Hot off the presses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIjrwgmlBJo
Printable View
Hot off the presses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIjrwgmlBJo
A well spoken, intellegent individule doing the right thing at the risk of his future and maybe even his life.
The world needs many more like him.
Brave patriotic man but he is living on borrowed time i'm afraid.
Codename PRISM - I know you're reading this - Bush's 'Illegal Wiretap' continues under Obama
http://mikephilbin.blogspot.co.uk/20...e-reading.html
They can also go back and change any decision you ever made "to suit their needs" at the time.Quote:
"Even if you're not doing anything wrong, you're being watched and recorded ... you don't have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody — even by a wrong call – and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made."
The keepers of the information have always had probably the most important position. This is why it's important for the people to keep their own information.
Unlike Bradley Manning, Snowden is not in the military, so he is going to be much harder to go after (legally).
john john you know better , one moring they will find him hanging with his hands tie behind his back
I said "legally". Of course he can always be suicided.Quote:
Originally Posted by mick silver
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/s...204241311.html
The source of the intelligence leaks that revealed the National Security Agency's massive domestic surveillance program last week was identified on Sunday by the Guardian as Edward Snowden, a soft-spoken 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of NSA defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
Snowden, a Hawaii resident who was interviewed by the newspaper in his hotel room in Hong Kong where he is hiding, said he has no regrets about going public—even if he never sees his family again.
"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things," Snowden said. "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under ... I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
In a statement, Booz Allen confirmed Snowden "has been an employee of our firm for less than 3 months":
News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm. We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.Snowden said he decided to leave his family, girlfriend and a comfortable, $200,000-a-year salary behind, and flew to Hong Kong on May 20. He said he chose China because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent."
The newspaper said it revealed Snowden's identity at his request, but that he is concerned it will become a distraction. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me," Snowden said. "I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing."
But he said he realizes that the government will come after him the same way they did with Bradley Manning, the former U.S. soldier who is currently on trial accused of providing thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks.
"All my options are bad," Snowden said. "I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners."
Snowden said he's left his hotel room just three times in three weeks, and is paranoid he's being watched.
"We have got a CIA station just up the road—the consulate here in Hong Kong—and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week," he continued. "And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/cC...front-page.jpgThe front page of the Guardian, June 10, 2014 (Guardian/Twitter)
Snowden said he "carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. 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.
"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," he added. "The only thing I can do is sit here and hope the Hong Kong government does not deport me ... My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland. They stood up for people over Internet freedom. I have no idea what my future is going to be."
A spokesman for National Intelligence Director James Clapper did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Associated Press.
Last week, Clapper blasted the disclosure of the classified program, saying it had already done "grave damage."
Before Snowden's identity was revealed, Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence committee, and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that those who leaked information about the NSA surveillance program should be charged with a crime.
"I absolutely think they should be prosecuted," Rogers said.
"I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," Snowden wrote a note accompanying the first set of documents, according to the Guardian.
It's not entirely clear why Snowden chose the British newspaper to reveal the surveillance operation, but Glenn Greenwald, one of the Guardian reporters who interviewed Snowden, hinted the whistleblower sought a non-American media outlet.
"There's a lot of supine behavior, subservient behavior in the part of the American media when it comes to the government," Greenwald said on CNN Sunday. "So much reporting in Washington consists of running to government sources, mindlessly repeating what they say after giving anonymity to ensure that they can say it with no accountability, and then simply disseminating it to the public."
Snowden said he thought about disclosing the program sooner but was hopeful the election of President Barack Obama would change things. But "[Obama] continued with the policies of his predecessor," Snowden said.
"It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," Obama said last week after the NSA program was revealed. "We're going to have to make some choices as a society. And what I can say is that in evaluating these programs, they make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent possible terrorist activity."
Snowden, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2003 hoping to fight in the Iraq war only to be discharged after breaking his legs in a training accident, said, "We have to decide why terrorism is a new threat. There has always been terrorism."
On "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Rand Paul said he would seek a Supreme Court challenge to the NSA program.
"I’m going to be asking all the Internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join me in a class action lawsuit," Paul said. "If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington."
Meanwhile, a petition urging the Obama administration to pardon Snowden was posted to the White House website on Sunday afternoon.
"Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs," the petition, which had already gathered more than 700 signatures, read.
"this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm"
Telling the truth is "a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of" Booz Allen? I guess we know where they are coming from.
He ought to locate the nearest Ecuadorian consulate post haste.
I do wonder what the consequence of breaking a nondisclosure agreement means?Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnQPublic
Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows
• Q&A with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I do not expect to see home again'
- Share 51242
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- Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 June 2013 06.17 AEST
Link to video: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing."
He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."
Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in." He added: "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."
He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'
Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week's series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.
He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for "a couple of weeks" in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year.
As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."
On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.
In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.
He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.
Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.
Since the disclosures began to emerge, he has watched television and monitored the internet, hearing all the threats and vows of prosecution emanating from Washington.
And he knows only too well the sophisticated technology available to them and how easy it will be for them to find him. The NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks.
"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.
"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he said.
"We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."
Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."
He predicts the government will launch an investigation and "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system has become".
The only time he became emotional during the many hours of interviews was when he pondered the impact his choices would have on his family, many of whom work for the US government. "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
'You can't wait around for someone else to act'
Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.
By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)
In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".
He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.
After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.
By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.
That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.
He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.
First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.
He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."
The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."
Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".
He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".
But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."
Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.
A matter of principle
As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."
For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.
His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.
Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.
He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.
His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.
Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.
Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.
He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.
Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.
"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."
He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.
As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".
He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.
But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...r-surveillance
Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows
• Q&A with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I do not expect to see home again'
Monday 10 June 2013 06.17 AEST
Link to video: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing."
He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."
Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in." He added: "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."
He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'
Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week's series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.
He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for "a couple of weeks" in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year.
As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."
On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.
In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.
He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.
Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.
Since the disclosures began to emerge, he has watched television and monitored the internet, hearing all the threats and vows of prosecution emanating from Washington.
And he knows only too well the sophisticated technology available to them and how easy it will be for them to find him. The NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks.
"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.
"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he said.
"We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."
Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."
He predicts the government will launch an investigation and "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system has become".
The only time he became emotional during the many hours of interviews was when he pondered the impact his choices would have on his family, many of whom work for the US government. "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
'You can't wait around for someone else to act'
Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.
By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)
In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".
He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.
After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.
By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.
That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.
He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.
First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.
He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."
The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."
Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".
He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".
But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."
Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.
A matter of principle
As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."
For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.
His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.
Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.
He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.
His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.
Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.
Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.
He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.
Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.
"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."
He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.
As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".
He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.
But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...r-surveillance
So sue me.Quote:
Originally Posted by General of Darkness
(of course that only applies in a civilized society, and we all know the rats we're dealing with are anything but civilized)
Born in 1984, how ironic!
you have to keep in mind that EVERYTHING you type or say is/has been recorded for years now, it's like Ed says, every year the ability to gather and store it changes exponetially, it's really amazing what those Cray computers are capable of
In a May 27,1999 story in the New York Times, Americans first heard about Echelon. Two congressmen, Republicans Bob Barr and Porter Goss, who later served as Director of Central Intelligence, demanded information on the program. But, Democrats defended Clinton's spying on Americans as a "necessary evil." Barr and Porter's demand for information on Echelon died when President George W. Bush replaced Clinton in the White House.
http://www.examiner.com/article/oper...-s-spy-program
Old news here folks, we've been through all this before.
I was very surprised to find this on the MSM news. Usually something like this is pre-empted with a hot news story about something the Kardashians did, right? That tells me something different is going on here. Things are breaking down; they're pushing the envelope now on a daily-basis. Seems to finally be the naked run to the finish line.
Ultimate respect for Snowden. But will the bastards push the "suicided" button, or the one marked "home computer child porn"?
I think a lot of reporters were pissed at the AP wiretapping very recently.Quote:
Originally Posted by VX1
Intelligence officials overheard joking about how NSA leaker should be 'disappeared' after handing classified documents to press
"...A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be 'disappeared.'
Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the 'disturbing' conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington's Dulles airport.
'In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,' he tweeted at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday.
According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
One of the officials was wearing 'a white knit national counter-terrorism center shirt,' Clemons told the Huffington Post. He added that it was clear from their conversation they were among the intelligence community.
Clemons said the conversation initially centered around the event the men had just attended but soon turned to the NSA leaks, which were first reported by Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald..."
Clemon's Twitter Feed:
Steve Clemons @SCClemons 8 Jun In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit
Expand
...
Steve Clemons @SCClemons 8 Jun @jeffjarvis yes. Very bad pics though but people in that bz will know them I think. But bad quality. Was a shock to me and wasn't prepared
...
Some people are warning him about recording conversations...
Here is Glen Greenwald's Twitter Feed (the reporter that broke the Snowden story).
legendary chris bollyn covers this guy
http://therebel.org/index.php?option...310&acm=17_282
Edward Snowden for president!
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...58372036_n.jpg
Definitely hero status.Quote:
Originally Posted by EE_
to me, this story does not smell right,
why is this guy getting so much media attention?
they ignore Israel did 9/11 (in the alternative and MSM),
they ignore Fukushima radiation in MSM, and in most alternative sites,
the chaos in turkey is largely ignored,
etc
and here this whiz kid steps up, and the whole planet is hearing about him....
the only thing I can think of is they want to use his revelations to make internet censorship easier.....
Confusion / distraction.
About that radiation thing look up Galen Winsor, Cebu posted an interesting piece about more deception.Quote:
Originally Posted by Large Sarge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=1R1ReBuvsMk
And a longer version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejCQrOTE-XA
I have been wondering if Obama may actually be with this guy. He does not want to get stuck with responsibility for this mess, and he may just be mouthing the party line on it hoping the truth does get revealed.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2...nowdens-story/Quote:
Originally Posted by Large Sarge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E9vz3TcK4U&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E9vz3TcK4U&feature=player_embedded
ALSO ICELAND CONSIDERING GIVING HIM SANCTUARY
The Future of the NSA
Jim Stone, June 9 2013 Permalink
Edward Snowden did the world a favor by officially blowing the whistle on what I have said has likely been going on for a while - the recording of every phone call, voice message, text message, financial transaction and any other communication in the nation. Even though I said this was probably going on for a while, I was still surprised that this was going on for at least 8 years. Now they got that new data center in Utah, and another in Maryland, both of which are many times more powerful than anything they have ever had. And I am going to tell you where this is all probably headed.
Where Snowden worked (see my comments following this article)
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/kunia.jpg If there is one thing we have learned from this, it is that if they can do it they will do it, so this report is going to show you what the capabilities have GOT TO be right now and what to expect from the NSA in the future.
1. Recording of all conversations occurring in cars manufactured after 2004 and sold in the United States via an always on cell connection which is built into the engine control computer. Engine control computers are always placed in the passenger compartment where they can hear everything, though in the past they did not have ears. The fact that they do now was mandated by the Federal government and became a legally required component of all cars from year 2005 on. This started in the late 90's with GM's Onstar. You may have seen an onstar commercial where the Onstar representitive is talking to the driver through the radio speakers. ALL new cars have at least one side of this capability - the outgoing microphone -installed in them NOW.
2. Recording of all conversations happening in the vicinity of a computer equipped with an Intel CoreVPro or Sandy Bridge processor, even if it is not "online" and even while "turned off". Intel evidently thought it was a good security choice to have full time cell connectivity built into the heart of every CPU they produce, and I bet you don't know that new Intel laptop you just bought is ALWAYS online, even when turned off. YOU don't get to use that connection though, which leaves the question, WHO DOES?
3. All cell phones have been and will continue to be (this started in 2005) in speech to text mode, where the phone listens to nearby conversations, converts them to text, and loads the text to an NSA server during cell phone tower updates which happen frequently during the day as part of normal cell operation. In the past, whenever they put full time monitoring on cell phones, the batteries would die in a couple of hours and the phone would always be hot. People noticed this, so to circumvent that all cell phones were equipped with speech to text software and though it is not perfect, it still gives pretty good "intelligence" about the user without draining the battery at all. Once again, as it is with the new Intel processors and their always on cell connection, you don't even know that software exists
4. Recording of all conversations in the vicinity of computers that are turned on and have an internet connection even if they have no CoreVPro or Sandy Bridge CPU, but that's old news.
5. Video and sound recording of household activities within view of a Samsung SmartTV, any of the new video gaming consoles, or any smart meter compliant appliance which can communicate with an electrical smart meter. All electrical smart meters have wifi, 3g, and sometimes 4g connectivity for the sole purpose of "receiving daily energy related instructions". Yeah right.
6. Possible now - ALL cell phones which have cameras most likely are, right now, constantly taking a sequence of photos while out in public, and uploading them during cell tower updates to hide battery usage and the cell phone's owner never realizes this.
People need to recognize the importance of what Edward Snowden did. He gave us a fixed reference point for what the NSA was capable of in 2005, and from there we can calculate what they can do NOW
Moore's law, and what it means for the NSA Most everyone knows about Moore's law which states that computers will double in power once every 18 months as technology advances. Moore was partially right, because in reality computers ended up doubling in power more frequently - once every 13 months. But let's just use 18 months as a reference standard anyone could agree on. If in 2005 the NSA was able to record and permanently store every phone conversation, video chat, internet record for everyone, every text, every e-mail, and store it forever BACK THEN, let's see how many times that capability just went into that NSA data center in Utah.
2013-2005=8 x 12 = 96 / 18 = 5.3 doublings of processing power since 2005. First doubling will be 1 plus 1, then after that x2. So we have 1+1x2x2x2x2, which equals 32 times the processing power available in 2005. If we take 100 percent and divide it by 32, we can see how strong in percent what they had in 2005 will compare to that new data center in Utah. 100/32 = 3.125% Now, I would like to ask you to appeal to your logic - If they were already permanently recording every phone call, financial transaction, video chat, e-mail, text message, and whatever else with a system that was only a little over 3 percent as powerful as what they just put into Utah, WHAT NEW CAPABILITIES DID THEY JUST GET?
How about:
Every vacation picture you take with any Wifi equipped digital camera instantly uploading to an NSA server for permanent storage as possible future evidence? How about every music project you ever worked on with a PC? How about every family video you ever shot, every place your car ever went and everything you said while driving? How about your smart microwave, via your smart meter, sending out all the audio in your house, to corroborate what your cell phone is sending out, to corroborate what your smartTV is sending out, to corroborate what your PC sent out, to corroborate what your land line sent out, to corroborate what your game console sent out and having ALL of those recordings of what went on in your house being permanently stored on the NSA server, just in case the microwave did not hear it clearly? THAT is what 32 times the capability of what they had in 2005 means, and if we learned anything from Edward, it is that If they can do it, they will do it, which is an affirmation of what I have said all along
I got called a wacko by a few when I said ALL phone conversations were being permanently recorded and stored on an NSA server, as well as all texts and e-mails, regardless of who made them and ended up being right, even if I was behind in saying this by 6 or 7 years. Now I am taking that a step farther, and I would like to ask you, do you think I am wrong this time?
The bottom line is that the surveillance state has gotten so powerful that even a creative mind could never dream up what it is really capable of. There is no doubt a lot I missed
UPDATE: ABOUT THE NSA CENTER IN KUNIA, WHERE SNOWDEN WORKED
Kunia is geographically isolated yet ideally located for electronic warfare operations in the Pacific theatre. It was the largest NSA center on American soil prior to Utah, (there are bigger ones elsewhere) and employs approximately 7,000 people. Now here is the kicker Because Kunia was geographically isolated, the fact that they could record all phone conversations from there means that the NSA center in Utah, which is on what could be argued as the strongest part of the internet back bone in the world, - that added bandwidth potential with no bottlenecks, means that the data center in Utah will dwarf the abilities of Kunia by at least 200:1.
This also has other damning ramifications - that the NSA really did shift missions after 9/11 because if you wanted to spy on the American mainland, your pride and joy system that recorded everything should not be located in Hawaii. Yet it is confirmed - Edward Snowden worked at Kunia, which as young as he was would have been his only facility. This means that the system of compartmentalized clearances would have prevented him from knowing about PRISM if it was NOT LOCATED AT KUNIA.
And on that note, I have this to say to the NSA:
You traitorous bastards, HOW DARE YOU convert a legitimate defense facility for THAT TYPE OF USE. If you don't like me ratting out Kunia, you can * OFF.
Additionally About the NSA - an important note
The NSA has NO GOONS, NO AGENTS, NO ONE working outside of their secret facilities. IF ANYONE CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE NSA, THEY ARE FRAUDS, THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN. The NSA has nothing but geeks at data terminals, that do ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY - WATCH AND LISTEN. If you have read online about someone who has been visited by the NSA, they are full of B.S., that is the job of the CIA, FBI, or whatever other agencies have active agents working out in public. The NSA is behind closed doors only. If you have read anything online about someone getting visited by the NSA, throw it straight in the trash. It's an outright lie.
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Large Sarge
How many people have the courage to stand up to the monsters running everything? This is a rare individual. He's on the side of the people. He deserves the attention because that is what will turn things around.
Hatha
Feinstein: NSA Leaker Committed 'Treason'
http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver...shadows_AP.jpg
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by Ben Shapiro 10 Jun 2013, 3:58 PM PDT 1013 post a comment
On Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called Edward Snowden, the man who leaked secrets about National Security Agency surveillance of Americans to the press, a traitor. She told the press, “I don’t look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it’s an act of treason.” She said that Snowden had violated his oath as a government employee to uphold the Constitution: “He violated the oath, he violated the law. That’s treason.”
Treason can carry the death penalty.
Snowden worked for the CIA, then on an NSA contract for Booz-Allen, a private contractor. He told the press about NSA seizure of phone records for millions of Americans, and NSA snooping on Americans’ internet activity.
While Feinstein said she would be open to public hearings on NSA surveillance, she did say that the instances in which the program has done good are classified. Nonetheless, she added, “I’m open to doing a hearing every month, if that’s necessary.”
Snowden has called Wikileaks source Bradley Manning “a classic whistleblower … inspired by the public good.” However, Snowden, unlike Manning, leaked information selectively in order to avoid danger to Americans in the line of fire.
08 June 2013 - 00H52
Assange: US rule of law suffering 'calamitous collapse'
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (L) speaks to the media after leaving the High Court in London on December 5, 2011. Assange said Friday that the US justice system was suffering from a "calamitous collapse in the rule of law", as Washington reeled from the sensational exposure of vast spy agency surveillance programmes.
AFP - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday that the US justice system was suffering from a "calamitous collapse in the rule of law", as Washington reeled from the sensational exposure of vast spy agency surveillance programmes.
Speaking in an interview with AFP at Ecuador's London embassy, where he has been holed up for almost a year, the founder of the whistleblowing website accused the US government of trying to "launder" its activities with regard to the far-reaching electronic spying effort revealed on Thursday.
"The US administration has the phone records of everyone in the United States and is receiving them daily from carriers to the National Security Agency under secret agreements. That's what's come out," said the 41-year-old Australian.
Two damning newspaper exposes have laid bare the extent to which President Barack Obama's intelligence apparatus is scooping up enormous amounts of personal data -- on telephone calls, emails, website visits -- on millions of Americans and foreigners.
Obama has defended the programmes, saying they are legal, necessary to combat terror, and balance security with privacy.
Assange, whose website has enraged Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables and classified files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Obama administration was engaged in a bid to "criminalise all national security journalism in the United States".
US soldier Bradley Manning is being court-martialled for leaking the huge cache of government files to WikiLeaks, while there has been an outcry in the US media after the government seized the phone records of journalists at the Associated Press and Fox News in a bid to root out government sources.
Commenting on Washington's spying on journalists and members of the public, as well as his own treatment by US authorities, Assange said: "Over the last ten years the US justice system has suffered from a collapse, a calamitous collapse, in the rule of law.
"We see this in other areas as well -- with how Bradley Manning has been treated in prison, with US drone strikes occurring -- even on American citizens -- with no due process."
Manning's long-awaited military trial finally began on Monday at the Fort Meade military base outside Washington.
Assange blasted the court martial as a "show trial" and warned that the future of journalism was at stake over US prosecutors' argument that by leaking the files, 25-year-old Manning had helped Al-Qaeda.
Aiding the enemy is punishable by death in the US, though prosecutors are not seeking this sentence in Manning's case.
"What's at stake in this trial is the future of press in the United States and in the rest of the world," Assange told AFP.
"They are going for Bradley Manning to erect a precedent that if any person in the US government speaks to a journalist, they are then speaking to the public, they are then speaking to Al-Qaeda.
"They're trying to erect a precedent that speaking to the media is the communicating with the enemy -- a death penalty offence."
Critics say the Obama administration has launched an unprecedented war on government officials who leak information to the media, prosecuting more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined.
"This is an absolutely runaway process," Assange said.
A former computer hacker, Assange has not left the Ecuadoran embassy since June 19 last year, when he walked in claiming asylum in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes.
Ecuador granted him asylum but British authorities refuse to allow him safe passage out of the country, leaving him stuck inside amid a diplomatic deadlock.
Ecuador's foreign minister is due to fly to London for talks over Assange with his British counterpart on June 17.
http://www.france24.com/en/20130608-...itous-collapse
From the same woman who almost single handedly is attempting to destroy Americas Second Ammendment rights ???Quote:
On Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called Edward Snowden, the man who leaked secrets about National Security Agency surveillance of Americans to the press, a traitor. She told the press, “I don’t look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it’s an act of treason.” She said that Snowden had violated his oath as a government employee to uphold the Constitution: “He violated the oath, he violated the law. That’s treason.”
Un-fucking believable. The Chutzpah the tribe displays these days is becomming so in your face its pretty much impossible for anyone to argue against a grand conspiracy of zionists having overtaken the government. "How could this have happened?" They'll say, and the answer will be easily while you were sleeping.
You would have thought eschelon would have awoken them from their slumber, what will this do?
And now the movie ,heart breaking love story ,the best kind.
EXCLUSIVE: The beautiful ballerina girlfriend whistleblower Ed Snowden was set to wed before he left her in Hawaii and fled to Hong Kong to leak NSA secrets. Now she says she feels ‘adrift’
- Lindsay Mills, 28, is reportedly the girlfriend Edward Snowden left behind when he leaked information about PRISM surveillance
- She wrote on a blog about romantic heartbreak after Snowden fled to Hong Kong
- 'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass' she wrote
- Couple previously went to Hong Kong for romantic getaway
- Mills is a ballerina who attended the Maryland Institute College of Art
- She performs with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe
By Daniel Bates, Michael Zennie and Helen Pow
PUBLISHED: 21:18 GMT, 10 June 2013 | UPDATED: 07:45 GMT, 11 June 2013
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The whistleblower who leaked the NSA's secrets thought about marrying his girlfriend and had previously taken her on a romantic break to Hong Kong - where he is now holed up living in fear of arrest.
Family friends told MailOnline that Ed Snowden, 29, wanted to be with stunning pole dancer Lindsay Mills for the rest of his life but has thrown it all away to expose the US government.
They were deeply in love and on her blog Mills, 28, dotingly called him her ‘man of mystery’ who she had followed around the world for the last four years.
On Monday she took to the blog - where she has posted dozens of photos of herself semi-naked - to tell of her heartbreak.
Mills wrote: 'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...75_638x627.jpg 'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass,' Lindsay Mills writes about being suddenly left by NSA whistle blower Ed Snowden. Mills describes spending time with her mystery man, who clearly resembles Snowden
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...77_640x629.jpg Stunning ballerina Lindsay Mills, 28, took to her blog on Monday to detail her heartbreak over being suddenly left by 29-year-old Ed Snowden
'As I type this on my tear-streaked keyboard I’m reflecting on all the faces that have graced my path.
'The ones I laughed with. The ones I’ve held. The one I’ve grown to love the most. And the ones I never got to bid adieu.
‘But sometimes life doesn’t afford proper goodbyes.'
It was a heartbreaking turn of events for Mills who had lived with Snowden since at least 2009 when they were in Japan together.
Last year he whisked her 8,000 miles from their home south of Baltimore, Maryland to Hong Kong where family friends thought they got married because it was a 'special place' for them.
Now he is back there, hiding out and terrified he will be arrested and extradited back to the US for leaking details about how the NSA puts millions of Americans under surveillance.
Mills’ blog gives an insight into the ups and downs the couple went through - and her own feelings against the snooping state.
Their relationship may have been brought to an unconventional end - but it hardly seems conventional from the start.
Written under the name ‘L’s Journey’ she calls Snowden ‘E’ and her ‘man of mystery’, whilst referring to herself as a ‘vagabond’.
On the face of it they are totally different people - she is an extrovert who enjoys walking around naked whenever she can, spends her Sunday evenings in circus classes and surrounds herself with bohemian eccentrics.
The title of her blog reads: ‘Adventures of a world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero.'
In an early post on August 17 2011 she also writes: 'I’ve always wanted to be splashed on the cover of magazines, with my best air-brushed look. Unfortunately I wasn’t born a greek, amazon, sex goddess - but a petite dreamer.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...98_640x708.jpg Better times: Lindsay Mills seen here with Ed Snowden before he suddenly took off for Hong Kong after leaking confidential information
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...55_640x475.jpg This photograph of a Hawaiian sunset was taken by Mills recently. She has taken to her blog to write about her regret over how 'sometimes life doesn't afford proper goodbyes'
Snowden by contrast is a shy computer geek from a suburban family who likes to spend Sundays at football games and needs to be coaxed out of his shell to even do karaoke.
Mills writes that when she finally introduced him to her friends in Hawaii they didn't believe he actually existed because he was so hard to pin down.
Before they moved to Hawaii they spent their days doing things like camping, pumpkin picking or skeet shooting together near their Maryland homes.
He bought her gifts like a Star Trek style visor and took many of the dozens of pictures of her on her blog.
Some of the posts now have a certain irony, such as her joking that she likes pretending to be a spy.
At one point she writes: 'In case you didn’t know, I am an international woman of mystery. Or at least I will be in tonight’s performance. Going 007 with a twist for this Friday’s show.'
Their lives also seem to be very much up in the air and she writes of having traveled through 17 countries in her life.
In March last year she writes of how her ‘inevitable lover Change is knocking and I wish I had an answer for him’.
She writes: ‘We received word that we have to move out of our house by May 1.
‘E is transferring jobs. And I am looking to take a mini trip back East. Do I move with E, on my own, to Antarctica? How long do I spend back home and when should I go?
‘For now I’ll spin my magic ball and see where I land.’
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...14_638x488.jpg It appears that Mills was performing with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe. She also took classes last year from another troupe, Samadhi Hawaii, though never performed with the company
That month Snowden moved to Hawaii and two months later Mills joined him.
She freely admits that it was to save their relationship as they appear to having been going through a rocky patch that continues after her arrival.
She writes how she seriously considers taking a plane home most days and that she can’t settle down - until July comes.
Then she writes: ‘The sun falling, sweat-building, and my yard growing tidier - I looked over at E and smiled.
‘This was the most adult, boring moment I’ve had ever. I felt grown up, suburban, and oddly content.
‘But neither of us can stay adult for too long, as yard work turned into palm fencing - a duel that ended in laughter instead of death. I was able to find my happy romantic date in the end.
‘Proving that you don’t have to do big fancy things or go far from home to reconnect with someone you love.’
Come April 13 this year things were still going well when they moved into another new place on the back of his $200,000 a year salary with defense contractors Booz Allen Hamilton.
She writes: 'E and I received the keys to our next abode yesterday. My favorite part of moving is the pre-packing stage where I can roll around big empty rooms in soft window light (I may have been a cat in my former life).
'We took time to envision what each room could look like once we crammed our things in them. And even discussed hanging silks in the two-story main room.
'But before we can get into silly decorating there’s the monumental task of the other house. A task I am dreading. One that I have little time for.’
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...51_634x740.jpg Performer: Lindsay Mills performs in the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe and in dance shows in Hawaii
According to the rest of the blog, it was all idyllic until earlier this month, when the darkness returned to their lives.
Writing on June 3, Mills said: ‘While I have been patiently asking the universe for a livelier schedule, I’m not sure I meant for it to dump half a year’s worth of experience in my lap in two weeks time.
‘We’re talking biblical stuff - floods, deceit, loss. Somehow I’ve only managed a few tears amongst all of the madness of May.’
Another revealing aspect of her blog is that Mills seems to share Snowden’s views views on the surveillance society.
Writing on July 4 last year she says that the America she loves is ‘ever-changing’ and that she is in ‘fear it’s straying from the freedom it has always represented’.
She writes: ‘America is still one of the greatest, but she’s falling in my eyes. I hope her people see where she’s going and ask themselves “is this really how I want to live?”.
Another post will be of interest to investigators looking to find out what she knew - a poster in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently being considered by Congress.
If passed SOPA will make copyright rules more strictly enforced to a level which Mills claims is draconian.
On her blog she writes in terms that sound as if they could have been written by Snowden himself.
She writes: ‘Normally I’d be hitting you with a riveting entry about my super hero life, but today I wanted to join others in protest of SOPA.
‘A bill that poses to allow the government to control the very thing you’re reading my blog on — the internet. The way users (people like you and me) share information and ideas freely across the internet would most certainly change.’
She then urged readers to sign a petition and email their Congressional representatives.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...15_634x632.jpg This is picture of Lindsay Mills, the ballet dancer girlfriend who Edward Snowden left behind when he leaked classified information about a secret NSA surveillance program to the press
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...47_634x375.jpg
Keeping a secret: Snowden says he never told his girlfriend about his life-altering plans, saying he left weeks ago saying only that he had to travel for business
Snowden left Mills behind in Hawaii weeks ago when he leaked classified information about PRISM, a secret government phone surveillance program that harvests data on millions of Americans from telecommunications and online companies.
He never told her where he was going or what he was doing - only that he needed to leave for a few weeks. He is currently on the run, location unknown, after he fled the Hong Kong hotel where he is holed up
A former whistleblower gives her perspective on Snowden's NSA...
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...78_292x165.jpg
The TV news program Inside Edition claims to have tracked Mills down in Hawaii, where she is the member of an acrobatic troupe.
It appears that she was performing with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe. She also took classes last year from another troupe, Samadhi Hawaii, though never performed with the company.
She lives in the home that Snowden, a private contractor making $200,000 working with the National Security Agency, rented in Hawaii.
More...
- FBI visits Edward Snowden's parents in Pennsylvania as NSA whistleblower flees 5-star hotel and goes on run in Hong Kong
- 'He can blow my whistle!' NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden becomes overnight sex symbol as the internet brands him 'geek hot'
She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is a former ballet dancer.
When Snowden revealed his identity in the Guardian newspaper on Sunday, he also revealed that his girlfriend knew nothing of his plans to make the biggest leak of classified government information since WikiLeaks.
Snowden told the newspaper that Miss Mills was not surprised that he was packing his backs and not telling her where he was going.
'That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world,' he explained to theGuardian.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...38_634x397.jpg Hotel hide-out: The Mira Hotel, pictured, in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood of Hong Kong has confirmed someone named Edward Snowden was a guest at the hotel but checked out on Monday
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...26_634x451.jpg Now what? Mr Snowden's whereabouts are now unclear after he checked out of the Mira Hotel, pictured, on Monday
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...53_634x412.jpg Prisoner: Mr Snowden described how he had barely left his room, similar to that pictured, at the hotel, now revealed to have been the Mira Hotel
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...79_634x390.jpg On the run: Mr Snowden is believed to be on the run after checking out of the Mira Hotel, pictured, on Monday
He said Miss Mills has been visited twice since his disappearance by NSA federal agents and by local police, though he suspects it was because he didn't show up for work.
Snowden said he was willing to sacrifice his relationship with his family - and possibly never see them again - because he believed leaking the information about the PRISM program was so important.
'The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night,' he told the Guardian.
Federal agents this afternoon visited the Pennsylvania home of Edward Snowden's father and stepmother, just hours after the 29-year-old NSA whistleblower checked out of his plush Hong Kong hotel and went on the run from U.S. and Chinese authorities.
Two men, identifying themselves as FBI agents, dropped in on Lonnie Snowden, 52, and his wife Karen Snowden, 48, at their property in Upper Macungie Township, as the couple were still 'digesting and processing' the news about their son.
'MY WORLD HAS OPENED AND CLOSED ALL AT ONCE': Complete posting by Lindsay Mills
For those of you that know me without my super hero cape, you can probably understand why I’ll be refraining from blog posts for awhile.
My world has opened and closed all at once.
Leaving me lost at sea without a compass.
Surely there will be villainous pirates, distracting mermaids, and tides of change in this new open water chapter of my journey.
But at the moment all I can feel is alone.
And for the first time in my life I feel strong enough to be on my own. Though I never imagined my hand would be so forced.
As I type this on my tear-streaked keyboard I’m reflecting on all the faces that have graced my path. The ones I laughed with.
The ones I’ve held. The one I’ve grown to love the most. And the ones I never got to bid adieu.
But sometimes life doesn’t afford proper goodbyes.
In those unsure endings I find my strength, my true friends, and my heart’s song.
A song that I thought had all but died away, when really it was softly singing all along.
I don’t know what will happen from here. I don’t know how to feel normal.
But I do know that I am loved, by myself and those around me. And no matter where my compass-less vessel will take me, that love will keep me buoyant.
Mrs Snowden said on Sunday night that they had been 'bombarded' by media since Edward Snowden revealed himself to have leaked top-secret documents detailing the government's extensive surveillance programs.
The woman refused to give any details about her stepson, other than what he'd already offered up in interviews, but she told Leigh Valley's The Morning Call the family would be making a public statement in the coming days.
According to mcall.com, shortly after Mrs Snowden shut the door, the two men approached the house, telling a photographer they were agents with the Allentown FBI office.
In Laurel, Maryland, a neighbor of Mills' father Jonathan, 48, who works in computing, said that he was a 'quiet guy' and that they were in shock over what had happened.
The neighbor, who has lived on the suburban street for 20 years and had seen Mills grow up, said: 'I remember seeing Jonathan last year and I asked why his daughter has not been around.
'He said that she had been in Hong Kong with her boyfriend.
'I thought they had gone out there to get married. It must be a special place for them.'
The neighbor added that Mills has only visited a few time in the last year but 'always seem very happy'.
The neighbor said: 'She always was a good kid.'
Jonathan Mills declined to comment when he arrived home in his car with the personalised number plate with the word 'Progwiz' on it.
He told reporters that his daughter was 'keeping a low profile' and declined to reveal where she is now.
When MailOnline knocked the door of Mills' mother Marta in Annapolis, a man answered and said: 'You have no business here.'
Read more:
- Inside Edition: Former N.S.A. Employee Says He Blew The Whistle On Government Spying
- The Guardian: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2VtQusmrN
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Hi girlfriend's blog is shut down now. There is a cached version, but no pictures.
Charge the POS James Clapper with perjury and treason.
Wyden cites contradiction in eavesdropping answer
"...Wyden said he wanted to know the scope of the top secret surveillance programs, and privately asked NSA Director Keith Alexander for clarity. When he did not get a satisfactory answer, Wyden said he alerted Clapper's office a day early that he would ask the same question at the public hearing.
"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Wyden asked Clapper at the March 12 hearing.
"No, sir," Clapper answered.
"It does not?" Wyden pressed.
Clapper quickly and haltingly softened his answer. "Not wittingly," he said. "There are cases where they could, inadvertently perhaps, collect — but not wittingly."
Wyden said he also gave Clapper a chance to amend his answer.
A spokesman for Clapper did not have an immediate response on Tuesday, but the intelligence director said in an interview with NBC News last weekend that he did think that Wyden's question during the March hearing was "not answerable necessarily, by a simple yes or no." Officials generally do not discuss classified information in public hearings, reserving discussion on top-secret programs for closed sessions where they will not be revealed to adversaries.
"So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner, by saying, 'No,'" Clapper said in the NBC interview when asked about his response to Wyden..."