All here who think giving Al Qaeda information is no big deal, raise your hands

[Whisp]

NSA Agent’s Identity Exposed in Poorly-Redacted Snowden Document
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/01/the-name-of-an-nsa-agent-exposed-in-poorly-redacted-snowden-document/
The exposed, poorly-redacted information included the following:

–A very specific and very dangerous group that’s been targeted by NSA using a free application known as Visual Communicator.

–Detailed information about what specifically can be gathered about the location of targets.

–On the cover-page of the document, the full name of the NSA agent who evidently composed the document in May of 2010.

Either the NSA spies on everyone all the time, or maybe they don't.

Either they can know who everyone here on DU is, or maybe they don't.

Either you are afraid to speak on a public forum, or maybe you aren't.

which is it?
because I think minimizing Al Qaeda threats and mocking people who work to prevent attacks is sort of putting a huge bulls eye on yourself if you believe you are being watched, all the time, every day.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4400162

[el_bryanto]

1. The question is are these programs necesssary and if so

what safeguards in place to make sure these powers aren't abused?

Bryant

[Whisp]

4. No, that is not the question of this OP.

I am asking that if people here are not afraid to defend Snowden and the latest news that some information and plans regarding Al Qaeda have been compromised because of Snowden - and people say it's no big deal but say at the same time that the NSA is far reaching and all knowing...

Either they would not feel free to state such things, or they wouldn't dare say anything like that because they are being spied on. It's contradictory.

Or some just like to stir the shit, stir stir stir and pretend

[Capt. Obvious]

7. "Or some just like to stir the shit, stir stir stir and pretend"

You don't say.

[HangOnKids]

71. Glorious

The OP actually had the nerve to post that? CLASSIC!

[Rex]

79. IKR!?

At least they were partially honest, just not intentionally.

[el_bryanto]

12. Should people at this board be afraid to defend Snowden in your opinion? nt

[Whisp]

16. Of course not, that is also not the topic tho.

I'm not going to go chasing the balls you guys are throwing in every other direction.

[Cha]

25. Should people on this be able to point out

what a fuck-up he is?

[el_bryanto]

26. I'd say not. Certainly this incident seems like an error.

That doesn't negate the potentially valuable work he's done in bringing these issues to our attention.

[Cha]

39. That's too bad.. Snowden is a fuck up.

[el_bryanto]

40. What's too bad? nt

[Isoldeblue]

107. Not only that, Cha,

he's an attention ho and a hot dog.

The means do NOT always justify the ends. And he did compromise our country's security by his actions.

I hate that we have too much surveillance, but I can never respect the way Snowden went about it. There were alternative ways to.

[Cha]

125. ES had made this about himself with his propaganda missives from Russia..

Right off the bat there was this, Isoldeblue..

"These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations."

http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html

As Bill Maher said.. ES is always has something "fuckin' nuts to say".. The US wants to assassinate his flimsy ass.. don'tcha know.

[Isoldeblue]

128. Exactly Cha!

It was statements of his like that, that made me question his motives. Give me a break! Snowden probably has himself convinced that he did it for pure patriotism. But actions speak louder, and I ain't buying his schtick....

He could have gone to Bernie Sanders or Al Franken with his info, FIRST! Even then, his aim was to do this when he applied to the NSA and involved other workers, unwittingly. Not kosher. And points to pure ego and notoriety's sake, on his part.

[Cha]

132. I'm more cynical than that, Isoldeblue..

I think he knows exactly what he's doing and it has nothing to do with "patriotism".

Seems ES is only whining about NSA since Obama became President..

"Whistle Blower(sic) Edward Snowden claims NSA has been hacking China since 2009."

http://thehackernews.com/2013/06/Edward-Snowden-hacking-China-PRISM-NSA.html

Still think NSA-leaker Edward Snowden is a hero?

"According to a new story in the Guardian, Snowden is now leaking documents showing that in 2009 the United States intercepted communications from then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was attending the G20 Summit in London.

The leak from Snowden comes only one day before President Obama is to meet with Russian President Putin at the G8 summit."



http://americablog.com/2013/06/edward-snowden-nsa-russia-medvedev.html

ES is a Traitorous Egotistical Lying drama junkie who made this about him. Big Mistake.

[VanillaRhapsody]

77. Oh YES it does....

we are NOT the "ends justify the means" people and THIS incident proves why...

[DonViejo]

35. If the folk saying that believe it, then

yes, of course they should be able to point it out.

[Scootaloo]

126. Your frame is crappy, so el bryanto bought you a better one. The proper response is "thank you"

[sendero]

127. In your world..

... it's ok for the NSA to fuck up thousands of times (they have but you know that don't you) lie their asses off continually, but anyone that seeks to expose them must be 100% perfect.

I really cannot say what I want to say about people like you but you can take a good guess.

[Rex]

86. Nailed the real issue in one post!

Congrats! The rest of the OPs FUD is laughable and predictable.

[Capt. Obvious]

2. AL QAEDA?

[FreakinDJ]

3. Rush Limbuagh couldn't say it any better

Privacy is only for Corporations and the Wealthy anyway

[wildbilln864]

5. Al CIAduh?

I'm more afraid of getting hit by lightning twice!

[G_j]

6. how about

a nice cup of chamomile tea?

[Whisp]

9. Snowden and GG could be accessories to some heavy stuff

I don't think that's too funny or that a cup o tea will help much with.

Will you still defend him/them if they get someone killed?
I don't think so.

And I understand the nervousness of your reply, sometimes when we can't find the right words we just use mockery.

[Thinkingabout]

105. I am not sure but can charges be placed against Snowden if one of our agents are harmed?

Maybe like the poison killed the agent, I just gave the injection.

[quinnox]

8. I am very scared of Al Queda, I look under the bed every night for them before I sleep

[Whisp]

11. I'm not too afraid of them either, to tell the truth.

I'm pretty sure I won't be in bomb's way anytime soon.

but that is not the point.
whatever you believe they are, the gov has a hard on going after them.

and if someone is free to mock and minimize those dangers in a public forum and yet are not afraid of the far reaching powers they claim the NSA and the gov in general has to shut you down...

smells kinda bullshity.

[quinnox]

13. I really don't get the OP, or what you are saying. All I got from it is more fear spreading

and post #2 and post #5 before mine also seemed to have the same reaction.

[Whisp]

22. the hypocracy of the ones who claim

the NSA and spy masters are all over all the time!

If I were really that paranoid about surveillance I sure wouldn't be saying things defending Snowden when he may have aided Al Qaeda.

But I'm not. And I doubt many here really are - it's just a pinata thing and a huff and puff.

[Luminous Animal]

53. I'll continue to defend him. I'm not a sniveling chicken shits.

And I do note that it was the venerated NY Times who fucked up.

[Whisp]

55. of course, it's can't be Snowden's fault...

I mean if he didn't steal the shit in the first place and have it out there, the NY times would have still fucked it up, right?

[Luminous Animal]

61. Little different than all the other classified info that they have

received and published redacted. So yes, they fucked up. And yet, there has been no evidence that the fuck up is a security breach. Just a lot of hand wringing and hiding under the bed.

[AgingAmerican]

130. Your premise is very weak

You are implying that outrage against NSA/support for Snowden = Al Quaeda support? This is Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck level mindless, irrational, nonsense.

[treestar]

121. Seriously? You find they are no threat?

And no one else is either, thus we don't need any spying agency?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

10. Quick: Name a member of AL Qaeda--any member. No Google allowed.

No, I'm not afraid of these nameless and faceless people that you and my government want me to be afraid of.

[FSogol]

14. I can't name anyone on the Boston Celtics or Charlotte Bobcats. Do they not exist now too?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

20. Bang your skull all you'd like. You may eventually get my point.

(edited to fix an autocorrect problem)

[FSogol]

21. "and my skull all you'd like?"

[DisgustipatedinCA]

41. WTF? It was a typo, should have been "bang your skull...". Apologies

Now that I'm back in front of a real keyboard, I'll ask: has the federal government given you lots of dire warnings about the Boston Celtics wanting to kill you and your entire family? Has the federal government spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the name of stopping the Celtics? Of course they haven't. But the government has and does spend lots of time and money trying to make us all fear al Qaeda, and none of us can even rattle off any of their names, now that OBL and 27 #2's have been killed. We've known the names of other leaders with whom we've waged war. This stuff is propaganda.

[dsc]

24. No one in Charlotte can name a Bobcat either

they suck so bad they were paper bags over their head when in public.

[Capt. Obvious]

27. I was going to cry, 'trick question'

as I thought they may have already changed their name.

[dsc]

28. actually I think they did

but they still suck.

[Capt. Obvious]

29. Wiki says next season

And they're still the Bobcats on my CBS sports app.

[quinnox]

38. That's easy - Abu Nazir

(Inside joke for "Homeland" fans)

[Chan790]

51. What do I get for naming a member of Al Qaeda?

Because Adam Gadahn and Ayman al-Zawahiri aren't exactly anonymous faceless figures.

How about:

Abdullah Abdullah
Jamel al-Badawi
Saif al-Adel

?

[Vattel]

60. wow you know a lot of peeps in Al Qaeda. Maybe the NSA should be keeping an eye on you.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

66. I'm answering without looking up these names

As you can tell, I'm not familiar with these names (with the exception of al Zawahiri). If you're suggesting they're known al Qaeda associates, I have no argument with you. But I promise, greater than 99% of the US public cannot name any living al Qaeda figures. I tip my hat to you for keeping up as well as you have, but the fact remains that we're being asked to support a "war" against people none of us has ever heard of. We've never had a war where we're just expected to trust that these guys are really bad, shadowy, linked in ways that we cannot perceive, and so on.

As to your question, you get my congratulations for having names at the ready.

[OnyxCollie]

15. Oh noes! Al Qaeda knows the name of one NSA agent!

That's much worse than the NSA handing over raw intelligence, including the conversations of Americans, to Israel.

Top-secret document shows how intelligence being shared with Israel would not be filtered in advance by NSA analysts to remove US communications
http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/sep/11/nsa-israel-intelligence-memorandum-understanding-document

Snowden et al. must be stopped!

[SomethingFishy]

17. So this article that you linked to.. Another Bob Cesca rant on Snowden, basically says

that the NSA and their British counterparts are spying on people through Angry Birds, and that has something to do with Al-Quaeda? Or is it you think it's bad for Al-Quaeda to know the NSA is spying on them through Angry Birds, for they may refrain from that one click purchase of Angry Birds Star Wars III?

This is the same idiot who said yesterday that Snowden was going to cause a war with Indonesia

Frankly your post makes about as much sense as his do. And if you thought using his crazy rantings about Indonesia, Australia and Angry Birds and Al-Quaeda are helping your case you are sadly mistaken.



"because I think minimizing Al Qaeda threats and mocking people who work to prevent attacks is sort of putting a huge bulls eye on yourself if you believe you are being watched, all the time, every day."

Well I think, that using Al-Quaeda as the boogyman du jour, to instill such fear into the populace that they will allow their rights and freedoms to be eroded, that they will turn a blind eye to the "accidental" killing of innocents, that they will allow atrocities to be committed in their name, is sort of being such a paranoid freak that you are willing to kill rather than live in fear of something that has less chance of hurting you than a lightening strike or the car you got into this morning.

But I'm the crazy one.

[RC]

80. +100

Well I think, that using Al-Quaeda as the boogyman du jour, to instill such fear into the populace that they will allow their rights and freedoms to be eroded, that they will turn a blind eye to the "accidental" killing of innocents, that they will allow atrocities to be committed in their name, is sort of being such a paranoid freak that you are willing to kill rather than live in fear of something that has less chance of hurting you than a lightening strike or the car you got into this morning.

I don't understand all the paranoia on this site, about a lot of things. Most of the paranoia presented, leans toward Right wing woo and this is supposedly a Liberal/Progressive site? An example are those that demonize Snowden and don't condemn the NSA for much of anything. Just kinda dancing around the elephant and the smell, in the room, while getting upset at those complaining about the droppings.

[SomethingFishy]

97. Why drives me crazy is it's so plain to see..

The MIC has to have a boogyman, to keep up appearances. In my lifetime I remember all these guys being called "the next hitler":

Saddam Hussain
Mommahar Kaddafi
Ayatollah Khomeini
Manuel Noreiga
Osama Bin Laden
Terrorists

Used to be we needed a new one every 5 years but thanks to the War On Terror they have found an endless supply of boogymen. Scary.

[Isoldeblue]

111. I don't disagree that

the people you named aren't being exploited and used to create fear. By the same token, we should not be cavalier about them because of how our leaders are using them for financial and control self-interests. They are real boogeymen, with many more we don't know the names of yet..

[okaawhatever]

83. Important point. The rant that Cesca posted did NOT say the NSA was spying on people through

Angry Birds. It said they were capable. That's part of what I have a problem with. I read every document and sentence available. It was a training class/forum/work group on what the capabilities were and how they could use them.
Any intelligent person who bothered to really read the info, and ignore the hyperbole, understood what was going on. It actually sickened me that someone would say what he did. It was a misleading piece, full of hyperbole, signifying nothing. I shouldn't say nothing the real take away should have been that some of the apps are selling way too much information. These companies shouldn't have access to the info in the first place. I never hear people like you screaming about that.

[SomethingFishy]

90. People like me screaming about apps? WTF are you talking about?

I don't use "apps" and I posted this in response to someone who used this article to say Snowden was leaking information that Al-Quaeda could use.

Back away from the sharp objects.

[riderinthestorm]

88. Cesca's blog post is completely unsourced. Completely unsubstantiated.

There isn't a single link or fact in it. Just a rumor

[SomethingFishy]

92. Same as the one about the Australia/Indonesia war a couple days ago.

It took me a minute before I figured out it was the same guy.

[Bandit]

18. All those terrified of some goat herders living in caves on the other side of the Earth

raise your hands....America; "Home of the Brave" What a joke.....

[cali]

33. +1

[1000words]

42. "National Sucker-ity"

[FreakinDJ]

118. +10

[nil desperandum]

19. No one thinks that

Snowden opened a rather large and important discussion, he did so in a careless and dangerous fashion in my opinon (and my opinion only). Whether or not he should be prosecuted for that is not my decision to make.

The government's unrestricted information gathering process should however be a concern to us all. Each infringement on our personal rights creates precedent for further future erosion of those rights. I do not now, and never have, trust the government to always do the right thing. It has become clear to me over the last 5 decades or so that the government can hardly be trusted to do the right thing and abide by its' own rules when the light of day is shining brightly upon it. In the dark of night of behind a screen of secrecy the government has seldom proven to be trustworthy.

I don't mock the people who work to prevent terrorists from landing on our shores any more than I mock police officers doing their jobs in difficult places every day, but I do expect there is significant oversight to prevent abuse for our intelligence gathering agencies and our police officers.

It always important to know who watches the watchers, especially when it turns out that no one is watching the watchers...

[Broward]

23. All here who think the U.S. government illegally and unconstitutionally spying

on its citizens is no big deal, raise your hands.

[Dr. Strange]

63. Sadly, there are a lot of hands here that would go up.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. All here who think having the NSA in operation is no big deal, raise your hands.

[Fumesucker]

31. Why do people do all manner of things that are not 100% safe?

[cali]

32. bang those terror drums, whisp. good job.

[Whisp]

45. whoosh

You know whoosh pretty well, cali.

Like it or not, believe it or not, the gov has a bit of a quarrel with those Al Q guys. Me, not so much.

The stolen classified information has now revealed some stuff Al Qaeda should not be knowing but people on DU are not afraid to still support Snowden, as they shouldn't be. I don't think many really believe they are being spied on every minute of every day in every medium, it's just bluster and fakery convenient for the argument.

[SomethingFishy]

56. Who thinks someone is watching every person all the time?

No one. What we do think is everything you do is being recorded just in case they want to use it against you in the future.

I will say this, if the U.S. Government had the resources and the people to watch everyone all the time, they would. They absolutely fucking would.

[Rex]

84. It is the Usual Suspects spreading FUD, like always.

So boring and predictable, the only thing that makes it funny is when they do a 180 and start pounding on woo.

[1000words]

34. Hahahahahaha ...

New meme is out. Work it hard, apologists.

[riderinthestorm]

36. Alexander has already admitted the NSA hasn't stopped any terrorist attacks

Which means they're clearly NOT about the terrorists...

Their goal is economic imperialism.

While AQ is a bad terrorist organization, its clear the NSA isn't working on stopping them. Which leads me to wonder exactly how important this information is?



Unless you have a case that the NSA actually does counter-terrorism, then I'm all ears...

But Alexander himself admits that's not the case.

[frwrfpos]

37. al quaeda.. sounds familiar

Isnt that the group that the Unites States government armed and funded a few decades ago?

The group that was composed of mostly Saudi nationals, a country the United States goverment is very cozy with.

Its all so confusing





So glad they arent wasting time spying on angry birds users or tapping friendly countries leaders

I feel so safe now

[reusrename]

47. but, but, but... they're sooooo scary!!!

able to thwart all of our military power and bring down tall buildings...

they can even take out the Pentagon!!!!

[hobbit709]

43. Why don't you just say that all those in favor of the NSA snooping on everyone raise their hands

I fear the aspects of the rising police state in this country far more than I fear any terrorists-real or alleged.

[Kurska]

44. Our country's creeping coporate fascism scares me way more than Al Qaeda n/t

[SidDithers]

46. DU rec...

For pissing off all the right people.

Sid

[Luminous Animal]

57. People seem more amused by this latest attempt to manipulate than pissed off.

[SidDithers]

62. Tomato - Tomahto...nt

Sid

[Rex]

91. He thinks being a copycat makes him smart!

[DisgustipatedinCA]

48. We called the Bush Admin cowardly fucks when they tried scaring us with al Qaeda

What's changed since then?

For the record, the NSA can most emphatically know our actual identities. They don't spy on everyone all the time, but they do collect data on everyone all the time. They can go back to that data at their leisure, should they feel they have a reason to do so.

So yeah, I'm raising my hand. Right here, Whisp. Take your George W Bush fear-fear-fear bullshit and peddle it elsewhere.

[Luminous Animal]

64. Yep. The alert level thingy was regularly mocked.

[Earth_First]

49. Boogie oogie woogie! nt

[bemildred]

50. OK, agents names ought not be published. nt

[riderinthestorm]

76. Did you read the blog post that's linked? There's absolutely ZERO evidence for any of this smear

Like Drudge, this is simply a smear job that has no factual basis. There's not a single link or source.

[bemildred]

114. No, I don't need to.

As a generality, that is true. I realize that is not exactly the point of the OP, but on the other hand, it's not wrong, so arguing about it just wastes your time and plays into the purpose of the OP.

[riderinthestorm]

116. The OP however is wrong. And many lazy DUers simply never go to the links

They just assume the OP must be correct. I just hate that kind of deliberately misleading and deceptive practice on DU.

FWIW, here's the direct quote from the article linked in the OP:

As soon as the article was posted, someone from or associated with a popular cryptography website claims to have downloaded a pdf of the Snowden document from The New York Times and discovered that three of the redactions that were intended to obscure sensitive national security information were easily accessible by highlighting, copying and pasting the text. The poorly-redacted file was subsequently posted to the cryptography website, then promoted via Twitter. (We’re not going to post the name of the website that posted the file to protect the information contained within.)

An anonymous "someone claims"...
An anonymous "cryptography website" is referenced but then Cesca refuses to post the name of that website so no one can check (how conveeenient).

Its laughable and desperate that anyone is taking this seriously. Its worse than Drudge...

[bemildred]

117. Sounds like an Acrobat document.

In any case I think that was how the redaction had to be done, to retain the original document specs while obscuring the intended words. (I've heard of this "trick" before.) It indicates that the document itself was not protected (documents can be password protected). As it is, there will be an edit trail so one can recover the original unredacted version. And hence that only if the docs are released as paper will the redaction hold up if examined by experienced users.

As an issue, it's minute at best. But nevertheless, as a generality I don't favor publishing agents names, so I'm not going to waste time playing games with the OP about it.

[RC]

95. You mean agents like Alexander and Clapper?

Number 1 & number 2. (Take that however you want)
The NSA is supposed to be an electronic data gathering agency. What do they need secret agents in the field for?

[bemildred]

115. They are not secret agents. They are public agents.

Them I want fired and indicted. But that won't happen with the current incumbents, they are (almost) all complicit, and will not be eager to go over the details with us.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

119. I don't believe NSA has secret agents. nt

[bemildred]

122. They certainly don't seem to want their names published. nt

[riqster]

52. And how many of the people who support Snowden were outraged at the outing of Valerie Plame?

[riderinthestorm]

58. There's no such thing as an NSA "agent". They aren't covert like CIA agents. nt

[riqster]

67. Still, the article tied a specific person to a program.

It's not like NSA workers publish their work assignments publicly, for all to see.

This was sensitive information that puts an easily identifiable person at risk. So this is bad, because there is no " cover story" for the worker.

[riderinthestorm]

75. No actually the article does no such thing. There's not a single source listed for this. Like Drudge

Its rumour and innuendo without a single name, source or link.

Ick.

[Whisp]

69. The NSA does have covert operations and cover identities

Limited and not what the CIA has, but yes they do.

[OnyxCollie]

65. Is there a law against outing a NSA agent?

Valerie Plame was CIA, not NSA, and there was a law against outing a CIA agent. (Plame was NOC- Non Operational Cover.)

The law requires the disclosure to be intentional, which makes it difficult to prove. (Patrick Fitzgerald was unable to prove intent.)

[riqster]

70. If it gets somebody killed, what matters legality?

[OnyxCollie]

74. Killed? Nice hypothetical ya got there.

What if it results in bad service at a Middle Eastern restaurant? Then who gives a fuck, particularly if there's no law against it?

[riqster]

81. Try this, more applicable scenario on for size:

Let's say that Joe Smith is an NSA employee who runs a program intended to find, say, Aryan Nation terrorists. His program finds some of these yahoo killers, and they are tried, convicted and imprisoned.

Now let's say that some Snowdenesque fool publishes Joe's name in the New York Times. The rest of the mouth-breathing Neo-Nazis then take revenge by killing Joe.

The revelation may or may not have been illegal. But because of it, Joe is dead.

You want to tell me that the person who put Joe's name out there is blameless?

[OnyxCollie]

82. Try this, more applicable scenario on for size:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. Eeek! Terra! Eeek!

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience." Albert Camus

[Octafish]

68. CIA blamed Philip Agee for outting one its agents CIA had previously outted...

...the agent, Richard Welch, was murdered outside his residence in Athens.

At the time, the Pike and Church committees were exposing CIA criminality to the nation and world.

Once the poor agent was killed, Poppy Bush, then head of CIA, got the assets in the press to echo how whistleblower Philip Agee had named and exposed the CIA man.

The fact of the matter was, while he had outted other CIA agents publicly, Agee never mentioned Mr. Welch.

What did happen, the resulting media firestorm about the "outting" led Congress to shut down its investigations of CIA PDQ. A couple of DUers tell the full story here.

[riderinthestorm]

78. Did you read the blog post Octafish? This is an unsubstantiated smear job without any facts

whatsoever.

There isn't a single name, source or link.

Just a rumour that this blogger is running with, completely unsubstantiated.

[Rex]

93. A few people here complain the loudest, while pushing FUD on this site 24/7.

It is why they have no credibility.

[Octafish]

131. The Daily Banter is doing someone's dirty bidding.

Smear jobs are so Orwellian.

I plopped the Poppy story in for historical context.

[progressoid]

72. The largest threat to the nation's security is global warming

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver

[Vattel]

73. Which is it? That's easy.

Whisp: "Either the NSA spies on everyone all the time, or maybe they don't.
Either they can know who everyone here on DU is, or maybe they don't.
Either you are afraid to speak on a public forum, or maybe you aren't.
which is it?"

Answers: The NSA collects data on all of us whenever we use a phone or the internet. Is that spying? I don't want to get into semantics. The NSA can know who everyone on DU is, but they don't. I am not afraid to speak on a public forum.

Okay, what was your point?

[bvar22]

87. I thought this was a JOKE thread,

...because the claims that Al Qaeda is going to use this information is a JOKE.

#1) Snowden is NOT responsible for any poor redactions,
or what information is released,
and HOW it is released.

Even Bob Cesca of the blog The Daily Banter was very careful to state that the information he was citing comes from;

"First, an article was published by [font size=3]NBC News[/font] in association with Glenn Greenwald about an NSA operation codenamed “Squeaky Dolphin.” A second revelation was [font size=3]posted by The Guardian in partnership with The New York Times and ProPublica[/font], which covered an NSA document that revealed how the NSA and the British GCHQ are able to collect information on various targets via “leaky” smartphone apps like Angry Birds.

http://thedailybanter.com/2014/01/the-name-of-an-nsa-agent-exposed-in-poorly-redacted-snowden-document/

So your problem is with [font size=3]NBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, and ProPublica[/font]
and NOT Edward Snowden or ANY Whistle Blower.


Snowden did exactly the right thing.
He turned his information over to TWO credible Journalists who work for credible News Organizations.
It was the decision of THEIR Editorial Boards about WHAT should be released, and WHEN to release it.
That is exactly HOW it is supposed to be done.

...but don't let those facts interrupt a perfectly good Circle Jerk based on phony suppositions.

Thanks for your performance and the Dancing Bear performances of the handful of supporters of Government Spying in this and other threads.
It is embarrassingly revealing to anyone with even modest cognitive skills.

It baffles me that people here don't believe that we have a right to know WHAT our government is doing in OUR name. We live in very different Worlds (Thank Gawd).

*Rampant Government Secrecy and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Persecution of Whistle Blowers and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Government surveillance of the citizenry and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Laws and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Courts and Democracy can not-co-exist.

*Our Democracy depends on an informed electorate.

You either believe in Democracy,
or you don't.
It IS that simple.

[Rex]

94. It is why they have zero credibility and 99% of the replies are always mocking them.

They are so boring and predictable.

[randome]

96. He said he was handling the documents carefully.

He said he only gave them to trusted media corporations and there was nothing to worry about.

He was wrong.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A ton of bricks, a ton of feathers. It's still gonna hurt.[/center][/font][hr]

[riderinthestorm]

110. You're looking extremely foolish. There's absolutely ZERO substantiation for this rumor

Here's the direct quote from the article linked in the OP:

As soon as the article was posted, someone from or associated with a popular cryptography website claims to have downloaded a pdf of the Snowden document from The New York Times and discovered that three of the redactions that were intended to obscure sensitive national security information were easily accessible by highlighting, copying and pasting the text. The poorly-redacted file was subsequently posted to the cryptography website, then promoted via Twitter. (We’re not going to post the name of the website that posted the file to protect the information contained within.)

An anonymous "someone claims"...
An anonymous "cryptography website" is referenced but then Cesca refuses to post the name of that website so no one can check (how conveeenient).

Its laughable and desperate that anyone is taking this seriously. Its worse than Drudge...

[Dr. Strange]

89. It's just metadata. Nothing to worry about.

Carry on.

[Whisp]

98. That is how I understand it and I'm not worried.

but to some here it's the NSA rifling through your underwear drawer and having a Santa Claus black book on you about the naughty and the nice things you've done and said. It's worse than anything else, worse than poverty, the intrusions on women's rights the rw have carried out, worse than worse and the only topic worth anything.

And the U.S. should have no intelligence gathering at all! The rest of the world can, but nope, not the U.S. It's like if the law was changed in tranportation and we were to switch to driving in the left lane like the British do.
Then start the change with Buses Only.


It's a handy yap yap for the Scream of the Jour folks that have a certain, ahem, commonality here.

[Vattel]

99. Fight those strawmen Whisp. I think you can knock them down.

My favorite straw man in your list: "The U.S. should have no intelligence gathering at all! The rest of the world can, but nope, not the U.S." Awesome!

[HangOnKids]

104. Yap Yap?

I think you missed your calling dear.

[bvar22]

106. Just the Meta-Data?, and you're not worried?

I'll stand with Joe Biden (version 2006) on THIS one.

You can continue stand with the handful of performers trying very hard to make this into something it isn't.
The performances ARE entertaining and revealing,
but really need to incorporate more tricks. The old ones just don't scare anybody anymore,
no matter HOW breathlessly they are twisted into OPs NOT supported by the sources cited.


Maybe we should raise the threat level to ORANGE now that the name of an NSA employee might have been revealed because ...... TERRORISTS!!!!

*Rampant Government Secrecy and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Persecution of Whistle Blowers and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Government surveillance of the citizenry and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Laws and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Courts and Democracy can not-co-exist.

*Our Democracy depends on an informed electorate.

You either believe in Democracy,
or you don't.
It IS that simple.

[HangOnKids]

109. No Holy Shit It Is Just Yap Yap

Because word salad is so yap yap yummy!

[Union Scribe]

100. Pathetic.

Just when I think I've seen the most absurd and desperate ploy a new layer at the bottom of the barrel is discovered.

[muriel_volestrangler]

101. Names of NSA employees in anti-al-Qaeda operation - now on LinkedIn

In that second report, Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman shared a few tidbits about the role of the government's hacking unit, Tailored Access Operations (TAO) in the hunt, writing that TAO "enabled the NSA to collect intelligence from mobile phones that were used by al-Qaeda operatives and other 'persons of interest' in the bin Laden hunt."
...
But for all the reported secrecy surrounding TAO's activities, a quick search of networking site LinkedIn shows a number of current and former intelligence community employees talking pretty openly about the exploits.

For instance, Brendan Conlon, whose page lists him as a former Deputy Chief of Integrated Cyber Operations for the NSA and former Chief of TAO in Hawaii, says that he led "a large group of joint service NSA civilians and contractors in executing Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) operations against target networks." Barbara Hunt, who is listed as a former Director of Capabilities at TAO in Fort Meade, similarly claims she was "responsible for end-to-end development and capability delivery to build a versatile computer network exploitation effort."

Dean Schyvincht, who claims to currently be a TAO Senior Computer Network Operator in Texas, might reveal the most about the scope of TAO activities. He says the 14 personnel under his management have completed "over 54,000 Global Network Exploitation (GNE) operations in support of national intelligence agency requirements." Just imagine how productive the team in Fort Meade, rumored to have about 600 people, must be.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/29/the-nsa-has-its-own-team-of-elite-hackers/

[warrprayer]

102. to bad NSA didn't warn us

that Freedom Industries was going to poison 300,000 people in WV

[mike_c]

103. more surveillance state propaganda....

Meh. Tools of the surveillance state SHOULD be named, IMO.

[Isoldeblue]

108. I feel it's a HUGE deal!

The Snowden fans are not much different from the right, minimizing their people's rotten actions, by saying this.

[grasswire]

112. why do you continue to give that flawed blogger attention?

Bob Cesca is a known Obama loyalist. His conjectures have about the same credibility as those cultists who blindly attack whistleblowers here.

[Whisp]

113. he's also alarmist, you forgot that one.

With what information Snowden stole, we can bring America down to it's knees!!!!!
-- GG the unflawed.
oh, and precise.

[treestar]

120. Anything to keep Eddie as hero

A hero is someone who thinks Americans don't deserve any defense from Al Qaeda. That seems to be the underlying position.

[LittleBlue]

123. Thedailybanter.com? lol

[TroglodyteScholar]

124. Your post is deserving of...

...its remarkably low rec-to-post ratio.

[AgingAmerican]

129. I have never been swayed by right wing "Al Quaeda" scare tactic talking points

"The Quaedas are comin', git yer gun Murtle'

Sorry, ain't buying it.