United States of Spying

[Russell]

Still surprised this dude hasn't been shot in the head yet.

If that happens, all the documents will be made public...

[Coligny]

Also called dead's man switch...

Why do you think Assange is still breathing...

[wagyl]

Why do you think Assange is still breathing...

Because he is not as important as his ego thinks he is.

Alternately, the Illuminati (Praise be unto them) have decided that their needs are better served if he has the chance to line up as a candidate in a "choose six from more than 62 and possibly more than 100 candidates" potential by-election following issues arising from the Australian federal election at the beginning of September.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Why do you think Assange is still breathing...

Because he is not as important as his ego thinks he is.

Touche! And correct.

[Coligny]

Rahhh Waldorf, never losing an occasion to shit on the people themselves when getting short on fakely insightfull drivel...

Being irrelevant, isn't that the best target case when someone want to send the signal "you can talk but then avoid Russian tea"

See... Masturbation works both ways...

[Russell]

See... Masturbation works both ways...

Please, elaborate on that.

[Coligny]

There is a dutch rudder joke hiding somewhere here...

But more seriously, the slow drip release of wikileaks make it lose all its punch, nobody really cares anymore. A big dump might have had a better effect with every newspaper trying to milk a different scoop...

[Russell]

There is a dutch rudder joke hiding somewhere here...

But more seriously, the slow drip release of wikileaks make it lose all its punch, nobody really cares anymore. A big dump might have had a better effect with every newspaper trying to milk a different scoop...

I remember that the Wikileaks files were released in one batch.

It is the Snowden files that trickle out. And trickle they do, perfectly timed to catch some Washington officials in a lie. No wonder the Mericans consider them extremely damaging. It has the potential to undermine the relationships with European allies. The soft power of the US is gradually corroding (it already started under Bush, but it has now sped up).

[Coligny]

I think it was case by case with the full archive release on bittorrent but encrypted as the dead man switch.

[Russell]

NSA Has 50,000 ‘Digital Sleeper Agents’ Via Computer Malware, Says Latest Snowden Leak

Sleeper agents are among the most sinister spy assets: they lie in wait, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and then deliver a critical blow when activated. The NSA has 50,000 of those waiting for the literal push of a button, according to the latest batch of leaked Snowden documents, as seen by Dutch daily evening newspaper NRC. But these aren’t people, like Keri Russel and Matthew Rhys in The Americans – these are computers, infected with malware and untroubled by conscience or the risk of going native.

The NSA reportedly infected 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software with the sole aim of harvesting sensitive information it wasn’t privy to, which is basically what you’d call textbook spy work in the digital age, from an agency tasked with spying. That’s not to excuse or dismiss the significance of this revelation, but we’ve heard from the Washington Post previously that the NSA was working on this sort of thing and that at least 20,000 computers had been infected by the program as of 2008. So to hear from Snowden documents via the NRC that it’s now climbed to 50,000 is hardly surprising.

New details brought to light indicate that operations from its so-called “Computer Networks Exploitation” program are active around the world, and can remain active for many years without being detected in some parts of the world like Venezuela and Brazil. All the malware can we watched and controlled remotely, and turned on and off “with a single push of a button.” A New York Times report published yesterday also asserts that the NSA has been pushing to stretch its surveillance powers even further, with the aim of catching up to the spread and reach of digital technology and online communications.

The truly amazing thing about this is just how pedestrian the NSA’s efforts are – according to NRC, they’re essentially running the same kind of phishing scams with false email requests that you’ll see from any other purveyor of malicious software. As an example, NRC points to how the British GCHQ used false LinkedIn pages to lure and infect Belgacom network employees. Just one more good reason to never click on anything sent from anyone ever.

The ongoing NSA debacle is like a Breugel painting, with more and more detail emerging every time you look at it anew. Yahoo and Google’s networks were apparently compromised in a similar fashion, documents revealed in late October, and with up to 200,000 documents in total potentially taken by Snowden and shared with reporters, it’s unlikely we’re anywhere near seeing the whole picture at this point.

The NSA declined to comment on this story or the original report.
Link

[Russell]

Spies worry over "doomsday" cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden

British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.

The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.

The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said. The identities of persons who might have the passwords are unknown.

Spokespeople for both NSA and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's "insurance policy" against arrest or physical harm.

U.S. officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA has been made public. Some Obama Administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories.

"The worst is yet to come," said one former U.S. official who follows the investigation closely.

Snowden, who is believed to have downloaded between 50,000 and 200,000 classified NSA and British government documents, is living in Russia under temporary asylum, where he fled after traveling to Hong Kong. He has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act.

Cryptome, a website which started publishing leaked secret documents years before the group WikiLeaks or Snowden surfaced, estimated that the total number of Snowden documents made public so far is over 500.

Given Snowden's presence in Moscow, and the low likelihood that he will return to the United States anytime soon, U.S. and British authorities say they are focused more on dealing with the consequences of the material he has released than trying to apprehend him.

More

[Samurai_Jerk]

Japan's ruling coalition pushes heavy-handed state secrets bill through lower house

apan’s lower house has passed a heavy-handed state secrets act despite fears that it will have severe repercussions for state freedoms. Officials will now face a maximum punishment of ten years in prison if they are found to have leaked to the press.

Japan’s Diet (parliament) passed the bill, which is aimed at expanding the definition of a state secret and place increasing penalties upon anyone deemed a leaker. The move will apparently prevent media accessing information on four sensitive areas: defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage.

The information will be further divided into 23 types. Top officials from all departments would have the power to declare issues ‘secret’. The ‘secrets’ could then be kept classified for up to 60 years.

Journalists and other private sector parties could also receive up to five years imprisonment if they are found to be using ‘grossly inappropriate’ means to acquire information.

Such restrictions could spill over into the nuclear industry. The topic is particularly sensitive in the face of March 2011’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, which drove over 160,000 residents from their homes.

[matsuki]

fuuuuuu, transparency what? Maybe debito's secret police are getting upgraded?

[Mike Oxlong]

Japan’s new Secrets Bill Threatens To Muzzle The Press and Whistleblowers
An ominous new bill in Japan, on its way to becoming law, would give the government expanded powers to classify nearly anything as a secret and intimidate the press into silence.

The best way to deal with foul smelling things is to put a lid over them (臭いものに蓋をする)--Japanese proverb

The Japanese government, which already has a long history of cover-ups and opaqueness, is on its way to becoming even less open and transparent after the lower house the Diet, Japan’s parliament, passed the Designated Secrets Bill on Tuesday. With new powers to classify nearly anything as a state secret and harsh punishments for leakers that can easily be used to intimidate whistleblowers and stifle press freedom, many in Japan worry that the if the bill becomes law it will be only the first step towards even more severe erosions of freedom in the country.

The bill, which can criminalize investigative reporting of the government or its policies, still needs to pass the Diet’s upper house to become law and is meeting some last minute opposition on its way there. In politically complacent Japan, thousands of citizens took to the street in the last two weeks to protest the measure. Diet members are voicing disapproval and news organizations are standing opposed. Even cute Japanese celebrities have voiced their opposition, a sure sign that this is serious business in the land of the rising sun. Last week, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced their disapproval and concerns, noting the “the Secrets bill threatens transparency… (it) includes serious threats to whistle-blowers and even journalists reporting on secrets”.

With only 30% of the public supporting them, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party bloc pushed the legislation ostensibly to “ensure that Japan can share secrets with the US and other countries”. However, even politicians inside the ruling bloc are saying, “It can’t be denied that another purpose is to muzzle the press, shut up whistleblowers, and ensure that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima ceases to be an embarrassment before the Olympics.”

The Special Secrets Bill is based on a failed anti-spying bill proposed by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (LDP) in the 1980s. Currently there are already several laws on the books that punish civil servants for leaking secret information obtained on the job. The new law would enact harsher punishment to leakers and ominously would allow journalists who obtained information by “inappropriate means” and whistleblowers to be jailed for up to ten years. The law would also allow the police to raid the offices of media organizations and seize evidence at their discretion.

Under the law government branches other than the defense ministry would have the power to designate information as state secrets. The bill has even grants no longer existent agencies the power to classify secrets.

The law names four categories of ‘special secrets’, which would be covered by protection – national security, diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage. Yet, despite the bill’s enlargement of the state’s power over information, it contains no oversight process to act as a check on ministries and government agencies designating large amounts of information as ‘secret’ for capricious or self-interested reasons...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... owers.html

[legion]

"national security" generally covers everything

publishing what Abe-san had for breakfast for example

[Coligny]

Sometimes huge clusterfuck laws like this are needed to open people eyes...

Then...

There is Japan where even the nukular meltdown next door didn't change much...

[matsuki]

Under the law government branches other than the defense ministry would have the power to designate information as state secrets. The bill has even grants no longer existent agencies the power to classify secrets.

So either they plan to resurrect the dead agencies or this shit is literally a copy and paste job with so little effort that they left this shit in there? Comforting to know...

Yet, despite the bill’s enlargement of the state’s power over information, it contains no oversight process to act as a check on ministries and government agencies designating large amounts of information as ‘secret’ for capricious or self-interested reasons...

Checks on the J-Gov? Why would they need something like that?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Not the "T" word ...

Secrecy law protests ‘act of terrorism’: LDP secretary-general

Citizens demonstrating against the controversial state secrets bill are committing “an act terrorism,” according to Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba.

In a blog post Friday, he wrote: “If you want to realize your ideas and principles, you should follow the democratic principles, by gaining as much support as you can. I think the strategy of merely shouting one’s opinions at the top of one’s lungs is not so fundamentally different from an act of terrorism.”

In a speech Sunday in Toyama Prefecture, Ishiba maintained his criticism of the rallies being held outside the prime minister’s office. More than 1,000 people gathered there last Tuesday when the ruling coalition rammed the state secrets bill through the Lower House.

“It is doubtful if it is in line with democracy to appeal in a threatening manner that ‘We will never accept it,’ ” Ishiba said in his speech.

But he backtracked on likening the demonstrations to terrorism.

“I retract that part as the demonstration does not fulfill all of the conditions necessary to constitute terrorism,” Ishiba told reporters after the speech. “I see the loud noise as a problem. . . . Demonstrations in general should be welcomed as long as they follow democratic rules, regardless of how many people they draw.”

[Coligny]

Anchorman_well_that_escalated_quickly_966.jpg

[Russell]

I think the strategy of merely shouting one’s opinions at the top of one’s lungs is not so fundamentally different from an act of terrorism.”

Hmmm, wondering whether that also applies to those Uyoku in their black trucks...

[matsuki]

Democracy...Japaneeeeze staiiiiru Protests and demonstrations legitimacy on a case by case basis

Soooo....are the fucks that are supporting this new law going to lose their jobs come next election? With all the backlash over it, you'd think anyone associated with it would lose the majority of their support.

[Coligny]

Soooo....are the fucks that are supporting this new law going to lose their jobs come next election? With all the backlash over it, you'd think anyone associated with it would lose the majority of their support.

eh eh eh ... silly youze...

[Mike Oxlong]

I think the strategy of merely shouting one’s opinions at the top of one’s lungs is not so fundamentally different from an act of terrorism.”

Hmmm, wondering whether that also applies to those Uyoku in their black trucks...

I prefer them to the erection sound trucks...

[matsuki]

Soooo....are the fucks that are supporting this new law going to lose their jobs come next election? With all the backlash over it, you'd think anyone associated with it would lose the majority of their support.

eh eh eh ... silly youze...

Yeah...like I said, Japaneeeeeze stairu "democracy"

Meanwhile in Thailand...

ThaiProtest1[1].jpg

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/jamesgo ... errifying/

[Coligny]

‘Because Yingluck’s party (the ruling Pheu Thai party) has overwhelming electoral support from the country’s rural majority, which benefited from Thaksin’s populist programs, the protesters want to change the country’s political system to a less democratic one where the educated and well-connected would have a greater say than directly elected lawmakers.’

Basically, they want to turn Thailand into a new USSA... But sort of properly point out that democracy are a successfull dictatorship from the masses instead of the elite... Not sure it's better...
(Bring back the Duke of Paris to the French Throne... ktxbye)

[Coligny]

So just in case you though those spy computerz movies were pushing too hard in the impossible/paranoia dept:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 40994.html

Basically, the NSA seems able to backdoor any firmware or operating system of any device connected, starting with the firewall...

Suddenly "enemy of the state" become a light hearted documentary instead of a dark dystopian fiction...

[Russell]

I now kind of understand why Snowden was stationed as NSA employee at Dell in Japan: probably to install corrupted BIOS in their computers.

No more Dell servers and PCs for me.

[Coligny]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... he-program

1st part, 2hrs long.
You might need a shower after watching it...

[Samurai_Jerk]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/#part-one---the-program

1st part, 2hrs long.
You might need a shower after watching it...

I watched parts one and two a couple of weeks ago. Fucking depressing. It's also depressing how many Americans either think Snowden is the bad guy or don't have an opinion one way or the other (according to a recent poll).

I now kind of understand why Snowden was stationed as NSA employee at Dell in Japan: probably to install corrupted BIOS in their computers.

No more Dell servers and PCs for me.

I'm not one to defend China. Especially not these days but you can't blame them for being pissed off about US hypocrisy on this matter. Remember when they warned everybody not to buy from Huawei because the Chinese were spying?

[Russell]

Edward Snowden: 'If I end up in chains in Guantánamo I can live with that'

The NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has urged lawyers, journalists, doctors, accountants, priests and others with a duty to protect confidentiality to upgrade security in the wake of the spy surveillance revelations.

Snowden said professionals were failing in their obligations to their clients, sources, patients and parishioners in what he described as a new and challenging world.

"What last year's revelations showed us was irrefutable evidence that unencrypted communications on the internet are no longer safe. Any communications should be encrypted by default," he said.

The response of professional bodies has so far been patchy.

A minister at the Home Office in London, James Brokenshire, said during a Commons debate about a new surveillance bill on Tuesday that a code of practice to protect legal professional privilege and others requiring professional secrecy was under review.

Snowden's plea for the professions to tighten security came during an extensive and revealing interview with the Guardian in Moscow.

Link to video interview

This interview is very impressive. It shows Snowden in his best light. Note how he effortless replies to tricky questions, such as whether he can already speak Russian.

He is a man of great stature. I predict him to become a future POTUS. He displays a maturity that I yet have to see in anyone in Washington D.C.'s political class.