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Greenwald Details Day Snowden Revealed Himself as NSA Whistleblower

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

Nearly a year after Edward Snowden revealed himself as the National Security Agency contractor-turned-whistleblower, Glenn Greenwald — the former Guardian journalist who helped unveil Snowden as the source of the leaks — is sharing more behind-the-scenes details of the events in Hong Kong in the hours before Snowden’s announcement.

A few days before the Guardian revealed him as the source, Snowden told Greenwald that “an Internet-connected security device at the home he shared with his longtime girlfriend in Hawaii had detected that two people from the NSA” had come looking for him, Greenwald writes in an excerpt from an upcoming book, “No Place to Hide,” published by the Guardian on Sunday.

Greenwald was skeptical that the visit meant the NSA suspected Snowden was behind the leaks, but he knew that he and filmmaker Laura Poitras had to hustle.

“We were determined that the world would first hear about Snowden, his actions and his motives, from Snowden himself,” Greenwald writes, “not through a [demonization] campaign spread by the US government while he was in hiding or in custody and unable to speak for himself.”

After taping a second video interview with Snowden, Greenwald writes, the reality of disclosing Snowden’s identity set in.

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House Committee Has Voted Unanimously to Rein in the NSA

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Photo Credit: Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

Photo Credit: Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post

A key House committee has approved a package of NSA reforms that would end the spy agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, nearly a year after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed the program’s existence.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 32-0 Wednesday to rein in the NSA with the USA FREEDOM Act, a measure that places new requirements on the government when it comes to gathering, targeting and searching telephone metadata for intelligence purposes.

In addition to prohibiting the NSA from engaging in what the bill’s sponsors have called “dragnet surveillance,” the bill would also require authorities to get permission from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on a case-by-case basis. It would establish a panel of privacy experts and other officials to serve as a public advocate at the court. And it would also give businesses more latitude to tell the public about requests it receives from the government for user data.

The bill represents “the best chance in a decade” to correct an imbalance between national security and privacy, said co-sponsor Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). It is the first surveillance reform bill to proceed to the House floor.

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Merkel Urged to Press Obama on NSA Scandal Ahead of Washington Talks

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Photo Credit: Imago/Barcroft Media

Photo Credit: Imago/Barcroft Media

Angela Merkel should ask Barack Obama to destroy her NSA file when she meets the American president in Washington this week, a leading German opposition politician has told the Guardian.

The Greens warn that failure to address the intelligence monitor scandal would risk undermining the credibility of the western alliance during the Ukraine crisis.

“Close co-operation between western allies requires joint values – also in relation to the activities of our intelligence services,” said Omid Nouripour, the Green party’s foreign policy spokesperson.

“Trying to sit out the NSA scandal won’t work: we can’t afford to let the remaining open questions strain relations during on the current crisis,” he said, suggesting that a symbolic act, such as the destruction of Merkel’s NSA file, could help to mend US-German relations.

The German chancellor travels to the US on Thursday and will meet Obama on Friday.

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Apple, Facebook, Others Defy Authorities, Notify Users of Secret Data Demands

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Major U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly complying with investigators’ demands for e-mail records and other online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when their information is targeted for government seizure.

This increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered.

Fueling the shift is the industry’s eagerness to distance itself from the government after last year’s disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance of online services. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all are updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced similar changes in July.

As this position becomes uniform across the industry, U.S. tech companies will ignore the instructions stamped on the fronts of subpoenas urging them not to alert subjects about data requests, industry lawyers say. Companies that already routinely notify users have found that investigators often drop data demands to avoid having suspects learn of inquiries.

“It serves to chill the unbridled, cost-free collection of data,” said Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie who represents several technology companies. “And I think that’s a good thing.”

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Edward Snowden: NSA Spies More on Americans Than Russians

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Photo Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty Images

Photo Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty Images

Edward Snowden told a crowd of fans Wednesday that the government’s surveillance programs collect more data on Americans than any other country.

“Does the NSA know more about Americans in America than Russians in Russia?” Snowden said, appearing by live video during an awards ceremony in Washington. “We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.”

Snowden also took several shots at the National Security Agency and its top officials, and criticized the agency for wearing two contradictory hats of protecting U.S. data and exploiting security flaws to gather intelligence on foreign threats.

“U.S. government policy directed by the NSA … is now making a choice, a binary choice, between security of our communications and the vulnerability of our communications,” Snowden said, suggesting the government was biased toward the latter activity.

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WATCH: John Oliver was Tougher On Former NSA Director Keith Alexander than Most Other Journalists

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Former “Daily Show” reporter John Oliver interviewed former National Security Agency director Gen. Keith Alexander on Sunday night, and it was a much tougher interview than Alexander has been subjected to in the past.

Oliver conducted the interview on his new HBO show “Last Week Tonight,” a weekly news wrap-up show structured similarly to “The Daily Show,” and managed to tweak the former NSA director over the agency’s spy programs.

Oliver began the segment by asking Alexander whether he had any regrets from his time at the NSA and whether the former NSA director believed the agency had a perception problem.

“Absolutely,” Alexander responded.

Alexander then explained that the negative perception was that the American people believed they were having their information collected, but “the reality is the target is not the American people.”

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Barack Obama Lets NSA Keep Some Internet Security Flaws Secret

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Stepping into a heated debate within the nation’s intelligence agencies, President Barack Obama has decided that when the National Security Agency discovers major flaws in Internet security, it should – in most circumstances – reveal them to assure that they will be fixed, rather than keep mum so that the flaws can be used in espionage or cyberattacks, senior administration officials said Saturday.

But Obama carved a broad exception for “a clear national security or law enforcement need,” the officials said, a loophole that is likely to allow the NSA to continue to exploit security flaws both to crack encryption on the Internet and to design cyberweapons.

The White House has never publicly detailed Obama’s decision, which he made in January as he began a three-month review of recommendations by a presidential advisory committee on what to do in response to recent disclosures about the National Security Agency.

But elements of the decision became evident Friday, when the White House denied that it had any prior knowledge of the Heartbleed bug, a newly known hole in Internet security that sent Americans scrambling last week to change their online passwords. The White House statement said that when such flaws are discovered, there is now a “bias” in the government to share that knowledge with computer and software manufacturers so a remedy can be created and distributed to industry and consumers.

Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the review of the recommendations was now complete, and it had resulted in a “reinvigorated” process to weigh the value of disclosure when a security flaw is discovered, against the value of keeping the discovery secret for later use by the intelligence community.

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Obama’s NSA Overhaul Requires Phone Carriers to Store More Data

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / JIM URQUHART

Photo Credit: REUTERS / JIM URQUHART

President Barack Obama’s plan for overhauling the National Security Agency’s phone surveillance program could force carriers to collect and store customer data that they are not now legally obliged to keep, according to U.S. officials.

One complication arises from the popularity of flat-rate or unlimited calling plans, which are used by the vast majority of Americans.

While the Federal Communications Commission requires phone companies to retain for 18 months records on “toll” or long-distance calls, the rule’s application is vague for subscribers of unlimited phone plans because they do not get billed for individual calls.

That could change if the Obama administration pushes through with a proposal to require carriers – instead of the NSA – to collect and store phone metadata, which includes dialed numbers and call lengths but not the content of conversations. Under the administration’s proposal, the phone companies would be required to turn over the data to the NSA in response to a court-approved government request.

U.S. officials said the carriers might be forced to create new mechanisms to ensure that metadata from flat-rate subscribers could be monitored. They said these issues will require further discussion between the White House, Congress and industry.

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NSA Performed Warrantless Searches on Americans’ Calls and Emails

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Photo Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA

Photo Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA

Spencer Ackerman and James Ball.

US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has used a “back door” in surveillance law to perform warrantless searches on Americans’ communications.

The NSA’s collection programs are ostensibly targeted at foreigners, but in August the Guardian revealed a secret rule change allowing NSA analysts to search for Americans’ details within the databases.

Now, in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has confirmed for the first time the use of this legal authority to search for data related to “US persons”.

“There have been queries, using US person identifiers, of communications lawfully acquired to obtain foreign intelligence targeting non-US persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States,” Clapper wrote in the letter, which has been obtained by the Guardian.

“These queries were performed pursuant to minimization procedures approved by the Fisa court and consistent with the statute and the fourth amendment.”

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Photo Credit: fedsocblog

Photo Credit: fedsocblog

Tools for Lawyers Worried That NSA Is Eavesdropping On Their Confidential Conversations

The ABA Journal reports:

Are you concerned that Big Brother (including the National Security Agency) is not only watching, but listening, recording and even transcribing your confidential client conversations?

The good news for lawyers worried about maintaining their duty of confidentiality is that there are tools and safeguards to help them. In a session entitled “N.S.A.y What? Firm and Client Data Security & Encryption in the Age of Monitoring” held at ABA Techshow on Friday, Sensei Enterprises vice president John Simek and Oracle Corporation’s Chris Ries provided tips on gadgets and best practices for lawyers to use if they wish to avoid the NSA’s massive net.

“Lawyers need to be very cognizant of their communications being intercepted by NSA,” said Simek. Even worse for lawyers is that they can’t even be certain what the law is, since the status of the NSA’s various programs and the data they collect seems to change every day. Plus, given the secretive nature of the NSA, as well as the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that oversees its surveillance warrants, lawyers can’t even be sure of what is and what is not legal.

As such, Ries and Simek said lawyers should assume all of their conversations are subject to NSA surveillance and take steps to protect confidential information. To begin with, they recommended that all emails, electronic messages and communications be encrypted. There’s no shortage of available encryption hardware and software, and they recommended lawyers use an encryption service such as Zix Corporation’s ZixCorp or the open-sourced TrueCrypt. Platform-specific devices are also available, such as Microsoft’s BitLocker to Go and Apple’s FileVault. Lawyers can also purchase encrypted hard drives, including Symantec Corporation’s PGP Whole Disk Encryption and Sophos Ltd.’s Safeguard, as well as encrypted flash drives such as IronKey from Imation Corp.

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Krauthammer: End to NSA’s Bulk Data Collection ‘A Calculated Risk’

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Tuesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that “we are taking a calculated risk” when it comes to reports that President Obama is expected to call for an end to the NSA’s bulk data collection program.

“Look, I’m sympathetic to the idea that we have to find a compromise,” the syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor said. “I think it’s probably one you have to have given the mood of the country…but if we get a second attack, we’re going to go violently in the other direction.”

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NSA Chief: I’d Love 15 Minutes Alone With Snowden

By Greg Richter and Cathy Burke.

National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander says that if he had 15 minutes alone with NSA leaker Edward Snowden, he’d make sure he knew how much damage Snowden has done to the United States and its allies.

“I’m not a violent person. I’m not going to try to beat him up or anything,” Alexander said Tuesday on “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel. “I am hugely disappointed that someone that signed a document that said I can be trusted with top-secret data couldn’t be,” he told host Brett Baier.

Alexander said he would tell Snowden, who is living under temporary political asylum in Russia, that he has been a “huge disappointment,” and might also tell him some of the classified problems he has caused so he knows “the significant damage to our nation and to our allies.”

Snowden has made some “huge mistakes” that “will haunt him for the rest of his life,” Alexander said.

Alexander, who leaves his post at the end of this week, said his agency knows what information Snowden was able to take via computer thumb drive. Some that he has not released would hurt military operations and could endanger lives, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.