PRISM

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Ed Snowden Q&A online this morning.

In an unprecedented bow to citizen journalism, for about an hour and a half this morning, Edward Snowden answered 18 questions submitted online. The questions and answers are republished in full at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-nsa-files-whistleblower?commentpage=6

While he did not get to my specific questions, Snowden provided useful clarification about the difference between policy restrictions and technical capabilities for accessing communication content.

While he made it clear that he was divulging information only to journalists, not governments, the mainstream media did not fare well:

Initially I was very encouraged. Unfortunately, the mainstream media now seems far more interested in what I said when I was 17 or what my girlfriend looks like rather than, say, the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history.

I loved his witty response to the question of whether he was supplying China with information in exchange for asylum:

Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

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NSA/Snowden links:

Here are a couple links to more info:

…a New York Times piece about Ed Snowden’s daring adventures in Hong Kong and what we might call the Chinese gambit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/world/asia/ex-nsa-contractors-disclosures-could-complicate-his-fate.html?nl=afternoonupdate&emc=edit_au_20130614

…and the week-old Guardian story detailing the NSA PRISM program, which goes much further than the metadata surveillance described in Snowden’s first revelations. NSA began directly accessing Microsoft servers in 2007 and has expanded the program to include all of the major Internet service providers—Yahoo, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Apple and probably whatever servers this connection we’re sharing right now is going through:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data#start-of-comments

PrismPRISM slide crop

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Big Brother Is Watching, Listening & Acting in Secrecy

A few days ago, when the Guardian and the Post first released the information about national “security” administration spying on citizens’ communications, I raised concerns on Facebook:

Be careful whom you connect with on your “smart” phone. Speak with the “wrong” person, and you might want to beware of a drone overhead. Apparently, it is now lawful for the national “security” agency not only to spy on Americans’ communications but also to, without a trial, carry out drone assassination of citizens who communicate with the “wrong” people! How is this even vaguely constitutional? The constitutional scholar in the White House has totally lost his bearings. The “intelligence” agencies appear to be running the country.

Last night, I added a link to Ed Snowden’s on-camera interview along with the following comments:

Following up on the concerns I expressed a couple posts ago, here’s an interview with Ed Snowden, the man who blew the whistle on the secret federal programs, like PRISM, spying on US citizen communications.

“You don’t have to have done something wrong; you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call. Then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you’ve ever made, every friend you’ve ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis, to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone into the context of a wrongdoer.”

“If you realize that that’s the world you helped create; and it’s gonna get worse, with the next generation ’n’ the next generation, to extend the capabilities of this sort of architecture of oppression, you realize that you might be willing to accept any risk.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

Mr. Snowden echoes my main concern: A government that secretly monitors its citizens, secretly amasses information and builds a secret, supposedly “compelling” case against and then restrains, assassinates or executes even a single citizen without conviction at trial is a potential danger to any citizen.

This man has great courage; he will go down as a hero and/or martyr if a nation of free citizens survives this era. Daniel Ellsberg comes to mind, whose release of the Pentagon papers exposed the fraud behind the Vietnam war. I suspect this young man will have a much tougher time; the “intelligence” community has become much more powerful now.

Soon, I’ll figure out how to properly link my Facebook page to these posts. There have already been several perceptive comments there.