William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden - NSA: Demokratie?
William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden - NSA: Nach auen Demokratie, nach innen berwachungsstaat.

By: De Principiis

See original here:
William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden - NSA: Demokratie? - Video

If the whistleblower broke the Privacy Act, he deserves to be prosecuted. But he's not the only lawbreaker.

Reuters

Over at Lawfare, Ben Wittes argues that Edward Snowden violated the Privacy Act when he gave the Washington Postthe private communications of individuals spied on by the NSA. The law in question states:

Any officer or employee of an agency, who by virtue of his employment or official position, has possession of, or access to, agency records which contain individually identifiable information the disclosure of which is prohibited by this section or by rules or regulations established thereunder, and who knowing that disclosure of the specific material is so prohibited, willfully discloses the material in any manner to any person or agency not entitled to receive it, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000.

Snowden's leak does seem to violate this law. Under the circumstances, a misdemeanor conviction and a $5,000 fine seems like a reasonable penaltyand since he's a student of civil disobedience who believes in the importance of privacy, I suspect Snowden would plead guilty to the misdemeanor to underscore the law's importance, assusiming he were also given the Espionage Act clemency he deserves for exposing surveillance that massively violates human rights, the Fourth Amendment, and the separation of powers. That revelation fulfilled his obligation to protect the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic.

What do you say, Mr. Snowden? Would you take that deal, despite the recent custom of granting retroactive immunity to those who violate the privacy of Americans?

Of course, I would understand if, Snowden offered to pay the $5,000 fine only if charges were also brought and, if convictions were secured, punishments meted out to James Clapper for perjury, various CIA officials for torture, and Leon Panetta for revealing classified information about the military unit that killed Osama bin Laden. After all, I'm sure that Snowden, like Wittes, wouldn't want to send the message that breaking the law in service of those in power goes unpunished in America, while "the rule of law" is only invoked to punish those who criticize the powerful.

Happily, the latest Snowden leak has finally convinced Wittes, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, that the NSA's collection of the private communications of innocent people constitutes a massive violation of civil libertiesthis after insisting for so many months that the NSA and its contractors had perpetrated no serious abuses.

The Latest Snowden Leak Is Devastating to NSA Defenders

Wittes and I happen to disagree about which acts by current or former NSA employees and contractors are most egregious.But now that we both agree serious abuses have occurred perhaps we can work on reforms.

Go here to read the rest:
Edward Snowden or the NSA: Who Violated Your Privacy More?

Recent leaks which seem to come from within the NSA may not originate from Edward Snowden, suggesting there is a second leaker at work.Getty

Just over a year ago Edward Snowden began revealing the breadth and depth of government surveillance around the world.

It has changed the way a lot of people have operated online with an increased interest in privacy and security even among ordinary citizens.

The revelations from the documents Snowden took while working for the NSA continue to shock and surprise, with the latest revelationshowing that the NSA captured and retained intimate and sensitive email conversations, images and documents of more than 10,000 citizens - despite those men and women not being classified as targets.

Another Snowden?

However it was a revelation about NSA spying from last week in Germanywhich has raised another question: Is there another Edward Snowden out there, leaking sensitive information about the NSA's inner workings to journalists?

On Thursday, German website Tagesschaurevealed that the NSA was using a tool called XKeyScore to target web users who searched for anything related to privacy-focused operating system Tails or the anonymity network called Tor, branding those that did as "extremists".

In a report on BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow says he spoke to technical experts who have worked on "the full set of Snowden docs" about this latest leak and they were "shocked".

Another expert Doctorow spoke to suggested that this leak came from a source other than Snowden.

"I think there's a second leaker out there"

View original post here:
Edward Snowden 2.0: Is There Another NSA Leaker at Work?

Julian Assange, founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, has said that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden will not be able to conduct a "meaningful" defense against the U.S. government if he returns to his home country.

In an interview withDemocracy Now, Assange, who has been staying at the Ecuador embassy in London for three years, noted that the U.S. government will use the state secrets privilege in its case against Snowden and try to present evidence in a manner that will render him unable to conduct a defense.

"He has no possibility to conduct a meaningful defense in the United States. That's just a sad reflection of how the federal court system has evolved in relation to national security cases," Assange said.

He added that the U.S. government will make sure that the case is tried in Alexandria, Virginia, which has "the highest density of military intelligence contractors and government employees" in the country. "So they always get what they want" in Alexandria, according to Assange.

"The state secrets privilege is used in these espionage cases, where the government tries to work out a way to present evidence that it doesn't allow to the defense under the basis that it's classified. So, even at the sort of procedural level, he will not be able to conduct a meaningful defense," he added.

"Then, in relation to his obligations under law for classified access, it's a strict liability. So he can't conduct any whistleblower defense that it was in the public interest, etc. It's strict liability."

Snowden attracted international attention after he leaked up to 1.7 million top secret documents about the NSA's surveillance programs. President Barack Obama's administration faced severe criticism around the world as the documents revealed that the NSA tapped telephone conversations and spied on the Internet activities of prominent people, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

See the rest here:
Edward Snowden Cannot Mount 'Meaningful' Defence In US: Julian Assange