Edward Snowden

[NerdChills]

[h=1]Edward Snowden appears at Moscow airport and renews asylum claim – as it happened[/h] • NSA whistleblower meets human rights groups
• US accuses Russia of providing 'propaganda platform'
• Snowden renews asylum claim but says he prefers to leave
• Calls on international groups to offer protection
• Media scrum at Sheremetyevo airport for meeting


Edward Snowden is to meet representatives from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Transparency International at the airport in Moscow where he is holed up to discuss his next steps forward.
In an email published by Human Rights Watch, the former intelligence agency contractor – whose revelations to the Guardian about US surveillance have caused controversy around the world – also suggests he will make a “brief statement” to the groups. Reuters said Snowden had emailed them separately to say that the meeting would be closed to the press but that the whistleblower would speak to the media later.

I personally am very interested to see what he wil lhave to say...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201...n-rights-watch-at-moscow-airport-live-coverag

 

[jimmydiggs]

He'll never get a fair trial. He'll get tucked into a tiny corner of the country hidden away just like Manning.

 

[Bryancampbell]

Who else misses John Carter?

 

[Ritter]

Edward Snowden dug his grave when he thought he could trust the Russians.

I'm not saying he will find polonium 210 in his breakfast cereal, but his decision was unwise.

 

[djness]

Under a 2006 law, the Internal Revenue Service can pay whistleblower awards of up to 30% of the collected proceeds.
Snowden picked the wrong field...he could have been a felon and still been paid by the goverment.

 

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Glenn Greenwald pushes back hard on latest Edward Snowden “revelations”

By Greg Sargent, Published: June 24 at 4:16

Much is being made today of the news that Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post that he’d taken the job at Booz Allen — the firm contracted by the NSA — for the explicit purpose of getting access to classified documents that prove widespread surveillance. Some are even using the news to raise questions about the motives behind Glenn Greenwald’s reliance on documents leaked by Snowden.

But in an interview this afternoon, Greenwald dismissed the significance of the new revelations, saying they fit in logically with the chronology that’s already publicly known about Snowden — and he challenged critics to show proof of any wrongdoing on his part.

“Anybody who wants to accuse me or anyone at the Guardian of aiding and abetting Snowden has the obligation to point to any specific evidence to support that accusation,” Greenwald told me. “Otherwise they’re just spouting reckless innuendo.”
Snowden told the South China Morning Post: ”My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked. That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

Some on have already highlighted a Tweet Greenwald posted in early June in which he said he’d been working with Snowden since February, and it’s likely that those enraged by Greenwald’s and Snowden’s revelations will continue amplifying this angle.

But Greenwald told me that when Snowden had initially contacted him, Snowden hadn’t even shared his name or where he worked — he’d simply said he had explosive documents that Greenwald (whose reporting on leak investigations and civil liberties abuses was already widely known) would want to see. At that stage, Greenwald said, their conversations only concerned how to set up an encryption system that Snowden wanted in order to facilitate private communication of documents with him. The system was not set up until several months later, Greenwald said.

It was only in May — and not before — that Snowden told him who he was, who he worked for (at that point he identified himself as affiliated with the NSA) and what sort of documents he had to share, Greenwald says. It wasn’t until June — when Greenwald visited Snowden in Hong Kong — that Snowden told him he worked specifically for Booz Allen, Greenwald adds.
“We had early conversations about setting up encryption, so we worked early on to set that up,” Greenwald says. “We didn’t work on any documents. I didn’t even know Edward Snowden’s name or where he worked until after he was in Hong Kong with the documents. Anyone who is claiming that somehow I worked with him to get those documents or helped him is just lying.”

Asked if he saw any significance in Snowden’s latest comments, Greenwald argued that they fit in with the chronology of what is already known. Greenwald noted that Snowden had been working at the NSA since 2009 and that his public statements show he’d already concluded serious wrongdoing was going on, so he may well have gotten the job at Booz Allen in order to get documents he needed to make that case.

“I don’t see the significance of this at all,” Greenwald said. “He had said he had seen serious wrongdoing that he wanted to inform Americans about. He apparently wanted this last set of documents to present a complete picture.”

Indeed, if Snowden’s act of getting the job at Booz Allen in order to leak these documents constitutes a deliberate effort to undermine the United States, the premise of this idea is that the leaking of the documents itself constitutes that. This point, of course, is in dispute. In other words, it’s unclear what Snowden’s latest comments really tell us.

“This whole theory of aiding and abetting is nothing more than a diversionary tactic,” Greenwald said. “Every single journalist works cooperatively with sources in order to obtain evidence.”

Greenwald concludes of his and Snowden’s critics: “They are trying to shift attention away from what the U.S. government has done onto what the people who have reported it have done.”

Glenn Greenwald pushes back hard on latest Edward Snowden “revelations”

 

[zone]

Greenwald Backtracks: I Did Not Have Working Relations With that Man... (in February Like I Told You I Did)

Saint Glenn Greenwald is a little irked by suggestions that he may have aided and abetted NSA leaks that came from his 'source' (and fellow Ron Paul admirer) Edward Snowden. Being a lawyer, Greenwald of course knows that such a possibility removes from him the cloak of journalism and instead makes him an instigator in a criminal conspiracy. So what if he bragged just earlier this month that he'd been working with Snowden since February, before Snowden's job with NSA contractor Booz Allen, a job Snowden reportedly admittedly took with the specific intent and purpose of collecting intelligence information he could leak?

After Snowden fled to Hong Kong, he was interviewed by Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Poitras, described by the pro-Snowden outlets as simply a "documentary filmmaker," has another title. Not only did she admit to being in contact with Snowden in the same time period as Greenwald, she is a close friend and confidant of Glenn Greenwald's.

Greenwald and Poitras sit on the board of a group together - a fact they do not disclose during their on-camera interview of Snowden, or its write-up in the Guardian..... "Freedom of the Press Foundation," launched in December of 2012 that seem to be devoted entirely to Glenn Greenwald's pet causes and issues. In other words, it seems to be a front group from Greenwald and his radical libertarian agenda rather than having anything to do with any actual freedom of the press.

....This Greenwald front-group's connection to Snowden doesn't end with Greenwald and Poitras. It extends to the group that is now acting as a legal shield for Snowden, providing him with a lawyer, as well as submitting asylum applications on his behalf: Wikileaks. Wikileaks is listed as the top organization receiving support from the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

So let's quickly put it in a summary timeline and see if it makes any sense:

December 2012: Greenwald front-group Freedom of Press Foundation is launched, with both Greenwald and Poitras as Board members.

January 2013: Edward Snowden contacts FPF Board member Laura Poitras.

February 2013: Edward Snowden contacts Greenwald himself.

Feb/March 2013: Snowden begins work at Booz Allen with specific intent to collect documents that he could turn over to Greenwald and Poitras.

June 2013: Snowden flees to Hong Kong.

June 7, 2013: Greenwald publishes story in The Guardian.

June 9, 2013: Poitras and Greenwald publish video of Snowden, celebrated as king of a 'coming out party' for the traitor.

June/July 2013: FPF's top featured supported organization Wikileaks takes over legal representation and asylum requests for Edward Snowden.

Is it a coincidence that the Freedom of the Press Foundation was set up a mere month before Snowden suddenly appears on the screen and begins contacting its Board members for a scoop? Is it a coincidence that Snowden then gets a job in order specifically to obtain documents he would need to drop the story? Is it a coincidence that Wikileaks established a positive relationship with the Freedom of the Press Foundation before it took on the cause of Ed Snowden?

A Direct Timeline of Glenn Greenwald, His Front Group and the Fugitive Edward Snowden | The People's View

 

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Fake and Faker: Assange and Snowden

FAKE AND FAKER

Julian Assange (Wikileaks) and Edward Snowden are NWO con-men!

It was with a mix of concern and amusement that The Anti New York Times viewed the blind public acceptance of, first, the “WikiLeaks” fraud, and now, the Ed Snowden scam. Even more troubling was the hasty eagerness with which so many of our constitutionalist, libertarian, and “conspiracy theorist” brethren fell for the twin ‘whistleblower” scams. The Anti New York Timesis pleased to present “Fake & Faker”, an important expose of two very dangerous scams being run by the New World Order Gang.

BEFORE WE BEGIN, LET US ESTABLISH 3 UNDENIABLE, IRON TRUTHS REGARDING THE MSM (Mainstream Media)
IRON TRUTH # 1

The mission of the Global MSM is to steer the peoples’ thoughts and opinions in the direction desired by the ruling class. The MSM would NEVER hype a story, or an individual, that poses a true threat to the ruling class which it serves. Remember the silent treatment given to Ron Paul?

IRON TRUTH # 3
When all of the MSM start pushing/hyping the same given narrative, of any given issue, all at the same time, understand that the ruling class is selling you something!

APRIL 2010 / WIKILEAKS BURSTS ONTO THE WORLD STAGE

The release of a video, showing Iraqis being murdered,
gave WikiLeaks credibility as a whistle-blowing operation.

In April 2010, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks publishes graphic gunsight footage from a 3 year old Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were murdered by a U.S. helicopter. Though these types of incidents were already well known, the MSM treats the video as if it is the breaking story of the century!

2011 / WIKILEAKS RELEASES MORE DOCUMENTS
A good con-man must win the people’s confidence before he makes his sting. By exposing a certain amount of wasteful military spending and U.S. brutality (limited hangout), Assange’s WikiLeaks wins the trust of many liberty loving, justice seeking Americans, as well as Europeans and Arabs. He is also condemned by certain U.S. politicians & journalists. This condemnation (some of it feigned, some of it genuine) is known in intelligence circles as “sheep-dipping”, and also serves to build his credibility.

The MSM makes an instant international super-star of the shady Austrailian Assange!

LATE 2010 – 2011 / WIKILEAKS SWITCHES GEARS!
After gaining the world’s trust with his controlled attacks against the U.S. government, Assange, a CIA (and/or Mossad) operative, aims his WikiLeaks whistle-blowing weapon at the true intended targets. Leaked documents no longer embarass America. But very damaging information about corruption within the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen are “leaked” to “assets” within the Arab press.


GOOGLE: WIKILEAKS EGYPT

GOOGLE: WIKILEAKS TUNISIA

Leaks aimed at embarrassing Syria and Algeria are also released.

GOOGLE: WIKILEAKS SYRIA

GOOGLE: WIKILEAKS ALGERIA

Wasn’t the original mission of WikiLeaks to expose U.S. aggression and oppression in the Middle East? Why did Assange suddenly target certain Arab states?

“ARAB SPRING” TOPPLES TUNISIA, EGYPT, YEMEN & LIBYA – WAR ALSO BREAKS OUT IN SYRIA – WIKILEAKS CLAIMS CREDIT!

What a coincidence! All of the governments targeted by Assange’s WikiLeaks become victims of the “Arab Spring”. The MSM Fairy Tale tells us that the “Arab Spring” was a “spontaneous” uprising of the people, that started in Tunisia, and later spread to other nations....


cont...

 

[zone]

The NWO Gang’s formula for conducting “regime change” within the targeted states is as follows:

STEP 1: Assange’s WikiLeaks feeds very embarassing leaks to “assets” within the Arab press.

STEP 2: The targeted regime suddenly becomes very unpopular.

STEP 3: Internal subversives (provacateurs) kick off the “spontaneous demonstrations”.

STEP 4: Ordinary citizens swell the ranks of the protestors.

STEP 5: Paid traitors within the government and military force the government to resign. 5a: (In Libya & Syria, paid terrorist mercenaries (“rebels”) fight against the loyal military.)

STEP 6: The MSM then claims that “people power” has triumphed over tyranny.

Amnesty International hails WikiLeaks and Guardian as Arab spring ‘catalysts’

(The Guardian is the same newspaper now working with “whistle-blower” Edward Snowden!)

WIKILEAKS TARGETS RUSSIA’S PUTIN, AND HIS CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND, BERLUSCONI OF ITALY
The Globo-Zionist Axis hates Putin of Russia. Not only is mighty Russia refusing to hand over its sovereignty to the NWO Gang, but Putin is blocking the much anticipated war against Syria and Iran. So it comes as no surprise that WikiLeaks has also leaked on Putin, and his close personal friend, Silvio Berluconi of Italy. Putin remains as strong as ever, but Berlusconi was removed from office after Wikileaks ruined him.

GOOGLE: WIKILEAKS PUTIN
GOOGLE” WIKILEAKS BERLUSCONI

the loss of his vacation buddy Berlusconi (thanks to WikiLeaks), Putin lost his only true friend in Western Europe.

The “heroic” whistle-blower / leaker Julian Assange, with the help of the MSM, suckers in the entire world with his “anti-American / anti-war” leaks. He then uses this “street-cred” to attack the rivals of the U.S. / Israel / NATO Axis of Evil, setting the Middle East on fire in the process. Wikileaks represents the most brilliant psy-op since the 9/11 attacks (brought to you by the same planners!) For its audacity, ingenuity, and destructive power, it will be hard to top Julian Assange. Who can ever be a bigger FAKE than Assange?……..

……Enter, Mr. Edward Snowden.

SUMMER 2013 / MSM DROPS THE EDWARD
SNOWDEN HYPE-BOMB UPON THE WORLD!

In a sudden media blitz roll out, eerily similar to that of Julian Assange, a Mr. Edward Snowden is introduced to the world as another “heroic” whistle-blower. The vehicle which Snowden uses to expose government wrong doing is.....socialist, lawyer-turned-journalist named Glen Greenwald of The Guardian Newspaper (UK) – the same newspaper that PROUDLY boasts of its role in bringing about the “Arab Spring”!

Exactly as was the case with Assange, Snowden’s revelations of NSA spying upon the public amount to all hype and no substance. It is already well known that the NSA can listen to phone calls and read E-mails!

Exactly as was the case with Assange, Snowden becomes a “fugitive”. No explanation is given as to how he managed to escape, or how a fugitive was able to get on a plane. Snowden flees to CIA-infested Hong Kong where his “cause” is supported by a bizarre instant flash-mob equipped with professionally made bi-lingual banners and picket signs!

Exactly as was the case with Assange, Snowden becomes an international star.

Exactly as was the case with Assange, Snowden (and Greenwald) are cleverly, and theatrically condemned (sheep-dipped) by certain hated Americans (Diane Feinstein, Donald Trump, George Bush I (an ex CIA Director))

Below: Glen Greenwald (right) and the odious David Gregory stage a controlled “Professional Wrestling” spat on NBC’s “Meet The Press” – Greenwald’s “sheep-dipping” as an “anti-Establishment”, crusading journalist is now complete.

SNOWDEN,HOLED UP IN MOSCOW AIRPORT, IS IN CONTACT WITH JULIAN ASSANGE!
If Assange himself is a fugitive, how does he manage to say in the spotlight? How did Snowden come in contact with him?

We read in the July 6 USA Today:

“Assange, who once published thousands of illegally obtained U.S. government diplomatic communications on his website, acknowledged Monday that he is coordinating efforts to help National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden evade U.S. justice.” (full article here)

SAY WHAT???!!!Is the scrawny, weirdo Julian Assange some sort of international King-Pin that he can “coordinate efforts” – across continents – to help a fugitive, while he himself is a fugitive? We have already established that Assange is a fake. The fact that Snowden is hooked up with him pretty much tells us all we need to know about him as well…….But there is more!

“As the U.S. government presses Moscow to extradite former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, America’s most wanted leaker has a plan B. The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people.”

Exactly like Assange, Snowden has files to release. It is evident that these files contain damaging information. Who is the target this time? Foreign governments? American officials? How does an government contractor just walk out with so many files? Why would this young man destroy his life, defying the Feds and condemning himself to fugitive status – just to tell us what we already knew? Oh, that’s right….he is a “hero” and a “patriot”.

Can you smell the Hollywood *******? What is the game this time? Wikileaks 2? Or is the goal to create civilian oversight over the military run NSA? I’s too early in the game to know for sure what the Snowden trick is all about. But understand this, it is a dirty trick of some sort!

THE SHADY BRUCE FEIN HOOKS UP WITHSNOWDEN’S “FATHER”
Lon Snowden, the man purporting to be Ed Snowden’s father has teamed up with DC insider lawyer Bruce Fein to write an “open letter” to Snowden. The letter published in Glen Greenwald’s sleazy Guardian) smacks of contrived drama and self righteous corniness. Fein & Snowden invoke the names of the founding fathers and patriots Thomas Paine, Paul Rever as well as places of sacrifice such as Valley Force, Cemetery Ridge and Omaha Beach.

The “libertarian” Bruce Fein is a speaking-tour pal of the socialist Greenwald, and was suspected by an FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds (a real whistle-blower that the MSM ignores!) of being an infiltrator embedded within the 2012 Ron Paul campaign.

Fake and Faker: Assange and Snowden | Veterans Today

 

[zone]

Edward Snowden Interview: The NSA and Its Willing Helpers

In an interview conducted using encrypted e-mails, whistleblower Edward Snowden discusses the power of the NSA, how it is "in bed together with the Germans" and the vast scope of Internet spying conducted by the United States and Britain.

Shortly before he became a household name around the world as a whistleblower, Edward Snowden answered a comprehensive list of questions. They originated from Jacob Appelbaum, 30, a developer of encryption and security software. Appelbaum provides training to international human rights groups and journalists on how to use the Internet anonymously.

Appelbaum first became more broadly known to the public after he spoke on behalf of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a hacker conference in New York in 2010. Together with Assange and other co-authors, Appelbaum recently released a compilation of interviews in book form under the title "Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet."

Appelbaum wound up on the radar of American authorities in the course of their investigation into the WikiLeaks revelations. They have since served legal orders to Twitter, Google and Sonic to hand over information about his accounts. But Appelbaum describes his relationship with WikiLeaks as being "ambiguous," and explains here how he was able to pose questions to Snowden.

"In mid-May, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras contacted me," Appelbaum said. "She told me she was in contact with a possible anonymous National Security Agency (NSA) source who had agreed to be interviewed by her."

"She was in the process of putting questions together and thought that asking some specific technical questions was an important part of the source verification process. One of the goals was to determine whether we were really dealing with an NSA whistleblower. I had deep concerns of COINTELPRO-style entrapment. We sent our securely encrypted questions to our source. I had no knowledge of Edward Snowden's identity before he was revealed to the world in Hong Kong. He also didn't know who I was. I expected that when the anonymity was removed, we would find a man in his sixties."

"The following questions are excerpted from a larger interview that covered numerous topics, many of which are highly technical in nature. Some of the questions have been reordered to provide the required context. The questions focus almost entirely on the NSA's capabilities and activities. It is critical to understand that these questions were not asked in a context that is reactive to this week's or even this month's events. They were asked in a relatively quiet period, when Snowden was likely enjoying his last moments in a Hawaiian paradise -- a paradise he abandoned so that every person on the planet might come to understand the current situation as he does."

"At a later point, I also had direct contact with Edward Snowden in which I revealed my own identity. At that time, he expressed his willingness to have his feelings and observations on these topics published when I thought the time was right."

Editor's note: The following excerpts are taken from the original English-language version of the interview. Potential differences in language between the German and English versions can be explained by the fact that we have largely preserved the technical terms used by Snowden in this transcript. Explanations for some of the terminology used by Snowden as well as editor's notes are provided in the form of footnotes.

Interviewer: What is the mission of America's National Security Agency (NSA) -- and how is the job it does compatible with the rule of law?

Snowden: They're tasked to know everything of importance that happens outside of the United States. That's a significant challenge. When it is made to appear as though not knowing everything about everyone is an existential crisis, then you feel that bending the rules is okay. Once people hate you for bending those rules, breaking them becomes a matter of survival.

Interviewer: Are German authorities or German politicians involved in the NSA surveillance system?

Snowden: Yes, of course. We're 1 in bed together with the Germans the same as with most other Western countries. For example, we 2 tip them off when someone we want is flying through their airports (that we for example, have learned from the cell phone of a suspected hacker's girlfriend in a totally unrelated third country -- and they hand them over to us. They 3 don't ask to justify how we know something, and vice versa, to insulate their political leaders from the backlash of knowing how grievously they're violating global privacy.

Interviewer: But if details about this system are now exposed, who will be charged?

Snowden: In front of US courts? I'm not sure if you're serious. An investigation found the specific people who authorized the warrantless wiretapping of millions and millions of communications, which per count would have resulted in the longest sentences in world history, and our highest official simply demanded the investigation be halted. Who "can" be brought up on charges is immaterial when the rule of law is not respected. Laws are meant for you, not for them.

Interviewer: Does the NSA partner with other nations, like Israel?

Snowden: Yes. All the time. The NSA has a massive body responsible for this: FAD, the Foreign Affairs Directorate.

Interviewer: Did the NSA help to create Stuxnet? (Stuxnet is the computer worm that was deployed against the Iranian nuclear program.)

Snowden: NSA and Israel co-wrote it.

Interviewer: What are some of the big surveillance programs that are active today and how do international partners aid the NSA?

Snowden: In some cases, the so-called Five Eye Partners 4 go beyond what NSA itself does. For instance, the UK's General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has a system called TEMPORA. TEMPORA is the signals intelligence community's first "full-take" Internet buffer that doesn't care about content type and pays only marginal attention to the Human Rights Act. It snarfs everything, in a rolling buffer to allow retroactive investigation without missing a single bit. Right now the buffer can hold three days of traffic, but that's being improved. Three days may not sound like much, but remember that that's not metadata. "Full-take" means it doesn't miss anything, and ingests the entirety of each circuit's capacity. If you send a single ICMP packet 5 and it routes through the UK, we get it. If you download something and the CDN (Content Delivery Network) happens to serve from the UK, we get it. If your sick daughter's medical records get processed at a London call center … well, you get the idea.

Interviewer: Is there a way of circumventing that?

Snowden: As a general rule, so long as you have any choice at all, you should never route through or peer with the UK under any circumstances. Their fibers are radioactive, and even the Queen's selfies to the pool boy get logged.

Interviewer: Do the NSA and its partners across the globe do full dragnet data collection for telephone calls, text and data?

Snowden: Yes, but how much they get depends on the capabilities of the individual collection sites -- i.e., some circuits have fat pipes but tiny collection systems, so they have to be selective. This is more of a problem for overseas collection sites than domestic 6 ones, which is what makes domestic collection so terrifying. NSA isn't limited by power, space and cooling PSC constraints.

Interview with Whistleblower Edward Snowden on Global Spying - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 

[zone]

Forget the *.*. stories about Snowden

The Rebel - Home of the Global Resistance - Forget the B.S. stories about Snowden

 

[zone]

Booz Allen Hamilton Hired Edward Snowden Despite Concerns About Resume Discrepancies

Reuters | Posted: 06/20/2013 8:42 pm EDT | Updated: 06/21/2013 9:28 am EDT

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON June 20 (Reuters) - Hiring screeners at Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the National Security Agency, found possible discrepancies in a resume submitted by Edward Snowden, but the company still employed him, a source with detailed knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Snowden, who disclosed top secret documents about U.S. surveillance of telephone and Internet data after leaving his job as a systems administrator at an NSA facility in Hawaii, was hired this spring after he convinced his screeners that his description of his education was truthful, said the source, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

It is unclear precisely which element of Snowden's resume caused personnel officials at Booz Allen Hamilton to raise questions about his background. Also unclear is how he satisfied their concerns.

Snowden's disclosures, which U.S. intelligence officials have called harmful to national security, have raised questions about the U.S. government's use of more than 480,000 contract workers who have top-secret security clearances. They also have increased concerns about how rigorously the government and its contractors are screening such workers.

Those concerns were the focus of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday, as senators grilled representatives of the U.S. government's personnel office over how closely contractors scrutinize prospective workers for high-security jobs.

Booz Allen Hamilton Hired Edward Snowden Despite Concerns About Resume Discrepancies

^ might be one part of the real story ^

 

[zone]

How to identify CIA limited hangout op?

Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:45AM
By Dr. Webster G. Tarpley

Related Interviews:
‘US considers Americans as enemies’

The operations of secret intelligence agencies aiming at the manipulation of public opinion generally involve a combination of cynical deception with the pathetic gullibility of the targeted populations.


There is ample reason to believe that the case of Edward Joseph Snowden fits into this pattern. We are likely dealing here with a limited hangout operation, in which carefully selected and falsified documents and other materials are deliberately revealed by an insider who pretends to be a fugitive rebelling against the excesses of some oppressive or dangerous government agency.

But the revelations turn out to have been prepared with a view to shaping the public consciousness in a way which is advantageous to the intelligence agency involved. At the same time, gullible young people can be duped into supporting a personality cult of the leaker, more commonly referred to as a “whistleblower.” A further variation on the theme can be the attempt of the sponsoring intelligence agency to introduce their chosen conduit, now posing as a defector, into the intelligence apparatus of a targeted foreign government. In this case, the leaker or whistleblower attains the status of a triple agent.

Any attempt to educate public opinion about the dynamics of limited hangout operations inevitably collides with the residue left in the minds of millions by recent successful examples of this technique. It will be hard for many to understand Snowden, precisely because they will insist on seeing him as the latest courageous example in a line of development which includes Daniel Ellsberg and Julian Assange, both still viewed by large swaths of naïve opinion as authentic challengers of oppressive government.

This is because the landmark limited hangout operation at the beginning of the current post-Cold War era was that of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon papers, which laid the groundwork for the CIA’s Watergate attack on the Nixon administration, and more broadly, on the office of the presidency itself. More recently, we have had the case of Assange and Wikileaks. Using these two cases primarily, we can develop a simple typology of the limited hangout operation which can be of significant value to those striving to avoid the role of useful idiots amidst the current cascade of whistleblowers and limited hangout artists.

In this analysis, we should also recall that limited hangouts have been around for a very long time. In 1620 Fra Paolo Sarpi, the dominant figure of the Venetian intelligence establishment of his time, advised the Venetian senate that the best way to defeat anti-Venetian propaganda was indirectly. He recommended the method of saying something good about a person or institution while pretending to say something bad. An example might be criticizing a bloody dictator for beating his dog - the real dimensions of his crimes are thus totally underplayed.

Limited hangout artists are instant media darlings

The most obvious characteristic of the limited hangout operative is that he or she immediately becomes the darling of the controlled corporate media. In the case of Daniel Ellsberg, his doctored set of Pentagon papers were published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and eventually by a consortium totaling seventeen corporate newspapers. These press organs successfully argued the case for publication all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where they prevailed against the Nixon administration.

Needless to say, surviving critics of the Warren Commission, and more recent veterans of the 9/11 truth movement, and know very well that this is emphatically not the treatment reserved for messengers whose revelations are genuinely unwelcome to the Wall Street centered US ruling class. These latter are more likely to be slandered, vilified and dragged through the mud, or, even more likely, passed over in complete silence and blacked out. In extreme cases, they can be kidnapped, renditioned or liquidated.

Cass Sunstein present at the creation of Wikileaks

As for Assange and Wikileaks, the autumn 2010 document dump was farmed out in advance to five of the most prestigious press organs in the world, including the New York Times, the London Guardian, El Pais of Madrid, Der Spiegel of Hamburg, and Le Monde of Paris. This was the Assange media cartel, made up of papers previously specialized in discrediting 9/11 critics and doubters.

But even before the document dumps had begun, Wikileaks had received a preemptive endorsement from none other than the notorious totalitarian Cass Sunstein, later an official of the Obama White House, and today married to Samantha Power, the author of the military coup that overthrew Mubarak and currently Obama’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations.

Sunstein is infamous for his thesis that government agencies should conduct covert operations using pseudo-independent agents of influence for the “cognitive infiltration of extremist groups” - meaning of those who reject in the establishment view of history and reality.

Sunstein’s article entitled “Brave New WikiWorld” was published in the Washington Post of February 24, 2007, and touted the capabilities of Wikileaks for the destabilization of China. Perhaps the point of Ed Snowden’s presence in Hong Kong is to begin re-targeting these capabilities back towards the original anti-Chinese plan.

Snowden has already become a media celebrity of the first magnitude. His career was launched by the US left liberal Glenn Greenwald, now writing for the London Guardian, which expresses the viewpoints of the left wing of the British intelligence community. Thus, the current scandal is very much Made in England, and may benefit from inputs from the British GCHQ of Cheltenham, the Siamese twin of the NSA at Fort Meade, Maryland. During the days of his media debut, it was not uncommon to see a controlled press organ like CNN dedicating one third of every broadcast hour of air time to the birth, life, and miracles of Ed Snowden.

Another suspicious and tell-tale endorsement for Snowden comes from the former State Department public diplomacy asset Norman Solomon. Interviewed on RT, Solomon warmly embraced the Snowden Project and assured his viewers that the NSA material dished up by the Hong Kong defector used reliable and authentic. Solomon was notorious ten years ago as a determined enemy of 9/11 truth, acting as a border guard in favor of the Bush administration/neocon theory of terrorism



cont....

 

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Limited hangouts contain little that is new

Another important feature of the limited hangout operation if that the revelations often contain nothing new, but rather repackage old wine in new bottles. In the case of Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers, very little was revealed which was not already well known to a reader of Le Monde or the dispatches of Agence France Presse. Only those whose understanding of world affairs had been filtered through the Associated Press, CBS News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post found any of Ellsberg’s material a surprise.

Of course, there was method in Ellsberg’s madness. The Pentagon papers allegedly derived from an internal review of the decision-making processes leading to the Vietnam War, conducted after 1967-68 under the supervision of Morton Halperin and Leslie Gelb. Ellsberg, then a young RAND Corporation analyst and militant warmonger, was associated with this work. Upon examination, we find that the Pentagon papers tend to cover up such CIA crimes as the mass murder mandated under Operation Phoenix, and the massive CIA drug running associated with the proprietary airline Air America. Rather, when atrocities are in question, the US Army generally receives the blame. Politicians in general, and President John F. Kennedy in particular, are portrayed in a sinister light - one might say demonized. No insights whatever into the Kennedy assassination are offered. This was a smelly concoction, and it was not altogether excluded that the radicalized elements of the Vietnam era might have carried the day in denouncing the entire package as a rather obvious fabrication. But a clique around Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn loudly intervened to praise the quality of the exposé and to lionize Ellsberg personally as a new culture hero for the Silent Generation. From that moment on, the careers of Chomsky and Zinn soared. Pentagon papers skeptics, like the satirical comedian Mort Sahl, a supporter of the Jim Garrison investigation in New Orleans and a critic of the Warren Commission, faced the marginalization of their careers.

Notice also that the careers of Morton Halperin and Leslie Gelb positively thrived after they entrusted the Pentagon papers to Ellsberg, who revealed them. Ellsberg was put on trial in 1973, but all charges were dismissed after several months because of prosecutorial misconduct. Assange lived like a lord for many months in the palatial country house of an admirer in the East of England, and is now holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He spent about 10 days in jail in December 2010.

Assange first won credibility for Wikileaks with some chum in the form of a shocking film showing a massacre perpetrated by US forces in Iraq with the aid of drones. The massacre itself and the number of victims were already well known, so Assange was adding only the graphic emotional impact of witnessing the atrocity firsthand.



cont....

 

[zone]

Limited hangouts reveal nothing about big issues like JFK, 9/11

Over the past century, there are certain large-scale covert operations which cast a long historical shadow, determining to some extent the framework in which subsequent events occur. These include the Sarajevo assassinations of 1914, the assassination of Rasputin in late 1916, Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome, Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933, the assassination of French Foreign Minister Barthou in 1934, the assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, in 1963 Kennedy assassination, and 9/11. A common feature of the limited hangout operations is that they offer almost no insights into these landmark events.

In the Pentagon Papers, the Kennedy assassination is virtually a nonexistent event about which we learn nothing. As already noted, the principal supporters of Ellsberg were figures like Chomsky, whose hostility to JFK and profound disinterest in critiques of the Warren Commission were well-known. As for Assange, he rejects any further clarification of 9/11. In July 2010, Assange told Matthew Bell of the Belfast Telegraph: “I’m constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud.” This is on top of Cass Sunstein’s demand for active covert measures to suppress and disrupt inquiries into operations like 9/11. Snowden’s key backers Glenn Greenwald and Norman Solomon have both compiled impressive records of evasion on 9/11 truth, with Greenwald specializing in the blowback theory.

The Damascus road conversions of limited hangout figures

Daniel Ellsberg started his career as a nuclear strategist of the Dr. Strangelove type working for the RAND Corporation. He worked in the Pentagon as an aide to US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He then went to Vietnam, where he served as a State Department civilian assistant to CIA General Edward Lansdale. In 1967, he was back at RAND to begin the preparation of what would come to be known as the Pentagon papers. Ellsberg has claimed that his Damascus Road conversion from warmonger to peace angel occurred when he heard a speech from a prison-bound draft resister at Haverford College in August 1969. After a mental breakdown, Ellsberg began taking his classified documents to the office of Senator Edward Kennedy and ultimately to the New York Times. Persons who believe this fantastic story may be suffering from terminal gullibility.

In the case of Assange, it is harder to identify such a moment of conversion. Assange spent his childhood in the coils of MK Ultra, a complex of Anglo-American covert operations designed to investigate and implement mind control through the use of psychopharmaca and other means. Assange was a denizen of the Ann Hamilton-Byrne cult, in which little children that were subjected to aversive therapy involving LSD and other heavy-duty drugs. Assange spent his formative years as a wandering nomad with his mother incognito because of her involvement in a custody dispute. The deracinated Assange lived in 50 different towns and attended 37 different schools. By the age of 16, the young nihilist was active as a computer hacker using the screen name “Mendax,” meaning quite simply “The Liar.” (Assange’s clone Snowden uses the more marketable codename of “Verax,” the truth teller.) Some of Assange’s first targets were Nortel and US Air Force offices in the Pentagon. Assange’s chief mentor became John Young of Cryptome, who in 2007 denounced Wikileaks as a CIA front.

Snowden’s story, as widely reported, goes like this: he dropped out of high school and also dropped out of a community college, but reportedly was nevertheless later able to command a salary of between $120,000 and $200,000 per year; he claims this is because he is a computer wizard. He enlisted in the US Army in May 2004, and allegedly hoped to join the special forces and contribute to the fight for freedom in Iraq. He then worked as a low-level security guard for the National Security Agency, and then went on to computer security at the CIA, including a posting under diplomatic cover in Switzerland. He moved on to work as a private contractor for the NSA at a US military base in Japan. His last official job was for the NSA at the Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center in Hawaii. In May 2013, he is alleged to have been granted medical leave from the NSA in Hawaii to get treatment for epilepsy. He fled to Hong Kong, and made his revelations with the help of Greenwald and a documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. Snowden voted for the nominally anti-war, ultra-austerity “libertarian” presidential candidate Ron Paul, and gave several hundred dollars to Paul’s campaign.



cont....

 

[zone]

Snowden is also remarkable for the precision of his timing. His first revelations, open secrets though they were, came on June 5, precisely today when the rebel fortress of Qusayr was liberated by the Syrian army and Hezbollah. At this point, the British and French governments were screaming at Obama that it was high time to attack Syria. The appearance of Snowden’s somewhat faded material in the London Guardian was the trigger for a firestorm of criticism against the Obama regime by the feckless US left liberals, who were thus unwittingly greasing the skids for a US slide into a general war in the Middle East. More recently, Snowden came forward with allegations that the US and the British had eavesdropped on participants in the meeting of the G-20 nations held in Britain four years ago. This obviously put Obama on the defensive just as Cameron and Hollande were twisting his arm to start the Syrian adventure. By attacking the British GCHQ at Cheltenham, Britain’s equivalent to the NSA, perhaps Snowden was also seeking to obfuscate the obvious British sponsorship of his revelations.

Stories about Anglo Americans spying on high profile guests are as old as the hills, and have included a British frogman who attempted an underwater investigation of the Soviet cruiser that brought party leader N. S. Khrushchev for a visit in the 1950s. Snowden has also accused the NSA of hacking targets in China -- again, surely no surprise to experienced observers, but guaranteed to increase Sino-American tensions. As time passes, Snowden may emerge as more and more of a provocateur between Washington and Beijing.

Limited hangouts prepare large covert operations

Although, as we have seen, limited hangouts rarely illuminate the landmark covert operations which attempt to define an age, limited hangouts themselves do represent the preparation for future covert operations.

In the case of the Pentagon papers, this and other leaks during the Indo-Pakistani Tilt crisis were cited by Henry Kissinger in his demand that President Richard Nixon take countermeasures to restore the integrity of state secrets. Nixon foolishly authorized the creation of a White House anti-leak operation known as the Plumbers. The intelligence community made sure that the Plumbers operation was staffed by their own provocateurs, people who never were loyal to Nixon but rather took their orders from Langley. Here we find the already infamous CIA agent Howard Hunt, the CIA communications expert James McCord, and the FBI operative G. Gordon Liddy. These provocateurs took special pains to get arrested during an otherwise pointless break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the summer of 1972. Nixon could easily have disavowed the Plumbers and thrown this gaggle of agent provocateurs to the wolves, but he instead launched a cover up. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, equipped with a top secret security clearance from the Office of Naval Intelligence, then began publicizing the story. The rest is history, and the lasting heritage has been a permanent weakening of the office of the presidency and the strengthening of the worst oligarchical tendencies.

Assange’s Wikileaks document dump triggered numerous destabilizations and coups d’état across the globe. Not one US, British, or Israeli covert operation or politician was seriously damaged by this material. The list of those impacted instead bears a striking resemblance to the CIA enemies’ list: the largest group of targets were Arab leaders slated for immediate ouster in the wave of “Arab Spring.” Here we find Ben Ali of Tunisia, Qaddafi of Libya, Mubarak of Egypt, Saleh of Yemen, and Assad of Syria. The US wanted to replace Maliki with Allawi as prime minister of Iraq, so the former was targeted, as was the increasingly independent Karzai of Afghanistan. Perennial targets of the CIA included Rodriguez Kirchner of Argentina, Berlusconi of Italy, and Putin of Russia. Berlusconi soon fell victim to a coup organized through the European Central Bank, while his friend Putin was able to stave off a feeble attempt at color revolution in early 2012. Mildly satiric jabs at figures like Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France were included primarily as camouflage.

Assange thus had a hand in preparing one of the largest destabilization campaigns mounted by Anglo-American intelligence since 1968, or perhaps even 1848.

If the Snowden operation can help coerce the vacillating and reluctant Obama to attack Syria, our new autistic hero may claim credit for starting a general war in the Middle East, and perhaps even more. If Snowden can further poison relations between United States and China, the world historical significance of his provocations will be doubly assured. But none of this can occur unless he finds vast legions of eager dupes ready to fall for his act. We hope he won’t.

PressTV - How to identify CIA limited hangout op?

 

[djness]

Funny thing about conspiracies , which one of you is feeding us info the government wants us to trust? Only way to cover up a cover up is with a cover up and they are cooking waffles for breakfast shrek! So which one of you is the government plant?

 

[zone]

Snowden is also remarkable for the precision of his timing. His first revelations, open secrets though they were, came on June 5, precisely today when the rebel fortress of Qusayr was liberated by the Syrian army and Hezbollah. At this point, the British and French governments were screaming at Obama that it was high time to attack Syria. The appearance of Snowden’s somewhat faded material in the London Guardian was the trigger for a firestorm of criticism against the Obama regime by the feckless US left liberals, who were thus unwittingly greasing the skids for a US slide into a general war in the Middle East. More recently, Snowden came forward with allegations that the US and the British had eavesdropped on participants in the meeting of the G-20 nations held in Britain four years ago. This obviously put Obama on the defensive just as Cameron and Hollande were twisting his arm to start the Syrian adventure. By attacking the British GCHQ at Cheltenham, Britain’s equivalent to the NSA, perhaps Snowden was also seeking to obfuscate the obvious British sponsorship of his revelations.

Stories about Anglo Americans spying on high profile guests are as old as the hills, and have included a British frogman who attempted an underwater investigation of the Soviet cruiser that brought party leader N. S. Khrushchev for a visit in the 1950s. Snowden has also accused the NSA of hacking targets in China -- again, surely no surprise to experienced observers, but guaranteed to increase Sino-American tensions. As time passes, Snowden may emerge as more and more of a provocateur between Washington and Beijing.

Limited hangouts prepare large covert operations

Although, as we have seen, limited hangouts rarely illuminate the landmark covert operations which attempt to define an age, limited hangouts themselves do represent the preparation for future covert operations.

In the case of the Pentagon papers, this and other leaks during the Indo-Pakistani Tilt crisis were cited by Henry Kissinger in his demand that President Richard Nixon take countermeasures to restore the integrity of state secrets. Nixon foolishly authorized the creation of a White House anti-leak operation known as the Plumbers. The intelligence community made sure that the Plumbers operation was staffed by their own provocateurs, people who never were loyal to Nixon but rather took their orders from Langley. Here we find the already infamous CIA agent Howard Hunt, the CIA communications expert James McCord, and the FBI operative G. Gordon Liddy. These provocateurs took special pains to get arrested during an otherwise pointless break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the summer of 1972. Nixon could easily have disavowed the Plumbers and thrown this gaggle of agent provocateurs to the wolves, but he instead launched a cover up. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, equipped with a top secret security clearance from the Office of Naval Intelligence, then began publicizing the story. The rest is history, and the lasting heritage has been a permanent weakening of the office of the presidency and the strengthening of the worst oligarchical tendencies.

Assange’s Wikileaks document dump triggered numerous destabilizations and coups d’état across the globe. Not one US, British, or Israeli covert operation or politician was seriously damaged by this material. The list of those impacted instead bears a striking resemblance to the CIA enemies’ list: the largest group of targets were Arab leaders slated for immediate ouster in the wave of “Arab Spring.” Here we find Ben Ali of Tunisia, Qaddafi of Libya, Mubarak of Egypt, Saleh of Yemen, and Assad of Syria. The US wanted to replace Maliki with Allawi as prime minister of Iraq, so the former was targeted, as was the increasingly independent Karzai of Afghanistan. Perennial targets of the CIA included Rodriguez Kirchner of Argentina, Berlusconi of Italy, and Putin of Russia. Berlusconi soon fell victim to a coup organized through the European Central Bank, while his friend Putin was able to stave off a feeble attempt at color revolution in early 2012. Mildly satiric jabs at figures like Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France were included primarily as camouflage.

Assange thus had a hand in preparing one of the largest destabilization campaigns mounted by Anglo-American intelligence since 1968, or perhaps even 1848.

If the Snowden operation can help coerce the vacillating and reluctant Obama to attack Syria, our new autistic hero may claim credit for starting a general war in the Middle East, and perhaps even more. If Snowden can further poison relations between United States and China, the world historical significance of his provocations will be doubly assured. But none of this can occur unless he finds vast legions of eager dupes ready to fall for his act. We hope he won’t.

PressTV - How to identify CIA limited hangout op?

Funny thing about conspiracies , which one of you is feeding us info the government wants us to trust? Only way to cover up a cover up is with a cover up and they are cooking waffles for breakfast shrek! So which one of you is the government plant?

i recommend following up on the above....it mostly checks out.
take care

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

"The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two years, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The incidents resulted in the unauthorized electronic surveillance of US citizens, according to documents published by the Washington Post. Mr. Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has leaked top secret documents to the US and British media. He has been given asylum in Russia."

Story: BBC News - Edward Snowden documents show NSA broke privacy rules

More: NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds - The Washington Post

NSA Audit: NSA report on privacy violations in the first quarter of 2012 - The Washington Post

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

The National Security Agency, which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens, has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say.

The system now has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic in the hunt for foreign intelligence, including a wide array of communications by foreigners and Americans. In some cases, it retains the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S. and also filters domestic phone calls made with Internet technology, these people say.

New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach - WSJ.com