NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was targeted by flame-haired former spy Anna Chapman, The Sunday People reports.

According to the British newspaper, former KGB agent Boris Karpichkov, who has defected to the West, says the Kremlin laid out a plan for Chapman, 32, to lure Snowden, 31, into staying in the country so Russian intelligence officials could try to talk to him about American security secrets.

The two met only once, says Karpichkov, but Chapman tweeted a marriage proposal soon afterward, on July 3, 2013.

"But Snowden became concerned about what the consequences would be," Karpichkov said. "If Snowden had accepted, he would have a right to Russian citizenship. That would lock him in Russia. As a citizen hed need permission to leave."

Chapman last year walked out of an interview with NBC when questioned about the proposal, and was likely told by the Kremlin not to discuss the matter, the paper reported.

Former British Parliament Member Rupert Allason, an author of espionage books, told the Mirror, "Anna is sophisticated enough to live with an American There arent many of those in the FSB (formerly the KGB). She would be prepared to use her obvious gifts."

The daughter of a Russian diplomat, Chapman was revealed to be part of a spy sleeper cell in the United States. She had been working as a real estate agent in New York City.

She and others were returned to Russia as part of a spy swap, and she began a modeling career and joined a pro-Kremlin party.

Snowden has been stuck in Russia since shortly after releasing documents he obtained as a contractor for the National Security Agency. His actions set off a debate within the country about how much the government can collect data on its own citizens.

Snowden initially flew to Hong Kong, but with the United States attempting to extradite him, he reportedly tried to fly to Ecuador via Moscow. The United States revoked his passport, and he has been in Russia ever since.

See the original post:
Report: Russian Spy Anna Chapman Tried to Seduce Edward ...

AfterEdward Snowdenleaked information about a wide range ofgovernment surveillance programs, many peopleexpected a majorlegal shift in the world of Internet security. But calls for stricter laws may be missing the point.

Most people want to see statutory change or policy change as evidence that theres been some real impact from the Snowden leaks," explains Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas. "But, in a way, I think thats turning out to be the wrong place to look,

Chesney says the real changeis in the private sector specifically, in the changing relationship between the private telecommunications and internet companies and the US government.

Thanks to the way that the Snowden story has catalysed interest in privacy, [there's] pressure on companies to be more privacy-protective," he says. "Theres something of a sea change underway.

Just look at your smartphone: Apple and Google have made encryption a default setting on their devices to ensure the privacy of the user so much so that even the providers, let alone the government, can'taccess the devices information.

The default encryption model, in theory, makes it hard if not impossible for the company themselves to unlock data on, say, a suspects or targets cell phone or iPad, Chesney says.

That hascaused an obvious rift between intelligence agencies and private technology companies. The claim isits not that [the FBI] is seeking new authorities, but that their existing authorities dont mean what they used to because of this technological change," Chesney explains.

The new Congress will also have to tackle the issue of whether government agencies cancontinuebulk metadata collection the practice that allows them to vacuum up information about phone calls regardless of whether they've been identified with crimes or terrorism.

All theyre really talking about is whether the government will hold that haystack of data itself, or if, instead, it will all be held in a disaggregated way in the hands of all the telecommunication companies that are involved, Chesney says.

With legal change on the horizon and private change well underway, the legacy of Snowden is hard to ignore especially for Chesney. In his basic course on national security law, he used to coverinternet securityin just four or five days. Last year, he says, we had to more than double that, and it wasnt nearly enough.

Original post:
To see the changes Edward Snowden wrought, just look at your smartphone

No argument.

Citizenfour is the most important documentary of the film year. That doesnt make it the best, though. That, it seems to me, is another subject altogether.

The raw facts of the matter put its significance entirely beyond dispute. Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras is one of those people tirelessly investigating homeland security procedures since 9/11.

She and reporter Glenn Greenwald started getting messages from a government employee who signed himself Citizenfour and who seemed to be promising the possibility of thunderous whistle-blowing about a subject of enormous interest to them both.

And how.

And that led to the very creation of this film, which documents how that world-rocking news story was born and knocked the world of American information off its axis. Poitras, then, was in on the very beginning of the story of Edward Snowden, who, through Glenn Greenwalds prize-winning reporting, revealed that the National Security Agency not only engages in domestic surveillance but has the technical capacity to do so on virtually a countrywide scale.

In effect, Snowden took part of the sci-fi premise of TVs Person of Interest and made it part of our contemporary reality.

What you watch for 114 minutes in Poitras well-made documentary is every early step of the Snowden story, from the first meeting with Greenwald in Hong Kong to his world odyssey fleeing from a U.S. government that doesnt take kindly to having its uglier secrets exposed.

Snowden blew one hell of a big whistle.

What he was doing, essentially, was revealing the U.S. constitutions Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights to have been transformed into a mere recommendation in a toothless Bill of Suggestions. At least one of our giant secret agencies the National Security Agency not only flouted that right but had the technology to virtually eradicate it.

Go here to read the rest:
If only history found it as necessary to be dramatically compelling as movies

Edward Snowden is still in Russia. Photo: TT

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has given his first major interview in six months to a freelance Swedish reporter, ten days after he picked up the Swedish Right Livelihood award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

The American citizen who has lived in Russia for more than eighteen months after being granted asylum there, told the journalist that he remained too afraid to return to his home country and admitted violating US law.

"If I go home, and I volunteer myself to life in prison, I discourage other people from doing what everyone in the country reasons at this point was the right thing to do, he told the reporter, who produced the interview for Swedish television network SVT,

Snowden went on the run after he leaked top secret NSA documents to journalists. He faces up to three decades in prison in the US forcrimes against national security. Secretary of State John Kerry says the former contractor "damaged his country very significantly."

Snowden very rarely gives interviews, and after he talked to a US television company in May 2014, Kerry demanded that he return home.

"Well I would say if there was fair trial, That would be great, he told SVT.

He criticised current US laws, stating that he would not have the opportunity to make a public interest defence" in the US.

Earlier this month Snowden waswas honoured in Sweden together with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, picking up the Right Livelihood award, which recognises those who work to improve the lives of others, but whose backgrounds prevent them from picking up traditional Nobel prizes.

He wasunable to attend the ceremonyin person so instead gave a speech via a video link from his base in Russia.

See the original post:
Snowden in rare talks with Swedish television