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The NSA cyberwarfare program, called MonsterMind, uses software to look for traffic patterns indicating possible foreign cyberattacks, according to Snowden, quoted in a lengthy profile in Wired. MonsterMind could automatically block a cyberattack from entering the U.S., then retaliate against the attackers, according to the Wired story. Snowden, when he was working as an NSA contractor, was concerned that MonsterMind could lead to misdirected counterattacks. "These attacks can be spoofed," he told Wired. "You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting...

Putin is effing with Edward Snowden. Snowden’s one year of asylum ended on July 31, and he applied in mid-July for another year. As yet, he has heard nothing, except that he will be permitted to stay while his fate is decided. Putin is most likely sending Snowden a message. What is the message? That he is in Russia at Putin’s whim and sufferance. That he had better do as he is told, and not get any ideas. That he is owned. Note that the Russians doubtlessly are deeply suspicious of Snowden, and likely despise him. To give an idea...

Nihad Awad is a born in Jordan Palestinian living in the U.S. for more than two decades. He is co-founder and CEO of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the largest Muslim civil rights organizations in the United States. He was an advisor to Al Gore and met Presidents Bush and Clinton as well as several U.S. Secretary of State. His e-mails were monitored from 2006 to 2008. "As a citizen I am beside myself that the government spies on activists. Though we have done so much for society in this country, we are still suspected." Awad believed...

In an interview published by The Guardian on Sunday, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden explained that sometimes racy images intercepted by the NSA were shared by analysts. During the interview, which was conducted in Russia, Snowden said that some of the American military personnel working on the NSA’s programs were between 18 and 22 and did not always respect the privacy of those whose communications were intercepted. “In the course of their daily work they stumble across something that is completely unrelated to their work, for example an intimate nude photo of someone in a sexually compromising situation but they’re extremely...

A fresh set of documents leaked by Edward Snowden show how the UK intelligence agency can manipulate online polls and debates, spread messages, snoop on YouTube and track Facebook users.

Russia is expected to renew former National Security Agency contractor and leaker Edward Snowden’s request for extended asylum because ”his life is endangered,” according to a Russian government official. “I see no problem in prolonging the temporary asylum,” Vladimir Volokh, head of an advisory body to Russia’s Federal Migration Service told the Interfax news agency Friday, according to Reuters. ”The circumstances have not changed. As before, Snowden’s life is endangered so the FMS has grounds to extend his status.” Snowden was granted one year of asylum on Aug. 1, 2013 after leaking a cache of classified NSA intelligence documents to reporters, flying out of...

NEW YORK — Heaps of baby photos, fitness selfies, medical records and resumes are among thousands of private communications scooped up and stored by NSA spy programs. That’s according to new disclosures based on documents Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, gave to The Washington Post — disclosures that show just how easy it is for Americans’ private conversations to be swept into the spy agency’s traps. Snowden provided the Post with what it said were 160,000 intercepted conversations, including e-mails, instant messages, photographs, social network posts and other documents. The trove included messages exchanged from 2009 through...

Germany may step up its counter-espionage efforts after an employee of its intelligence service was arrested on suspicion of spying for the US. Measures being considered in response to scandal include monitoring the intelligence activities of nominal Nato allies such as America, Britain and France, as well as expelling US agents from Germany. According to a report in Bild, interior minister Thomas de Maizière has emphasised the urgent need for a "360 degree vision" of the foreign secret agency's activities. The newspaper claims to have obtained an internal document which outlines "concrete counter measures", thus moving away from a policy...

Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

Newser) – You might think that giving a green light to Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis and allegedly fraudulently submitting 660,000 other background checks without actually completing them would prevent you from getting future government contracts. But you'd be wrong, because the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $190 million contract to US Investigations Services, the Wall Street Journal reports. Why? Because USIS hasn't actually been suspended, and, as one immigration official explained, unless there is such a suspension in place, "by law and policy, we have to go with the lowest bidder." USIS isn't barred, the Office of...

The Snowden leak that journalist Glenn Greenwald has described as the biggest story yet was delayed prior to publication this week, after the U.S. government made last-minute claims about the forthcoming disclosure.

An independent privacy and civil liberties board says the NSA’s massive collection of internet data passes constitutional muster and employs “reasonable” protections designed to ensure that private American communications are not misused. In a report released Tuesday night, the bipartisan, five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board examined a set of NSA surveillance programs disclosed by leaker Edward Snowden …

As an IT professional I am calling BS on the claim that Lerner's emails are lost. The BHO regime has choosen to gleem the cube on this one and it is going to bite them in the a$$! I think it is time Ed Snowden is asked to apply his skills and retrieve the files in question. I have no doubt he is the man for the job.

Full Title: Edward Snowden was in Moscow's sights six years before leaking U.S. secrets claims former KGB agent/// Moscow identified Edward Snowden as a possible defector in 2007 Former KGB chief Boris Karpichkov said Moscow 'tricked' Snowden Russians began monitoring Snowden, 30, in Geneva while at the CIA US officials trying to establish whether Snowden as a double agent Russian spies 'tricked' US whistleblower Edward Snowden into asking Moscow for asylum by posing as diplomats after spending six years targeting him, a former major in the KGB has claimed. Boris Karpichkov, who fled Russia after 15 years serving with the...

There is no shortage of people who will speak out against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American prisoner of the Afghanistan war, just released from five years of capture. One is Justin Gerleve, Bergdahl's former squad leader, who appeared on CNN on Wednesday. "I believe that he totally deserted—not only his fellow soldiers—but his leadership that wanted the best for him and for our country," Gerleve said. He also implied that Bergdahl's capture led to an increase in targeted attacks against their units. (There are disputed claims over whether several died as a direct result of Bergdahl's actions.) "I can't...

This is Secretary of State John Kerry’s answer.... “He should man up, come back to the United States. If he has a complaint about what’s wrong with American surveillance, come back here and stand in our system of justice and make his case....” The argument has a specious attractiveness; however, its premises are arbitrary, its logic shaky, and its implications pernicious. ...It is true that some disobedients, such as Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks, did not seek to evade punishment. It is also true, however, that they could not possibly have done so, for...

Ten years before Edward Snowden revealed his bombshell that the United States government was electronically spying on people on a massive scale there was Bay Area-resident Mark Klein. Nannett Miranda reports. Ten years before Edward Snowden revealed his bombshell that the United States government was electronically spying on people on a massive scale there was Bay Area resident Mark Klein. As a San Francisco-based AT&T technician in 2003, he installed a splitter that sent a copy of communications data to a secret room set up by the NSA in his South of Market office building. "I knew right away that...

During a round of morning interviews with several of the major television networks on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry accused NSA [National Security Agency] leaker Edward Snowden of engaging in the same kind of betrayal and traitorous activities that Kerry once participated in. When Kerry returned from the Vietnam War in the early 70's, he accused his fellow American soldiers of committing war crimes. Kerry's accusations provoked the ire of countless Vietnam War vets who said that not only was Kerry falsely maligning them, but that he was guilty of betrayal and that he was harming American POW's in...

Video:New reporting seems to confirm government leaker Edward Snowden’s claim that he tried to bring his concerns up the chain of command before leaking top-secret documents to the press. “I actually did go through channels, and that is documented,” he told NBC in an interview on Wednesday evening. “The NSA [National Security Agency] has records, they have copies of emails right now to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks, from me raising concerns about the NSA’s interpretations of its legal authorities.”[snip]n the April 5, 2013, email, he questioned the spy agency’s legal rationale for snooping...

Edward Snowden Describes When The CIA Got A Swiss Banker Drunk The former NSA/CIA employee who leaked documents about several invasive government spying programs, Edward Snowden has had growing doubts about the government for a long time, according to a interview in the Guardian. One "formative" incident occurred around 2007, when the young technical analyst was working for the CIA under diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. It involved a Swiss banker, as described in the Guardian: CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker...