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Edward Snowden

Is The Intercept A Deep State Success Story?

Max Jones and Diego Ramos welcome former CIA analyst and torture program whistleblower John Kiriakou. After bringing a much needed reminder of the history of the torture program following the latest 9/11 anniversary on the Scheer Intelligence podcast, we wanted to ask John about the state of the media’s relationship with whistleblowers and taking the case of the Intercept’s controversial handling of multiple whistleblower accounts as a shining example of the eroding ethics and competence of journalism in the US. John takes us through his personal history with the media, shedding his wisdom on where we’re at in the grasp of the national security state. 

NATO Against Evo Morales

Those who only read the title of this article may find it overstated or exaggerated. However, remembering  10 years ago an episode that put the whole planet on alert, you will realize that the title is appropriate. Evo Morales was in Moscow, attending the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries. On July 2, 2013, he boarded the FAB 001 presidential plane to return to Bolivia. While he was flying through European skies, in a flight that seemed routine, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France set up an impassable siege, abruptly canceling the flight permits they had previously granted.

The Google Employee Who Helped Edward Snowden In Hong Kong

Early on the morning of 10 June 2013, Hong Kong time, the journalist Glenn Greenwald and film-maker Laura Poitras published on the Guardian site a video revealing the identity of the NSA whistleblower behind one of the most damning leaks in modern history. It began: “My name is Ed Snowden.” William Fitzgerald, then a 27-year-old policy employee at Google, knew he wanted to help. But he didn’t yet know how. Snowden was arguably the most wanted man in the world. The confidential documents he shared with Greenwald, Poitras and the Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill detailed a sweeping US government surveillance program that was global in reach and involved some of the world’s best known tech companies.

The Whistleblowers Who Challenged Mass Surveillance After 9/11

Mark Klein worked for over twenty years as a technician for the AT&T Corporation. He blew the whistle on the AT&T’s collaboration with the National Security Agency, which allowed for warrantless wiretapping of phone and internet communications. In 2006, Klein came to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with documents of AT&T’s involvement in the United States’ domestic spying program. His whistleblowing became the basis of the organization’s lawsuit against the NSA. According to Kevin Bankston [PDF], who was an EFF staff attorney, Klein described the “technology behind AT&T’s participation in the program, whereby the NSA had been given complete access  to  the  Internet  traffic  transiting  through  at  least  one,  and  probably  more,  AT&T  Internet  facilities.”

No Pardons For Edward Snowden Or Julian Assange

Although several long shot campaigns were mounted, President Donald Trump did not pardon any whistleblowers who were indicted or prosecuted under the United States Espionage Act. He also declined to pardon the only journalist ever to be indicted under the World War I-era law. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden were not offered clemency because Trump "did not want to anger Senate Republicans who will soon determine whether he's convicted during his Senate trial." "Multiple GOP lawmakers had sent messages through aides that they felt strongly about not granting clemency to Assange or Snowden," according to CNN.

Snowden Warns Against Trump Social Media Ban

NSA whistleblower and internet freedom advocate Edward Snowden has cautioned the public against celebrating President Trump’s recent social media ban. “I know a lot of folks in the comments [who] read this are like ‘YAAAAS,’ which, like — I get it. But imagine for a moment a world that exists for more than the next 13 days, and this becomes a milestone that will endure,” he wrote on Twitter.  Both Facebook and Twitter announced they would prevent the president from using their services in the light of his incitement of the storming of the Capitol Building on Wednesday. Twitter has since reversed its decision. However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was adamant that Trump would not be allowed to use his platform.

Mass Surveillance Program Revealed By Snowden Was Illegal

Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful — and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional.

US Government Expands Assange Indictment To Criminalize Assistance

The United States government expanded their indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to criminalize the assistance WikiLeaks provided to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden when staff helped him leave Hong Kong. Sarah Harrison, who was a section editor for WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former spokesperson, and Jacob Appelbaum, a digital activist who represented WikiLeaks at conferences, are targeted as “co-conspirators” in the indictment [PDF], though neither have been charged with offenses. No charges were added, however, it significantly expands the conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge and accuses Assange of conspiring with “hackers” affiliated with “Anonymous,” “LulzSec,” “AntiSec,” and “Gnosis.”

Snowden Warns Targeting Of Greenwald And Assange Shows Governments ‘Ready To Stop The Presses—If They Can’

In an op-ed published Sunday night by the Washington Post, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden connected Brazilian federal prosecutors' recent decision to file charges against American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald to the U.S. government's efforts to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "The most essential journalism of every era is precisely that which a government attempts to silence. These prosecutions demonstrate that they are ready to stop the presses—if they can."

Ed Snowden: US Government “Could Have Prevented 9/11”

Since 2013 the real government whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has been in political asylum in Russia, where he continues to write books and tell his story of how as an employee of the NSA he discovered that the government was breaking the law in constructing a massive surveillance state. Today, the surveillance is such a ubiquitous par of our lives, that people have come to see it as a normal part of everyday life, and hardly any politician bothers to work against it. It’s here to stay, sadly.

Saying He Would Return To US For Fair Trial, Snowden Wants People To Know ‘Why I Did What I Did’

"Was it better for the United States? Did it benefit us? Or did it cause harm? They don't want the jury to be able to consider that at all." Edward Snowden said Monday that he would return to the United States if afforded a fair trail where the American public could hear why he leaked global surveillance documents to the press. The National Security Agency whistleblower, who was charged under the Espoinage Act and lives in exile in Russia, made the remarks in an interview with "CBS This Morning."

Snowden Says Facebook, Instagram Spying On Customers, Wants To Help Combat Surveillance

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wants to fight back against corporate surveillance by Instagram and its parent company Facebook, as well as YouTube, which is owned by Google. In a tweet rant posted on Twitter, Snowden expressed that both social media giants owned by Mark Zuckerberg were involved in spying on their users, as well as YouTube. Snowden also announced that he has created new accounts on the platforms and that he will explain how the sites spy on users. He added, that he would “explain methods to limit how much they know about you,” if you choose to use them. Earlier in the day Snowden announced a new forthcoming memoir called Permanent Record, due out in September, which will tell all his secrets. Snowden has also released a YouTube ad for the book.

‘War On Journalism’: Snowden Slams US Indictment Against Assange

May 25, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  The fate of journalism as we know it is now at stake, after Washington indicted Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted in reaction to 17 new charges against the WikiLeaks founder. “The Department of Justice just declared war – not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself,” Snowden tweeted Thursday, adding “this is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media.”

Lawyer And His Refugee Clients Have Been Persecuted Since Hiding Edward Snowden

As Rob Tibbo raced to the Hong Kong International Airport one day last November to catch his getaway flight, a nagging fear followed close behind. Tibbo, a Canadian expatriate lawyer and respected officer of the local courts, had been in hiding from the police for a month and still worried he could be arrested at any moment. But his taxi arrived at the airport without incident, and Tibbo was soon in safe hands: Pascal Paradis, a Montreal-based leader of the group Lawyers without Borders, and two Canadian diplomats who shadowed him through security, making sure he safely boarded the Vancouver-bound Air Canada jet.

Snowden: Israeli Spyware Used By Governments To Pursue Journalists Targeted For Assassination

TEL AVIV — NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden told an Israeli audience on Tuesday that surveillance software designed by an Israeli company had been used to target groups of journalists in Mexico as well as Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered last month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Snowden, speaking to a Tel Aviv conference hosted by Israeli public relations firm OH! Orenstein Hoshen via video feed, stated that secretive Israeli cyberwarfare firm NSO Group Technologies has been “selling a digital burglary tool” that has been used by governments to spy on citizens and journalists in particular. Snowden did not attend the conference in person due to concern that he could be handed over to U.S. authorities.
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