Category Archives: Edward Snowden

Why Silicon Valley sticks up for Snowden

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By Peter Swire

Published: January 30, 2014

Is Edward Snowden a whistle-blower or a traitor? There is a vast cultural divide between Silicon Valley and Washington on this issue, and the reasons reveal much about the broader debates about what to do in the wake of his leaks.

In terms of my own perspective, I have written about privacy and the Internet for two decades, working closely with both civil liberties groups and Internet companies. On the government side, I first worked with intelligence agencies in the late 1990s when I chaired White House task forces on encryption and Internet wiretap laws.

As a member of President Barack Obamas Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, I spoke with numerous people in the intelligence community. Not one said that Snowden was a whistle-blower. The level of anger was palpable.

Part of the anger arises from the daily routine of working with classified materials. Merely carrying a cellphone into a secure facility by mistake amounts to a security violation. Thousands of security officers enforce the rules, and people can and do get fired when they are not scrupulous with classified materials.

Intelligence officers see Snowden as a serial destroyer of classified secrets. He plotted for months to violate the law on a massive scale. He has tipped off foreign adversaries about numerous programs that will require countless hours of work to revise; many will not regain their previous effectiveness.

Even though Snowden rejected all the existing options for a whistle-blower including congressional committees or avenues within the National Security Agency the view from Silicon Valley and privacy groups is much different. Last fall, I asked the leader of a Silicon Valley company about the whistle-blower-vs.-traitor debate. He said that more than 90 percent of his employees would call Snowden a whistle-blower.

Part of that reaction is based on the view that this robust national debate about NSA programs would not be happening had Snowden not leaked what he did.

The Silicon Valley concern about the NSA arises to some extent from a philosophy of anti-secrecy libertarianism. A well-known slogan there is that information wants to be free.

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Why Silicon Valley sticks up for Snowden

Report puts Snowden-like leaks as No. 2 threat to US security

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WASHINGTON Insiders like Edward Snowden who leak secrets about sensitive U.S. intelligence programs pose a potentially greater danger to national security than terrorists, Americas spy chiefs warned Wednesday in their annual report to Congress on global security risks.

For the first time, the risk of unauthorized disclosures of classified material and state-sponsored theft of data was listed as the second-greatest potential threat to America in a review of global perils prepared by the U.S. intelligence community. The risk followed cyberattacks on crucial infrastructure but was listed ahead of international terrorism.

U.S. officials previously have said it will cost billions of dollars to repair or revamp communications surveillance systems in the wake of the disclosures by Snowden, a former contract employee at a National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii who began leaking classified documents to the media in June and who later fled to Russia.

Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the leaks represent the most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history. He urged Snowden to return the material, saying he made the nation less safe and its people less secure.

Weve lost critical foreign intelligence collection sources, including some shared with us by valued partners, Clapper said. Terrorists and other adversaries of this country are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods and tradecraft, and the insights that they are gaining are making our job much, much harder.

Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who directs the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the leaks had endangered the lives of intelligence operatives and troops. Matt Olsen, heads of the National Counterterrorism Center, said they had made it tougher to track al-Qaida and its affiliates.

What weve seen in the last six to eight months is an awareness by these groups of our ability to monitor communications and specific instances where theyve changed the ways in which they communicate to avoid being surveilled, Olsen said.

Investigators believe Snowden copied 1.7 million documents from NSA servers, the largest breach of classified material in U.S. history, although only a fraction have been disclosed so far. Last summer, a military judge sentenced Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was born Bradley Manning, to 35 years in prison for sending 750,000 classified diplomatic cables, military field reports and other material to WikiLeaks.

Both Snowden and Manning have been condemned by critics as traitors and hailed by supporters as whistle-blowers who exposed government wrongdoing.

Only critics spoke at the hearing. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the classified documents Snowden downloaded, if printed out, would form a stack more than three miles high.

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Report puts Snowden-like leaks as No. 2 threat to US security

Snowden nominated for Nobel Prize

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By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

updated 11:23 AM EST, Wed January 29, 2014

An image of Edward Snowden on the back of a banner is seen infront of the US Capitol in October 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Two Norwegian lawmakers have jointly nominated National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize, they said Wednesday on their party website.

Snowden has "revealed the nature and technological prowess of modern surveillance," and by doing so has contributed to peace, said a joint statement by Bard Vegar Solhjell and Snorre Valen of the Socialist Left Party.

Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize -- whose previous winners include such figures as the late South African President Nelson Mandela, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Barack Obama -- close on Saturday, with the winner announced in October.

According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee's rules, Solhjell and Valen are qualified, as national lawmakers, to make a nomination. The names of each year's nominees are not revealed until 50 years later.

"There is no doubt that the actions of Edward Snowden may have damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term. We do not necessarily condone or support all of his disclosures," said the statement by Solhjell and Valen.

"We are, however, convinced that the public debate and changes in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowden's whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order.

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Snowden nominated for Nobel Prize

Snowden Nominated by Norwegian Lawmakers for Nobel Peace Prize

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President Barack Obama wants to see Edward Snowden clapped in irons and bound to the U.S. for a criminal trial. Two Norwegian politicians have a different fate in mind for Snowden: the Nobel Peace Prize.

Norwegian parliamentarians Snorre Valen and Baard Vegar Solhjell nominated Snowden for the award -- the same honor Obama himself won in 2009 -- for his disclosures about National Security Agency spying.

The idea that the Nobel committee would bestow its most prestigious prize on a man some in the U.S. consider a traitor drew a dismissive response from a White House official, who said Snowden instead should be tried as a felon.

Snowden should be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

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Snowdens leaks often shed more heat than light, while revealing methods to our adversaries that could impact our operations in ways that we may not fully understand for years to come, she said.

Two Norwegians agreed that Snowdens leaks undoubtedly damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term and that they didnt necessarily condone or support all his disclosures. The revelations did have a positive impact, they said.

The public debate and changes in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowdens whistleblowing have contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order, Valen and Solhjell, who represent the Socialist Left Party in the Norwegian parliament, wrote in their nomination letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg. Solhjell was environment minister in the former Labor-led government.

Obama was spurred to make changes in U.S. surveillance programs in response to domestic and international backlash that resulted from disclosures made by Snowden, who has temporary asylum in Russia after being charged under espionage laws in the U.S.

The Nobel committee doesnt release the names of nominees for 50 years, though those who make the nominations are free to do so. Nominees may be given to the five-member committee by a government and court officials, academics, board members of organizations that have received the prize, as well as past winners.

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Snowden Nominated by Norwegian Lawmakers for Nobel Peace Prize

Edward Snowden is nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize

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OSLO, Norway, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Two Norwegian politicians have nominated National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize because they believe he contributed to a more peaceful world order by exposing secret U.S. surveillance programs.

The public debate and changes in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowdens whistleblowing have contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order, Norwegian parliamentarians Snorre Valen and Baard Vegar Solhjell wrote in the nomination letter obtained by Bloomberg.

Snowden, 30, is currently in Russia on temporary asylum after leaking classified documents about the NSAs spying programs. He faces charges of theft and espionage.

Although Valen and Solhjell wrote theres no doubt that the actions of Edward Snowden may have damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term, they believe his actions have in effect led to the reintroduction of trust and transparency as a leading principle in global security policies.

Valen and Solhjell represent the Socialist Left Party in the Norwegian parliament. They did write that they dont necessarily condone or support all of his disclosures.

According to Attorney General Eric Holder, if Snowden returned to the U.S. and pleaded guilty, prosecutors would negotiate with him.

The Nobel Prize winner will be announced in October. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won last years Peace Prize.

[Bloomberg] [The Independent]

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Edward Snowden is nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize