unwilling to do so."
  
  I love the way he called out his co-workers and Congress as cowards.
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akp (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:32am

Can we skip to the part where he lives out his life in peace in some other country, under a different name, so we can get on with writing the inevitable screenplay?
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Bravo!!, 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:47am

Gordon Humphrey is a man of integrity. He should be on the US Supreme Court, replacing Scalia.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:07am

"You may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture."

I hope that's the case as they use drugs and far more primitive methods to extract the info from him...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:35am

Speaking as a Brazilian, somewhat removed from the main commotion of his acts: If US has any inteligence left, they should just arrange that Snowden got asylum in some nice place, because if that man get killed by someone, like maybe a dissident russian who would want to make it apear that Puttin follows the US agenda, then the rest of the world would get even more suspicious of America, and some of his more explosive leaked documents would inevitably end up going public.

If someone around has ever heard about the Daemon series, by Daniel Suarez, they could guess how Snowden could just have acted - prepared a Twitter crawler to, if news of his death get around, it just starts sending files around the world. And whatever the hell he did while on NSA computers, probably would be almost untraceable, given the level of the hardware and the legitimate access as system admin.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 11:25am
  
  Re:
  If US has any inteligence left
  
  We don't. Our laws are rushed through by congressmen who proudly proclaim that they have no idea what they're doing and just want to pass all the laws right away so they can go home and watch TV.
  I wish I was being hyperbolic. Here's a choice sample from the SOPA debacle:
  SOPA Markup Day 1: We Don't Understand This Bill, It Might Do Terrible Things, But Dammit, We're Passing It Now
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2013 @ 10:47am

Snowden does not deserve asylum, he deserves to return home to his family as a hero. The amount of corruption he has brought to light is completely unacceptable. It's goddamn ludicrous for our government to think what they're doing is okay.

I really wish I could take my vote back for Obama because he's turned out to be a bigger piece of shit than Bush. They're destroying everything the USA is supposed to stand for... :(
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Ed, 17 Jul 2013 @ 1:15pm

Drugs, Pain... Just for Starters
"no intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect"

Clearly this young man knows NOTHING about interrogation.
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Richard Bennett (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 2:38pm

Public Opinion
Is it really the case that "public opinion continues to side with Snowden?" The only poll I've seen says most people want him returned to the US for prosecution, and the general sentiment in the "hero or villain?" debate is turning stronly toward the villain side.

He seems like a bit of a fool who was probably groomed and flipped by Julian Assange, much like poor Bradley Manning was before him. Assange has a pretty good racket going where the suckers pay the price for his fame and fortune while he's immunized by an army of naive and well-meaning followers.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 3:26pm
  
  Re: Public Opinion
  Is it really the case that "public opinion continues to side with Snowden?" The only poll I've seen says most people want him returned to the US for prosecution, and the general sentiment in the "hero or villain?" debate is turning stronly toward the villain side.
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/snowden-seen-as-whistlebloweer-by-majority-in-new- poll.html
  
  From just last week: A majority of U.S. registered voters consider Edward Snowden a whistle-blower, not a traitor, and a plurality says government anti-terrorism efforts have gone too far in restricting civil liberties, a poll released today shows.
  Fifty-five percent said Snowden was a whistle-blower in leaking details about top-secret U.S. programs that collect telephone and Internet data,
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  - Richard Bennett (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 5:12pm
    
    Re: Re: Public Opinion
    The Pew poll asks somewhat different questions and gets somewhat different answers:
    
    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/17/americans-say-snowden-should-be-p rosecuted-for-nsa-leaks-in-usa-today-poll/2430583/
    
    They also probably didn't poll as many white males, the group most sympathetic to Snowden. While opinion is split on the NSA's programs, there's a clear majority in favor of the position that Snowden shouldn't be leaking NSA's data all over the world.
    
    I find if a bit contradictory to hail the openness of the Internet on the one hand while expressing shock at the implications of openness on the other. If you wanted to create the ideal communications infrastructure for a surveillance state, your design wouldn't be significantly different from the TCP/IP Internet. It's like walking around naked and being outraged by the gawkers.
    
    Whatever.
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    - aldestrawk (profile), 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:10pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Public Opinion
      All the aspects of security; confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation can be added to any layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack. Yes, it was designed to be inherently a very open system without having security in mind. Over the years, the addition of security related protocols have made the possibility of true confidentiality in passing messages a reality. At the most basic level one could use PGP to encrypt messages end-to-end. If everyone used existing security protocols the NSA would not have anywhere near the capability they have today to monitor people's lives. Why do most people not bother? It is a bit inconvenient and maybe folk felt like it wasn't really necessary. It seemed paranoid and why bother if you didn't really have anything to hide. That is changing with the series of leaks from Snowden. A lot of people knew it was a possibility, but now, we've all been hit in the face with our lack of privacy on-line. One way of fighting this is for individuals to adopt the use of security protocols whenever they can. Another, perhaps more important, way to fight this is politically, to rein in the state paranoia and bring the government back under the constitution.
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    - Look at the dates..., 17 Jul 2013 @ 9:50pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Public Opinion
      The Pew poll is out of date (6/17), whereas the Bloomberg poll is current (7/10). That is the main difference. Public opinion has shifted as more and more people learn about the details of this case and start questioning the US government's anti-Snowden propaganda.
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- Niall (profile), 18 Jul 2013 @ 5:33am
  
  Re: Public Opinion
  So, the Evil Mastermind calling himself 'Julian Assange' really had a hankering for staying in the building that currently is being used for the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, so he dreamed up this Machiavellian plan to stay there. He is actively reaching out to the young disaffected in 'Murica, corrupting their innocence and installing them with a civic conscience where none exists before, such that they feel the need to air 'Murica's hypocrises abroad and at home. And we all know, the worst sin in the world is embarrasing 'Murica, so long as you aren't the ones in charge of 'Murica, in which case you can lie and murder with impunity.
  
  Amirite?
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