Monday, June 10, 2013

Guardian Interview of Edward Snowden, NSA Whistleblower

who has now disappeared.

Now increasingly we see that it's happening domestically. To do that NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone, it ingests them by default, it collects them in its system and it filters them and analyzes them and it measures them and stores them for periods of time simply because that's the easiest, most efficient, and most valuable way to achieve these ends. So while they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government or someone that they suspect at terrorism, they are collecting your communications to do so.

Any analyst at any time can target anyone, any selector, anywhere. Where those communications will be picked up depends on the range of the sensor networks and the authorities that the analyst is empowered with. Not all analysts have the ability to target everything. But I, sitting at my desk, certainly had authorities to wire-tap anyone - from you, your accountant, to a federal judge, even to the president if I had the personal email.

... ...

I'm no different from anybody else. I don't have special skills, I'm just another guy who sits there day to day in the office who watches what's happening, and goes "This is something that's not our place to decide, the public needs to decide, whether these programs and policies are right or wrong." I'm willing to go on record to defend the authenticity of them, and say "I didn't change these, I didn't modify the story, this is the truth, this is what's happening, you should decide whether we need to be doing this."

And "the public"? According to Pew Research, 56% of Americans are quite happy that NSA is tracking their phone conversations. The good government is doing all they can to protect us from "terrorists"!

It is hard to believe they are the citizens of a country born of a revolution, but if I remember right, the majority of residents of the American colony were happy to remain the English subjects under King George III.


Hikarius said...

Sheeple are everywhere.

Here is a side note about the local politics in Hong Kong (as it is partly covered in the Reuters article)

1. Regina Ip is a hardline ex-bureaucrat who is regarded as a pro-Peking politician, yet she does not have strong personal connections with Zhongnanhai (same as many "local Communists") as well as Hong Kong government. So it is presumable that what she said is not the official position of Hong Kong government, let alone Peking authorities.

2. Antony "CY" Leung is an "underground communist" who has some personal connections with some top-level officials in Peking. Yet he does not have the vision or political wisdom to play a good game in international politics. There are rumors that Obama has once invited Leung for an one-to-one meeting, but the invitation has been turned down by Leung "as he does not want to steal the limelight from Xi Jingping". What you can expect from a Peking lapdog is his obedience to his Chinese master.

3. Nearly all politicians in Hong Kong do not have an in-depth understanding about what is going on. Many of them simply do not care. One can say that they are even more clueless than the Japanese politicians as it is something happening on Hongkongese soil, not somewhere near the Skytree.

Anonymous said...

Those British citizens who wanted to remain loyal mostly immigrated up to Canada. Or returned to their mother country.

Maju said...

Hong Kong is a strange choice to try to find assylum. Would I be him, I'd go to Latin America: Bolivia, Ecuador... even Cuba, seem good choices. In fact there are Black Panthers living happily in Cuba since decades ago.

Anonymous said...

Totally called his eventual disappearance the moment I heard of his existence. But then, I guess so did everyone else who knows what the world is really like.

The saddest thing is the majority of people he stepped forward and risked his life to protect are against him. Even sadder is, that's what always happens because of how stupid humans are.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe the Pew research, and and I don't think most people have thought this through. Isn't Pew part of the New World Order Big Brother Zionist Dystopia we did not sign up for?

Anonymous said...

"... 56% of Americans are quite happy that NSA is tracking their phone conversations ..."
It wouldn't surprise me. The general population's understanding/knowledge of history and politics, especially beyond their own borders or even immediate neighborhood, is poor to nonexistent.

I would therefore agree with anon 3:12 that now thinking through has/is taking place.

What could possibly go wrong?

Anonymous said...

oops, i meant "NO thinking through is taking place"

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