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New Details About NSA's Exhaustive Search of Edward Snowden's Emails
An anonymous reader points out this Vice story with new information about the NSA's search of Edward Snowden's emails. Last year, the National Security Agency (NSA) reviewed all of Edward Snowden's available emails in addition to interviewing NSA employees and contractors in order to determine if he had ever raised concerns internally about the agency's vast surveillance programs. According to court documents the government filed in federal court September 12, NSA officials were unable to find any evidence Snowden ever had.
In a sworn declaration, David Sherman, the NSA's associate director for policy and records, said the agency launched a "comprehensive" investigation after journalists began to write about top-secret NSA spy programs upon obtaining documents Snowden leaked to them. The investigation included searches of any records where emails Snowden sent raising concerns about NSA programs "would be expected to be found within the agency." Sherman, who has worked for the NSA since 1985, is a "original classification authority," which means he can classify documents as "top-secret" and process, review, and redact records the agency releases in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
In his declaration, Sherman detailed steps he said agency officials took to track down any emails Snowden wrote that contained evidence he'd raised concerns inside the agency. Sherman said the NSA searched sent, received, deleted emails from Snowden's account and emails "obtained by restoring back-up tapes." He noted that NSA officials reviewed written reports and notes from interviews with "NSA affiliates" with whom the agency spoke during its investigation.
In a sworn declaration, David Sherman, the NSA's associate director for policy and records, said the agency launched a "comprehensive" investigation after journalists began to write about top-secret NSA spy programs upon obtaining documents Snowden leaked to them. The investigation included searches of any records where emails Snowden sent raising concerns about NSA programs "would be expected to be found within the agency." Sherman, who has worked for the NSA since 1985, is a "original classification authority," which means he can classify documents as "top-secret" and process, review, and redact records the agency releases in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
In his declaration, Sherman detailed steps he said agency officials took to track down any emails Snowden wrote that contained evidence he'd raised concerns inside the agency. Sherman said the NSA searched sent, received, deleted emails from Snowden's account and emails "obtained by restoring back-up tapes." He noted that NSA officials reviewed written reports and notes from interviews with "NSA affiliates" with whom the agency spoke during its investigation.
I mean, Snowden is ahead by about 9,047 to 6.
They're sounding more and more like 5 year old's complaining to their parents.
Have some fucking accountability. Jesus.
"Helping to keep you two steps ahead of the Thought Police!"
So far, the NSA has lied (at first) about each and every little thing Snowden has leaked.
I guess on this one though, we are supposed to take them at their word.
Recall the "NSA Releases Snowden Email, Says He Raised No Concerns About Spying" (05.29.14)
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/s...
".... the NSA released a statement and a copy of the only email it says it found from Snowden.
That email, the agency says, asked a question about legal authority and hierarchy but did not raise any concerns."
Now its just about FIOA requests finding more or wondering what was held back as as the gov felt it "did not raise any concerns"....
From no emails to one email found back to none under a definition of what "identify" is going to find?
The other option is to only look for a few narrow legal terms that would constitute a formal complaint and not find one.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I'm sorry. These folks lied to congress. They did it for years. They scanned emails of senators and then lied about it. They lied about the scope, detail, retention and duration of their program, for years, to both congress and the American public.
They have no credibility. I don't care if he is a 20 star general and is pinky-swearing it. I can't trust them. Trust is earned. Distrust is earned. They bought only distrust. They have not earned back one percent of one percent of the trust they have destroyed.
I don't care what noises come out of the mouth of the sock-puppet. It isn't capable of speaking trustworthy words.
If the NSA and federal government didn't change after the info was released publicly, why are they acting like an internal complaint might have made a difference?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
If this guy gets to decide what's classified, then could he have decided that the Snowden "concern" email is classified and therefore he doesn't have to admit its existence?
This is essentially the "I do not recall" equivalent of paperwork investigations.
The essential question here is whether the NSA can conclusively deny that Snowden never raised concerns at the agency. Since if he did raise concerns, he probably would have raised them to people personally, a document search is not nessesarily going to uncover whether he did.
What will uncover this conclusively is a simple interview of NSA and affiliate company employees and especially supervisors who worked with Snowden. But since such a set of interviews would either a) reveal that he did raise concerns, b) involve people having to sign their names to untruths, or most unlikely c) reveal he really raised nothing, then I think it's easier for the NSA to just pretend that a half-assed email server word search constitutes an appropriate investigation.
May the Maths Be with you!
This is a simple misdirection, common in many types of argument. Whether or not Mr. Snowden attempted to bring problems to anyone's attention is immaterial to the main problem, which is that the NSA was exhibiting this behavior in the first place.
The NSA, with apparent approval from our gov't, spies on its own citizens with impunity, and let seem to be caught flat-footed by events unfolding the Middle East and Ukraine (at least from what I have heard on the radio)
The president twiddles his thumbs while our allies cry out for help.
What in three hells happened to our country?
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Let's make this about Snowden.
After all, if he didn't raise concerns, then how could they have possibly known there were any issues.
Perhaps the NSA should share its email recovery procedures with the IRS.
In 2001, William Binney, an NSA investigator, began blowing the whistle on NSA warrantless surveillance. He went through official channels to his superiors, then to Congress, then to the major media. He was harrassed and prosecuted by the government, and ignored and maginalized by the major media. He has kept at it for the past thirteen years.
In 2010, Thomas Drake started blowing the whistle. He was also prosecuted, harrassed, ignored, and marginalized.
In 2011, Ron Wyden began warning the public about the secret interpretation of the PATRIOT Act, as loudly as he could without violating his clearance to be on the Intelligence Committee. The major media ignored him.
In 2013, when Snowden released his docs, the major media finally started listening to Binney, Drake, and Wyden. The establishment's treatment of Binney, Drake, and Wyden is why Snowden had to follow the path he did.
The President of the United States has said that these programs should change. Programs that Binney, Drake, and Wyden tried to warn us about through official channels. Programs that we still would not know about if Snowden had gone through official channels.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Now if only someone would exhaustively search out HER e-mails.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
In response to a FOIA request a ProPublica journalist filed for just this kind of information last year, the NSA told him they couldn't do those kind of searches that they apparently just did. Well, dang...it's a good thing that they figured out they could, I mean gosh...if they'd just got it squared away last year then we'd have known a lot earlier how clean their hands were in all this.
http://www.washingtontimes.com... Lots of people are dying at the hands of rabid animals in Iraq and Syria and those animals are using leaked information by Snowden to evade the good guys (which by the way is us).
What has Snowden revealed about our intelligence gathering against Russia who is the most serious threat to the United States? >crickets What Snowden has revealed are 1) information that will turn the people against our government, military, and intelligence gathering agencies. 2) Information that will embarrass us and our allies 3) Information that will weaken our ability to gather information against our enemies 4) information that will drive a wedge between the United States and our Allies In other words everything Snowden has released is designed to weaken the United States. Where is the leaked information about the United States planting bugs in Russian embassies? Why only leaks regarding our strongest allies and not any of our enemies? I've always been against the formation of the Department of Homeland Security. I'm against our collecting mass information about the citizens of the United States. Obama has already proven that that information can and will be used against the people in order to maintain power (IRS). That does not mean we should celebrate traitors to our country. There are means to work within the system to correct it. There are avenues to get the basic information regarding illegal programs into the hands of the public without damaging our national security. Remember Watergate? Remember Iran-Contra? That information got out. Why the need to continue the constant dripping of our greatest national secrets now? And I've been in the Telecommunications and Internet industry for a long time. It has never been a secret that our intelligence agencies have taps into our communications system at least not in the industry and not in Congress. Congress passes the funding for these ventures. Congress knows and that's including the ones who are feining outrage now. CALEA is public record so you can only imagine what isn't. I have heard the stories, one in particular from a guy who worked for a major ILEC who helped facilitate the interconnection and handoffs from the central office to a government agency in California. This was 15 years ago when I heard the story. Everyone knows. If you didn't then you are willfully ignorant.