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Snowden: NSA Spied On Human Rights Workers

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "The Guardian reports that according to Edward Snowden, the NSA has spied on the staff of prominent human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. 'The NSA has specifically targeted either leaders or staff members in a number of civil and non-governmental organizations including domestically within the borders of the United States.' Snowden, addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, said he did not believe the NSA was engaged in 'nightmare scenarios,' such as the active compilation of a list of homosexuals 'to round them up and send them into camps.' But he did say that the infrastructure allowing this to happen had been built.

Snowden made clear that he believed in legitimate intelligence operations but said the NSA should abandon its electronic surveillance of entire civilian populations. Instead, Snowden said, it should go back to the traditional model of eavesdropping against specific targets, such as 'North Korea, terrorists, cyber-actors, or anyone else.' Snowden also urged members of the Council of Europe to encrypt their personal communications and said that encryption, used properly, could still withstand 'brute force attacks' from powerful spy agencies and others. 'Properly implemented algorithms backed up by truly random keys of significant length all require more energy to decrypt than exists in the universe.'"

2 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Outrage fatigue by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was going to read all of this post, but someone mentioned Game of Thrones and I was temporarily distracted.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. In other news by theArtificial · · Score: 3, Funny
    Prior to this announcement Human Rights Workers weren't included as part of the world population.

    Snowden, addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, said he did not believe the NSA was engaged in 'nightmare scenarios,' such as the active compilation of a list of homosexuals 'to round them up and send them into camps.

    They're not camps, they're called festivals.

    But he did say that the infrastructure allowing this to happen had been built

    By IBM! /insert ww2 corporate references

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    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.