NSA book ("No Place to Hide" excerpts)

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; truthdig.com; Glenn Greenwald via TomDispatch.com

First appeared at TomDispatch; see Tom (Engelhardt)’s introduction. [This is a shortened, adapted version of Chp. 1 of Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Security State, with permission of Metropolitan Books.]

  

Greenwald, author, investigative journalist

On December 1, 2012, I received my first communication from Edward Snowden, although I had no idea at the time that it was from him.

 

The contact came in the form of an email from someone calling himself Cincinnatus, a reference to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the Roman farmer who, in the fifth century BC, was appointed dictator of Rome to defend the city against attack. He is most remembered for what he did after vanquishing Rome’s enemies: he immediately and voluntarily gave up political power and returned to farming life. Hailed as a “model of civic virtue,” Cincinnatus has become a symbol of the use of political power in the public interest and the worth of limiting or even relinquishing individual power for the greater good.

 

The email began: “The security of people’s communications is very important to me,” and its stated purpose was to urge me to begin using PGP encryption so that “Cincinnatus” could communicate things in which,  he said, he was certain I would be interested. Invented in 1991, PGP stands for “pretty good privacy.” It has been developed into a sophisticated tool to shield email and other forms of online communications from surveillance and hacking.

 

In this email, “Cincinnatus” said he had searched everywhere for my PGP “public key,” a unique code set that allows people to receive encrypted email, but could not find it. From this, he concluded that I was not using the program and told me, “That puts anyone who communicates with you at risk. I’m not arguing that every communication you are involved in be encrypted, but you should at least provide communicants with that option.”

 

The United States of Fear

“Cincinnatus” then referenced the sex scandal of General David Petraeus, whose career-ending extramarital affair with journalist Paula Broadwell was discovered when investigators found Google emails between the two. Had Petraeus encrypted his messages before handing them over to Gmail or storing them in his drafts folder, he wrote, investigators would not have been able to read them.

• When the US National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the newly elected Obama administration, it predicted that the planet's "sole superpower" would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing 15 years hence. The United States of Fear makes clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the U.S. is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed.

“Encryption matters, and it is not just for spies and philanderers.”

  

“There are people out there you would like to hear from,” he added, “but they will never be able to contact you without knowing their messages cannot be read in transit.” Then he offered to help me install the program.  He signed off: “Thank you. C.”

 

Using encryption software was something I had long intended to do. I had been writing for years about WikiLeaks, whistleblowers, the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, and had also communicated with people inside the U.S. national security establishment. More

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When is social media too much? (cartoon)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com)

If teens have been peddled to and become addicted and obsessed with social media, what are they really after? It used to be "being part of the group." Now it's all about money and FAME.

Stimulating the brain's reward centers with addictive devices (thismodernworld.com)

In a day and age obsessed with social media and spying technology, it's hard to picture life without them.

Is that good or bad or neither? According to Andrew Keen, author of the book Digital Vertigo: How Today's Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us, the Internet, and particularly social media, is changing society in a way that is worrisome. (Christians agree).
 

Keen has long been known for the position he has taken on the addictive Internet, claiming that it is having an adverse effect on society and people personally. After voicing this position in his book The Cult of Amateur, he has been given nicknames like the "Net's supreme cyber-grump" and the "Antichrist of the Silicon Valley."

Speaking to WebProNews he explains that, while he supports the Internet and social media, he is concerned that the public nature of the social age is resulting in "losing something essential about what it means to be human." 

(The National, Feb. 2014) How are teens being affected by social media? Research suggests the impact is emotional - bullying, obsession with money and fame (defined as likes), and sexting.

"One of the problems, I think, with social media is that it isn't very social. It's really just an aggregation of individuals," he says. As he explains, many of our actions on social networks aren't pro-social. The movements that have developed are not coherent, viable movements. For example, Occupy or the movements in the Middle East, are atomized and radically individualized not "social" movements. Most social networks, instead, represent "just an aggregation" of people.

To avoid a potential harmful impact, Keen says the Internet needs to become more civilized and habitable. He also suggests that government regulation regarding privacy protections against spying could help prevent the concerns from getting worse.

• The problem is not loving Facebook; it's hating it but still using it: Top 10 Reasons to Quit Facebook (Diggnation Daily)

"Terms and Conditions May Apply" (trailer)

Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Cullen Hoback (vimeo.com)

The "may" is a courtesy. They do apply. Snowden reveals the secret documentation.

(Trailer) Terms and Conditions May Apply, directed by Cullen Hoback, 2013 documentary about contractual terms of user-service agreements used on spy-friendly sites like Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Twitter, Snapchat, and so on. Mark Zuckerberg appears in the film.
 

Admit it: no one really reads the endless terms and conditions connected to every website we visit, phone call we make, or app we download. No one can. But every day, billion-dollar corporations are spying and learning more about our interests, our friends and family, our finances, and our secrets... 

I f'd the country, it's true, maybe even the world. But I made a billion doing it, mo-fo's! Selling out to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and MIC pays big. Ask Jobs, ask Gates, ask... Oh, I've said too much. See you online...even if you don't see me seeing you, lol! Don't watch The Social Network.

  

Not only are they selling our information to the highest bidder, they are freely sharing it with the government (NSA, CIA, DHS, Pentagon, FBI, member corporations, or any of the many arms of the military-industrial complex). And you "agreed" to it when you clicked SUBMIT.

 

With fascinating examples and so-unbelievable-that-they're-almost-funny facts, filmmaker Cullen Hoback exposes what governments and corporations (together referred to as the military-industrial complex) are legally taking from us every day -- making the future of both privacy and civil liberties uncertain.

 

I agree. Spy on me: NSA malware via my Facebook (Ryan Gallagher/The Intercept)

 

From whistleblowers and investigative journalists to zombie fan clubs and Egyptian dissidents, this disquieting exposé demonstrates how everyone has incrementally "opted-in" to a real-time surveillance state, click by click. However, it also explains what, if anything, can be done about it. 

• In North America WATCH on: vimeo.com/ondemand/tacma

CULLEN HOBACK grew up in L.A. At 17 he started his own public access late night TV show but was kicked off the air for making offensive statements that angered some viewers. Hoback enjoyed sharing his perspective on strange and unfamiliar topics. In college he produced short films and a feature when digital cameras first came out. At 21, he made “Freedom State,” a comedy that captures the daily life of individualists who live “on the edge of the world.” Another narrative feature he made was “Friction,” a film about summer camp members who enact a scripted tale as the line between utopia and entity blur. In 2007, he was granted a budget to direct the LARPing documentary “Monster Camp,” which featured social outcasts coming together to create a community where magic is real and identity is limited only by imagination. In 2011, Hoback came back to the screens to create his documentary “Terms and Conditions May Apply.”

US tech firms feeling NSA spying bite

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Gjelten; Krishnadev Calamur

This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

 

Protest of NSA spying, D.C. Oct. 13, '13 (DN)

(NPR) Recent disclosures about NSA (National Security Agency) surveillance have affected U.S. relations with allies and tainted America's image around the world.
 
Now the fallout seems to be creeping into the U.S. tech sector. Cisco Systems, which manufactures network equipment, posted disappointing first-quarter numbers this week and warned that revenues for the current quarter could drop as much as 10 percent from a year ago -- partly as a consequence of the revelations on widespread NSA spying.

When NSA cubicles rule the world (Reuters)

The company's chief financial officer, Frank Calderone, told analysts that reports that the NSA is intercepting electronic data transfers have created "a level of uncertainty or concern" among customers, particularly in emerging markets.

Cisco shares plummeted, losing more than 11 percent of their value, on Wednesday's news. Though the impact of the NSA revelations isn't evenly shared across the tech sector, other companies are also feeling the bite. Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, cited Cisco's problems during remarks at a conference Thursday in Washington, D.C., saying... More

Reunion: Google's "India Strategy"

Iconic Muslim art and architecture of Taj Mahal is symbol of Hindu India (sjpaderborn)

Partitioned friends reunited by Internet

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, countless skirmishes, and engaged in a decades-long standoff over Kashmir. But a new Google ad has warmed the cockles of subcontinental hearts, leading to an outpouring of goodwill on social media and newspaper websites. The ad centers on two friends separated by Partition [the division of India into two countries to create Pakistan]. That's the period in 1947 that led British India to be divided into two countries -- Pakistan, a homeland for Muslims, and India, which is predominantly Hindu but officially secular. Partition occupies a central place in the collective memory of the two nations. Millions of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs were killed, and millions were uprooted from their homes. The legacy of that era clouds much of the relations between the two countries even today. Enter [the CIA and MIC through] Google. More

• Alcohol is a gas, and Big Oil does not like that fact, so it orders/tells EPA to change rules

Brief History of India's Partition

 

India is still fighting for its borders

1858- The India Act: power transferred to British Colonial government. 1885- Indian National Congress founded by Allen O. Hume to unite all Indians and strengthen bonds with occupying Britain. 1905- First Partition of Bengal for administrative purposes, which gives Muslims a state majority. 1906- All India Muslim League founded to promote Muslim political interests. 1909- Revocation of Partition of Bengal, which creates anti-British and anti-Hindu sentiments among Muslims as they lose their majority in East Bengal. 1916- Lucknow Pact, the Congress and the League unite in demand for greater self-government, which is denied by British rulers. 1919- Amritsar Massacre, when Gen. Dyer opens fire on 20,000 unarmed Indian civilians at a political demonstration, causing Congress and the League to lose faith in the British occupation. 1919- Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (implemented in 1921), when communal representation was institutionalized for the first time, and reserved legislative seats are allocated for significant minorities. 1920- Mahatma Gandhi launches a non-violent, non-cooperation movement, or Satyagraha (Truth Movement) against the British for a Free India. 1929- Congress calls for full independence. 1930- Dr. Allama Iqbal, a poet-politician, calls for a separate homeland for Muslims at the Allahabad session of the Muslim League. Gandhi starts civil disobedience movement against the Salt Laws by which British have a monopoly over production and sale of salt.

 

Google's earlier heart-wrenching story from the subcontinent to

advertise its [CIA] products. Australian man adopted from India uses

Google Maps to reconnect with his birth family. Keep tissues handy!

 

1930-31- The Round Table conferences are set up to consider dominion status for India, which fail because of non-attendance by the Congress and because Gandhi, who does attend, claims he is the only representative for all of India. 1931- Irwin-Gandhi Pact, which concedes to Gandhi's demands at the Round Table conferences and further isolates Muslim League from Congress and British. 1935- Government of India Act proposes a federal India of political provinces with elected local governments but British control over foreign policy and "defense." 1937- Elections, when Congress gains majority. 1940- Jinnah calls for establishment of Pakistan in an independent and partitioned India. 1942- Cripps Mission to India to conduct negotiations between all political parties and to set up a cabinet government, and Congress adopts Quit India Resolution to rid India of British rule, when Congress leaders are arrested for obstructing war effort. 1942-43- Muslim League gains more power, ministries formed in Sind, Bengal, and North-West Frontier Province, and greater influence in the Punjab. 1944- Gandhi released from prison, unsuccessful Gandhi-Jinnah talks, but Muslims see this as an acknowledgment that Jinnah represents all Indian Muslims. 1946- Muslim League participates in interim government that is set up according to the Cabinet Mission Plan. 1947- Announcement of Lord Mountbatten's plan for partition of India, June 3rd, Partition of India and Pakistan on August 15, with Radcliffe Award of boundaries of the nations on August 16th. 1971- East Pakistan separates from West Pakistan whereby Bangladesh is born.