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New Snowden Leak Exposes AT&T's "Extreme Willingness To Help" NSA Spy On Americans
Newly disclosed NSA files expose the spy agency's relationship through the years with American telecoms companies. As NYTimes reports, The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. The documents, provided by the former agency contractor Edward Snowden, described the NSA-AT&T relationship as "highly collaborative," while another lauded the company’s "extreme willingness to help."
While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. As The NY Times reports,
AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013.
AT&T has given the N.S.A. access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks. It provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters, a customer of AT&T.
The documents, provided by whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, as RT adds, explain that the telecom giant was able to deliver under various legal loopholes international and foreign-to-foreign internet communications even if they passed through networks located in the US.
To show the extent of AT&T’s involvement, the files revealed that the company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its major US internet hubs, thought to be a lot more than Verizon installed. AT&T’s engineers were also the first ones to get their hands on this new surveillance technologies created by the NSA, the newspaper reported.
Further proving a unique relationship is the NSA’s top-secret budget from 2013, which doubled the funding of any other cooperation of similar size, according to the documents.
AT&T was (is) the NSA's enthusiastic top surveillance partner http://t.co/OfMfxgTN5X pic.twitter.com/Iyh7rHqwEc
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 15, 2015
“This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship,” one document said, warning NSA officials to be polite and professional. “[AT&T’s] corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and ISPs [Internet service providers],” said another.
In 2011 AT&T began to supply NSA with over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records per day in 2011, which was “a push to get this flow operational prior to the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” the Times reported.
AT&T spokesman Brad Burns told Reuters that the company does not “voluntarily provide information to any investigating authorities other than if a person’s life is in danger and time is of the essence. For example, in a kidnapping situation we could provide help tracking down called numbers to assist law enforcement.”
It is not clear if the programs still operate in the same way today. Since the Snowden revelations set off a global debate over surveillance two years ago, some Silicon Valley technology companies have expressed anger at what they characterize as N.S.A. intrusions and have rolled out new encryption to thwart them. The telecommunications companies have been quieter, though Verizon unsuccessfully challenged a court order for bulk phone records in 2014. At the same time, the government has been fighting in court to keep the identities of its telecom partners hidden.
In a recent case, a group of AT&T customers claimed that the N.S.A.’s tapping of the Internet violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. This year, a federal judge dismissed key portions of the lawsuit after the Obama administration argued that public discussion of its telecom surveillance efforts would reveal state secrets, damaging national security.
The US government continues to pursue Snowden, insisting that he stole classified information, and betrayed the nation, claiming that his “dangerous” decision had “severe consequences” for the security of the United States. Others, however, have hailed Snowden as a “hero” who has disclosed unconstitutional activities by the US government.
Karl Denninger asks the all-important question... Why are we stil using AT&T?
I often ask myself why I should bother with continuing to do the work I do in the area of writing on the various outrages that our government -- and various other entities -- engage in. It is very hard to make the argument that anyone in material numbers gives a damn when this sort of thing doesn't result in the instantaneous destruction of the customer base of any business involved in such an act.
It was often claimed that these records were "mostly" wireline (that is, old-fashioned phone-on-the-kitchen-wall) records. This is now known to have been a lie.
The documents show that AT&T's cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the Times. AT&T has given the NSA access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks.
It also has provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at U.N. headquarters, a customer of AT&T, the Times reported. While NSA spying on U.N. diplomats had been previously reported, the newspaper said Saturday that neither the court order nor AT&T's involvement had been disclosed.
The documents also reveal that AT&T installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, the Times reported, far more than similarly sized competitor Verizon.
AT&T engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the NSA, the newspaper reported.
I don't know what the bigger problem is here -- that AT&T willingly assisted wiretapping all communications at the UN or that a court issued a blanket wiretap order for all communications taking place at the UN.
We're not talking about "some" communications, or "those associated with (certain) regimes and nations"; this order appears to have been a blanket one that covered literally everything that went on at the facility.
Further, AT&T is reported to be have not only made no attempt to resist through process of law but to have been fully involved and willing to assist -- hardly the adversarial process that is expected in our legal system!
It has been said (somewhat jokingly) that the AT&T logo was best-associated with this:

Emperor Palpatine, is that you in there? And more to the point why does this company have any civilian US customers left that willingly pay money to -- or use -- it?
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And Verizon is a saint?
I don't think so.
No, but they at least challenged the orders in court -- probably for PR purposes. AT&T didn't even bother to do that.
AT&T recognizes that it is best not to bite the tit you are sucking on.
There is a difference between a loose woman and a hooker.
American Traitors & Treachery
The CEO of Qwest stood up to the Feds' bullshit and look where he ended up...
Mr. Nacchio said he still believes his insider-trading prosecution was government retaliation for rebuffing requests in 2001 from the National Security Agency to access his customers' phone records. His plans to use that belief as a defense at trial never materialized; some of the evidence he wanted to use was deemed classified and barred from being introduced.
To Mr. Nacchio, the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked documents saying the agency monitors the email and phone records of Americans, have justified his own stance. He contended the NSA's request was illegal. "I feel vindicated," he said. "I never broke the law, and I never will."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303983904579093173797712780
And Qwest was dismantled, stripped of its western US libertarian viewpoints, and taken over by CenturyLink.
Hooker is more honest
Exactly. I worked for T back in the day, and it was all about the money. They broke up the "monopoly", and long distance was getting reemed, all the way down to nothing a minute, and the Feds say "we'll give you a billion for your database", "we'll give you a billion if you install this device in front of all outgoing calls", "we'll give you a billion if...."
After a few hundred billion that shit starts to add up.
AT&T, one of the original sanctioned Monopoly's; did we expect them to "do the right thing"?
Wankers, and throw in Sprint for gutting MCI and the spirit of competition.
Verizon, Comcast, Healthcare, and the rest; pile of fucking maggots.
"No, but they at least challenged the orders in court -- probably for PR purposes"
hehe, good rebuttal
I'm gonna have to go with ATT, honest bastard beat sneaky liars everytime. King me.
AT&T were not honest. They lied to their customers and cooperated willingly with unconstitutional activity.
Makes them primo asswipes.
A lot of the companies played along for crony advantages, but a lot of companies did it because they had no choice. We can bitch about it all we want, but doing something about it can't happen as long as the rules imposed by our wonderful leadership remains the same....
Ma Bell is now revealed as a criminal eavedropper who belongs in manacles and leg irons. The lawyers who run AT&T knew they were breaking the law. As long as the NSA kept paying their company hundreds of millions of dollars, they sold out the constitutional privacy of their customers. The next "terrorist" the NSA catches will be their first if you exclude FBI entrapment operations. The NSA spying has one major goal: to protect the massive narcotic smuggling operations into the USA from competition from independent drug dealers. Those billions in narcotic profits go straight to kingpin drug dealers like the Bush and Clinton crime families (Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas when tons of cocaine and heroin were flown into the small Mena, Arkansas airport weekly by Pablo Escobar on CIA jets).
OK, so the next obvious question should be, who owns AT&T?
Major shareholders are:
Vanguard Group
State Street Corp.
Evercore Trust Company, NA
BlackRock
(The Big Three of the Big Four, of course --- 4th is Fidelity or FMR LLC)
So who owns Evercore?
Parent company, Evercore PLC's major shareholders:
Standard Life Investments LTD
Vanguard Group
BlackRock
Wells Fargo
And if you keep going down and down and down, it turns out to the THE USUAL SUSPECTS:
Vanguard Group
BlackRock
State Street
Fidelity
Any questions?
They are owned by their investors, who are always private and therefore unknown, of course. (Fidelity is 10% owned by the Johnson family, so who owns the 90%? The investors, who remain unknown of course.)
They restructured this way after the Kennedy brothers and Rev. King were murdered back in the 1960s, ever wonder why?
It ain't just T.
Look @ the SnP.
I'll add they're a major contributor to the construction of TPP.
Does AT&T really have a choice?
Everybody has a choice.
Snowden needs to come home and do his time
.
is he less of a man than Muhammad Ali?
He can't, the U.S. took his passport. The U.S. could go get him (or die trying) or just pardon him like that real rat fink jew spy Jonathan Pollard who gave up the entire operational tactics of our sub fleet, oh and fuck you puppet butt serf.
Snowden is a gorram HERO!!! I wish we had 10,000 more jiust like him.
AT&T entered into a contract with me under false pretenses and then treated me like shit. They can die an ingnominous death and I will party until they expire. They're nothing but a de facto agency of this fascist regime... People that do business with AT%T are traitors!!!!!!!!!
;-D
"Thank you for using AT&T."
Got fascism?
IS THERE ANYTHING that's said at the United Nations ....
that is really worth hearing? Talk about the world's greatest gossip mill, and a huge amount of opinions that arent even worth sneezing over.
I laugh, by now the NSA peeps have got to be the biggest professionals on Penis pics..."Hey charlie take a look at this guy"
that and vagina/breats etc...
and child porn. And who received and sent those images. Think about that for a while.
Say it ain't so pete!! Shocking...stop the presses...Now this is really going to wake up the plebs!!...Is this really news? If AT&T does not comply, they go the way of the coal industry. Next...
Well, they don't have to be so effing enthusiastic about it!!!
;-D
For those of you who would like to express your contempt, you can do so at any or all of the email addresses shown on their Investor Relations web page:
http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5644
Stockholder Services
1-800-351-7221
(210) 351-3327
Lonnie Shirey
E-mail: lonnie.shirey@att.com
Swapneel Desai
E-mail: swapneel.desai@att.com
Michael Viola
E-mail: m.viola@att.com
Jamie Anderson
E-mail: jamie.anderson@att.com
Michael Black
E-mail: michael.black@att.com
Kent Evans
E-mail: kent.evans@att.com
Jeston Dumas
Email: jeston.dumas@att.com
Tim Bever
E-Mail: tim.bever@att.com
Matt Gallaher
E-mail: mg9511@att.com
Christopher Womack
E-mail: christopher.womack@att.com
Martin Sheehan
E-Mail: martin.sheehan@att.com
Douglas Cannon
Email: douglas.cannon@att.com
Andrew Keiser
Email: andrew.keiser@att.com
"For those of you who would like to express your contempt, you can do so at any or all of the email addresses shown on their Investor Relations web page"
Nah, the best way would be to tell them in writing that you intend to cancel your AT&T cell phone service at the end of the contracted period because of their cooperation with the illegal activities of the NSA. Then, do that.
Of course, for that to have a significant effect would rely on a significant portion of the population not being both ignorant and apathetic, so we can dream on... Still, it would be more effective that your complaint idea since I strongly suspect there are vastly more AT&T cell phone service subscribers than AT&T investors.
Here's another idea. When you get junk mail from these bastards, Scrawl in big letters: "ATT = NSA. You can both kiss my hairy ass."
Then let AT&T pick up the return postage...
;-D
add a bit of cardboard for xtra postage due.
Interesting to note that Snowdon reveled that the UK was spying o Argentina to check on her Malvinas aspirations. Those sovereignty claims of Argentina's don't add up when scrutinised:
https://www.academia.edu/10490336/Argentinas_Illegitimate_Sovereignty_Claims
And then the Argentinean government keeps on harping on about a UNGA Resolution 2065 xx from 1965 which is d e a d:
https://www.academia.edu/10573354/UNGA_2065_XX_Question_of_The_Falkland_Islands_16_Dec_1965
And how the fuck does England justify their claim??
..oh and fuck your ugly inbreed queen with a leper's dick.
It's not "new"
This book explains how all telecommunications companies have been "seeded" with NSA operative....for years.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Puzzle-Palace-Intelligence-Organization/dp/014...
Written in 1983 I might add.
"It's not 'new'"
True, but it's also now vastly easier to watch every aspect of our lives undetected at terabit/s rates. In the past, physical taps were required and most of our life activities weren't electronically and remotely accessible anyway.
BTW, to dispose of the old movie myth where calls had to be physically traced only as the call was placed when requested by the police, even way back then Bell Telephone had a printer at each central office that could physically print out the telephone numbers of both ends of a local call along with the time. But, back then, they were forced to use things called warrants even though you'd never know that from watching those old gumshoe movies. Apparently, even movie viewers back then were totally ignorant of Constitutional protections.
Some great books by that author. I've read all of them.
"BTW, to dispose of the old movie myth where calls had to be physically traced only as the call was placed when requested by the police, even way back then Bell Telephone had a printer at each central office that could physically print out the telephone numbers of both ends of a local call along with the time."
Incorrect. That capability did not come about until the conversion from electro-mechanical to true digital, not 1A. Calls could only be traced if origination & termination were in the same NNX. There were no printers in the offices reflecting your claim. The mechanical relays pointed to the number or the CO test cabinet would spit out a punch card from the link loc. Trace capabilites were more complex between differing NNX's & you could forget about between NPA's. This changed as office conversions took about a decade beginning in 1984.
The longline links from legacy T is a POS dinosaur cobbled together with bailing wire.
Full conversion by 2020 to IP will unleash God knows what.
If Jerry Jones was a real American, he'd remove AT&T from his stadium and replace it with Edward Snowden Stadium
Jerry Jones doesn't own the stadium, a corporation does.
Snowden won't pay hundreds of millions for the naming rights.
It's all about the money.
All online information provided to any corporation is compromised already.
They all do it. When you buy a pair of shoes online you are providing your name, physical location, phone number, debit card info, IP address, and everyting else that can be cross-referenced to those data points. The NSA limiting factor is the manpower and money to sift and interpret all the data.
NSA solution is to develop faster computers to do the snooping in 'real-time'. They're not there yet, but they will be. AI is not going to be kind. Paranoia is going to keep people in line until automatic enforcement is able to commence.
A digital cashless society would certainly make 'punishment' of uncooperative citizens very easy.
Everybody helps government spying.. Banks transmit your transactions live, Credit card companies, the state governments along with at&t and Verizon. When I got a Social Security login the system knew the license plate number of my truck and I imagine everything else about me.
Everything you do and say and soon what you think, and everywhere you go, transmits live to the hubs at the various Fusion centers they have built around the country which correlates the data it then sends to Echelon to analyze and store forever.
Anything you do could easily be construed to make you appear any way they want. Want to make you out a sexual deviant, dump child porn on your computers hooked to a corporate DSL server. Want to make you a domestic terrorist, dump fake emails and bank transactions, then plant weapons, etc. Basically false flags on a individual level.
In my humble opinion digital is one of Mans worst inventions, right behind nuclear because it can be used in so many disgusting and evil ways by those that want to control everything. For some unexplainable reason everything we invent we somehow weaponize it especially at the government level.
Wouldn't surprise me if they knew what I am typing now even before I post. There is no such thing as anonymous in the digital world.
absolutely right!
This key word marketing voyuerism is beyond perverse.
I mentioned to a friend on fri. (landline) that I hurt my back.
Sat. got a robot call saying I had requested information about a back brace "covered by in insurance" which is BS to say the least.
This shit needs to be collectively & selectively call forwarded to the monsters that have created it.
My CAAPTL list just keeps getting longer, and longer.
The shocker is that any of these criminals still lives and moves about unmolested within the American society.
But times are a changin'.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny submission.
CAAPTL:
Every American should be compiling a list, call it the Crimes Against the American People Treason List (CAAPTL). A list of known criminal pols, crats, functionaries (funcs), gun and badge thugs (thugs), and banksters that they are aware of.
Oath violating and treasonous gun and badge thugs, corrupt pols and crats, thieving banksters, etc. should be placed on it. At a minimum, their names, crimes, and positions, should be kept for future reference for accountability, trial, and punishment--Retribution.
When the DC US that is currently criminally occupying the American county, and oppressing the American people, finally collapses, these lists can then be used to root out the known criminals that will think that they can hide among their victims--no "Truth and Reconciliation," and no quarter..
No surprise. Guess which corporation ran Sandia Labs for AEC-ERDA-DOE, where everything but the "physics package" of our Bs and Ws was designed.
Ma Bell, Bell Labs, AT&T Technologies ran the place, which was called Sandia Base ever since the Manhattan Project. It's U.S. biggest "consumer" of cryptographers. NSA doesn't hardly make and crack codes in-house, they placed contracts with the same national lab that designed the "locks and keys" for our nukes ever since their start.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202485.html
washingtonpost.com > Technology Post Politics Correction to This ArticleAn Oct. 13 Page One article about an allegation that the government withdrew a $100 million contract after Qwest refused to participate in a National Security Agency program incorrectly quoted Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He did not say: "It's inappropriate for the government to be awarding a contract conditioned upon an agreement to an illegal program. That truly is what's going on here." What he said was: "It's inappropriate for the government to be awarding a contract conditioned upon an agreement to an illegal program, if that's truly what's going on here." Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm
By Ellen Nakashima and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 13, 2007
A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.
Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.
Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records.
In the court filings disclosed this week, Nacchio suggests that Qwest's refusal to take part in that program led the government to cancel a separate, lucrative contract with the NSA in retribution. He is using the allegation to try to show why his stock sale should not have been considered improper.
Nacchio was convicted for selling shares of Qwest stock in early 2001, just before financial problems caused the company's share price to tumble. He has claimed in court papers that he had been optimistic that Qwest would overcome weak sales because of the expected top-secret contract with the government. Nacchio said he was forbidden to mention the specifics during the trial because of secrecy restrictions, but the judge ruled that the issue was irrelevant to the charges against him.
Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.
The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so.
Spokesmen for the Justice Department, the NSA, the White House and the director of national intelligence declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal case against Nacchio and the classified nature of the NSA's activities. Federal filings in the appeal have not yet been disclosed.
In May 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA had been secretly collecting the phone-call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by major telecom firms. Qwest, it reported, declined to participate because of fears that the program lacked legal standing.
In a statement released after the story was published, Nacchio attorney Herbert Stern said that in fall 2001, Qwest was approached to give the government access to the private phone records of Qwest customers. At the time, Nacchio was chairman of the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
"Mr. Nacchio made inquiry as to whether a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request," Stern said. "When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process, including the Special Court which had been established to handle such matters, Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."
Stern could not be reached for comment yesterday. Another lawyer for Nacchio, Jeffrey Speiser, declined to comment on whether the call-records program was the program discussed at the February 2001 meeting.
Living in the Land of Enchantment at the time, Qwest, fornerly US West, had the monopoly on POTS ever since Judge Harold Green created seven Baby Bells from Ma Bell.
Joe Nacchio is a hero for what he did in refusing to allow government wiretapping of Qwest long distance calls ... without even a FISA warrant and long before the Patriot Act.
Joe Nacchio is a hero! He said Hell No when NSA wanted to spy on me and everyone else here without a warrant of any type.
>>>>The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so.<<<<
That right there is unconstitutional. The constitution explicitly prohibits congress from passing ex post facto laws (laws that apply to something after the fact).
Not that the constitution ever stopped them before.
That right there is unconstitutional. The constitution explicitly prohibits congress from passing ex post facto laws (laws that apply to something after the fact).
Not that the constitution ever stopped them before.
Not really. No. The ex-post facto law prohibition was to prevent people from being charged with crimes that were not criminal at the time.
The quoted passage was to block civil liability, which is kind of the exact opposite direction of the constitutional prohibition cited, in that it is blocking a "unwise" (civil) court action instead of facilitating an unwise (criminal) action.
QED. There's absolutely nothing unconstitutional about Congress retroactively blocking civil lawsuits against telcos who violated privacy law at govt. request.
Critical thinking on my part believes Edward Snowden is a double agent? The Patriot ACT was the first obvious sign of government intrusion on the American people! Spying was legal thanks by these false flags created by the ZIONIST MAFIA.. IF Edward Snowden was wanted would you think the capabilities our Government has would not get him? Plus Snowden never revealed information that was classified..> Wiki Leaks Jullian Assange released so many more videos (specifics) exposing foreign and domestic corruption at the highest level!! Bradley Manning a soldier for the USA exposed the Military killing innocent civilians in Iraq fired upon from an Apache helicopter!! WikiLeaks exposed Blackwater hitmen the USSA sent to Iraq to secure construction contracts.. Fucking insane not only we invaded another country but destroyed it, and the elites made money by rebuilding back.. WTF... Edward Snowden why did he conveniently ended up in Russia? Maybe to look after Putin? Personally he is no where near the whistle-blower the other 2 names are?!?!!!
Snowden is obviously a paid agent (still) working for someone.
Well, he's being well fed and his clothes are always clean and pressed, so he's getting money from somewhere.
But, so what?
Everyone talks their own book, what he has to say is important and needs to be said loudly.
Got problems with that?
Why?
Well, he's being well fed and his clothes are always clean and pressed, so he's getting money from somewhere. But, so what? Everyone talks their own book, what he has to say is important and needs to be said loudly. Got problems with that? Why?
Because he's a paid mouthpiece. And he's probably working for the CIA because it's no secret he worked for CIA! CIA and NSA are competitors; and that is no secret. And absolutely nothing disclosed is anything new; the only thing that's "new" in anything disclosed is the eye-catching use of color in the PowerPoint slides. It needs to be eye-catching for the dumb masses who can't read long sentences.
But the mindless sheeple (such as yourself, for good example) are led to believe the fairy tale that he's a whistleblower acting out of altruism. Obama was calling it treason, which is one of the few capital offenses under federal law.
Journalists? Hello, is anyone awake? Who paid for the three weeks he was supposedly on the run in Hong Kong? That place ain't cheap. Business airfare ain't cheap.
Nobody has been charged for aiding and abetting a fleeing felon, much less conspiracy after the fact for Greenwald if not Poitras. If he in fact actually gave all those documents to Greenwald, then Greenwald still has all that TS/SCI under his dominion and control, which at the very LEAST would get him served with search warrant and order to produce all information, hardware, etc., And this is way beyond a Judith Miller in jail for refusing to name her source. Greenwald himself would have been charged with a laundry list of spying charges just for leverage to get everything he had, and to STOP THE ONGOING DISCLOSURES! Instead it's an ongoing comical soap opera, and the joke is on ... who?
(If it were real, this would be way higher than Hillary and her "voluntarily" handing over her email server to the FBI while it's still voluntary.)
Any American who, in the past, NOW, OR FOREVER IN THE FUTURE, who so much as buys him a meal when he's hungry or gives him a sweater when he's cold could be charged with felony aiding and abetting a fleeing felon. Anyone who ever does anything to help him. Really!
If this case were real, Greenwald and Poitras both would, ages ago, have been arrested with great fanfare, EVERYTHING they have, anywhere, completely searched, and they'd both be charged with umpteen felonies as pressure, and held in jail until they handed over whatever they had. There is no federal shield law for journalism, and even if there were, it would be waived in a national-secuurity case such as this is purported to be.
They do arrests and searches of associated persons in the most trivial of drug possession cases, so why not here? For drugs (or FIFA soccer, or Gary Bonds baseball) they'll charge anyone and everyone with conspiracy to get people to rat on an ever-expanding circle of supposed associates. And it works. They do it all the time.. And If it's a high-profile target like a has-been TV actor, they can and will do it for things like an actor few ounces of Mary Jane in the mail to "Mary Jane"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/11/gilligans-mary-ann-caught_n_91042.html
But they haven't done it here. Not for the "traitor" Ed Snowden. Really? Really!
Thousands of TS/SCI documents in the custody of Greenwald and a British newspaper that they and a British newspaper editor reviewed for sensitivity and which they (foreigners) are dribbling out on a schedule chosen to maximize their profits? Gimme break.
The sad thing about our dumbed-down populace is that if the Snowden/Greenglass story were a plot for an ongoing TV drama, critics would say the story is "weak" or "thin" or "not realistic." Right. If it were a TV show they'd list some law firm or a lawyer for giving them "technical advice" just like Michael Crichton's ER TV show had MDs giving advice about disease treatment and hospitals.
So here you have a spy who gets away to Russia but before he goes he gives all the secret stuff to a newspaper and they keep printing his secrets but only one at a time. And the FBI does absolutely nothing about it. And they do nothing about prosecuting bankers for the fraud of the 2008 bubble.
But for soccer it's a different story. The FBI goes to Geneva or wherever and havel INTERPOL arrest a bunch of people who decided where the World Cup soccer matches were to be held.
And Greenwald and the Guardian and the Intercept never ever have FBI going to their offices with warrants. I couldn't make this up because it's too stupid to be believable.
But the dumb yokels thinks Snowden is a hero ... but ask them about Joe Nacchio and you get a blank stare. Who? Joe Nacchio, the guy who refused to warrantless wiretaps at Qwest in February 2001 and had his phone company taken away from him.
...so, when he gives his stuff to Greenwald/Poitras, he then takes off for China, then Russia - the two big baddies of the BRICS, who are being built up to be bastions of decency when compared to the US and the west.
A globalist agent for a globalist BANKER scheme.
Notice also how Glenn Greenwald was supposedly treated like a dirtbag by airport security, and criticized by congress for publishing Snowden's stuff...but his Intercept employer, Pierre Omidyhar, who lives in the states and PAYS him to print his stuff, is not even mentioned by these same congressmen. This same Omidyhar also GAVE MONEY TO THE UKRAINE OLIGARCHS to commence their war against Donbass.
Not to mention, 'Snowden' is a character in the book "Catch 22." Yossarian watches him die after a futile attempt to save him. I hope Snowden has some really, really good body guards...
lay off watching GET SMART and get out and enjoy the world
No. Edward heard the sound of trains.
"Critical thinking on my part believes Edward Snowden is a double agent?"
Without a doubt.
I believe that he is really a CIA tool being utilized to undermine the Pentagon--the NSA is a branch of the Pentagon--wing of power. The Pentagon and CIA have been battling each other to be Zion's top bitch since at least the early 70s. The CIA will, and has been, taking over more control of the NSA's facilities and functions. Also of interest is that the so-called arbitrator of the whole mess is himself a CIA stooge: CIA-Obama.
I even suspect that CIA-Obama will pardon Snowden to further his manchurian candidate mandate to enrage the neo-cons' evangelical Christian support base in the "heartland."
Now add to the intrigue stew the fact that the Pentagon's strategic (nuke) commands are being purged, and younger officers installed. In a few cases, upper officers purged have been replaced with out and out Zionist Jews. Does not bode well for the future of the American country.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
My favorite purges of the Pentagon were of McChrystal, and especially of Petraeus--not that I have any sympathy for the treasonous war-criminals. Right before McChrystal was ousted, I wondered to others about how the CIA (Zion) would oust him and Petraeus, as they were both getting pretty big for their britches.
The McChrystal reporter thing, as purges go, was an interesting twist, however, the ousting of Petraeus was brilliant. A puzzle at first, as they promoted Petraeus to head the CIA--WTF?! Two friends of mine chided me to no end when that happened. All I could say was, "Wait for it." Then they took him out in a morality scandal while he was the head of his, and his institution's, enemy--truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Those friends have now come around to looking at the bigger picture occasionally.
You do know that Wikileaks helped Snowdon escape Hong Kong and get into Russia. The US government fail in capturing Snowden because of their supreme arrogance in believing they can order another country to stop him from traveling. They are so fucked up that didn't cancel his passport so there was nothing stopping him from boarding his flight to Russia. Dumb arrogant fucks!
WikiLeaks helped him escape to Russia? That is why Jullian Assange is still stuck in an Ecuadorian embassy in England.. Putin knows the spy game and Snowden will be used by the KGB.. Snowden is as good as the information he gives Russia( KGB) if not he is dead man walking or isolated and/or under supervision... TOOL ask yourself what SPECIFIC information did Snowden release? That any intelligent person didn't already know?
Really?? You think that if the Russians are protecting Snowden and the US government wanted him, the could get him??
Obviously you mistake Russians for some other pansy European country.
I think you have seen too many Hollywood movies where an American spy goes to a foreign country and blends in by simply speaking English with a bad foreign accent, which magically no one notices.
The meets a beautiful woman who just happen to have access to everything this studly agent needs and he is so great in the sack that she give up everything..
LOL..not in real life..
you watch too many spy TV shows
We were looking to go to Russia again and are serious about it. We would need to get to Pyatigorsk from Moscow. I suggested we take the train and that was met with a resounding chorus of NO from Russians in Russia. I was told that it is not good for Mericans. I said that I would be OK but they said NO, don't do it. Why? Because they hate Americans was the answer and that it won't go well.
I have to stand back and think but I think I can manage. What better place to meet people? I am a country boy so if there is no asswipe who cares? I grew up with nothing too. No Russian that I have ever met intimidated me. I am not afraid. It is business anyway as there is real estate involved and I need to be there to call bullshit if need be.
This should be interesting for my half-a-Russian children.
my petite, 100 lb daughter in her mid 20's just took a train from Moscow to China. you should be OK.
Agreed. I was just told by two other Russians that the train to the south of Russia is an absolute shitshow. The piss in the toilets is up to the brim I am told. They laugh when I say that I don't really care. I am a white trash redneck all the way so I EXPECT nothing to work. How about opening up the piss drain? I would do it. I would be pretty pissed off if everything worked as it should because I would have nothing to bitch about. Russians laugh. I know. They know. No problems other than usual.
partnership;highly collaborative;extreme willingness to help."
If only we could get these terms used in a similar type of corporate and government "partnership" with enough individuals and entities dedicated to a globally beneficial financial solution. Then we could avoid the upcoming planned global financial disaster.
The word team is far better than partnership. Partnerships frequently have a way of ending badly because there isn't a core concept that reflects a mutual commitment. As we've seen some companies occasionally take a stand on these data collection and telecom abuses. Then you see that partnership end up in court and everyone trying to cover themselves. Which also means they were hedging their position from the start. When you have a team you fully commit to that core concept then either all win together or all lose together.
Financially the world is currently definitely going to lose together. That's because the various partnerships are all positioning for the benefit of one or a few but not everyone. And each one preparing to grab the upper hand or cover themselves when they fail. Only a global team will be successful in averting the current course and succeeding for everyone's benefit.
When the new striped-globe AT&T logo was announced some years ago, friends working at that company irreverently (and presciently) named it the "death star".
I'm a shareholder. I want these people off payroll and their retirement obligations stripped. Yes. Get legal together to defend against whatever action they take against my company. Purge NOW!
Never trust your phone or computer to keep a secret or anything confidential.
yeah, my damn computer lies to me all the time, just yesterday it was lying to me about how long it was going to take to do an update, lying pile of crap that it is.
Had to log in to comment in this one. First off, this is no revelation. Secondly, Snowden obviously limited hang out op. The whole CIA vs NSA is smoke and mirrors too. They want you to know they are watching. Thirdly, about what they do with all this data and how they parse it, it's called quantum computing. It's what the JADE part of Jade Helm is all about. I don't have a link handy but maybe someone could post one about the lady speaking about this. Alan Watt (cuttingthroughthematrix.com) has been on this for years, but the gist is that they have an avatar of everyone, the more data the better, so they can predict behavior and manipulate it. Check it out people, that's what this is really all about. Cheers!
Here's a link to an interview with the lady about JADE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqGEz9IqOrE
This is the best one I think as it goes into some depth.
"Newly disclosed NSA files..."
Fuck this piecemeal release shit. Snowden should have done a mass dump for all to download. Fucking gatekeepers get to decide what we get to see and when. What are they not telling us?
Fuck this piecemeal release shit. Snowden should have done a mass dump for all to download. Fucking gatekeepers get to decide what we get to see and when. What are they not telling us?
They're not telling you that you're an idiot if you think they'll tell you anything that smart people haven't known for years. Which is one of many reasons why Greenwald has not been arrested and charged with espionage ... and why his The Intercept has not been raided and shuttered.
While Snowden is doubtless completely under the control of the CIA with Russian consent, all that's clear about Greenwald's sponsorship is that he's being protected from arrest and his business is not being searched and seized ... probably because of certainty that he's only disclosing things that he's supposed to disclose.
dump it all at once and there is information overload. drip piece by peice to get maximum discloseure
I see that you have no appreciation for the fine art of Chinese water torture, drip by drip by drip. It's actually pretty amusing seeing the incremental lies the government trots out that are demolished by subsequent releases of secrets.
Snowden for the next American President !
As much as I loathe, hate and despise the economic criminals AT&T, in addition to the criminals who routinely violate my privacy, I have to point out that this has been going on for over 50 YEARS!!! Plus, all of the other Western telecommunications corporations have given and still give the NSA equivalent access to their customers. The NSA gets everything that they want by hook or crook. They will continue to do so for as long as they exist, regardless of what alphabet agency name that they operate under.
Question: So, tell me now, is there a cleaner shirt anywhere among the uniformly dirty shirts of Western telcos?
Answer: No? Thank you. I didn't think so.
That sounds like the communists in communist states rushing to complete projects for the anniversary of their communist revolution and other similar events.