Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Clark
If that data space includes things like user and password and other config database then you have to worry. One demo on youtube somewhere (can’t immediately find it again) shows a Linux system running normally. Then the user visits a web page with a very specific sequence of characters in it. That web page is written to the browsers disk cache.
Now the firmware had previously been booby-trapped. It operated exactly as the factory firmware but was constantly looking through all disk write traffic for that particular string. Once it saw that string it went into exploit mode. In exploit mode it would intercept disk reads and if it discovered it was reading certain Linux files with a known format (password files, config files etc) it passed its own modified version onto the operating system complete with matching CRC checks and all. So without touching the actual Linux kernel itself it could blank the root password and open up say rshell access.
By the way, to be fair, my answer to the election thing is: none. Which didn’t make your post any less inspiring. Thanks for the news about the Norfolk incinerator, too.
Clark,
Here is the troubling recent “joke” answer from Linus Torvalds when asked if the NSA had approached him about a backdoor in Linux.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/19/linux_backdoor_intrigue/
Threatening to kill Torvalds close relatives in a car accident if he didn’t comply would do the trick I’d imagine. But far easier just for them to have their own contributors to the Linux kernel who slip things in that will look like a coding error if discovered later.
It is notable that Tor creator and still lead developer Dingledine says “everyone on the internet is screwed”. He didn’t say everyone not running Linux.
Note: there is a suggestion that FreeBSD is safer than Linux in this regard but that could be what they want us to think…
What was it Winston, Gasser of the Kurds (1922) said about democracy – that it was the worst of all systems, apart from all the rest?
The NOTA Party – None Of The Above.
It’d be a fuckin landslide.
Hope you had a good quiz, Nevermind.
Mary, “Viridiana” is my own Bunuel favourite. The Banquet Scene is hilarious. No wonder the Vatican banned it.
A Node
You really are a disgusting little **** in how you twist my words – you asked about the plausibility of whether snipers were being rewarded in cigarettes ( Anode -So you think the scenario (snipers aiming at specific body parts to earn a pack of cigs) described by the doctor is plausible?)
– and Mr Nott did not comment on that matter. He commented about the pattern of the wounds – he then made the cooment that he was apolitical and didn’t know who the snipers were – he then when pressed said that that he had heard that they were Govt snipers and rewarded in cigarettes – he gave no comments on the accuracy of the comments he reported. The conversation is there for any person to listen to if they want.
You owe me and Mr Nott an apology – but somehow I doubt you have the decency to do so. I haven’t been disingenuos and you have no evidence that he has been – but ***** like you start from the position that everyone with whom they disagree is automatically lying don’t you.
I should also add that Mr Nott almost certainly knows more about the wounds created by snipers and how they operate than you are likely to ever know. I’m afraid I know some MSF doctors and unfortunately I know some ***** – and I am pretty damm certain which category you fall into.
And if you look at Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_rifle#Accuracy you will see that targetting specific areas of the body is well within the capabilities of snipers unless the ranges are extremely large – so even that spoecific argument holds very little water – especially since you have no clue about the likely ranges. But heel lets use the usuall technique start with the prejudice, assume everyone that doesn’t fit in with that theory is a liar and work backwards from there.
Jemand: “I’ll stop referring to her as Stormfront Mary when she moderates her posts or sues me – whichever is sooner.”
One-liner of the day! 🙂
Although admit am just catching up, doubt if that one will be bettered.
Look at the lighter side of life; sometimes.
RD.
Let’s agree that none of us really know what David Nott’s real motives are and assume that he isn’t lying.
There’s still the question of how such a bright person would allow himself to be used to promote a war agenda.
Do you think he doesn’t realize the context or purpose of his interview or the record of the BBC when it comes to massaging public opinion in favour of past wars?
AlcAnon, what I’m suggesting is a step away from the whole concept of the Von Neumann architecture. Stop treating code and data as interchangeable. Move to an architecture where code is physically write protected by default, and machine instructions are only loadable from code memory, which is read-only.
GNU/Linux is not set up to work in such an environment, but it could be adapted.
Regarding the example you gave at 9:55, if you want your operating system to be configurable while the system is running, you’d need two hard disks; one for dynamic OS data, and another for browser cache etc..
But really I’m suggesting that we drastically reduce the complexity of the OS, make it much more like an embedded system, a system that never gets modified, that can’t be modified while the system is running. That isn’t so outrageous really. OSes have been getting stripped down so that they’ll run in the limited environments of smartphones, routers, TVs, etc..
Do we actually need OS passwords on single-user machines?
How could you inject malware into a ROM based system such as a BBC Micro? Yes, in the case of the BEEB, you could do it by modifying the interrupt vectors, but they were only introduced to add versatility; you could do without them. Then, if code in the ROM never called for a jump to an address outside of the ROM address range, how could any external data subvert the built-in software?
I’ll admit that I’m biased; I always liked the way ROM based systems booted up in under two seconds.
For a doctor in the middle of a bloody civil war, I doubt that the sudden brief appearance of a tv crew would be anything less than hallucinogenic.
resident dissident 19 Oct, 2013 – 10:27 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well actually, this is where I first posed the question ….
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-6/#comment-434115
…. where I raised the following points :
You completely ignored this much more general question and I admit that in 2 subsequent attempts to get you to answer it, I abbreviated it. However, now that you finally do understand the question, I notice you still don’t answer it. Plausible scenario? Less bluster, more clarity would be best, thanks.
P.S. here’s another of my questions you didn’t answer. This one’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-6/#comment-434110
A Node: have you ever actually been in this kind of situation? Are you saying it could not happen, because snipers are such nice people?
resident dissident, 10:27 pm: the Wikipedia link you posted gives the accuracy of the weapon, not the accuracy of the sniper who is firing that weapon. You then have to consider the problem of so accurately hitting a moving target.
Replacing obscenities with strings of asterisks does not nullify the offence. It looks to me as though you’re trying to stir things up.
Technicolour.
I’m questioning why a doctor would make such a statement, and the grounds he had for it (if indeed those were his words).
RD; A Node isn’t in the habit of biting ankles. AAMOF, he segues out of argument for the sake of argument. Try to be as polite.
It’s still no reason to bomb Syria. There is no reason to bomb Syria.
Clark,
Here’s the quote that nails it absolutely.
ttps://www.schneier.com/essay-450.html
https://www.schneier.com/essay-450.html
I’m reminded of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, in which the UK branch of German multinational IG Farben was feeding back the precise location of V2 strikes to Germany so that V2 targeting could be improved. I guess the Syrian snipers couldn’t be awarded their packets of fags until after the Times and BBC reports were published.
Speaking of Gravity, Clark, I saw the movie with Sue yesterday and I must say it’s been a long time since I suspended my disbelief during a film. My palms were sweaty. See it in 3-D with the best digital sound system for best results.
Cassette tape
Econet
🙂
Gosh, thanks AlcAnon, my bad poetry as well, the shame, the shame.
SOFIA
so let’s assume that we know nothing of Mr Notre real motives? Well how long did that supposition last until – the insinuation is pretty clear in the next two paras.
A node
No apology I note – my father always told me that was a sign of a small person. I have already made my position absolutely clear and I am not going to answer questions from a small person who knows they are loaded and hypothetical questions and most certainly isn’t asking them in a genuine sense of enquiry in order to inform their own view .
How did the Mr Nott find out about the snipers’ alleged game, and especially the rewards of the packets of cigarettes? Did their commanding officer send a note to the victims’ families, who then informed Mr Nott’s colleagues at the hospital?
It all sounds like extremely dodgy propaganda to me – a story invented for its emotional effect.
The word I’ve heard on my travels through people who know members of UK armed forces say they’re expecting to be sent into action soon. They aren’t allowed to say it’s in Syria, of course, but they look at the floor and say nothing if asked directly. Plenty would rather not have to go, of course.
CLARK
It is quite usual for snipers to work in teams with spotters – so if they were rewarded with cigarettes it wouldn’t be necessary to wait for publication of the Times.
We can spin scary stories of NSA attacks till the cows come home. But realistically, exploits are a scarce resource and in fact a wasting asset. That iframe trick with Firefox didn’t survive the demolition of tormail. As Schneier says, NSA carefully husbands its best tricks and backs off if the risk of exposure is too high.
Who here thinks they are a target of such value as to merit expenditure of unstoppable exploits? Try as you might, it’s hard to make a pest of yourself.
Basic security principles apply. Don’t be the soft target: Adopt and customize multiple sorts of niche software; Develop reasonable security know-how; And learn how to demand redress for illegal government surveillance. They are the felons, not you.
Clark,
I just remembered Sideways ROMs as well (which could also be RAMs pretending to be ROMs). Would require rather extreme hardware access admittedly 🙂
Thanks for bringing back memories
RD; Are you in this for the sake of argument? I’m getting a definite impression.
‘ They are the felons, not you.’
Perhaps it’s as simple as that, but they have the emotion ‘fear’ at their disposal, so it’s all good for them.
AlcAnon, yes, you could infect the user program in RAM that way, but not the OS or the BASIC ROM.
No BASIC, with the OS and browser both in ROM, neither calling any address in RAM. How could that become infected? Do we really need the browser to be modifiable? Do we really need so much complexity just for browsing the ‘net?
Thanks for the link.
CLARK
It’s a civil war in a built up area – don’t you think that the possibility exists for movement between the two sides and spying? You should also note that Mr Mott made it pretty clear that the comment about cigarettes was only hearsay – unlike the pattern of the wounds which was based on what he observed. He also said he didn’t know which side the snipers were from. COULD WE PLEASE STOP THIS GUILTY UNTIL PROVED INNOCENT CRAP WHEN IT COMES TO A MAN WHO HAS WORKED IN GAZA HAS SAID HE IS APOLITICAL AND WORKS FOR AN ORGANISATION THAT IS AVOWEDLY APOLITICAL.