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NSA Releases New Snowden Documents (vice.com) 155

An anonymous reader writes: Hundreds of internal NSA documents have been declassified and released to VICE in response to their FOIA lawsuit. They're now sharing them all online, calling it "an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the efforts by the NSA, the White House, and US Senator Dianne Feinstein to discredit Snowden [that] call into question aspects of the U.S. government's long-running narrative about Snowden's time at the NSA." The documents officially confirm that Snowden had also worked with the CIA, and show a vigorous internal discussion about how to respond to Snowden's leaks that apparently led the NSA to erroneously assert that Snowden hadn't voiced his objections about the surveillance of U.S. citizens within the NSA before going public.

Living in Russia now, Snowden himself refused to comment on the new releases, with his attorney saying Snowden "believes the NSA is still playing games with selective releases, and [he] therefore chooses not to participate in this effort. He doesn't trust that the intelligence community will operate in good faith."

The EFF is also marking the three-year anniversary of Snowden's leaks, saying they led directly to the first legislation curtailing the NSA's power in over 30 years and changed the way the world perceives government surveillance. Snowden was inspired in part by a desire to keep the internet free, saying in 2014 that "I remember what the Internet was like before it was being watched, and there's never been anything in the history of man that's like it."
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NSA Releases New Snowden Documents

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  • Limited Hangout (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05, 2016 @04:34PM (#52255589)

    If you don't know what it means, search it.

    • Re:Limited Hangout (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05, 2016 @04:38PM (#52255605)
      That's a fancy term for what I was already thinking about this, which is: The NSA most likely has cherrypicked what they're releasing, if any or all of it is even for real to start with, to try to mitigate the damage as much as possible, or to even come out of it looking better than they did to start with. We're well past the point I think where we can believe much of anything that any government agency is telling us about anything. I just hope they leave me the fuck alone until I'm dead of natural causes since there is Jack Shit I can do about anything.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Yep. Government does what it wants; including, to you. The rules are for you. They are not for them. For them, the stand-in for rules is "because we say so." Which is not in any way guaranteed to represent any portion of the truth. All you have to do is read the laws, watch the government departments and officials write themselves out of consequences for lawbreaking, the supreme court complete make crap up that is not even CLOSE to what the constitution actually (and usually explicitly) said was required of

        • Snowden is getting smarter, best to await the C-130's dropping tons of horse and bull manure on Rothschild's estates, then he will know that the US has awakened and discovered all the rest that came with these "financial services" of theirs.

    • Re:Limited Hangout (Score:4, Informative)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @07:14PM (#52256189)

      A "Limited Hangout" is what Google makes accessible to users who aren't willing to join Google+.

    • by brxndxn ( 461473 )
      I am sick of people calling Snowden himself a limited hangout. If you're referring to the NSA/CIA document release, then maybe it could be a limited hangout - but calling Snowden himself a limited hangout makes very little sense. If Snowden was a limited hangout, I doubt he would have done the following:


      - caught Obama lying about only collecting 'metadata'
      - caught James Clapper in multiple lies - even to the Senate Intelligence Committee
      - caught General Keith Alexander in lies
      - caught multiple politic
      • You're missing something here. The idea behind people believing Snowden is still a NSA/CIA asset is all about perception. Do these agencies actually have the abilities Snowden says they do? That is the key question. Snowden could easily be a psyop designed to instill fear by making us believe that the government has far more surveillance ability than it actually has.

        I have no idea who is right on this, but both sides have good points which I cannot discount. Think about it for a few moments. If you
  • There was absolutely nothing "erroneous" - it was all an intentional bunch of cover-your-ass lying.

    I guess "erroneously assert" is the new "that statement is no longer operative". Nixon should sue for some sort of infringement.

    • Indeed - if this is proven, the person who signed it off should be sacked. If the NSA won't, congress should impeach the individual. Government agencies MUST tell the truth to the public, and there must be serious consequences if they don't.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05, 2016 @04:58PM (#52255667)

    Any efforts to discredit this man are a fucking disgrace that should be called out as such. The founding fathers had a vision. It certainly didn't include anything like the FBI, CIA, or NSA spying on their own countrymen.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      Mostly they were rich people who wanted to keep their profit instead of handing it over to the king. That was, in a nutshell, the whole reason for the declaration of independence.

    • The founding fathers had a vision. It certainly didn't include anything like the FBI, CIA, or NSA spying on their own countrymen.

      George Washington ran a spy ring that spied on both the British and fellow colonists. Benjamin Franklin opened other peoples mail to gather intelligence.

      George Washington, Spymaster [mountvernon.org]

      Washington took his role as spymaster in chief quite seriously, laying the groundwork for today’s complex intelligence community and recognizing that civilian observation, mobilization and insight was just as important as military might. Without this foresight, the outcome of the Revolutionary War might have been quite different. The war for independence from Great Britain was not just one of battles and firearms, it was one of intelligence. As one defeated British intelligence officer is often quoted as saying, “Washington did not really outfight the British. He simply out-spied us.” -

      What do you think General Washington would have done with someone that stole secret war plans of the Continental Army and then fled to a foreign country as General Arnold did? What did they do with spies and traitors?

      What was Snowden's real agenda? There really isn't any way to know for sure, is there?

      German spies imply Snow [thelocal.de]

      • What a hero.

        He is indeed a hero.
        As distinct from a cowardly little snot like you.

  • by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @04:59PM (#52255669)

    Snowden releases NSA documents!

  • Details... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @05:00PM (#52255675) Journal

    Reading through the Vice article it seems as if Snowden didn't exactly come out and say "I think what we're doing is illegal". It was much more along the lines of him questioning their training on oversight and the boundaries. He was asking questions about the relative priorities of Congressional Law vs Executive Orders.

    The thing is, we don't know what was discussed in a couple of the verbal meetings, so he very well could have pointed out that the reason he was asking is the decision that was the foundation for some of the programs was a Classified Executive Order that went against Statute.

    He implied as such when he was pointing out the training materials, including some SOPs, were out of date and referred to lapsed or repealed laws.

    On the other hand, I'm thinking if he went to the IG and flat out said "Hey, I think these programs I'm working on are illegal", I'm pretty sure the response would have been something along the lines of "you're fired -- allow us to remind you of your NDA and the consequences".

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Now my memory might be a little foggy, but wasn't his initial reasoning that he saw others do that just to be intimidated and fired?

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Thomas Drake and William Binney comes to mind.

      • Now my memory might be a little foggy, but wasn't his initial reasoning that he saw others do that just to be intimidated and fired?

        Yes, but that is why he didn't raise the issue internally, rather than what happened when he did. Those are different things. A lot of people are falsely claiming that he did actually attempt to raise concerns internally, eg, blow the whistle. That didn't happen. Instead, he leaked it to the international public.

        IMO people should support or oppose his actions based on what he did do, rather than on what he is known to have not done.

    • What I find hilarious, in a dark humor sort of way, is that the keyboard warriors who would protect us from the dishonest gubermint are so dishonest about the (very few) known details of what happened. OK, government is imperfect, but why are these lying pundits to be preferred? At least the Gubermint is restricted in what they can do based on their need to keep it secret. The internet pundits don't respect honesty, secrecy, or laws that permit the government to do things they disapprove of, so if they were

  • by l0n3s0m3phr34k ( 2613107 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @05:51PM (#52255871)
    from TFA: "and US Senator Dianne Feinstein to discredit Snowden" Gee, what else has Feinstein tried to do? Weaken/destroy encryption? Her own staff hacked by the CIA? Repeatedly tried to push bills that empower law enforcement to violate the 4th Amendment? Makes me wonder if the NSA/CIA has some leverage on her, something they know about her, to get her to have such zeal in violating her oath to uphold the Constitution.
    • by HiThere ( 15173 ) <[ten.knilhtrae] [ta] [nsxihselrahc]> on Sunday June 05, 2016 @06:16PM (#52255989)

      Perhaps they do, but I think she's just a pro-authoritarian.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        but I think she's just a pro-authoritarian.

        That's it exactly. Feinstein cut her teeth as a radical San Francisco mayor and city council member and has been a hard left politico ever since. Now, the distinguishing feature of leftists is that their world view is essentially authoritarian in nature. They don't see anything wrong with forcing people to do the "right" things, provided that they genuinely believe that it's good for them. They govern based upon emotion and what feels right to them, ignoring the law and the Constitution when those things ar

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Jello Biafra called Feinstein "the most evil person I have come face to face with" and you can't get much further to the left than Jello.

          She is not a liberal, she is a right-wing authoritarian, Trump and Cheney style. Anyone thinking differently is functionally retarded.

    • by Xest ( 935314 ) on Monday June 06, 2016 @04:26AM (#52257921)

      "Makes me wonder if the NSA/CIA has some leverage on her, something they know about her, to get her to have such zeal in violating her oath to uphold the Constitution."

      For some people it's merely about personal greed. The phrase "Knowledge is power" is true, and people like her will put morals aside in the pursuit of power and wealth. She knows that the people who can most well provide her knoweldge that she can use to achieve power and pursue money are those whom she is giving so much freedom to break the US constitution to.

      She knows that even if she leaves politics she'll have a job waiting at some large global investment bank willing to pay her millions because she's built up such a great relationship with those that can provide her knowledge that gives that bank an edge over it's competitors. "Hey John, how are things at the NSA now? Listen, I was wondering if you could let me know what the real financial situation of this country is so that our bank can bet on it's collapse". In the meantime she'll just accept the dirt on her political opponents so that she can cement power against them as far as possible.

      They don't need anything on her, they just need to find the politicians willing to sacrifice everything that's good and right in the pursuit of their own personal wealth and power.

      This is how the world works, this is why people like ex-prime ministers of the UK get ridiculously well paying jobs. Companies don't employ them and pay them millions because of friendships, personalities, or skills. They employ them because of what they know and who their contacts are.

  • by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @06:26PM (#52256017)

    If the docs aren't redacted 16 ways to Sunday they're part of someone's narrative.

    • If the docs aren't redacted 16 ways to Sunday they're part of someone's narrative.

      That is a non-falsifiable belief. Keep the Faith, right?

      I mean, if you don't know, then you already have reason to... not know what it means. I certainly don't know the meaning of documents released by agencies that typically redact a lot of stuff.

      But not knowing is different than simply knowing because you can't know, which is irrational.

  • by epine ( 68316 ) on Sunday June 05, 2016 @08:17PM (#52256383)

    It's a bloody long article, but here's what caught my eye.

    Referring to a slide from the training program that seemed to indicate federal statutes and presidential Executive Orders (EOs) carry equal legal weight, Snowden wrote, "this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply Executive Orders have the same precedence as law. My understanding is that EOs may be superseded by federal statute, but EOs may not override statute."

    About 20 minutes after Snowden sent the email, an OGC office manager forwarded it to the Signals Intelligence Oversight and Compliance training group — the people who had designed the test.

    If the OGC lawyer had added "I'm not sure within the context of the training program whether the training slide attests to such a serious misrepresentation, but if it does, you need to suspend teaching this slide immediately" we might all now be in a different place.

    The NSA culture in effect seemed to regard providing timely and correct training materials concerning the chain of agency authority as a "best effort" (warranting an administrative follow up) rather than "mission critical" (warranting an internal bow-shot cease and desist).

    Hayden's book Playing to the Edge contains tedious chapter upon chapter about endless compliance politics played at the top level, all lawyered up six ways from Sunday, but did the organization deeply communicate the resulting values internally, as forcefully as described by John Kotter in his book Leading Change?

    Think You're Communicating Enough? Think Again [forbes.com]

    Most companies under communicate their visions for change by at least a factor of 10. A single memo announcing a big new change is never enough, nor is even a series of speeches by the CEO and the executive team.

    If the OGC lawyer had the required ten reminders from on high spilling out of her inbox, she might have gone down the cease and desist track instead, giving Snowden immediate reason to believe that someone on the other side actually gave a shit.

    Robert Litt, general counsel of the ODNI:

    "To the extent Snowden was saying he raised his concerns internally within NSA, no rational person could read this as being anything other than a question about an unclear single page of training."

    I would argue here that the other side of "playing close to the edge" is that a single page of unclear training material, if it's the wrong page, is no laughing matter.

    "To the extent Snowden was saying he raised his concerns internally within NSA, no rational person could read this as being anything other than a question about an unclear single page of training which, given the content of the page in question, should have been flagged as a matter of immediate and utmost concern."

    Narrow sidelines poorly communicated. What could possibly go wrong?

  • I think this is the first time I've ever seen or heard the phrases "intelligence community" and "in good faith" in the same sentence.
    • I think this is the first time I've ever seen or heard the phrases "intelligence community" and "in good faith" in the same sentence.

      Pop your head outside the echo chamber more often, the world isn't the way it is because space aliens dropped our gubermint out of the sky this way.

      The world is the way it is because there are people who support it being this way. This is equally true regardless of if you support [insert issue] or not.

  • by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Monday June 06, 2016 @07:06AM (#52258361)
    If The Donald does glom on to the White House [shudder], one of the first things that will happen is that the Freedom of Information Act will be XOed out of existence (then rubber-stamped by a Red majority Supreme Court followed by the GOP-controlled Congress jumping on board to kill it permanently).

    Cockroaches despise it when the kitchen light is turned on.
    • The SCOTUS isn't that partisan. I'm pretty liberal, but I trust Chief Justice Roberts to honestly continue to vote for his own legal values, and I trust that all the members of the Court are patriotic Americans.

  • "In Corporate America, NSA leaks documents on Snowden"

Every nonzero finite dimensional inner product space has an orthonormal basis. It makes sense, when you don't think about it.

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