Post by TsarSamuil on Aug 7, 2013 12:50:19 GMT -5
Greenwald claims up to 20,000 Snowden documents are in his possession.
RT.com
August 07, 2013 04:49
The journalist involved in the publication of leaks provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden said in a testimony to the Brazilian government that he possesses up to 20,000 secret US government files.
Glenn Greenwald testified before a Brazilian Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday. The Brazil-based American reporter – who was approached by Snowden while the whistleblower still worked as a contractor for the NSA - has published details of US electronic surveillance programs taking place domestically and abroad.
"I did not do an exact count, but he gave me 15,000, 20,000 documents. Very, very complete and very long," Greenwald told Brazilian lawmakers.
"The stories we have published are a small portion. There will certainly be more revelations on the espionage activities of the US government and allied governments...on how they have penetrated the communications systems of Brazil and Latin America," he said.
In addition to his reporting for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Greenwald has also been a fixture on O Globo, where the journalist shared the alleged details of US electronic surveillance of Brazil and virtually all of Latin America.
During his testimony, Greenwald alleged that Brazilian companies have agreements in place with American telecoms to collect data for the National Security Agency (NSA), and stressed that their complicity should be investigated by that country’s government.
O Globo recently published claims that Washington had at least at one time maintained a spy center in the capital of Brasilia, as part of a network of 16 similar facilities worldwide designed to intercept foreign satellite transmissions.
Allegations of widespread US surveillance of Brazil prompted US Vice President Joe Biden last month to call Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to provide an explanation. US Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon had earlier denied the NSA was tapping into telecoms in the country.
The additional files in Greenwald’s possession are believed to have been handed over when Snowden took refuge at a hotel in Hong Kong before fleeing to Moscow.
“The pretext [given by Washington] for the spying is only one thing: terrorism and the need to protect the [American] people. But the reality is that there are many documents which have nothing to do with terrorism or national security, but have to do with competition with other countries, in the business, industrial and economic fields," Greenwald said on Tuesday.
On Monday, foreign ministers of the South American trade bloc Mercosur raised the issue of alleged NSA surveillance throughout Latin America with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The ministers discussed with Ban a statement adopted by the bloc on July 12 following a summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. The statement called for UN members to propose ways to halt spying and potentially pursue sanctions against the United States.
But doing so would be impossible under the current framework, as only the Security Council can impose legally binding sanctions and the US holds veto privilege over any such resolution as a permanent member of the council.
One of the most recent leaks provided by Snowden - published last month - refers to a secret surveillance system named XKeyscore which is allegedly used by the NSA to monitor internet traffic.
In his Tuesday testimony, Greenwald described the system as not only able to collect metadata "but also the content of emails and what is being discussed in telephone conversations. It is a powerful program which frightens."
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NSA Violated Privacy Rules ‘Thousands of Times’ – Report.
WASHINGTON, August 16 (RIA Novosti) – The US National Security Agency (NSA) violated laws and regulations thousands of times annually in recent years in capturing and storing surveillance data on US and foreign citizens, the Washington Post reported Friday.
In an article based on classified documents provided by fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the Post said the incidents of illicit NSA snooping ranged from “significant violations of law” to typographical errors that resulted in unintentional interception of private emails and telephone calls.
The report detailed how secret bodies such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) that were created to provide some measure of oversight and control of NSA operations either failed to function as intended or were intentionally bypassed entirely by NSA managers.
An NSA audit obtained by the Post and dated May 2012 reported 2,776 “incidents” in the preceding 12 months of “unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications,” the report said.
It noted that a single illicit episode classified by the NSA as an “incident” in February 2012 actually “involved the unlawful retention of 3,032 files that the surveillance court had ordered the NSA to destroy.” Each of those files contained “an undisclosed number” of telephone call records.
The Post said in one instance of illicit surveillance in 2008 a “large number” of phone calls placed from Washington were intercepted after a computer programming error confused the telephone dialing code for the US capital – 202 – with the international country code for Egypt, which is 20.
A senior NSA official quoted by the Post, authorized by the White House to speak to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, admitted that the agency made mistakes but suggested their number was relatively small in comparison with the huge number of routine NSA communications intercepts.
“We’re a human-run agency operating in a complex environment with a number of different regulatory regimes, so at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line,” the senior NSA official was quoted as saying.
“You look at a number in absolute terms that looks big, and when you look at it in relative terms, it looks a little different.”
The Associated Press news agency quoted one civil liberties expert as saying that at least some of the reported NSA violations directly affected the privacy of “thousands or millions of innocent people.”
“It makes no sense at all to let the intelligence community police itself,” Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted by the Post as saying.
Snowden, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency and the US strategic consulting firm Booze Allen Hamilton who worked under contract for the NSA, formally entered Russia on Aug. 1 after he was granted political asylum there for one year.
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‘Far more aggressive’: Greenwald vows to publish more secrets after UK detains partner.
RT.com
August 19, 2013 16:58
Glen Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published secrets leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, promised Monday to release more documents, saying the UK would be “sorry” for detaining his partner for nine hours.
The journalist’s partner, David Miranda, was held by British authorities under anti-terrorism laws while transiting through London’s Heathrow Airport on his way to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
The move sparked a furious response from Greenwald.
“I will be far more aggressive in my reporting from now. I am going to publish many more documents. I am going to publish things on England too. I have many documents on England’s spy system. I think they will be sorry for what they did,” said Greenwald, speaking in Portuguese to reporters at Rio de Janeiro's international airport, Reuters reported.
"They wanted to intimidate our journalism, to show that they have power and will not remain passive but will attack us more intensely if we continue publishing their secrets," he said.
There was also angry reaction from Brazilian authorities, as well as from journalists and human rights activists in the UK.
The Brazilian government said in statement that Miranda’s detention was “without justification.”
The Guardian said it was dismayed at the detention of Miranda and was “urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities” as to why it happened.
Keith Vaz, a Labor lawmaker who chairs parliament's powerful interior affairs committee, told the BBC that he had written to the head of London's Metropolitan Police to ask for clarification of what he labeled an "extraordinary" case.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that “swift answers” were needed as to why Miranda was detained for so long.
“Any suggestion that terror powers are being misused must be investigated and clarified urgently - the public support for these powers must not be endangered by a perception of misuse,” she said.
Michael Mansfield, one of Britain's leading human rights lawyers, told Reuters that the action amounted to an act of oppression.
“The detention of David Miranda is a disgrace and reinforces the undoubted complicity of the UK in US indiscriminate surveillance of law-abiding citizens. The fact that Snowden, and now anyone remotely associated with him, are being harassed as potential spies and terrorists is sheer unadulterated state oppression," he said.
Journalists groups have also accused the authorities of misusing terrorism powers.
“Journalism may be embarrassing and annoying for governments but it is not terrorism,” Bob Stachwell from the Society of Editors told the BBC.
Miranda, 28, who is a Brazilian citizen, said he was questioned for nine hours by numerous agents before being released without charge. Authorities seized his laptop, mobile phone, and flash drives.
He said that six British agents questioned him on all aspects of his life and only released him after he started shouting in the airport lounge. He was traveling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after visiting US filmmaker Lauro Poitras, who has been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian.
The Daily Mail reported that Miranda was carrying USB drives of encrypted documents from Edward Snowden.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that a 28-year old man was held from 08:05 BST until 17:00 BST, under Schedule 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to hold someone at an airport for nine hours for questioning.
Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald up to 20,000 documents with details about the US National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ surveillance operations.
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Vid,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneAXGkZnX0
UK ordered Guardian to destroy hard drives in effort to stop Snowden revelations.
RT.com
August 20, 2013 04:20
UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian’s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The action is unlikely to prevent new materials coming out.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed in a Monday article posted on the British newspaper's website that intelligence officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told him that he would either have to hand over all the classified documents or have the newspaper’s hard drives destroyed.
After more talks, two "security experts" from GCHQ - the British version of the National Security Agency - visited the Guardian’s London offices.
Rusbridger wrote that the government officials then watched as computers, which contained classified information passed on by Snowden, were physically destroyed in one of the newspaper building’s basements.
"We can call off the black helicopters," Rusbridger said one of the officials joked.
Another source familiar with the event confirmed to Reuters that Guardian employees destroyed the computers as UK officials observed.
During negotiations with the government, Rusbridger said that the newspaper could not fulfill its journalistic duty if it satisfied the authorities’ requests.
But GCHQ reportedly responded by telling the Guardian that it had already sparked the debate, which was enough.
"You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more," Reuters quoted the unnamed official as saying.
In the article, Rusbridger explained that because of existing “international collaborations” between journalists, it was still possible to report the story and "take advantage of the most permissive legal environments."
“I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations...Bluntly, we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that [reporter Glenn] Greenwald lived in Brazil?” wrote Rusbridger.
“The man was unmoved. And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents.”
Rusbridger pointed out that the whole incident felt like a “pointless piece of symbolism that understood nothing about the digital age.”
The news comes after Sunday’s international incident during which David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held at Heathrow airport under the UK Terrorism Act for the maximum time allowed before pressing charges. Greenwald was the reporter who exclusively broke the Snowden story.
The editor promised that the Guardian will “continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won’t do it in London. The seizure of Miranda’s laptop, phones, hard drives and camera will similarly have no effect on Greenwald’s work.”
Another US security source told Reuters that Miranda’s detention was meant to send a message to those who received Snowden’s classified documents, about how serious the UK is in closing all the leaks in relation to the whistleblower’s revelations.
Greenwald, who first published secrets leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, responded by promising to release more documents. He added that the UK would be “sorry” for detaining his partner for nine hours.
Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald up to 20,000 documents with details about the US National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ surveillance operations.
‘US is the intellectual author behind detention of Miranda’
Lawyer Eva Golinger told RT that the UK has violated all concepts of freedom of the press. “We are talking about a media outlet. Journalists and their spouses and partners being detained and interrogated. So clearly there has been a decision made that everything related to Edward Snowden must be captured no matter what, violating anyone’s right under any country’s laws.”
Golinger believes that government's pressure on journalists could inspire some to cover the topic of government surveillance even more, instead of discouraging them to do so.
“The more principled the people reporting are, the more they will continue to pursue that work in the face of threat. Such cheap threats and intimidation give people even more reasons to continue doing what they are doing because it shows that those in power are clearly frightened of the information that is being put out,” she explained.
“At the same time it could certainly intimidate other journalists and create the environment of self-censorship, where many would be unwilling to take the risks that are involved with national security reporting, particularly when it comes to the US.”
Golinger argued that US is the “intellectual author behind the detainment of Miranda.”
“We are talking about a search and capture that is going on for Edward Snowden and it is the US that is leading that effort. It is not the UK or other European nations, they are merely abiding by the wishes of the US…What I believe is that Washington has simply put out a request to all of its allies that anyone related to Edward Snowden must be detained if they come into your territory and the UK abided by that and did their duty.”
U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (L) walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport August 19, 2013 (Reuters / Ricardo Moraes)
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Confirmed: Deputy PM initiated Guardian request to destroy NSA files 'for national security'
RT.com
August 21, 2013 14:02
The UK Deputy Prime Minister has confirmed in a statement he ordered his top civil servant to make sure the Guardian destroyed classified data on US and British surveillance programs. This comes amid implications that Cameron was behind the decision.
The deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg, who is leader of the more liberally leaning Liberal Democrat party, has told the British media that he backed Cameron’s decision, a spokesman for the Deputy prime Minster said in a statement.
“On the specific issues of records held by the Guardian, the Deputy Prime Minister thought it was reasonable for the Cabinet Secretary to request that the Guardian destroyed data that would represent a serious threat to national security if it was to fall into the wrong hands,” the spokesman said.
Two months ago, Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, Cameron’s most senior policy advisor, contacted the Guardian and told them to hand back or destroy the material leaked to them by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Clegg said that he was “keen to protect” the Guardian’s freedom while at the same time protecting national security. The Deputy PM agreed that the destruction of the material would not stop the Guardian’s ability to publish further revelations.
“It was agreed to on the understanding that the purpose of the destruction of the material would not impinge on the Guardian’s ability to publish articles about the issue but would help as a precautionary measure to protect lives and security,” the spokesmen added.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that David Cameron himself ordered Heywood to stop the revelations flowing from the Guardian.
“The Prime Minster asked the Cabinet Secretary to deal with this matter, that’s true”, one source told Reuters.
The Editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbringer, said on Tuesday that he had been approached by “a very senior official claiming to represent the views of the Prime Minster” after his paper published a series of Snowden’s exposes.
David Cameron has not yet commented and is on holiday with his family in South West England, but the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper already urged the PM to come clean on the issue, adding his role in the scandal should be investigated by the parliament's intelligence watchdog.
The Government and their supporters say that the information leaked by Snowden could threaten national security, but rights groups have accused the government of an assault on press freedom.
They are particularly concerned about the detention of Guardian reporter, Glen Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda and his detention at London’s Heathrow airport on Monday under Schedule 7 of the UK’s anti-terrorism law on suspicion of carrying “stolen documents” and the move by the UK government to force the Guardian to destroy Snowden’s material.
“We don’t know what was on the [hard drives] or what the material was that the government was pursuing. Clearly the government does have a responsibility to protect national security. However, I think this may be another area where an inquiry by the intelligence and security committee may be the right way forward,” Yvette Cooper told a BBC radio program.
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Russia slams UK’s ‘double standards’ over Guardian pressure.
RT.com
August 21, 2013 13:16
UK pressure on the Guardian over Snowden’s leaks contradicts the country’s freedom of press declarations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. It also reveals Britain’s “double standards” on human rights, the ministry spokesman pointed out.
“The moves taken by the UK authorities in relation with the Guardian newspaper office are discordant with the statements of the British side on their adherence to universal human rights standards, including that of the freedom of media, the rights of journalists and the protection of private life,” Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The incident at the Guardian office is just another example of “the double standards practice applied by London in the sphere of human rights,” Lukashevich added.
Instead of resorting to “dubious methods of covering up tracks,” the British side should “pay due attention to the worrisome ongoing tendency for the abuse of fundamental human rights and freedoms,” the diplomat stressed. He noted that the cases of such abuse are “increasingly often signaled by the international human rights community.”
Lukashevich then called on the UK government to “make necessary conclusions” from the situation.
It was revealed by Alan Rusbringer, editor of the Guardian, that two months ago the British government threatened them with legal action unless they handed back or destroyed material given to them by former NSA agent Edward Snowden.
That was confirmed by the UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in a statement on Wednesday.
It comes after David Miranda, Glen Greenwald’s partner, the Guardian journalist who published Snowden’s material, was detained and questioned for nine hours at London’s Heathrow airport under anti-terrorism laws.
The British government has defended their actions saying that he had “sensitive, stolen data” in his possession.
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'Surveillance can't be tolerated' - Correa exclusively to RT.
RussiaToday
Aug 21, 2013
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXB5PlPp1k
Just how much of the net is being watched by the NSA - may have previously been underestimated. A new report says the government's powers to intercept communications, including those of Americans - may be far more sweeping than previously thought. Speaking to RT, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said that instead of ending the surveillance of its own people - the West spends all its energy hunting down supporters of whistleblowers.
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Vid,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtvknHzLMcQ
Cameron hints at ‘tougher measures’ if media continues publishing Snowden leaks.
RT.com
October 29, 2013 01:06
British Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a veiled threat against media organizations, calling on The Guardian and other outlets to stop publishing the disclosures leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Guardian first began its ongoing series based on the Snowden leaks in June, when far-reaching clandestine activity of the American NSA and British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) were made public. UK lawmakers have not yet been “heavy handed,” the prime minister said, but if media does not cease such publication soon the government could soon crack down.
He suggested the government may employ D-Notices, official requests asking editors not to publish news items for national security reasons, if the coverage goes on.
“We live in a free country so newspapers are free to publish what they want,” Cameron told the House of Commons Monday, adding that The Guardian, in particular, has made “this country less safe.”
“I don’t want to have to use injunctions or D-Notices or other tougher measures. I think it’s much better to appeal to newspapers’ sense of social responsibility. But if they don’t demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act.”
The NSA and GCHQ revelations have proved embarrassing for both Washington and London, with national leaders consistently pointing to far-reaching oversight only to have those claims refuted. Recent disclosures, in particular, revealing that the US and UK have quietly monitored international allies have laid the seeds for what appears to be growing hostility between friendly nations.
But Cameron, who was answering questions from MPs regarding last week’s meeting between European leaders, implied the surveillance has saved countless lives.
“Our intelligence has also allowed us to warn our EU allies of plots against their people,” he said.
In July of this year GCHQ raided The Guardian’s offices and demanded the destruction of hard drives containing the Snowden files. While Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the paper, said the destruction would have no effect because The Guardian would continue publication from its offices in New York, the destruction continued anyway. UK lawmakers threatened to issue an injunction to block further publication before the event in question.
“I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations and the way in which, these days, media organisations could take advantage of the most permissive legal environments,” Rusbridger wrote at the time. “Bluntly, we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that Greenwald lives in Brazil?”
“The man was unmoved,” the editor continued. “And so one of the more bizarre moments in The Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in The Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents…Whitehall was satisfied, but it felt like a peculiarly pointless piece of symbolism that understood nothing about the digital age.”
Along with following the European summit, the prime minister also spoke after Tory MP Julian Smith quoted a report in the Sun of British intelligence analysts saying the Snowden leaks have impacted their ability to do their job.
“Following the Sun’s revelations this morning about the impact of the Snowden leaks,” Smith asked, “is it not time that any newspaper that may have crossed the line on national security comes forward and voluntarily works with the government to mitigate further risks to our citizens?”
Cognizant of the obvious implications on press freedom, some British media outlets have repeated their commitment to publishing information that does not harm national security and is relevant to the public.
“We have a free press,” Cameron said Monday. “It’s very important the press feels it is not pre-censored from what it writes and all the rest of it.”
RT.com
August 07, 2013 04:49
The journalist involved in the publication of leaks provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden said in a testimony to the Brazilian government that he possesses up to 20,000 secret US government files.
Glenn Greenwald testified before a Brazilian Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday. The Brazil-based American reporter – who was approached by Snowden while the whistleblower still worked as a contractor for the NSA - has published details of US electronic surveillance programs taking place domestically and abroad.
"I did not do an exact count, but he gave me 15,000, 20,000 documents. Very, very complete and very long," Greenwald told Brazilian lawmakers.
"The stories we have published are a small portion. There will certainly be more revelations on the espionage activities of the US government and allied governments...on how they have penetrated the communications systems of Brazil and Latin America," he said.
In addition to his reporting for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Greenwald has also been a fixture on O Globo, where the journalist shared the alleged details of US electronic surveillance of Brazil and virtually all of Latin America.
During his testimony, Greenwald alleged that Brazilian companies have agreements in place with American telecoms to collect data for the National Security Agency (NSA), and stressed that their complicity should be investigated by that country’s government.
O Globo recently published claims that Washington had at least at one time maintained a spy center in the capital of Brasilia, as part of a network of 16 similar facilities worldwide designed to intercept foreign satellite transmissions.
Allegations of widespread US surveillance of Brazil prompted US Vice President Joe Biden last month to call Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to provide an explanation. US Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon had earlier denied the NSA was tapping into telecoms in the country.
The additional files in Greenwald’s possession are believed to have been handed over when Snowden took refuge at a hotel in Hong Kong before fleeing to Moscow.
“The pretext [given by Washington] for the spying is only one thing: terrorism and the need to protect the [American] people. But the reality is that there are many documents which have nothing to do with terrorism or national security, but have to do with competition with other countries, in the business, industrial and economic fields," Greenwald said on Tuesday.
On Monday, foreign ministers of the South American trade bloc Mercosur raised the issue of alleged NSA surveillance throughout Latin America with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The ministers discussed with Ban a statement adopted by the bloc on July 12 following a summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. The statement called for UN members to propose ways to halt spying and potentially pursue sanctions against the United States.
But doing so would be impossible under the current framework, as only the Security Council can impose legally binding sanctions and the US holds veto privilege over any such resolution as a permanent member of the council.
One of the most recent leaks provided by Snowden - published last month - refers to a secret surveillance system named XKeyscore which is allegedly used by the NSA to monitor internet traffic.
In his Tuesday testimony, Greenwald described the system as not only able to collect metadata "but also the content of emails and what is being discussed in telephone conversations. It is a powerful program which frightens."
---------
NSA Violated Privacy Rules ‘Thousands of Times’ – Report.
WASHINGTON, August 16 (RIA Novosti) – The US National Security Agency (NSA) violated laws and regulations thousands of times annually in recent years in capturing and storing surveillance data on US and foreign citizens, the Washington Post reported Friday.
In an article based on classified documents provided by fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the Post said the incidents of illicit NSA snooping ranged from “significant violations of law” to typographical errors that resulted in unintentional interception of private emails and telephone calls.
The report detailed how secret bodies such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) that were created to provide some measure of oversight and control of NSA operations either failed to function as intended or were intentionally bypassed entirely by NSA managers.
An NSA audit obtained by the Post and dated May 2012 reported 2,776 “incidents” in the preceding 12 months of “unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications,” the report said.
It noted that a single illicit episode classified by the NSA as an “incident” in February 2012 actually “involved the unlawful retention of 3,032 files that the surveillance court had ordered the NSA to destroy.” Each of those files contained “an undisclosed number” of telephone call records.
The Post said in one instance of illicit surveillance in 2008 a “large number” of phone calls placed from Washington were intercepted after a computer programming error confused the telephone dialing code for the US capital – 202 – with the international country code for Egypt, which is 20.
A senior NSA official quoted by the Post, authorized by the White House to speak to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, admitted that the agency made mistakes but suggested their number was relatively small in comparison with the huge number of routine NSA communications intercepts.
“We’re a human-run agency operating in a complex environment with a number of different regulatory regimes, so at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line,” the senior NSA official was quoted as saying.
“You look at a number in absolute terms that looks big, and when you look at it in relative terms, it looks a little different.”
The Associated Press news agency quoted one civil liberties expert as saying that at least some of the reported NSA violations directly affected the privacy of “thousands or millions of innocent people.”
“It makes no sense at all to let the intelligence community police itself,” Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted by the Post as saying.
Snowden, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency and the US strategic consulting firm Booze Allen Hamilton who worked under contract for the NSA, formally entered Russia on Aug. 1 after he was granted political asylum there for one year.
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‘Far more aggressive’: Greenwald vows to publish more secrets after UK detains partner.
RT.com
August 19, 2013 16:58
Glen Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published secrets leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, promised Monday to release more documents, saying the UK would be “sorry” for detaining his partner for nine hours.
The journalist’s partner, David Miranda, was held by British authorities under anti-terrorism laws while transiting through London’s Heathrow Airport on his way to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
The move sparked a furious response from Greenwald.
“I will be far more aggressive in my reporting from now. I am going to publish many more documents. I am going to publish things on England too. I have many documents on England’s spy system. I think they will be sorry for what they did,” said Greenwald, speaking in Portuguese to reporters at Rio de Janeiro's international airport, Reuters reported.
"They wanted to intimidate our journalism, to show that they have power and will not remain passive but will attack us more intensely if we continue publishing their secrets," he said.
There was also angry reaction from Brazilian authorities, as well as from journalists and human rights activists in the UK.
The Brazilian government said in statement that Miranda’s detention was “without justification.”
The Guardian said it was dismayed at the detention of Miranda and was “urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities” as to why it happened.
Keith Vaz, a Labor lawmaker who chairs parliament's powerful interior affairs committee, told the BBC that he had written to the head of London's Metropolitan Police to ask for clarification of what he labeled an "extraordinary" case.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that “swift answers” were needed as to why Miranda was detained for so long.
“Any suggestion that terror powers are being misused must be investigated and clarified urgently - the public support for these powers must not be endangered by a perception of misuse,” she said.
Michael Mansfield, one of Britain's leading human rights lawyers, told Reuters that the action amounted to an act of oppression.
“The detention of David Miranda is a disgrace and reinforces the undoubted complicity of the UK in US indiscriminate surveillance of law-abiding citizens. The fact that Snowden, and now anyone remotely associated with him, are being harassed as potential spies and terrorists is sheer unadulterated state oppression," he said.
Journalists groups have also accused the authorities of misusing terrorism powers.
“Journalism may be embarrassing and annoying for governments but it is not terrorism,” Bob Stachwell from the Society of Editors told the BBC.
Miranda, 28, who is a Brazilian citizen, said he was questioned for nine hours by numerous agents before being released without charge. Authorities seized his laptop, mobile phone, and flash drives.
He said that six British agents questioned him on all aspects of his life and only released him after he started shouting in the airport lounge. He was traveling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after visiting US filmmaker Lauro Poitras, who has been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian.
The Daily Mail reported that Miranda was carrying USB drives of encrypted documents from Edward Snowden.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that a 28-year old man was held from 08:05 BST until 17:00 BST, under Schedule 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to hold someone at an airport for nine hours for questioning.
Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald up to 20,000 documents with details about the US National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ surveillance operations.
---------
Vid,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneAXGkZnX0
UK ordered Guardian to destroy hard drives in effort to stop Snowden revelations.
RT.com
August 20, 2013 04:20
UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian’s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The action is unlikely to prevent new materials coming out.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed in a Monday article posted on the British newspaper's website that intelligence officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told him that he would either have to hand over all the classified documents or have the newspaper’s hard drives destroyed.
After more talks, two "security experts" from GCHQ - the British version of the National Security Agency - visited the Guardian’s London offices.
Rusbridger wrote that the government officials then watched as computers, which contained classified information passed on by Snowden, were physically destroyed in one of the newspaper building’s basements.
"We can call off the black helicopters," Rusbridger said one of the officials joked.
Another source familiar with the event confirmed to Reuters that Guardian employees destroyed the computers as UK officials observed.
During negotiations with the government, Rusbridger said that the newspaper could not fulfill its journalistic duty if it satisfied the authorities’ requests.
But GCHQ reportedly responded by telling the Guardian that it had already sparked the debate, which was enough.
"You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more," Reuters quoted the unnamed official as saying.
In the article, Rusbridger explained that because of existing “international collaborations” between journalists, it was still possible to report the story and "take advantage of the most permissive legal environments."
“I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations...Bluntly, we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that [reporter Glenn] Greenwald lived in Brazil?” wrote Rusbridger.
“The man was unmoved. And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents.”
Rusbridger pointed out that the whole incident felt like a “pointless piece of symbolism that understood nothing about the digital age.”
The news comes after Sunday’s international incident during which David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held at Heathrow airport under the UK Terrorism Act for the maximum time allowed before pressing charges. Greenwald was the reporter who exclusively broke the Snowden story.
The editor promised that the Guardian will “continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won’t do it in London. The seizure of Miranda’s laptop, phones, hard drives and camera will similarly have no effect on Greenwald’s work.”
Another US security source told Reuters that Miranda’s detention was meant to send a message to those who received Snowden’s classified documents, about how serious the UK is in closing all the leaks in relation to the whistleblower’s revelations.
Greenwald, who first published secrets leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, responded by promising to release more documents. He added that the UK would be “sorry” for detaining his partner for nine hours.
Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald up to 20,000 documents with details about the US National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ surveillance operations.
‘US is the intellectual author behind detention of Miranda’
Lawyer Eva Golinger told RT that the UK has violated all concepts of freedom of the press. “We are talking about a media outlet. Journalists and their spouses and partners being detained and interrogated. So clearly there has been a decision made that everything related to Edward Snowden must be captured no matter what, violating anyone’s right under any country’s laws.”
Golinger believes that government's pressure on journalists could inspire some to cover the topic of government surveillance even more, instead of discouraging them to do so.
“The more principled the people reporting are, the more they will continue to pursue that work in the face of threat. Such cheap threats and intimidation give people even more reasons to continue doing what they are doing because it shows that those in power are clearly frightened of the information that is being put out,” she explained.
“At the same time it could certainly intimidate other journalists and create the environment of self-censorship, where many would be unwilling to take the risks that are involved with national security reporting, particularly when it comes to the US.”
Golinger argued that US is the “intellectual author behind the detainment of Miranda.”
“We are talking about a search and capture that is going on for Edward Snowden and it is the US that is leading that effort. It is not the UK or other European nations, they are merely abiding by the wishes of the US…What I believe is that Washington has simply put out a request to all of its allies that anyone related to Edward Snowden must be detained if they come into your territory and the UK abided by that and did their duty.”
U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (L) walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport August 19, 2013 (Reuters / Ricardo Moraes)
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Confirmed: Deputy PM initiated Guardian request to destroy NSA files 'for national security'
RT.com
August 21, 2013 14:02
The UK Deputy Prime Minister has confirmed in a statement he ordered his top civil servant to make sure the Guardian destroyed classified data on US and British surveillance programs. This comes amid implications that Cameron was behind the decision.
The deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg, who is leader of the more liberally leaning Liberal Democrat party, has told the British media that he backed Cameron’s decision, a spokesman for the Deputy prime Minster said in a statement.
“On the specific issues of records held by the Guardian, the Deputy Prime Minister thought it was reasonable for the Cabinet Secretary to request that the Guardian destroyed data that would represent a serious threat to national security if it was to fall into the wrong hands,” the spokesman said.
Two months ago, Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, Cameron’s most senior policy advisor, contacted the Guardian and told them to hand back or destroy the material leaked to them by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Clegg said that he was “keen to protect” the Guardian’s freedom while at the same time protecting national security. The Deputy PM agreed that the destruction of the material would not stop the Guardian’s ability to publish further revelations.
“It was agreed to on the understanding that the purpose of the destruction of the material would not impinge on the Guardian’s ability to publish articles about the issue but would help as a precautionary measure to protect lives and security,” the spokesmen added.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that David Cameron himself ordered Heywood to stop the revelations flowing from the Guardian.
“The Prime Minster asked the Cabinet Secretary to deal with this matter, that’s true”, one source told Reuters.
The Editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbringer, said on Tuesday that he had been approached by “a very senior official claiming to represent the views of the Prime Minster” after his paper published a series of Snowden’s exposes.
David Cameron has not yet commented and is on holiday with his family in South West England, but the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper already urged the PM to come clean on the issue, adding his role in the scandal should be investigated by the parliament's intelligence watchdog.
The Government and their supporters say that the information leaked by Snowden could threaten national security, but rights groups have accused the government of an assault on press freedom.
They are particularly concerned about the detention of Guardian reporter, Glen Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda and his detention at London’s Heathrow airport on Monday under Schedule 7 of the UK’s anti-terrorism law on suspicion of carrying “stolen documents” and the move by the UK government to force the Guardian to destroy Snowden’s material.
“We don’t know what was on the [hard drives] or what the material was that the government was pursuing. Clearly the government does have a responsibility to protect national security. However, I think this may be another area where an inquiry by the intelligence and security committee may be the right way forward,” Yvette Cooper told a BBC radio program.
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Russia slams UK’s ‘double standards’ over Guardian pressure.
RT.com
August 21, 2013 13:16
UK pressure on the Guardian over Snowden’s leaks contradicts the country’s freedom of press declarations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. It also reveals Britain’s “double standards” on human rights, the ministry spokesman pointed out.
“The moves taken by the UK authorities in relation with the Guardian newspaper office are discordant with the statements of the British side on their adherence to universal human rights standards, including that of the freedom of media, the rights of journalists and the protection of private life,” Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The incident at the Guardian office is just another example of “the double standards practice applied by London in the sphere of human rights,” Lukashevich added.
Instead of resorting to “dubious methods of covering up tracks,” the British side should “pay due attention to the worrisome ongoing tendency for the abuse of fundamental human rights and freedoms,” the diplomat stressed. He noted that the cases of such abuse are “increasingly often signaled by the international human rights community.”
Lukashevich then called on the UK government to “make necessary conclusions” from the situation.
It was revealed by Alan Rusbringer, editor of the Guardian, that two months ago the British government threatened them with legal action unless they handed back or destroyed material given to them by former NSA agent Edward Snowden.
That was confirmed by the UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in a statement on Wednesday.
It comes after David Miranda, Glen Greenwald’s partner, the Guardian journalist who published Snowden’s material, was detained and questioned for nine hours at London’s Heathrow airport under anti-terrorism laws.
The British government has defended their actions saying that he had “sensitive, stolen data” in his possession.
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'Surveillance can't be tolerated' - Correa exclusively to RT.
RussiaToday
Aug 21, 2013
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXB5PlPp1k
Just how much of the net is being watched by the NSA - may have previously been underestimated. A new report says the government's powers to intercept communications, including those of Americans - may be far more sweeping than previously thought. Speaking to RT, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said that instead of ending the surveillance of its own people - the West spends all its energy hunting down supporters of whistleblowers.
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Vid,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtvknHzLMcQ
Cameron hints at ‘tougher measures’ if media continues publishing Snowden leaks.
RT.com
October 29, 2013 01:06
British Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a veiled threat against media organizations, calling on The Guardian and other outlets to stop publishing the disclosures leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Guardian first began its ongoing series based on the Snowden leaks in June, when far-reaching clandestine activity of the American NSA and British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) were made public. UK lawmakers have not yet been “heavy handed,” the prime minister said, but if media does not cease such publication soon the government could soon crack down.
He suggested the government may employ D-Notices, official requests asking editors not to publish news items for national security reasons, if the coverage goes on.
“We live in a free country so newspapers are free to publish what they want,” Cameron told the House of Commons Monday, adding that The Guardian, in particular, has made “this country less safe.”
“I don’t want to have to use injunctions or D-Notices or other tougher measures. I think it’s much better to appeal to newspapers’ sense of social responsibility. But if they don’t demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act.”
The NSA and GCHQ revelations have proved embarrassing for both Washington and London, with national leaders consistently pointing to far-reaching oversight only to have those claims refuted. Recent disclosures, in particular, revealing that the US and UK have quietly monitored international allies have laid the seeds for what appears to be growing hostility between friendly nations.
But Cameron, who was answering questions from MPs regarding last week’s meeting between European leaders, implied the surveillance has saved countless lives.
“Our intelligence has also allowed us to warn our EU allies of plots against their people,” he said.
In July of this year GCHQ raided The Guardian’s offices and demanded the destruction of hard drives containing the Snowden files. While Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the paper, said the destruction would have no effect because The Guardian would continue publication from its offices in New York, the destruction continued anyway. UK lawmakers threatened to issue an injunction to block further publication before the event in question.
“I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations and the way in which, these days, media organisations could take advantage of the most permissive legal environments,” Rusbridger wrote at the time. “Bluntly, we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that Greenwald lives in Brazil?”
“The man was unmoved,” the editor continued. “And so one of the more bizarre moments in The Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in The Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents…Whitehall was satisfied, but it felt like a peculiarly pointless piece of symbolism that understood nothing about the digital age.”
Along with following the European summit, the prime minister also spoke after Tory MP Julian Smith quoted a report in the Sun of British intelligence analysts saying the Snowden leaks have impacted their ability to do their job.
“Following the Sun’s revelations this morning about the impact of the Snowden leaks,” Smith asked, “is it not time that any newspaper that may have crossed the line on national security comes forward and voluntarily works with the government to mitigate further risks to our citizens?”
Cognizant of the obvious implications on press freedom, some British media outlets have repeated their commitment to publishing information that does not harm national security and is relevant to the public.
“We have a free press,” Cameron said Monday. “It’s very important the press feels it is not pre-censored from what it writes and all the rest of it.”
