Edward Snowden Is Not Alone: US Gov't Seeks Another Leaker 204
bobbied (2522392) writes Apparently Edward Snowden is not alone. CNN is reporting that recent leaked documents published by The Intercept (a website that has been publishing Snowden's leaked documents) could not have been leaked by Snowden because they didn't exist prior to his fleeing the USA and he couldn't possibly have accessed them. Authorities are said to be looking for a new leaker.
Snowden and Assange... (Score:5, Insightful)
Those you and I never see - are MANY more, I'm guessing thousands. It's a cat and mouse game, spy vs spy. Someone somewhere leaks something, and someone else gets assigned to find out what leaked, who leaked it and how do we close the leak and clean up after it.
tin-foil tempest in a teapot (Score:4, Insightful)
What else ? (Score:5, Insightful)
They will call the whistle blowers "TRAITORS" and they will come up with all the usual justifications - that they need to fight "terrorism", or whatever it is ...
America is turning into an extra-large-size concentration camp and still there are people wanting it to happen !
Back in May they already said Snowden didn't have. (Score:5, Insightful)
As recently as May, shortly after he retired as NSA director, Gen. Keith Alexander denied that Snowden could have passed FISA content to journalists.
"He didn't get this data," Alexander told a New Yorker reporter. "They didn't touch --"
"The operational data?" the reporter asked.
"They didn't touch the FISA data," Alexander replied. He added, "That database, he didn't have access to."
"mole"? (Score:4, Insightful)
CNN seems to be very confused; in what way is this additional whistleblower a "mole"?
Not if we don't stand up for them. (Score:3, Insightful)
If the citizenry continues to allow the government to punish the leakers, and further to completely get away with doing everything that was leaked, we can expect this trend to be short.
We, by which I mean you, need to get up and publicly protest and push charges against the government officials who betrayed us.
Justice will not happen by itself.
Re:"mole"? (Score:3, Insightful)
The public is about as hostile a power as you could wish for.
Re:The FSB keeps working... (Score:4, Insightful)
For that the FSB would want the US security private, underfunded and digital only.
The more leaks, the more active the FBI, CIA and UK hunters become. The more leaks suspected from within the US gov and mil, the more tracking of all US gov staff.
Voice print tracking, web use, review of all life stories of all cleared US bureaucrats would not be something any skilled nation wants to induce the US gov to fund.
Any outside gov would want the US hunting foreigners in distant lands to the point of been distracted from basic interviews and paperwork of gov applicants over generations.
A push to induce the US gov to seek languages, life experiences, slang, accents would be the perfect cover. A flood of new staff would be great. Looking at all staff again is not so good.
Whistleblowers appear every generation to expose torture, wars, deaths, domestic surveillance.
How can there not be? (Score:5, Insightful)
All of these agencies are shown to be violating the law, lying to us (and Congress) about it, and generally ignoring basic rule of law.
So, either you have to conclude that everybody who works for these agencies has bought into the Kool-Aid of fascism ... of some of them are going to realize that the surveillance state has gone way beyond what it should and is undermining everything.
This level government secrecy and abuse is a cancer, and it needs to be removed.
Quite frankly, leaking is pretty much moral obligation of anybody who has realized the extent to which these agencies have become toxic.
Re:"mole"? (Score:5, Insightful)
No deep cover agent would be allowed to just become a "whistleblower" as many cleared docs are created for and tracked per staff member.
Under examination each copy can be tracked back, why risk all for one domestic database press event?
ie a mole would send unique one of a kind material to their handler and thats it.
If the source gets documents published its a whistleblower.
huh (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean to say, you hired dedicated patriots, with a fundamental desire to server the public, put them through intensive training, made them take a solemn oath to uphold the constitution, then employed them and asked them to violate those very principles, and that oath... and you mean to tell me a few of them may have turned against you?
The lunacy of our federal government never ceases to astound me.
Re:More than one (Score:5, Insightful)
The UK had two Russian spies in their government: Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess . . . and Kim Philby.
Ok, their three Russian spies were: Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby . . . and Anthony Blunt.
Start again. Among their Russian spies were: Donald Maclean, Guy Burges, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross . . . and . . .
Oh, bugger.
The unmasking took years to complete . . . um . . . if it was completed . . .
However there is a big difference here . . . those spies did it for Russia. Snowden did for America.
Re:How can there not be? (Score:4, Insightful)
So, either you have to conclude that everybody who works for these agencies has bought into the Kool-Aid of fascism
Did you miss how this went last time? These employees are "just following orders." Or perhaps we should change that to "just paying the mortgage" this time around. Also, 'cause terrists.
Snowden is a leaker, but unless you suppose a fifth column inside the TLA's, then they're all sticking their necks really far out to just do that. The entire abuse reporting process is a sham, so the only option is to go all the way. Many people would rather "pay the mortgage" than to be prosecuted for treason. The sham of a reporting process is a well-known factor and really good for keeping such a tight self-reinforcing environment.
Re:Mole? (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear AC, your argument is analogous to suggesting a person should be jailed for jaywalking if they run across the street to stop a kidnapping.
They are NOT whistleblowers or moles (Score:5, Insightful)
They are NOT whistleblowers or moles... they are our nations TRUEST, in every sense of the word, Freedom Fighters.
Lets repeat that again, Freedom Fighters.
I'm not a religious man, but I'll bloody well say this. God bless you, for you are the few protecting us from the tyrants within.
Re:Am I the only one around here ... (Score:5, Insightful)
The catch with your #2 is that the ultimate boss and owner of any data held by the US government is the US public. The constitutional foundation of their entire system of government is not "We the Government", but "We the People of the United States", no matter how much winking, nudging and outright fraud goes on in the corridors of power.
So if you found your company (government) was up to no good, and upon going up the chain got told to stick your head in the sand if you know what's good for you, I'd hope you'd strongly consider going to the police (public). And as a human being, I'd be less than impressed if someone chose their own very comfortable life over the endangered liberty of the people they'd sworn to protect.
Re:Snowden and Assange... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a few things he released that I actually wish he hadn't. For instance, I think the details on technologies and methods used for targeted surveillance, for instance, should have remained secret.
Nope. They're doing unconstitutional spying, so they deserve to have the details leaked so people can better try to defend themselves.
Re:Snowden and Assange... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Snowden and Assange... (Score:2, Insightful)
Because lives were at risk?
Re:Snowden and Assange... (Score:2, Insightful)
That's a pretty ridiculous circular argument you have there.