Government snooping, backdoors and #necessaryhashtags

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by Nick

Glenn Greenwald's new book "No place to hide" is just out - and even the Dutch version is already available!
http://www.glenngreenwald.net/

Just got home from work, and Nick's been shopping: the copy is lying on our table.

I just asked him why he didn't write here that he's bought a copy, and his reply was: "We don't need to tell the NSA that, do we?" Well, I don't see any problem, so I'll spill the beans.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Well, I don't see any problem, so I'll spill the beans.

Please tell us if you think it's worth buying and reading.

I'm currently so desperate for fiction material that I'm currently reading Clancy and Blackwood's "Dead or Alive", rather than rereading a Pratchett or a Stephenson or even a Gibson....

Edit: Just for fun: 2a51ffae80f1e3c90028b4ff4733cbc6

[Nick]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Please tell us if you think it's worth buying and reading.

I'm currently so desperate for fiction material that I'm currently reading Clancy and Blackwood's "Dead or Alive", rather than rereading a Pratchett or a Stephenson or even a Gibson....

We'll let you know as soon as we've finished it!

For related fiction: have you read any of John le Carré's recent novels?

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Nick

We'll let you know as soon as we've finished it!

For related fiction: have you read any of John le Carré's recent novels?

Please do.

And to your question, no. Should I?

[Nick]

Well, it is partly a matter of personal taste (of course), but I have enjoyed reading John le Carré's novels over many years. He is good at writing, knows how intelligence services work (having been part of them for a while), and his stories often lay bare the manner in which western governments act in secret. For example, the way that British citizens opposing their government can lose their British citizenship (a power which that government is currently trying to extend) was predicted by le Carré in a book back in 2006.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carré

[Nick]

I have now finished reading Glenn Greenwald's new book "No place to hide" (or "De Afluisterstaat" as it's called in Dutch), and I found it definitely worth reading.

What stands out for me is the failure of oversight of the NSA not just by the US Congress but also by much of the mainstream media. Greenwald makes the point that when news organizations are part of large corporations, the people who thrive in them tend not to be the outsiders that make good journalists. No wonder the United States has dropped to 46th place in the Press Freedom Index:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

Links to documents from the Snowden archive are available at the book's homepage:
http://www.glenngreenwald.net/
while Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and their colleagues publish articles here:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/

It is sad that so many of us are benefiting from the information provided by Edward Snowden but that hardly any country is prepared to offer him permanent protection.

[Nick]

The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas.

The program raises profound questions about the nature and extent of American surveillance abroad. The U.S. intelligence community routinely justifies its massive spying efforts by citing the threats to national security posed by global terrorism and unpredictable rival nations like Russia and Iran. But the NSA documents indicate that SOMALGET has been deployed in the Bahamas to locate “international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers” – traditional law-enforcement concerns, but a far cry from derailing terror plots or intercepting weapons of mass destruction.
“The Bahamas is a stable democracy that shares democratic principles, personal freedoms, and rule of law with the United States,” the State Department concluded in a crime and safety report published last year. “There is little to no threat facing Americans from domestic (Bahamian) terrorism, war, or civil unrest.”

“It’s surprising, the short-sightedness of the government,” says Michael German, a fellow at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice who spent 16 years as an FBI agent conducting undercover investigations. “That they couldn’t see how exploiting a lawful mechanism to such a degree that you might lose that justifiable access – that’s where the intelligence community is acting in a way that harms its long-term interests, and clearly the long-term national security interests of the United States.”

Full article: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/a...-call-bahamas/

[kladner]

Dang it, Nick! That article bids fair to make me late for work.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Nick

I have now finished reading Glenn Greenwald's new book "No place to hide" (or "De Afluisterstaat" as it's called in Dutch), and I found it definitely worth reading.

What stands out for me is the failure of oversight of the NSA not just by the US Congress but also by much of the mainstream media.

"Failure of oversight" is far too kind - I would characterize it as "active complicity" which, as ever with profound evil, is rooted in 'good intentions'. Big Tech also was (and is) complicit.

====================

NSA data-gathering may run into California roadblock: SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The federal government would need a warrant from a judge if it wants the cooperation of California officials in searching residents' cellphone and computer records, under a bill making its way through the state legislature.

Right - because clearly the NSA needed states' cooperation to run its post-9/11 mass domestic surveillance. [/sarc]

-------------------

Tangentially related, in the "US government's lying liars undermining the few remaining positive global initiatives the US participates in" vein:

White House vows CIA will not use vaccine programs for covert ops: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House promised on Monday that the CIA will not use immunization programs for its operations following a complaint that the spy agency used such a campaign in its hunt for Osama bin Laden.

-------------------

But let's close on a potentially-positive note:

ProtonMail - Easy to Use Email So Secure NSA Cannot Break It; What About NSA Other Attacks?

At the time [of the initial Snowden leaks, Harvard PhD student Andy] Yen was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland, known as CERN, where the elusive "God Particle" was discovered, coincidentally alongside a handful of other Cambridge, Mass.-educated students from either Harvard or MIT. A team of five suddenly formed, all focused on creating a service stronger than Lavabit, Snowden's email provider.

That service is called ProtonMail, and it is launching out of private beta Friday.

ProtonMail is end-to-end encrypted email that is based offshore in Switzerland, where the team could operate free of surveillance mandates. Although "encryption is not necessarily a new technology," according to Yen, "only one to two percent of the population knows how to do it." ProtonMail handles the entire process without forcing users to install any software, and promises NSA-proof correspondence.

"Even we don't have the ability to read that email," Yen asserted. "If we can't read it, we obviously can't turn it over to any government agencies."

Mish adds a comment and sensible caution:

This is what it had to come down to. Government nonsensically spying on everyone led to a more-secure service that freedom lovers and criminals alike will embrace.

By the way, the encryption might be secure, but that will not stop the NSA from hijacking entire computers.

In other words, if they can't read your mail after sending, they'll try to read it as you type it. So the next time your "guaranteed 2-day delivery" new PC is a day or 2 late...

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

By the way, the encryption might be secure, but that will not stop the NSA from hijacking entire computers.
[/i]
In other words, if they can't read your mail after sending, they'll try to read it as you type it. So the next time your "guaranteed 2-day delivery" new PC is a day or 2 late...

It can be more subtle than that. All they need to do is hack or subvert the server delivering the JS. Then they can monitor everyone without touching the PC or the SSL cert.

Don't trust a remote server, you never know where it has been.

[Nick]

60 years ago, the Bilderberg Group was founded by the late Dutch Prince Bernhard.
It is an annual meeting of more than 100 of the most powerful people from North America and Europe, both in the public and private sectors, and its meetings are private - until recently even their existence was secret. Up to now, journalists wanting to know who is attending had to try and spot people as they arrived. This year's meeting is taking place now, this time in Copenhagen, and the list of participants has been published:
http://bilderbergmeetings.org/participants.html
A curious mix!

Article:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...things-private