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Core Secrets: NSA Saboteurs In China and Germany
Advocatus Diaboli writes with this snippet from The Intercept: The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use "physical subversion" to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also indicate that the agency has used under cover operatives to gain access to sensitive data and systems in the global communications industry, and that these secret agents may have even dealt with American firms. The documents describe a range of clandestine field activities that are among the agency's "core secrets" when it comes to computer network attacks, details of which are apparently shared with only a small number of officials outside the NSA.
... so he'll not feel inspired to keep leaking.
I'm all for the leaks when it concerns stuff the NSA does against civilians. But against foreign governments? The point of the NSA is to do that sort of thing. And anyone that thinks these other governments aren't doing the same thing back are kidding themselves. The US is just walking around with their fly down until they get Snowden home. And he can be brought back at any time for the low low price of just pardoning him. Do that, admit fault, have a national/international discussion about it, and then as part of that he stops.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Snowden is a whistleblower. He deserves our thanks, and an apology from everyone who's demanded that he be prosecuted.
Using classification to cover up billions of felonies is something the American people should never tolerate again.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Does look like they need adult supervision - sentry hawk, owl, raven etc it's so fucking comic book that you wonder if they spend all their time dreaming up James Bond plot lines instead of actually getting some work down. Get rid of these toy soldiers and replace them with real ones.
The traitors are all the apparatchiki who routinely violate their oath to the constitution by violating the fourth amendment on a routine basis. Snowden was the only man at the NSA who did his duty.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Snowden doesn't leak these reports anymore. He doesn't even have access to the files. It's all reporters doing it now.
So if, let's say, a hired assassin would kill someone from you family, would you say "well, it's against the law, but it was his job, so it's OK"? I doubt it...
If the NSA's job is to sabotage allies, then they've a wrong job. Period.
Physical subversion of foreign intelligence assets is CIA territory, not NSA. While that certainly IS a way to perform Signal Interception, I'm cautiously optimistic that is outside the scope of their charter.
There's a reason these powers were supposed to have been segregated between multiple branches of the government/military and not just consolidated all under one roof. One of those reasons was accountability to their constituents, the other being so they couldn't use this to subvert the rule of law.
Now that neither is true, we need to look long and hard at what steps to take to suitable resolve this dilemma while not letting outside forces dominate our internal and international landscapes.
Actually it is insulting and horrifying when these tactics are used against foreign nations considered to be allies.
Not only does it do that but it also isolates the USA from the rest of the world, it is not without reason that we Europeans look bleakly on the US and have a feeling of distrust while as allies we should have a different outlook.
The same goes for this when corporations are concerned, corporate espionage especially when done by a government agency is just plain wrong.
release details of wrong doing and violations against US citizens... maybe illegal, but understandable.
releasing national security secrets that can very realistically results in the deaths of americans and their supporters, financial losses to us corporations, and threatening national security? I would not hesitate to pull the trigger on this guy. His life isn't worth the lives and losses he has likely caused.
as for the reporters, it might have been a good idea to take out the sources (illegal and costly though it might have been), to prevent most of these leaks and to set a detterent. The parties involved were not american, and while legally dubious, and politically costly, it would have been worth it in hindsight.
Precisely. I am appalled by the number of Americans in this discussion who seem to think this is fine. I can understand doing this to China cause they're pretty brazen about their espionage, but Germany? Added to the leaks about the surveyance of the Chancellor, this clearly shows the profound lack of trust the Americans have in their allies. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Most of you have it wrong. Its not is he a whistleblower or is he a traitor? Is the situation white or black? The simple truth is that he is now beyond debate **both** a whistleblower and a traitor. The two are not mutually exclusive. The whistleblower actions do not negate the traitorous actions.
Revealing mass surveillance of US citizens is obviously whistleblowing.
However revealing clandestine cyber operations against China, a country that routinely conduct cyber espionage against US commercial, governmental and military computers, is traitorous.
Plus it makes it more difficult to blow off as a coincidence the fact that he revealed the mass surveillance just as President Obama was about to publicly criticize China for cyber espionage actions against the US; and he fled to China for sanctuary and protection - something that would come with a price tag given the diplomatic heat China would take. These facts are a bit less tin-foil-hat than there were previously.
We are now seeing how Snowden paid the rent in China and Russia.
Am I the only one that is still wondering why these "snowden leaks" are still coming out in the way that they are?
Yes.
The rest of us remember the wikileaks document dump and how important stories got did not get appropriate attention because of the sheer volume that was getting reported at once.
Another (perhaps unintended) aspect of the continuous reporting is that almost every time a denial is issued, the NSA is subsequently revealed as lying to the public and Congress.
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