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.
RD
On the contrary, I asked my first question in a genuine sense of enquiry. I was genuinely curious how you would answer it without shooting yourself in the foot.
Resident Dissident at 12.22:
”
A Node at 1.29:
“
4-6
The Firfeox bug was already discovered and patched before it was used against tormail. It only worked against those who hadn’t upgraded in the last few weeks. So it was used on that target only when it was becoming more useless by the day.
I’m not quite paranoid enough (most of the time) to think I’m a target just for talking about published sources. And if I did get targeted I’ve nothing to worry about and they’d soon figure that out.
And goodness knows what logging I might be running at this end 🙂
BEN
No – I don’t like being called a liar or seeing the attempts to trash the reputation of a good man from a good organisation for which friends of mine have worked in the past.
A NODE
Genuine sense of enquiry really – funny how others picked it up as retaliating to a similar story in Kuwait?
4-6, I certainly don’t expect to be a target of such surveillance. But uninfectable systems are clearly possible in theory, and they’d be worth developing just to avoid the everyday, normal, criminal / commercial malware. They’d be useless for entertainment via the Internet because they wouldn’t keep up with new video formats etc.. But for simple browsing and communication they’d have distinct advantages, like never requiring time and bandwidth consuming security updates, low power consumption and virtually instant boot-up times.
Bibi visited Obama on September 30th, same day as the shutdown. I’m sure the shutdown didn’t come out of the blue. Now that the debt ceiling has been lifted, we’re seeing the pressure on Syria build again. It’s safe to crank it up, now that the Ghouta false flag has slipped into the memory hole.
Israel needs the Litani – call it lebensraum. The Syrian war will continue, and if Hezbollah weaken or if Assad falls, Israel will find some reason to make a grab for it.
Debt comes at a price.
RD
As regards apologies, I reckon the score is about equal between you and I.
And as far as the doctor is concerned, I owe him no apology either. I have made it clear from the beginning that I am questioning the words ascribed to him and not his character.
A Node at 2.37 :
“Maybe the doctor is as honest as you think but been misquoted, maybe he’s been an intelligence asset all his career. I don’t know, and I don’t think you do either.”
” seeing the attempts to trash the reputation of a good man from a good organisation for which friends of mine have worked in the past.”
Seems a remote connection for extreme empathy, but ok.
Are we being kept busy for the sake of being busy. Are these points of verbose minutiae really the crux of discussion?
You be the Judge.
Resident Dissident, no need to shout. I’ve not intended any slur against Mr Nott. It’s the story that I consider to be suspect.
Yes, there are possibilities of spying etc. of course, but I’d rather that news services stuck to verifiable facts, and that requires journalists to ask the same sort of questions as I’ve been asking here before they go publishing stuff. Do you prefer the news to leap upon and publish that which is most sensational? I suppose it makes for more interesting and emotive reading, though a cynic might suspect that they do so in order to increase circulation, especially if they manage to help start a war.
Ah, would you prefer if I were to capitalise your screen name? I usually copy-and-paste, so that it comes out the same way as you typed it.
Resident Dissident.10 40pm
“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.”
Look, it’s clear I’m unconvinced.
Lets agree to differ about David Nott’s motives and status. I honestly don’t know for sure.
I suppose what I’m really trying to understand is how, given all the different elements of the story and past history of the BBC, you continue to believe I should take it all at face value.
It’s pretty clear we are going to continue to interpret the whole affair differently, but I’d really love to know what it is that convinces you that this isn’t just another production of the same type as the Kuwaiti Nurse and Incubator variety.
I promise if you give me your take on that, I’ll accept it and leave it be.
Clark’s 10:22 to the 10th power.
Oops, I should have typed “especially if they manage to help escalate a war”. Though many “news” organisations seem to like wars to be started, too. Especially Murdoch’s bunch.
10:22 to the 10th power = 12431082765:868488
Welcome back, Clark.
It’s a pleasure to read your crisp alliteration released for the benefit of all.
10.22 * 10.22 = 104.4484
10.22 * 104.4484 = 1067.4626480000002
10.22 * 1067.4626480000002 = 10909.468262560002
10.22 * 10909.468262560002 = 111494.76564336322
10.22 * 111494.76564336322 = 1139476.5048751722
10.22 * 1139476.5048751722 = 11645449.87982426
10.22 * 11645449.87982426 = 119016497.77180395
10.22 * 119016497.77180395 = 1216348607.2278364
10.22 * 1216348607.2278364 = 12431082765.868488
Nice one, Clark
Ben, I’ll use this brief lull to thank you for the film recommendation. Glad to see you’re still bearing the Gonzo Dagger.
I don’t know wtf ’10th power’ means A Node, but I do know it was Clark’s 12:22 instead and the alliteration works out the same for the meter of pitch, pace and power, so my facepalm time is reduced.
I also keep a firm grip on the ‘button’, Clark.
Cheers
2.22 * 12.22 = 149.32840000000002
12.22 * 149.32840000000002 = 1824.7930480000002
12.22 * 1824.7930480000002 = 22298.971046560004
12.22 * 22298.971046560004 = 272493.42618896323
12.22 * 272493.42618896323 = 3329869.668029131
12.22 * 3329869.668029131 = 40691007.34331598
12.22 * 40691007.34331598 = 497244109.73532134
12.22 * 497244109.73532134 = 6076323020.965627
12.22 * 6076323020.965627 = 74252667316.19997
even nicer one, Clark
Night all.
Clark is right, shooting targets specificallly in the areas desribed is highly unlikely.
I have shot various calibre’s over 1000 yards and to snipe specifically, i.e. aim for someone’s particulars, is very hard, unless you have top of the range kit, especially if they are moving or running, the whole PR of this report is shite.
Shall squeeze my pillow….
“The ocean is broken”
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1848433/the-ocean-is-broken/
“Geraldine Van Bueren QC is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford.”
http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2013/10/18/should-we-have-an-enforceable-right-to-food-professor-geraldine-van-bueren/
Ben and Alc Anon.
Thanks for lifting my eyes and imagination upwards. It adds context to realise we’re spiralling through stuff so much vaster than our earthbound
dramas.
Thanks all. Goodnight.
Resident Dissident, there are a number of other things about the conflict in Syria that suggest to me that my “elected representatives” hands may not be clean:
* US General Wesley Clark named Syria as one of the countries that the US decided to overthrow,
* NATO special forces were helping to coordinate the forces fighting the Syrian government, from NATO country Turkey,
* The “Syrian opposition” engage in suicide bombing, car bombing, and various atrocities generally grouped under the heading of “terrorism”,
* The corporate media seem reluctant to refer to the “Syrian opposition” as terrorists despite the point above,
* Many of the “Syrian opposition” don’t seem to be Syrians, but instead are Saudis and Turks, some of them being Islamists such as Al-Qaeda,
* Further to the previous point, Saudi Arabia is a UK/US ally, as well as being allied with Israel, which has illegally claimed Syria’s Golan Heights,
* Genie Energy Ltd. has purchased oil drilling rights in Syria’s Golan heights – from Israel – and:
* The UK Prime Minister seems very keen to send UK forces into Syria,
Etc…
I’m suspicious that this could be “our” war, i.e. initiated, and/or being encouraged or manipulated by people within the US and UK governments. Do you think I’m being unduly suspicious?
“Wikipedia”
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=43aba1d572a2f6b5d9d077ff3e0b1ae5&showtopic=20560&hl=
Finally found it. Here’s the published attack hard disk drive firmware attack. How to install a backdoor you can’t get rid of on your disk drive. Yes it turns out you can flash the exploit into disk drive firmware on a running system without the user being aware.
http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack
There was a Youtube demo presentation but I can’t find it now. All the details are at the above link though.
someone; That’s the most depressing news I’ve had since the Great Flood. The debris field is nothing compared to the contaminated Plume due to reach the US West Coast in 2014.
Ben,
Agreed. Everyone should rad this http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1848433/the-ocean-is-broken/
Agreed, there are appealing technical responses to illegal government surveillance, more or less distant, but there are also various ways to go dark right now, and the more people adopt them, the worse it gets for the stasi of NSA/GCHQ. That pressure will never exert more leverage than now, when the full scope of illegal intrusion is newly apparent. Elementary precautions like wireshark, off-the-shelf honey traps, firewalls, will increase the stasi’s risk of exposure with similar effect. It’s tedious but for some, maybe worth it to torque the institutional paranoia of the police state.
4-6,
It has occurred to me that my own squonk.tk might look like an off-the-shelf honey trap. A quick perusal of the DNS (you don’t even have to visit the site) will suggest it is running the zpanel mult-hosting freeware package. A package with a terrible security reputation. So why would someone interested in security be running the package with the worst security reputation? Good question 🙂 But there’s a good answer.
Well, in its defence it must be at least a few months since the last major hack. Although I have to admit ability to execute any command as root via the password reset form is hilarious as long as you are not on the receiving end.
But loads of security experts have been pouring through the zpanel code recently to look for more gaping holes and nothing has turned up since the new version release. Yet anyway…
But the main reason I went for zpanel is it is free, reasonably fully featured and extremely light on resources and that is what I need for the cramped space in the Amazon free micro-tier.
I’d bet money anyway there are “secret” exploits for all the better known hosting “panels”.