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Citizenfour review – Edward Snowden documentary is utterly engrossing
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 18 October 2014 | Mark Kermode, Observer film critic

Posted on 10/19/2014 2:28:39 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi

Last year, UK cinemagoers were treated to two competing accounts of the story of Julian Assange: Bill Condon’s oddly inert drama The Fifth Estate, and Alex Gibney’s more pointedly dramatic documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks. Although very different in form, content and, indeed, success (Gibney’s film was Bafta-nominated, Condon’s was hailed as one of the year’s biggest flops), both movies wrestled with the conundrum of separating the cult of Assange’s divisive personality from the significance of the information that he helped to publish – for better or worse.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; History
KEYWORDS: bah; boozallenhamilton; citizenfour; snowden
An NSA contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden became similarly alarmed that he was “designing systems to amplify state power”.
1 posted on 10/19/2014 2:28:39 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

Utterly Engrossing, maybe, but we already know the House of Obama is full of liars and incompetents. What else can be said that has not been said? I hope to be truly surprised and shocked at a clear chain of evidence linking Obama to some of these harebrained schemes. Otherwise, whatever.


2 posted on 10/19/2014 2:32:32 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell
Review by By Drew Taylor

[I haven't seen it yet]

Excerpt:
"This is a movie primarily concerned with numbers and the way that information is fed, processed, and acted upon. But it plays like the greatest paranoid thriller since "All the President's Men." Poitras knows how to keep the narrative moving at a swift pace, how to convey all of the secrets Snowden disclosed in a quick and clear manner, and more than that, she understands that just watching Snowden and hearing his words are enough to carry much of the movie. While you get the sense that he's passionate, you sense that blowing the whistle the way he did seemed like the most logical choice."

3 posted on 10/19/2014 2:34:46 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
Trailer for "Citizenfour". It comes out Oct 24
4 posted on 10/19/2014 2:41:53 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
[I guess I'm just posting to myself. In before the comments]

Review from International Business Times

Excerpt:
"Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras’ documentary about Edward Snowden’s exposure of the National Security Agency's civilian surveillance tactics, had been widely hailed by critics and is already generating Oscar buzz following its premiere this weekend at the New York Film Festival. But the omission of key details has prompted more measured praise, most notably from Michael Kelley of Business Insider, who characterized the film as “critically flawed.”

5 posted on 10/19/2014 2:47:07 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

Snowden plus— He exposed un-Constitutional NSA spying and electronic data collection on all American

Snowden minus -— He was forced to give all his information to Vladimir Putin. Nobody rides for free in Vlad’s Russia


6 posted on 10/19/2014 2:53:22 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dennisw
Rotten Tomatoes has given a 100% rating. The only other upcoming movie getting a Rotten Tomato 100% rating is John Wick, the new Keanu Reeves movie, also out Oct 24.

"An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him. With New York City as his bullet-riddled playground, JOHN WICK (Keanu Reeves) is a fresh and stylized take on the "assassin genre". (C) Lionsgate"

7 posted on 10/19/2014 2:56:53 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

I’ve just hijacked my own thread.


8 posted on 10/19/2014 2:57:29 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
From the article:Taking the battery out does no good. There is another, internal, unremovable, battery that tracks the location even when the battery is taken out.

The only way I know of to truly turn "off" a cell phone is to put it in a mylar bag, like a potato chip bag. The metal in the bag bag will intercept transmission from the phone. Unfortunately, the bag will also prevent transmissions to the phone.

9 posted on 10/19/2014 3:06:40 PM PDT by upchuck (The language of government now is word-spew. ~ h/t Peggy Noonan)
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To: upchuck
The only way I know of to truly turn "off" a cell phone is to put it in a mylar bag, like a potato chip bag.

How about if one puts the phone in "airline mode", cutting off the connection with 4G? Does this cut the connection?

10 posted on 10/19/2014 3:13:09 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

If there is no right to self defense (of which the right to privacy is an essential component,) then there can be no rights at all.


11 posted on 10/19/2014 3:16:54 PM PDT by sourcery (If there is no right to self defense, then there can be no rights at all.)
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To: sourcery

Amen to that. Even Hillary has stated that Snowden should be given a chance to defend himself when and if he comes home. Putin gave him a one-year pass that expired Aug 1 of 2014 but I believe Snowden is still in Russia.


12 posted on 10/19/2014 3:25:59 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: dennisw
Snowden plus— He exposed un-Constitutional NSA spying and electronic data collection on all American

Snowden minus -— He was forced to give all his information to Vladimir Putin. Nobody rides for free in Vlad’s Russia


Snowden minus minus -— He stupidly handed over to the Chinese and Russians names and IP addresses of servers that our analysts had worked extremely hard to surreptitiously hack into, thus letting them know that we were in there listening.
13 posted on 10/19/2014 3:38:42 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'm a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun, Reaganite. The GOP hates me. Why should I vote for them?)
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To: COBOL2Java

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/17/newest-snowden-leak-nsa-intercepted-russian-presidents-communications-at-2009-g20-summit/


14 posted on 10/19/2014 3:47:40 PM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: COBOL2Java
Snowden doublepluss good -- His revelations showed the extent to which the government despises the Constitution's strictures and how both Republican and Democrat parties are A-OK with the violations: indeed, we saw the government go from saying they weren't spying, to admitting they spied on "metadata", to admitting to spying on the actual contents within a surprisingly short time. — In addition to this, we found out that the "law enforcement" agencies are all too willing and able to play lawyer and use "parallel construction" to build a case based off the information gleaned from these domestic operations.

This is only the surface, but it illustrates how all-pervasive the corruption is; scratch the judiciary and you'll find a whole house of cards built on ignoring the Constitution.

15 posted on 10/19/2014 3:50:49 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: dennisw
The last two sentences from the linked article:
Exit question: If Snowden managed to find info on NSA’s servers about what the Brits were doing at the G20, did he also manage to find information that would embarrass America’s enemies? If so, is he planning to leak that, or is this one of those very familiar scenarios (again, a la Wikileaks) where top priority is embarrassing western governments, not oppressive governments?

These presuppose facts not in evidence, that the Western governments are not oppressive.
We have, right here in America, right now, pastors being told that they must perform homosexual marriages contrary to what their own State's Constitution says. — Oppression is here.

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

16 posted on 10/19/2014 4:00:03 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

Maybe, but I doubt it. Phones, and you, have to be tracked so if I call you the cellular network knows where you are so you and I can be connected.

This is why, even if the phone is turned off, it still has to be tracked. The cell network can note the phone is off and direct the call to your voice mailbox.


17 posted on 10/19/2014 5:19:45 PM PDT by upchuck (The language of government now is word-spew. ~ h/t Peggy Noonan)
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