One we all agree on?

I asked "Do you understand what a secure FTP server is?"
I asked "Why did you say 'I'm not trying to hide from justice here?'"

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

Spencer Ackerman
17 June 2013 4:16pm

Edward, there is rampant speculation, outpacing facts, that you have or will provide classified US information to the Chinese or other governments in exchange for asylum. Have/will you?

Answer:

This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk "RED CHINA!" reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct. 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.


*** He can't afford to get cute about something heinous

I'm sure we'll hear much more about how everything is going according to his plan to free us from the yoke of legal warrants!

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

MonaHol
17 June 2013 4:37pm

Ed Snowden, I thank you for your brave service to our country.

Some skepticism exists about certain of your claims, including this:

I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email.

Do you stand by that, and if so, could you elaborate?

Answer:

Yes, I stand by it. US Persons do enjoy limited policy protections (and again, it's important to understand that policy protection is no protection - policy is a one-way ratchet that only loosens) and one very weak technical protection - a near-the-front-end filter at our ingestion points. The filter is constantly out of date, is set at what is euphemistically referred to as the "widest allowable aperture," and can be stripped out at any time. Even with the filter, US comms get ingested, and even more so as soon as they leave the border. Your protected communications shouldn't stop being protected communications just because of the IP they're tagged with.

More fundamentally, the "US Persons" protection in general is a distraction from the power and danger of this system. Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%. Our founders did not write that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all US Persons are created equal."

38m ago

Question:
User avatar for HaraldK
HaraldK
17 June 2013 2:45pm

What are your thoughts on Google's and Facebook's denials? Do you think that they're honestly in the dark about PRISM, or do you think they're compelled to lie?

Perhaps this is a better question to a lawyer like Greenwald, but: If you're presented with a secret order that you're forbidding to reveal the existence of, what will they actually do if you simply refuse to comply (without revealing the order)?

Answer:

Their denials went through several revisions as it become more and more clear they were misleading and included identical, specific language across companies. As a result of these disclosures and the clout of these companies, we're finally beginning to see more transparency and better details about these programs for the first time since their inception.

They are legally compelled to comply and maintain their silence in regard to specifics of the program, but that does not comply them from ethical obligation. If for example Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple refused to provide this cooperation with the Intelligence Community, what do you think the government would do? Shut them down?

He's a Paulite


Gabrielaweb
17 June 2013 2:17pm

Why did you wait to release the documents if you said you wanted to tell the world about the NSA programs since before Obama became president?

Answer:

Obama's campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.

If he's concerned about "abusive programs" and "human rights violations", how would that make him a "Paulite?"

On edit: Even, assuming you're correct, how is that relevant?

that your ideology counts for many aspects of your actions.

Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

that my view of your ideology counts for many aspects of how I view your actions."

FTFY.

People make generalizations all the time in order to think

Too bad it did so with a typo...*goes to fix*

My being an anarchist doesn't make me a mind reader (not that my philosophy was all that relevant anyway).

It's an easier, paperless way of 'mailing' data to the NSA, which all the companies involved say they do only with legal warrants.

Snowden's earlier claim, that these computers allow the NSA to spy on everybody and download the Internet on a daily basis are too fanciful to be believed.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

It appears they all have contracts to provide direct access to third party contractors who, in turn, supply direct access to the NSA.

Not-so-plausible (except to some sycophants) deniability.

Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2013, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)

because his spontaneous (well if they are) answers will be picked apart.

as my mind races for my questions

I won't post anymore. You know how I feel about Cuba but Snowden is not a patriot in my view, and I am not that anti-American

and it's not a problem

and against that machine, the cause of so much destruction, racism, name it what we have to counter it is Obama.

Those factions have as their numero uno goal - destroy Obama.

Snowden seems to be aligned with some dark forces.

No one knows who he is.

It is about the future of our democracy.

to encourage left wing opposition to a programme that they instigated just so they can remove Obama.

The vast majority of posters here who oppose the programme have been extremely careful to avoid mentioning him.

There are contractors that provide the direct access. That way the telecoms have not-so-plausible deniability.

http://www.subsentio.com/service-providers/electronic-surveillance-standards/

Mathius1
17 June 2013 2:54pm

Is encrypting my email any good at defeating the NSA survelielance? Id my data protected by standard encryption?

Answer:

Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.

Encryption hides the contents of email but not who it's to, who it's from, and what the size of the email is.

"Endpoint security" refers to the possibility of their reading the email after you decrypt it (or before it's encrypted in the first place). Basically, if you're doing encryption on webmail you're probably wasting your time.

And thus decrypt anything sent to you using your public key.

*Always* store your private key on a thumb drive.

I haven't kept up with key management on Windows in a while. I'm one of those smug OpenBSD users.

Empty hands.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

He never made that assertion.

And he didn't answer it.

It looks like the most damning document he has that supports 24/7 spying on the world is the PowerPoint slide. And the most plausible explanation for that is secure FTP servers, not the NSA watching our thoughts form as we type.

If Snowden wanted to convince us of something more nefarious, he needs to show evidence.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

How original.

. See this thread: All Congressional Members are under surveillance

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023039929

Makes you wonder about all the caving in on healthcare, social security, war...

"If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school."

Snowden has a lot, a lot of support.

I don't think anyone even knew of his existence before.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

Lied to a direct question from Senator Wyden when the Senator asked whether American Citizens were being spied upon. Can you clarify this exchange for me: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=zRhjgynfhag&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzRhjgynfhag

Last edited Tue Jun 18, 2013, 10:13 AM - Edit history (1)

But Snowden is claiming that Clapper influenced him to steal documents and run to Hong Kong. He did this on the basis of testimony that occurred after Snowden left? Doesn't make sense.

And Clapper was in a no-win situation. Bound to not talk about something yet asked about it in public testimony. He tried to fudge his answer, did not do a good job at it.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

The guy who is more than happy to say or do anything at whim of the most powerful intelligence agency to ever exist, the guy with no moral compass or backbone, in the no-win situation and he is the one we should have some sympathy for?

Unbelievable.

With attorney GG hovering at his side and probably half of MI5 too. Hoo boy.

but you are correct in saying that the guardian has to be very careful to not breach the law.

I'm astounded actually. If he were in custody we would not have his advocacy to be relentless. He gave Obama a way out ..a way to rectify and I like that. He is an incredible young man.

than the people deliberately out to destroy him because he rocked their hypocrisy and in their apoplectic panic, they ripped their own masks off.

And yes, incredible and graciously suggesting a way for the US to graciously make its way out of this mess.

Final question from Glenn Greenwald:

Anything else you’d like to add?

Answer:

Thanks to everyone for their support, and remember that just because you are not the target of a surveillance program does not make it okay. The US Person / foreigner distinction is not a reasonable substitute for individualized suspicion, and is only applied to improve support for the program. This is the precise reason that NSA provides Congress with a special immunity to its surveillance.

he certainly seems to be a "world citizen" and to be doing this for all human beings and is far less nationalistic than what i would expect from a RW plant as some suggest he is.
he actually seems to care and many of his replies echo exactly how i feel as someone who is not from the US.

and ty for posting the whole Q&A unfiltered and unredacted and without spin.
maybe it would be a idea to collect it all into one post or thread in the order he answered them, without comments interspersed so it is easier to follow.
not that i have a problem following what he said, but it might prevent some others from "misunderstanding"

consolidated Q&A in post #85

because you do.

without any dishonest, deliberate propaganda simultaneously reinterpreting that data to mislead people.

That way people can make up their own mind, using their own intelligence and conscience instead of taking the word of less-than-honest propagandists, especially the media which has shamefully collaborated in all sorts of lies and cover-ups.

To these shameless fuckers we owe countless wars, millions of dead, millions of homeless, hungry, displaced, wounded, orphaned, terrorized etc... and for fucking what?

THIS, populist solidarity, is how Edward Snowden knew before he took the plunge, that millions of people would have his back. Because. We. Are. Fucking. Tired. Of. The. Bullshit.

I'm sorry we never get to swap thoughts because I see you in a lot of the threads doing great work. I've been wanting to say thanks for many of your posts but something always keeps popping up this week lol.

*blush*

Didn't think anyone read them to be honest...well, not unless they were alerting on them

then a lot of us would know. I hope that day comes soon.

It has renewed my faith in human kind. To know that he is doing this for principle and not money, or Dick the Cheney's praise

Last edited Wed Jun 19, 2013, 01:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Like a one way ratchet of truth.

It will be very entertaining to watch G&S double down.



[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

this Q & A. You did a great job.
recommended

That's will killing the defenders of the faith lol. I'm cheering him on because more whistleblowers will come forward. There's no way this genie is going back in the bottle. Our country gets to choose now. Democracy or Totalitarian State?

I am close to being a Luddite.
But one thing I do understand is con men...I have had plenty of experience with them in my life...(sometimes even on the wrong side of the con)...and I have never seen a con man put himself out there like this...

So I believe him and will continue to believe him until he shows me something that I can relate to as being dishonest....and so far that has not happened.

You won't see any journalists with a reputation making the kind of ludicrous arguments about SIGINT vs content and databases that we're seeing here today. SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) is just intercepting the signal, processing the content and storing the content and analysis in a database. Anyone trying to discredit Snowden on technicalities is only discrediting themselves and I am happy that their words are on record, so that as this develops and there are congressional meetings, people will have hard confirmation of who tried to bamboozle the public with bullshit.

Thanks for your solidarity zeemike

finished high school."

We know that Congress will oppose and obstruct anything the President wants to do. Is it possible that the Administration is pulling Snowden's strings as a way to get Congress to act on this matter without the President overtly calling for it? Thomas Jefferson was a master of the hands off behind the scenes maneuver.

Because this has destroyed years worth of decryption and trust.

If it was just to fix constitutional abuses, there wouldn't be any files with international repercussions revealing how we (the US & the UK, the two closest partners in crime) recently lured foreign diplomats to our little diplomatic internet cafes to get a hold of their signals. And that, for example, we had decrypted the Russia President's encryption code. That right there is extremely sensitive information that just dried up all our surveillance of the Russian President's voice communications. Years of work just went down the drain and all they're getting now are signals they haven't decrypted yet. Everyone, internationally, just changed their encryption codes because of this.

There are too many unknowns going forward, of what this will do to the MIC. I don't see the President taking such a risky leap to handle US constitutional abuses. Snowden just dealt a real blow to the war machine. Theoretically, the Russians and the Chinese could be discussing an attack on the US right now and we wouldn't know it. We can still intercept it but not decrypt it to process and analyze it.
Years of work for international surveillance just went down the drain. Not to mention our *honor* after assuring our allies, over and over again, that we weren't spying on them, weren't performing industrial espionage and that things like all those Boeing contracts just fell in our lap. This has huge international ramifications. Everyone will deal with it politely, like diplomats do, but the trust level just went from 0 to -250. I don't see any US official risking that fallout just for our privacy.

I have no trouble believing these types of plots are regularly orchestrated for nefarious purposes, why not orchestrate one for a nobler purpose?

For those who want to believe Obama is the multi-dimensional chess master, this is the perfect back story legend. It would be great if the BOG would get on board with this idea; discussions of the national security state could be a little more sensible than they are now.

Thanks for sharing Catherina

Thanks for all the solid, trustworthy information you've been adding throughout these threads and your success debunking some misinformation that's floating around

thank you.

I think it's especially telling that 3 other former NSA people are saying Snowden did the right thing. They can't all be lying, IMO.

These three have a lot of credibility and weren't peons there.

You're welcome. Thanks for the solidarity

Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2013, 10:37 PM - Edit history (3)

Edward Snowden Q&A

It is the interview the world's media organisations have been chasing for more than a week, but instead Edward Snowden is giving Guardian readers the exclusive.

The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and source of the Guardian's NSA files coverage will – with the help of Glenn Greenwald – take your questions today on why he revealed the NSA's top-secret surveillance of US citizens, the international storm that has ensued, and the uncertain future he now faces. Ask him anything.

Snowden, who has fled the US, told the Guardian he "does not expect to see home again", but where he'll end up has yet to be determined.

He will be online today from 11am ET/4pm BST today. An important caveat: the live chat is subject to Snowden's security concerns and also his access to a secure internet connection. It is possible that he will appear and disappear intermittently, so if it takes him a while to get through the questions, please be patient.

To participate, post your question below and recommend your favorites. As he makes his way through the thread, we'll embed his replies as posts in the live blog. You can also follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #AskSnowden.

...

[hr]

11.07am ET

Question:
User avatar for GlennGreenwald Guardian staff
GlennGreenwald
17 June 2013 2:11pm

Let's begin with these:

1) Why did you choose Hong Kong to go to and then tell them about US hacking on their research facilities and universities?

2) How many sets of the documents you disclosed did you make, and how many different people have them? If anything happens to you, do they still exist?

Answer:

1) First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That's not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it.

Second, let's be clear: I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target. Not only that, when NSA makes a technical mistake during an exploitation operation, critical systems crash. Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting? So we can potentially reveal a potential terrorist with the potential to kill fewer Americans than our own Police? No, the public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the "consent of the governed" is meaningless.

2) All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.

[hr]11.13am ET

Question:
User avatar for ewenmacaskill Guardian staff
ewenmacaskill
17 June 2013 3:07pm

I should have asked you this when I saw you but never got round to it........Why did you just not fly direct to Iceland if that is your preferred country for asylum?

Answer:

Leaving the US was an incredible risk, as NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30 days in advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained. Hong Kong provided that. Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current US administration.

[hr]11.17am ET

Question:
User avatar for ActivistGal
ActivistGal
17 June 2013 2:15pm

You have said HERE that you admire both Ellsberg and Manning, but have argued that there is one important distinction between yourself and the army private...

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."

Are you suggesting that Manning indiscriminately dumped secrets into the hands of Wikileaks and that he intended to harm people?

Answer:

No, I'm not. Wikileaks is a legitimate journalistic outlet and they carefully redacted all of their releases in accordance with a judgment of public interest. The unredacted release of cables was due to the failure of a partner journalist to control a passphrase. However, I understand that many media outlets used the argument that "documents were dumped" to smear Manning, and want to make it clear that it is not a valid assertion here.

[hr]11.20am ET

Question:
User avatar for D. Aram Mushegian II
D. Aram Mushegian II
17 June 2013 2:16pm

Did you lie about your salary? What is the issue there? Why did you tell Glenn Greenwald that your salary was $200,000 a year, when it was only $122,000 (according to the firm that fired you.)

Answer:

I was debriefed by Glenn and his peers over a number of days, and not all of those conversations were recorded. The statement I made about earnings was that $200,000 was my "career high" salary. I had to take pay cuts in the course of pursuing specific work. Booz was not the most I've been paid.

[hr]11.23am ET

Question:
User avatar for Gabrielaweb
Gabrielaweb
17 June 2013 2:17pm

Why did you wait to release the documents if you said you wanted to tell the world about the NSA programs since before Obama became president?

Answer:

Obama's campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.

[hr]11.27am ET

Question:
User avatar for Anthony De Rosa
Anthony De Rosa
17 June 2013 2:18pm

1) Define in as much detail as you can what "direct access" means.

2) Can analysts listen to content of domestic calls without a warrant?

Answer:

1) More detail on how direct NSA's accesses are is coming, but in general, the reality is this: if an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want. Phone number, email, user id, cell phone handset id (IMEI), and so on - it's all the same. The restrictions against this are policy based, not technically based, and can change at any time. Additionally, audits are cursory, incomplete, and easily fooled by fake justifications. For at least GCHQ, the number of audited queries is only 5% of those performed.

[hr]11.40am ET
User avatar for Anthony De Rosa
Anthony De Rosa
17 June 2013 2:18pm

1) Define in as much detail as you can what "direct access" means.

2) Can analysts listen to content of domestic calls without a warrant?

2) NSA likes to use "domestic" as a weasel word here for a number of reasons. The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant. They excuse this as "incidental" collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications. Even in the event of "warranted" intercept, it's important to understand the intelligence community doesn't always deal with what you would consider a "real" warrant like a Police department would have to, the "warrant" is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp.

Glenn Greenwald follow up: When you say "someone at NSA still has the content of your communications" - what do you mean? Do you mean they have a record of it, or the actual content?

Both. If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time - and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.

[hr]11.41am ET

Question:
User avatar for HaraldK
HaraldK
17 June 2013 2:45pm

What are your thoughts on Google's and Facebook's denials? Do you think that they're honestly in the dark about PRISM, or do you think they're compelled to lie?

Perhaps this is a better question to a lawyer like Greenwald, but: If you're presented with a secret order that you're forbidding to reveal the existence of, what will they actually do if you simply refuse to comply (without revealing the order)?

Answer:

Their denials went through several revisions as it become more and more clear they were misleading and included identical, specific language across companies. As a result of these disclosures and the clout of these companies, we're finally beginning to see more transparency and better details about these programs for the first time since their inception.

They are legally compelled to comply and maintain their silence in regard to specifics of the program, but that does not comply them from ethical obligation. If for example Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple refused to provide this cooperation with the Intelligence Community, what do you think the government would do? Shut them down?

[hr]11.55am ET

Question:
User avatar for MonaHol
MonaHol
17 June 2013 4:37pm

Ed Snowden, I thank you for your brave service to our country.

Some skepticism exists about certain of your claims, including this:

I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email.

Do you stand by that, and if so, could you elaborate?

Answer:

Yes, I stand by it. US Persons do enjoy limited policy protections (and again, it's important to understand that policy protection is no protection - policy is a one-way ratchet that only loosens) and one very weak technical protection - a near-the-front-end filter at our ingestion points. The filter is constantly out of date, is set at what is euphemistically referred to as the "widest allowable aperture," and can be stripped out at any time. Even with the filter, US comms get ingested, and even more so as soon as they leave the border. Your protected communications shouldn't stop being protected communications just because of the IP they're tagged with.

More fundamentally, the "US Persons" protection in general is a distraction from the power and danger of this system. Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%. Our founders did not write that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all US Persons are created equal."

[hr]12.04pm ET

Question:
User avatar for Spencer Ackerman Guardian staff
Spencer Ackerman
17 June 2013 4:16pm

Edward, there is rampant speculation, outpacing facts, that you have or will provide classified US information to the Chinese or other governments in exchange for asylum. Have/will you?

Answer:

This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk "RED CHINA!" reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct. 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.

[hr]12.10pm ET

Question:
Kimberly Dozier @KimberlyDozier

US officials say terrorists already altering TTPs because of your leaks, & calling you traitor. Respond? http://www.guardiannews.com #AskSnowden
8:34 AM - 17 Jun 2013

Answer:

US officials say this every time there's a public discussion that could limit their authority. US officials also provide misleading or directly false assertions about the value of these programs, as they did just recently with the Zazi case, which court documents clearly show was not unveiled by PRISM.

Journalists should ask a specific question: since these programs began operation shortly after September 11th, how many terrorist attacks were prevented SOLELY by information derived from this suspicionless surveillance that could not be gained via any other source? Then ask how many individual communications were ingested to acheive that, and ask yourself if it was worth it. Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.

Further, it's important to bear in mind I'm being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead. Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

[hr]12.12pm ET

Question:
User avatar for Mathius1
Mathius1
17 June 2013 2:54pm

Is encrypting my email any good at defeating the NSA survelielance? Id my data protected by standard encryption?

Answer:

Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.

[hr]12.24pm ET

Question:
Jacob Appelbaum @ioerror

Do you believe that the treatment of Binney, Drake and others influenced your path? Do you feel the "system works" so to speak? #AskSnowden
10:00 AM - 17 Jun 2013

Answer:

Binney, Drake, Kiriakou, and Manning are all examples of how overly-harsh responses to public-interest whistle-blowing only escalate the scale, scope, and skill involved in future disclosures. Citizens with a conscience are not going to ignore wrong-doing simply because they'll be destroyed for it: the conscience forbids it. Instead, these draconian responses simply build better whistleblowers. If the Obama administration responds with an even harsher hand against me, they can be assured that they'll soon find themselves facing an equally harsh public response.

This disclosure provides Obama an opportunity to appeal for a return to sanity, constitutional policy, and the rule of law rather than men. He still has plenty of time to go down in history as the President who looked into the abyss and stepped back, rather than leaping forward into it. I would advise he personally call for a special committee to review these interception programs, repudiate the dangerous "State Secrets" privilege, and, upon preparing to leave office, begin a tradition for all Presidents forthwith to demonstrate their respect for the law by appointing a special investigator to review the policies of their years in office for any wrongdoing. There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.

[hr]12.28pm ET

Question:
User avatar for Ryan Latvaitis
Ryan Latvaitis
17 June 2013 2:34pm

What would you say to others who are in a position to leak classified information that could improve public understanding of the intelligence apparatus of the USA and its effect on civil liberties?

What evidence do you have that refutes the assertion that the NSA is unable to listen to the content of telephone calls without an explicit and defined court order from FISC?

Answer:

This country is worth dying for.

[hr]12.34pm ET

Question:
User avatar for AhBrightWings
AhBrightWings
17 June 2013 2:12pm

My question: given the enormity of what you are facing now in terms of repercussions, can you describe the exact moment when you knew you absolutely were going to do this, no matter the fallout, and what it now feels like to be living in a post-revelation world? Or was it a series of moments that culminated in action? I think it might help other people contemplating becoming whistleblowers if they knew what the ah-ha moment was like. Again, thanks for your courage and heroism.

Answer:

I imagine everyone's experience is different, but for me, there was no single moment. It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress - and therefore the American people - and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight***, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act. Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper - the Director of National Intelligence - baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

***(Please see the note at the end for the "Gang of 8" reference)***

[hr]12.37pm ET

Follow-up from the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman:

Regarding whether you have secretly given classified information to the Chinese government, some are saying you didn't answer clearly - can you give a flat no?

Answer:

No. I have had no contact with the Chinese government. Just like with the Guardian and the Washington Post, I only work with journalists.

[hr]12.41pm ET

Question:

So far are things going the way you thought they would regarding a public debate? – tikkamasala

Answer:

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.

[hr]12.43pm ET

Final question from Glenn Greenwald:

Anything else you’d like to add?

Answer:

Thanks to everyone for their support, and remember that just because you are not the target of a surveillance program does not make it okay. The US Person / foreigner distinction is not a reasonable substitute for individualized suspicion, and is only applied to improve support for the program. This is the precise reason that NSA provides Congress with a special immunity to its surveillance.

[hr]
[hr]

The Gang of Eight

Background

The President of the United States is required by 50 U.S.C. § 413(a)(1) to "ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States." However, under 50 U.S.C. § 413b(c)(2), the President may elect to report instead to the Gang of Eight when he thinks "it is essential to limit access" to information about a covert action.[not verified in body]
...
The individuals are sworn to secrecy and there is no vote process

The term "Gang of Eight" gained wide currency in the coverage of the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying program, in the context that no members of Congress other than the Gang of Eight were informed of the program, and they were forbidden to disseminate knowledge of the program to other members of Congress. The Bush administration has asserted that the briefings delivered to the Gang of Eight sufficed to provide Congressional oversight of the program and preserve the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches.[1]

Members of the Gang of Eight (intelligence)

United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:

Mike Rogers (R): (Chair)
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D): (Ranking member)

United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:

Dianne Feinstein (D): (Chair)
Saxby Chambliss (R): (Ranking member)

Leadership in theUnited States House of Representatives:

John Boehner (R): (Speaker of the House)
Nancy Pelosi (D): (Minority leader)

Leadership in the United States Senate:

Harry Reid (D): (Majority leader)
Mitch McConnell (R): (Minority leader)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_%28intelligence%29

Last edited Tue Jun 18, 2013, 02:36 AM - Edit history (1)

The very idea that the world's most hunted man could be in real time communication with thousands (or more?) of the world's interested citizens (defenders and detractors) was a first, wasn't it??

I believe it was an excellent strategic move for Snowden. It personalized him to many people. And it totally explained why he went to Hong Kong. Were he still in the U.S., he would have no voice now. He'd be in solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, nude and mute.

I literally could not believe Greenwald's tweet when it came across.

I'm glad he got away and I hope they can never get their hands on him until we have reasonable people in the government who answer to us. I'm sorry Bradley Manning didn't get away and I hope for a miracle that he doesn't spend the rest of his life in jail.

with ordinary people of the world explaining himself.
this is a first, and a pretty epic first if you ask me, its almost surreal.
even before this interview the polls in the UK showed that even among the people that said he was wrong to leak (+/-30% total) most of those thought his punishment should be a "slap on the wrist" (+/-20% total or 2/3's of those that thought he was wrong to leak).
and the UK government is arguably the greatest ally the US has in this.

K & R

of what was said, how it was said, and in response to what. The truth, in context, is always more powerful than any snippets professional weasels distort, reinterpret and then carpet bomb the public with.