Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the Edward Snowden story, offers further details on his contacts with Snowden and the US government's surveillance system.

There is very little middle ground with regard to Edward Snowden in polarized America. The former CIA snoop with a license to hack made a U-turn one year ago and blew the whistle on the surveillance state that he had served for eight years. Is he a hero or a felon, traitor or patriot, an immature narcissist or a martyr to the cause of freedom and privacy?

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A few things seem indisputable. Snowden, a high school dropout who, in 2004 at age 21, enlisted in the US Army with the goal of freeing Iraqis from oppression, subsequently rose meteorically within Americas top-secret security apparatus. After a training accident cut his military career short, he went from security guard in 2005 to technical expert for the CIA in 2006. The following year he was stationed in Geneva, undercover with diplomatic credentials, as a cyber-security expert. Soon he would be earning well over six figures a year.

Clearly, this young man was really good with computers and that was enough for the CIA and later the National Security Agency (NSA). Both were hungry for talented people to staff their burgeoning digital data collection and surveillance projects with colorful names like PRISM and Blarney. Many new recruits on the frontlines of Americas cyber wars are, like Snowden, 20-somethings

In No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State, bestselling author and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald tells how he broke the story on the trove of top secret documents that Snowden had spirited away from purportedly secure government computers. Snowden, it turns out, was a fan of Greenwalds reporting. He liked Greenwalds criticism of Americas post-9/11 security policies, including the warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bushs tenure. Snowden invited Greewald and another journalist to be the first to report on what he knew and the documents he had stolen. As shocking as anything else in this book is the fact that these three individuals months after documents had been downloaded appeared to be the only ones who were aware that Americas secrets had been compromised.

By 2010, having left the CIA, Snowden was working on NSA projects as a Dell Corporation employee. He had become disillusioned: The stuff I saw really began to disturb me. I could watch drones in real time as they surveilled the people they might kill. You could watch entire villages and see what everyone was doing. I watched NSA tracking peoples Internet activity as they typed. I became aware of how invasive US surveillance capabilities had become. And almost nobody knew it was happening.

What was happening included the wholesale amassing of metadata about hundreds of millions of Americans: with the help of major providers like Verizon, Google, and AT&T, the NSA was gathering, analyzing, and storing telephone records, e-mail and Skype traffic, Facebook and other social media activity from people at home and abroad. Who Americans were communicating with, where, when, and for how long had become fair game regardless of whether these citizens were active in Al Qaeda or the 4-H Club. The agency also has the capacity to extract the content of these communications if it sees fit. The Wall Street Journal reported that the NSA interception system has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all US Internet traffic. Famously, the NSA also was listening to German Chancellor Angela Merkels telephone conversations.

Greenwald writes: [Snowdens] archive revealed the technical means used to intercept communications: the NSAs taping of Internet servers, satellites, underwater fiber-optic cables, local and foreign telephone systems, and personal computers. If the NSA didnt reach its goal of collecting it all, it was gathering enough 20 billion communication events (Internet and telephone) from around the world daily, according to Greenwald that the agency could hardly store, much less analyze it.

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'No Place to Hide' by Glenn Greenwald portrays Edward Snowden as a 'whistleblower in shining armor'

In June 2013, Edward Snowden was sitting in his room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong, watching the world react to the first of his explosive leaks about the NSA's out-of-control surveillance, when he was tipped off that the NSA might be closing in on him.

Snowden's identity as the source of the documents was still unknown to the public. But through a "net-connected device" he installed at his now-abandoned home in Hawaii to watch out for the watchers -- presumably an IP surveillance camera with microphone -- he knew when two people from the NSA showed up at the house looking for him, an NSA "police officer" and someone from human resources.

This is one of the new details revealed inNo Place to Hide, the much-anticipated book by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who worked with Snowden and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras to publish a number of blockbuster stories about the NSA.

Snowden had known it would only be a matter of time before the NSA was on his trail -- he had intentionally left electronic footprints behind that would help the agency identify him as the leaker.

Though he could have covered his tracks -- the NSA's internal security was so poor the agency failed to catch him downloading thousands of documents over many weeks -- he hadn't wanted his colleagues to be subjected to needless suspicion or false accusations during the inevitable investigation that would follow the leaks. Snowden in fact intended to reveal his identity with the first story that was published, but Greenwald convinced him to wait so that the public's initial reactions would be focused on the NSA leaks and not the leaker.

The book, which is being released today, provides an extensive look at Greenwald's earliest encounters -- online and in person -- with the mysterious whistleblower who for months would only identify himself as Cincinnatus. It also expands on existing reporting about the agency's spy operations through the publication of more than 50 previously unpublished documents.

Although there may be little in the documents that's startling to anyone who has carefully followed the leak revelations over the last year, the book does a good job of providing an overview of what the documents and stories have revealed until now, while adding fresh detail. [One complaint with the book, however, is the lack of an index. Greenwald has said he plans to publish it online today, but this won't likely satisfy readers with print copies who don't want to jump on their computer or phone each time they want to find something in the book.]

Among the fresh details he reports -- the NSA routinely intercepts networking devices such as routers, servers, and switches as they're in transit from US sellers to international customers and plants digital bugging devices in them, before repackaging them with a factory seal and sending them on their way. Although it's been previously reported that the NSA, CIA and FBI intercept laptops to install spyware, the tampering with network hardware would potentially affect more users and data.

He also reports that US telecoms partnering with foreign telecoms to upgrade their networks help subvert foreign networks for the spy agency.

"The NSA exploits the access that certain telecom companies have to international systems, having entered into contracts with foreign telecoms to build, maintain, and upgrade their networks," he writes. "The US companies then redirect the target country's communications data to NSA repositories."

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Greenwald's gripping tale of breaking Snowden leaks

He wasn't just trying to spark democratic debate on surveillance. He also hoped his revelations would prompt programmers to build better encryption.

Reuters

A few pages into Glenn Greenwald's newly released book,

My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name," he reportedly wrote in a note to his collaborators, "and that which is done against them."

Actually, though, he had a second motive. Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." Snowden wrote:

While I pray that public awareness and debate will lead to reform, bear in mind that the policies of men change in time, and even the Constitution is subverted when the appetites of power demand it. In words from history: Let us speak no more of faith in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of cryptography.

Even if most people had ignored Snowden, he might not have judged his own actions a total waste. After all, they might have inspired a single cryptographer to innovate. That could be hugely significant.

The quote above isn't the only one that supports this analysis. Greenwald reproduces another paragraph that Snowden wrote to reporter and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras early in their correspondence, characterizing it as "the crux of what he viewed as his mission." Snowden wrote:

The shock of this initial period [after the first revelations] will provide the support needed to build a more equal internet, but this will not work to the advantage of the average person unless science outpaces law. By understanding the mechanisms through which our privacy is violated, we can win here. We can guarantee for all people equal protection against unreasonable search through universal laws, but only if the technical community is willing to face the threat and commit to implementing over-engineered solutions. In the end, we must enforce a principle whereby the only way the powerful may enjoy privacy is when it is the same kind shared by the ordinary: one enforced by the laws of nature, rather than the policies of man.

I may be forgetting about a statement or series of statements that Snowden made over the last year. But as best I can remember, these are the clearest passages that we have indicating a second primary motive. Snowden was trying to reach the masses to inform us and spark a debate that somehow reined in the NSA.

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Edward Snowden's Other Motive for Leaking

May 13, 2014

Photos of Edward Snowden, a contractor at the US National Security Agency (NSA), and US President Barack Obama are printed on the front pages of newspapers in Hong Kong in this file illustration photo taken on June 11, 2013. Reuters pic, May 13, 2014.Edward Snowden was "profoundly at peace" with his decision to leak national security documents, and even joked about the consequences, journalist Glenn Greenwald says in a new book.

"I call the bottom bunk at Gitmo," Snowden joked, referring to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says the book to be released today, excerpts of which were published yesterday in The Guardian.

Greenwald, recounting the series of discussions last year in Hong Kong when the former National Security Agency contractor decided to reveal his identity, said Snowden appeared to sleep soundly and was "completely refreshed the next day" despite the tension.

"Snowden had seemed unbothered" by the prospect of facing US prosecution for releasing the classified materials on NSA surveillance programmes, Greenwald wrote, adding that "a giddy gallows humour crept into our dealings".

"When we asked him about his ability to sleep so well under the circumstances, Snowden said that he felt profoundly at peace with what he had done and so the nights were easy," said Greenwald, who met with Snowden in Hong Kong with Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill.

"'I figure I have very few days left with a comfortable pillow,'" he joked, 'so I might as well enjoy them.'"

Greenwald also described manoeuvres that allowed Snowden to avoid a throng of journalists in Hong Kong looking for him after the video in which he revealed his identity was released on The Guardian website.

He wrote that two human rights lawyers arrived at the hotel where Snowden and three journalists were staying to assist Snowden, but that Greenwald had to find a way to get him away without confronting the horde of media.

Snowden said he had a way to make himself "unrecognisable" but they needed a way to get him away without being followed, Greenwald wrote.

Original post:
snowden-newspapers-reuters-130514.JPG

Edward Snowden photographed in Moscow, Russia December, 2013. Photo: Barton Gellman/Getty Images

In June 2013, Edward Snowden was sitting in his room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong, watching the world react to the first of his explosive leaks about the NSAs out-of-control surveillance, when he was tipped off that the NSA might be closing in on him.

Snowdens identity as the source of the documents was still unknown to the public. But through a net-connected device he installed at his now-abandoned home in Hawaii to watch out for the watchers presumably an IP surveillance camera with microphone he knew when two people from the NSA showed up at the house looking for him, an NSA police officer and someone from human resources.

This is one of the new details revealed in No Place to Hide, the much-anticipated book by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who worked with Snowden and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras to publish a number of blockbuster stories about the NSA.

Snowden had known it would only be a matter of time before the NSA was on his trail he had intentionally left electronic footprints behind that would help the agency identify him as the leaker.

Though he could have covered his tracks the NSAs internal security was so poor the agency failed to catch him downloading thousands of documents over many weeks he hadnt wanted his colleagues to be subjected to needless suspicion or false accusations during the inevitable investigation that would follow the leaks. Snowden in fact intended to reveal his identity with the first story that was published, but Greenwald convinced him to wait so that the publics initial reactions would be focused on the NSA leaks and not the leaker.

The book, which is being released today, provides an extensive look at Greenwalds earliest encounters online and in person with the mysterious whistleblower who for months would only identify himself as Cincinnatus. It also expands on existing reporting about the agencys spy operations through the publication of more than 50 previously unpublished documents.

Although there may be little in the documents thats startling to anyone who has carefully followed the leak revelations over the last year, the book does a good job of providing an overview of what the documents and stories have revealed until now, while adding fresh detail. [One complaint with the book, however, is the lack of an index. Greenwald has said he plans to publish it online today, but this won't likely satisfy readers with print copies who don't want to jump on their computer or phone each time they want to find something in the book.]

Among the fresh details he reports the NSA routinely intercepts networking devices such as routers, servers, and switches as theyre in transit from U.S. sellers to international customers and plants digital bugging devices in them, before repackaging them with a factory seal and sending them on their way. Although its been previously reported that the NSA, CIA and FBI intercept laptops to install spyware, the tampering with network hardware would potentially affect more users and data.

He also reports that U.S. telecoms partnering with foreign telecoms to upgrade their networks help subvert foreign networks for the spy agency.

Link:
Glenn Greenwald’s Pulse-Pounding Tale of Breaking the Snowden Leaks

Edward Snowden says he's at peace with his decision to leak national security documents, and even joked about the consequences, journalist Glenn Greenwald says in a new book.

Excerpts from Greenwald's No Place to Hide have been published in The Guardian ahead of the books release on Tuesday.

"I call the bottom bunk at Gitmo," Snowden joked, referring to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the book says.

Greenwald, recounting the series of discussions he had last year in Hong Kong when the former National Security Agency contractor decided to reveal his identity, said Snowden appeared to sleep soundly and was "completely refreshed the next day" despite the tension.

"Snowden had seemed unbothered" by the prospect of facing US prosecution for releasing the classified materials on NSA surveillance programs, Greenwald wrote, adding that "a giddy gallows humour crept into our dealings."

"When we asked him about his ability to sleep so well under the circumstances, Snowden said that he felt profoundly at peace with what he had done and so the nights were easy," said Greenwald, who met with Snowden in Hong Kong with Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill.

"'I figure I have very few days left with a comfortable pillow, so I might as well enjoy them,'" Snowden joked.

Greenwald also described manoeuvres that allowed Snowden to avoid a throng of journalists in Hong Kong looking for him after a video, in which he revealed his identity, was released on The Guardian website.

He wrote that two human rights lawyers arrived at the hotel where Snowden and three journalists were staying to assist Snowden, but that Greenwald had to find a way to get him away without confronting the horde of media.

Snowden said he had a way to make himself "unrecognisable" but they needed a way to get him away without being followed, Greenwald wrote.

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Edward Snowden 'at peace' with leaks

By Kate Snow

Glenn Greenwald says his new book, "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State" is an attempt to present the entire story of his dealings with one of the most famous whistle-blowers of all time: Edward Snowden.

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"There's been so much said about our reporting about Edward Snowden, about how these documents came to light, so much of which is not true," Greenwald told NBC News National Correspondent Kate Snow. "And this is an opportunity to tell the actual story."

Last summer, Greenwald began publishing reports based on documents leaked to him by the former NSA employee. The stories caused a public debate over the use and limits of government surveillance. Currently Greenwald writes for a digital magazine owned by First Look Media. NBC News has a collaboration agreement with that company.

Greenwald described how the entire episode began with Snowden reaching out to Greenwald in an unsolicited email, using the alias "Cincinnatus" (a reference to a Roman warrior who defended the city against attack). Greenwald ignored those first email entreaties and almost missed the scoop of his career.

Watch the video below to hear Greenwald's account of how he first met Snowden.

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First published May 12 2014, 1:40 PM

Kate Snow is a national correspondent for NBC News, contributing stories to "Nightly News with Brian Williams," the "TODAY" show and Dateline. In this role, she also serves as a fill-in anchor for "Nightly News with Brian Williams" and the "TODAY" show. Prior to being named national correspondent, Snow served as correspondent for "Rock Center with Brian Williams".

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Greenwald 'Overwhelmed With Shock' Upon Meeting Edward Snowden

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German lawmakers decided this week they want to question former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden as part of a parliamentary inquiry into the mass surveillance of German citizens, which he exposed.

"A majority of the committee has decided that we want to hear Mr. Snowden," said Roderich Kiesewetter, the conservative head of the committee set up to investigate the activities in Germany of the US National Security Agency (NSA).

It has not yet been decided whether Snowden, who was granted asylum in Russia, should be invited to testify in person about the NSA surveillance that has soured ties between Washington and Berlin. Snowden risks being arrested and extradited if he sets foot in any US-allied country.

He was charged last year in the United States with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person.

An option would be for him to testify from abroad but the German opposition argues that Snowden would only be able to express himself freely if he were in Germany.

Angela Merkel's conservatives have so far rejected this, fearing that bringing Snowden to Berlin could further damage relations with Washington which have suffered from revelations that US spies had tapped the German chancellor's own phone.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Merkel's conservatives in a 'grand coalition,' have said they are open to questioning Snowden in Germany or Russia.

(Reporting by Hans-Edzard Busemann; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Stephen Brown)

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140509/german-lawmakers-decide-question-snowden-about-mass-surv

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German lawmakers want to question Edward Snowden on mass surveillance

Edward Snowden Here #39;s how we take back the Internet revised
This is taken from a Ted talks, I do not own the rights to the video.

By: Reid Loveless

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Edward Snowden Here's how we take back the Internet revised - Video

Edward Snowden, as the world first saw him in June 2013. (Photograph: AFP/Getty Images)In the hours after his name became known, the entire world was searching for the NSA whistleblower, and it became vital that his whereabouts in Hong Kong remained secret. In an extract from his new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State, Greenwald recalls the dramatic events surrounding the moment Snowden revealed himself in June 2013.

On Thursday 6 June 2013, our fifth day in Hong Kong, I went to Edward Snowden's hotel room and he immediately said he had news that was "a bit alarming". An internet-connected security device at the home he shared with his longtime girlfriend in Hawaii had detected that two people from the NSA a human-resources person and an NSA "police officer" had come to their house searching for him.

Snowden was almost certain this meant that the NSA had identified him as the likely source of the leaks, but I was sceptical. "If they thought you did this, they'd send hordes of FBI agents with a search warrant and probably Swat teams, not a single NSA officer and a human-resources person." I figured this was just an automatic and routine inquiry, triggered when an NSA employee goes absent for a few weeks without explanation. But Snowden suggested that perhaps they were being purposely low-key to avoid drawing media attention or setting off an effort to suppress evidence.

Whatever the news meant, it underscored the need for Laura Poitras the film-maker who was collaborating with me on the story and I to quickly prepare our article and video unveiling Snowden as the source of the disclosures. We were determined that the world would first hear about Snowden, his actions and his motives, from Snowden himself, not through a demonisation campaign spread by the US government while he was in hiding or in custody and unable to speak for himself.

Our plan was to publish two more articles on the NSA files in the Guardian and then release a long piece on Snowden himself, accompanied by a videotaped interview, and a printed Q&A with him.

Poitras had spent the previous 48 hours editing the footage from my first interview with Snowden, but she said it was too detailed, lengthy, and fragmented to use. She wanted to film a new interview right away; one that was more concise and focused, and wrote a list of 20 or so specific questions for me to ask him. I added several of my own as Poitras set up her camera and directed us where to sit.

"Um, my name is Ed Snowden," the now-famous film begins. "I'm 29 years old. I work for Booz Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure analyst for NSA in Hawaii."

Snowden went on to provide crisp, stoic, rational responses to each question: Why had he decided to disclose these documents? Why was this important enough for him to sacrifice his freedom? What were the most significant revelations? Was there anything criminal or illegal shown in these documents? What did he expect would happen to him?

As he gave examples of illegal and invasive surveillance, he became animated and passionate. But only when I asked him whether he expected repercussions did he show distress, fearing that the government would target his family and girlfriend for retaliation. He would avoid contact with them to reduce the risk, he said, but he knew he could not fully protect them. "That's the one thing that keeps me up at night, what will happen to them," he said as his eyes welled up, the first and only time I saw that happen.

Greenwald talking to reporters on 10 June 2013, the day after Snowden revealed his identity in the Guardian. (Photograph: AP)The relatively lighter mood we had managed to keep up over the prior few days now turned to palpable anxiety: we were less than 24 hours away from revealing Snowden's identity, which we knew would change everything, for him most of all. The three of us had lived through a short but exceptionally intense and gratifying experience. One of us, Snowden, was soon to be removed from the group, likely to go to prison for a long time a fact that had depressingly lurked in the air from the outset, at least for me. Only Snowden had seemed unbothered by this. Now, a giddy gallows humor crept into our dealings.

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Glenn Greenwald: The Explosive Day We Revealed Edward Snowden's Identity to the World