Ed Snowden, NSA, and fairy tales a child could see through

[JohnQPublic]

Ed Snowden, NSA, and fairy tales a child could see through


By Jon Rappoport
June 25, 2013

Sometimes cognitive dissonance, which used to be called contradiction, rings a gong so loud it knocks you off your chair.

But if you’re an android in this marvelous world of synthetic reality, you get up, put a smile back on your face, and trudge on…

Let’s see. NSA is the most awesome spying agency ever devised in this world. If you cross the street in Podunk, Anywhere, USA, to buy an ice cream soda, on a Tuesday afternoon in July, they know.

They know if you sit at the counter and drink that soda or take it and move to the only table in the store. They know if you lick the foam from the top of the glass with your tongue or pick the foam with your straw and then lick it.

They know if you keep the receipt for the soda or leave it on the counter.

They know whether you’re wearing shoes or sneakers. They know the brand of your underwear. They know your shaving cream, and precisely which container it came out of.

But this agency, with all its vast power and its dollars…

Can’t track one of its own, a man who came to work every day, a man who made up a story about needing treatment in Hong Kong for epilepsy and then skipped the country.

Just can’t find him.

Can’t find him in Hong Kong, where he does a sit-down video interview with Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. Can’t find that “safe house” or that “hotel” where he’s staying.

No. Can’t find him or spy on his communications while he’s in Hong Kong. Can’t figure out he’s booked a flight to Russia. Can’t intercept him at the airport before he leaves for Russia . Too difficult.

And this man, this employee, is walking around with four laptops that contain the keys to all the secret spying knowledge in the known cosmos.

Can’t locate those laptops. Can’t hack into them to see what’s there. Can’t access the laptops or the data. The most brilliant technical minds of this or any other generation can find a computer in Outer Mongolia in the middle of a blizzard, but these walking-around computers in Hong Kong are somehow beyond reach.

And before this man, Snowden, this employee, skipped Hawaii, he was able to access the layout of the entire US intelligence network. Yes. He was able to use a thumb drive.

He walked into work with a thumb drive, plugged in, and stole…everything. He stole enough to “take down the entire US intelligence network in a single afternoon.”

Not only that, but anyone who worked at this super-agency as an analyst, as a systems-analyst supervisor, could have done the same thing. Could have stolen the keys to the kingdom.

This is why NSA geniuses with IQs over 180 have decided, now, in the midst of the Snowden affair, that they need to draft “tighter rules and procedures” for their employees. Right.

Now, a few pieces of internal of security they hadn’t realized they needed before will be put in place.

This is, let me remind you, the most secretive spying agency in the world. The richest spying agency. The smartest spying agency.

But somehow, over the years, they’d overlooked this corner of their own security. They’d left a door open, so that any one of their own analysts could steal everything.

Could take it all. Could just snatch it away and copy it and store it on a few laptops.

But now, yes now, having been made aware of this vulnerability, the agency will make corrections.

Sure.

And reporters for elite US media don’t find any of this hard to swallow.

A smart sixth-grader could see through this tower of fabricated baloney in a minute, but veteran grizzled reporters are clueless.

Last night, on Charley Rose, in an episode that left me breathless, a gaggle of pundits/newspeople warned that Ed Snowden, walking around with those four laptops, could be an easy target for Chinese spies or Russian spies who could get access to the data on those computers. The spies could just hack in.

But the NSA can’t. No. The NSA can’t find out what Snowden has. They can only speculate.

It’s charades within charades.

This whole Snowden affair is an op. It’s the kind of op that works because people are prepared to believe anything.

The tightest and strongest and richest and smartest spying agency in the world can’t find its own employee. It’s in the business of tracking, and it can’t find him.

It’s in the business of security, and it can’t protect its own data from its employees.

If you believe that, I have timeshares to sell in the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.

In previous articles, I’ve made a case for Snowden being a CIA operative who still works for his former employer. He was handed a bunch of NSA data by the CIA. He didn’t steal anything. The CIA wants to punch a hole in the NSA. It’s called an internal turf war. It’s been going on as long as those agencies have existed side by side.

For example….the money.

Wired Magazine, June 2013 issue. James Bamford, author of three books on the NSA, states:

“In April, as part of its 2014 budget request, the Pentagon [which rules the NSA] asked Congress for $4.7 billion for increased ‘cyberspace operations,’ nearly $1 billion more than the 2013 allocation. At the same time, budgets for the CIA and other intelligence agencies were cut by almost the same amount, $4.4 billion. A portion of the money going to…[NSA] will be used to create 13 cyberattack teams.”

That means spying money. Far more for NSA, far less for CIA.

Turf war.

But in this article, let’s stay focused on the fairy tales, which are the cover stories floated to the press, the public, the politicians.

We have reporters at the Washington Post and at The Guardian. We have Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks. They’re all talking to Snowden. The NSA can spy on them. Right? Can listen to their calls and read their emails and hack into their notes. Just like people have been hacking into the work and home computers of Sharyl Attkisson, star CBS investigative reporter.

But the NSA can’t do all this spying and then use it to find Snowden. Just can’t manage it.

So…everybody in the world with a computer has passwords. The NSA can cut through them like a sword through hot butter. But Assange and the Post and Guardian and Snowden must have super-special passwords.

They got these passwords by sending a stamped self-addressed envelope, along with 25 cents, and a top from a cereal box, to The Lone Ranger. These passwords are charged with atomic clouds that obscure men’s minds so they cannot see or spy. They’re immortal and invulnerable.

The NSA can spy on anyone else in the world, but they can’t get their foot in the door, when it comes to the Post, The Guardian, and Assange.

And if Snowden winds up in Ecuador, that too will become an insurmountable mystery.

“Nope, we don’t know where he is. He’s vanished. Ecuador has a Romulan shield surrounding it. The cloaking technology is too advanced.”

Perhaps you recall that, in the early days of this scandal, Snowden claimed he could spy on anyone in the US, including a federal judge or even the president, if he had their email addresses.

Uh-huh. But the combined talents of the NSA, now, can’t spy on Snowden. I guess they just can’t find his email address.

Snowden isn’t the only savvy computer kid in the country. There must be a million people, at minimum, who can cook up email addresses that evade the reach of the NSA. Yes?

What we have here are contradictions piled on contradictions piled on lies.

And in the midst of this, a whole lot of people are saying, “Don’t look too closely. Snowden is a hero and he exposed the NSA and that’s a wonderful thing.”

And a whole lot of other people are saying, “Snowden is a traitor and he should be tried for treason or killed overseas. That’s all you need to know.”

The truth? Well, the truth, as they say, is the first casualty in war. But in the spying business, the truth was never there to begin with. That’s one of the requirements of the industry.

“Son, if you think you’ve lied before, you haven’t got a clue. We’re going to tell you to do things that’ll make your head spin. That’s the game we’re in. We’re going to make you tell lies in your sleep.”

And these are the people the public believes.

It’s a beautiful thing. It really is. The fairy tales are made of sugar and the public, the press, and the people eat them. And then they ask for more.

[vacuum]

Well he sure is making them look like a bunch of incompetent fools, thats for sure. But that's a good thing. The only reason the entire pyramid works is because the many live in fear of the few. When they see the few aren't actually infallible, then the source of their power is gone. Why would they want that?

[Cebu_4_2]

And more deflection:

Fugitive Edward Snowden still at Moscow airport, says Russia's Putin

As of Monday, NSA leaker Edward Snowden was still on the lam. He has managed to evade U.S. officials, who are reportedly furious with China for letting him escape to Moscow after the FBI thought they had him bottled up in Hong Kong. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

By Matthew DeLuca and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
Edward Snowden is still inside the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday – the first official word on the fugitive's whereabouts in more than two days.
Putin said Russia has nothing to do with Snowden's plans, and appeared to pour cold water on demands from Washington to hand him over to U.S. prosecutors.
"As regards handing him in - we can hand over foreign nationals only to a country with which we have an agreement about handing over criminals," Putin told reporters at a press conference in Finland. "We do not have such an agreement with the United States."
Confirmation of Snowden's location added to speculation that Snowden is seeking permission to fly to Cuba then onward to another country – most likely Ecuador, to which he has already applied for political asylum.
Meanwhile, he remains beyond the reach of American efforts to extradite him - placing a strain on U.S. relations with Russia, Ecuador, and China, where irate officials have denied they assisted his escape from Hong Kong on Sunday.
No one had bought a ticket under Snowden’s name for a daily Aeroflot airlines flight from Moscow to Havana on Tuesday, airline employees told NBC News before the plane took off. The next flight to the island nation 90 miles from the U.S. is scheduled to leave on Thursday.
The 30-year-old former employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton was expected to be aboard a flight from Russia to Cuba on Monday amid speculation that he would stop there en route to Ecuador. The plane eventually left the airport full of journalists, but with no sign of Snowden.
Secretary of State Kerry earlier called on authorities in Russia to “do the right thing” and prevent Snowden from leaving Moscow.
“I’m not going to get in to the details of what I think is going on, but we hope that the Russians will do the right thing,” Kerry told NBC News in New Delhi, India, on Monday. “We think it is very important in terms of our relationship. We think it is very important in terms of rule of law. There are important standards.”
Asked whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Barack Obama said on Monday that the U.S. government is “following all appropriate legal channels and working with all countries to ensure the rule of law is being followed.”
A former CIA and FBI official told the TODAY show on Tuesday that Russian officials have likely already spoken with Snowden, much as U.S. intelligence officials would if they found themselves in a similar situation.
“The likelihood that there’s either been no conversation with him or they haven’t downloaded stuff from his electronic gear is about zero,” former CIA director of counterterrorism Philip Mudd said.
Authorities in China have also pushed back against claims from Washington that they let Snowden slip through their fingers after the U.S. requested his extradition.
“The U.S. has no reason to call into question the Hong Kong government’s handling of affairs according to law,” China foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chungying said at a briefing, according to Reuters. “The United States’ criticism of China’s central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it.”
Sources familiar with the case have told NBC News that Snowden’s passport has been revoked – a move that would be standard procedure, a State Department spokeswoman said.
“As is routine and consistent with U.S. regulations, persons with felony arrest warrants are subject to have their passports revoked. Such a revocations does not affect citizenship status,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
“Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States. Because of the Privacy Act, we cannot comment on Mr. Snowden’s passport specifically,” the spokeswoman said.
The government in Hong Kong said in its statement that extradition documents presented by the U.S. did not satisfy the requirements set by the law in Hong Kong, and that Snowden left the country “through a lawful and normal channel.”
In an interview with Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post, Snowden said that he had taken his job with defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton so that he collect information on secret data-gathering programs conducted by the NSA. NBC News could not independently verify the report.
“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA had hacked,” Snowden reportedly said in his interview with the paper. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”
Snowden, who was fired from his job at the defense contractor, told the Post he collected documents showing U.S. hacking into computer systems in mainland China, and that he did not want to release all the documents he had gathered at once.
“I did not release them earlier because I don’t want to simply dump huge amounts of documents without regard to their content,” Snowden told the Post. “I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists.”
Ecuador, which has provided refuge to Assange at its embassy in London, said on Monday that it was reviewing a request for asylum from Snowden. Foreign minister Ricardo Patino told reporters on Monday that Ecuador had been in “respectful” contact with Russia over the issue.
NBC News’ Jim Maceda and Ed Flanagan contributed to this report.
Related:

• Expert: Snowden may be carrying more info to link
• Why would Edward Snowden seek asylum in Ecuador?
• As leaker Snowden flees, defender and critics clash over national security risks

[General of Darkness]

SO the way the OP reads to me is that Snowden is actually a CIA asset set to fuck up the NSA so the CIA keep their funds. Because if they wanted him the CIA, would have him, not NSA. Am I reading that correctly?

[Hatha Sunahara]

Ok, so if it's a psy-op, why? What's the point? Do they want to demonstrate to us how stupid we are? How easily they can fool us? How easy it is for them to lead us around by the nose?

John Rappoport makes a good argument that this is a fairy tale. But he makes no speculation about why. Is it as simple as a 'turf war' between the CIA and the NSA? Is the CIA trying to plant in informant in Ecuador? Or is it a battle of egos--someone at the CIA versus General Keith Alexander. Wouldn't the NSA know what is going on at the CIA? Or can the CIA keep secrets from them? I have difficulty believing that one government agency would allow a turf war to cause the public to question the integrity of the entire government. Rappoport seems to work on the assumption that the lords of secrecy have everything under control, and the only real dupes are the American people, and the people of the world generally. I just wonder if that is a good assumption. We need more information to make an informed judgment.


Hatha

[JohnQPublic]

Ok, so if it's a psy-op, why? What's the point? Do they want to demonstrate to us how stupid we are? How easily they can fool us? How easy it is for them to lead us around by the nose?

John Rappoport makes a good argument that this is a fairy tale. But he makes no speculation about why. Is it as simple as a 'turf war' between the CIA and the NSA? Is the CIA trying to plant in informant in Ecuador? Or is it a battle of egos--someone at the CIA versus General Keith Alexander. Wouldn't the NSA know what is going on at the CIA? Or can the CIA keep secrets from them? I have difficulty believing that one government agency would allow a turf war to cause the public to question the integrity of the entire government. Rappoport seems to work on the assumption that the lords of secrecy have everything under control, and the only real dupes are the American people, and the people of the world generally. I just wonder if that is a good assumption. We need more information to make an informed judgment.


Hatha

He has been writing other articles as to why. He sees it as the CIA wanting to knock down the power and supremacy of the NSA. I find it interesting as another viewpoint. I am still aiting for the treasure trove of disclosures from Snowden. A few tid bits have come out, and the attention is great, but as I said earlier, "where's the beef"? If there are no significant disclosures, no names named, etc., then something else is going on.

[JohnQPublic]

SO the way the OP reads to me is that Snowden is actually a CIA asset set to fuck up the NSA so the CIA keep their funds. Because if they wanted him the CIA, would have him, not NSA. Am I reading that correctly?

Basically. Snowden did come out of the CIA, and this is part why Rappaport believes this to be the case. There is a small possibility that there are actually patriots in the CIA; though I think Rappoport sees it more as two corrupt powers in an internal war. Go read some of his earlier articles (I have linked one or two, but just check out his blog).

[StreetsOfGold]

the only real dupes are the American people, and the people of the world generally

1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

[gunDriller]

i agree, something doesn't add up, with them not being able to find him.

he must be an awfully good spy himself, with back channels of communication set up with Wikileaks & various journalists, set up before his first release of info.


the US gov. has implemented some laws lately to ferret out employees in the military-industrial & homeland security industries - in case they turn out to take the Constitution TOO seriously.