Posted on 06/12/2013 1:24:16 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former U.S. spy Edward Snowden on Wednesday vowed to fight any bid to extradite him from Hong Kong and promised "explosive" new revelations about Washington's surveillance targets, The South China Morning Post reported.
Specifically, Snowden reportedly showed the newspaper "unverified documents" describing an extensive U.S. campaign to obtain information from computers in Hong Kong and mainland China.
"We hack network backbones, like huge Internet routers, basically, that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," he told the newspaper.
Officials have confirmed that Snowden may have more secret material.
"Apparently he's got a thumb drive," Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia, said Tuesday. "He's already exposed part of it and I guess he's going to expose the rest of it."
National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander told the Senate Intelligence Committee that "he doesn't know where Snowden is now," Chambliss said.
And the British paper The Guardian reported it believed Snowden had moved to a "safer" hotel in Hong Kong, the city to which he fled in preparation for the bombshell data dump.
"I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American," Snowden said in the exclusive interview, released two days after he checked out of the city hotel and went to ground.
Supporters of the former NSA subcontractor are lauding him as a whistleblower for divulging NSA monitoring of private users' web traffic and phone records, in a worldwide trawl that the White House says was needed to keep Americans safe from terror.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I am starting to feel the same way. Something is fishy about this entire Snowden affair. The timing it too convenient.
It is more and more likely an Obama operation.
Remember, these evil leftists lust for absolute control over others -- 24/7 365.25!
The destruction of our Republic is their singular obsessive goal.
That's the key sentence.
That's why the targeted internet companies (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.) are denying they give the NSA unrestricted access. They don't need to.
That's also why arguments over data retention laws are a sideshow. There is no need for them and their huge cost and inefficiency if the NSA is simply vacuuming up the whole of the network traffic and saving it in Bluffdale.
Unless I missed it there is nothing in this article that indicates what information the US is after on these chinese servers.
When it is clear the info was critical to national security then I will have no problem doing an about face on this guy. But it is possible this is consistent with Snowden's original charge the government is involved in spying on its own citizens.
My guess will be nothing. Just like all the other Obama administration scandals, lies and broken promises.
So would I. But I’m afraid the truth will have to wait until the next life.
The whole reason for the immigration act of 1965 was to justify this sort of domestic spying. When you import that many disparate groups that refuse to assimilate you create Yugoslavia. And Yugoslavia needed a Tito to keep the peace.
It becomes inevitable.
Use of this domestic database for political purges and personal gain is a guarantee. Humans are weak that way. Especially politicians.
“Are there still misguided people here who think he is some kind of hero?”
There are other choices besides traitor and hero. As it turns out, this isn’t a completely binary world.
This guy has done us a service - “us” meaning people who care about the Constitution. That doesn’t make him a hero or a traitor.
Makes more sense for Obama to work directly with Cisco to gain access to our data traffic than trying to go through the Chinese.
If this guy just wanted to sell secrets to China he could have done that.
And we’d have never known.
How many others have done that?
Who knows?
This guy didn’t have to tell ANYONE what he’d done or what NSA was doing. Most spies don’t call the MSM to explain themselves. They just disappear with the data never to be seen again.
And Cisco routers are all made in China.
The chicoms already know all this.
Pssst, most government networks contain routers and servers with chicom components too. Ditto the telecom systems.
Who decided THAT was a great idea?
Snowden is a peon. If he’d wanted to just sell info to the chicoms he could have done that completely under the radar and been a very wealthy man (if he had access to what he supposedly had access to). We’d have never known.
If he was just spying for the chicoms there was no reason to alert the LIV that they were being stalked. Even less so. Alerting the LIV might dry up a potential source of information for the chicoms too.
Good advice.
It’s generally a good policy to keep your eyes and ears open—and mouth closed—until the facts start to pan-out. ‘The worst are full of passionate intensity’ and all that. This matter seems to have trumped other important issues, transgressions, for now.
Oh yeah, and keep your powder dry.
They absolutely are.
They have been for years.
Which ones of our politicos got paid off to allow chicom made circuitry into the telecom equipment the miltary uses? And the routers on milnet. And the server motherboards. etc.
How many circuits in our expensive jets, missiles and drones are Made in China?
(from the article) “ Supporters of the former NSA subcontractor are lauding him as a whistleblower for divulging NSA monitoring of private users’ web traffic and phone records, in a worldwide trawl that the White House says was needed to keep Americans safe from terror.”
Why is it that we are now fearful of the growth and over-reach of our own government ?
UnConstitutional OVER-Reach ?
This program was alledgedly started to protect us from outsider / foreign terrorists.
The program was designed to protect U.S. citizens from foreign terror
However , the IRS /BATF/ OSHA/ EPA agencies are being used by our government to keep decension down , and repress opposition voices, and isolate political groups .
The terrorists are not all foreign ; we are seeing that the greater threat comes from our government encroaching on our CONSTITUTIONAL rights.
Terrorists need not necessarily involve the use of explosives .
Terrorism involves emotional turmoil , change in behavior, and change in thought (the proverbial ‘what ..if’ scenario).
With all this talk about “metadata” , I dont feel any safer ; I feel more at risk of reprisal for my thoughts and behavior from MY OWN GOVERNMENT !!
This is not what the program was supposed to accomplish !
.. and I should not have to feel this way !
They have the means and motive, and lack the scruples.
And that is a massive abuse of Constitutional power - but they've already told us in so many words they see the Constitution as an anachronism and a nuisance.
Until I have good reason to believe otherwise I'm taking this guy at his word.
Is there video of Snowden changing his tune and threatening to commit treason now, or are we taking Obama/McCain’s word for that?
Drum roll please. Gentlemen, start your engines. Let the Snowden transition from hero to goat begin.
Nothing would make Big Brother happier.
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