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Edward Snowden says email released by NSA is "incomplete"

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WASHINGTON -- Edward Snowden says he repeatedly raised constitutional concerns about National Security Agency surveillance internally, but an NSA search turned up a single email in which Snowden gently asks for "clarification" on a technical legal question about training materials, agency officials said Thursday. Snowden later called the official release of the email "incomplete."

Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator whose leaks have exposed some of the agency's most sensitive spying operations, called himself a patriot in an interview this week with NBC News' Brian Williams. He said he felt he had no choice but to expose what he considered illegal NSA surveillance by leaking secret details to journalists.

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White House spokesman Jay Carney disputes Edward Snowden's claim that he tried to blow the whistle internally before going public with his leaks ...

NSA officials have said he gained access to some 1.7 million classified documents, though it's not clear how many he removed from the Hawaii facility where he worked as a contractor.

Asked by Williams whether he first raised his qualms with his bosses, he said, "I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities."

On Thursday, NSA released the email they said Snowden appeared to be referring to, which the agency says is the only communication from Snowden it could find raising any concerns. It was dated April 8, 2013, three months after Snowden first reached out to journalists anonymously. Former NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said the agency could find no one to whom Snowden voiced concerns verbally either.

In the email to NSA's general counsel's office, Snowden questions an NSA document showing the hierarchy of governing authorities, which appeared to put executive orders on par with federal statutes.

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National Security Advisor Susan Rice speaks with Charlie Rose about NSA leaker Edward Snowden and rejects his claims of not hurting American secu...

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Edward Snowden says email released by NSA is "incomplete"

Snowden Strikes Back at NSA, Emails NBC News

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Fugitive Edward Snowden on Friday challenged the NSAs insistence that it has no evidence he tried to raise concerns about the agencys surveillance activity before he began leaking government documents to reporters, calling the response a clearly tailored and incomplete leak ... for a political advantage.

The NSA's new discovery of written contact between me and its lawyers -- after more than a year of denying any such contact existed - raises serious concerns, Snowden said in an email Friday to NBC News. It reveals as false the NSA's claim to Barton Gellman of the Washington Post in December of last year, that after extensive investigation, including interviews with his former NSA supervisors and co-workers, we have not found any evidence to support Mr. Snowdens contention that he brought these matters to anyones attention.

Snowdens email followed Thursdays release by the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence of an email exchange between Snowden and the NSAs Office of the General Counsel. The Washington Post received and published a similar response from Snowden on Thursday.

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That email, dated April 5 , 2013, and bearing the subject line Question for OGC re. OVSC1800 Course Content, was a request for clarification about a legal point in training materials for a mandatory course regarding policies and procedures restricting domestic surveillance by the NSA. Its primary focus was on the question of whether an executive order issued by the president could trump a federal statute.

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The NSA has said it is the only email or other communication that it has found in which Snowden communicated with agency officials about the NSAs surveillance program, countering his assertion that he had sent multiple emails to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks raising concerns about the NSAs interpretations of its legal authorities, as he claimed in an exclusive interview with NBC News Brian Williams that aired Wednesday night.

The NSA released this Edward Snowden email to the Office of General Counsel asking for an explanation of some material that was in a training course he had just completed, Thursday May 29, 2014.

Two U.S. officials who spoke to NBC News about the email prior to its release noted that it asked a question about how the NSA was interpreting its legal justifications for domestic surveillance, but had not raised concerns about the NSAs practices.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made a similar point in a statement on Thursday, saying that the email does not support Snowdens account.

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Snowden Strikes Back at NSA, Emails NBC News

Snowden: Obama Broke Vow to Change Bush Policies

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Edward Snowden says that while he was inspired by President Obama's election, he's disappointed that Obama "embraced" or "extended" the surveillance policies of President Bush.

In his exclusive interview with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, Snowden would not say if he voted for Obama, arguing that should be kept private.

"Whether or not I voted for President Obama, I was inspired by him. He gave me courage, he gave me hope. I really believed that he would be a positive force for the country," Snowden said.

"And I still hope he will be."

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Snowden said Obama has failed to carry through on a pledge to reverse some of the policies of his predecessor.

"He's embraced the policies and he's extended the policies," the former NSA contractor said.

"He's not Bush. He's his own president. But the consonance in the policies should be concerning for a lot of Americans because he was a candidate that promised that he would give the public back its seat at the table of government.

"And he still has time to do so."

For his first American television interview, Snowden met for about five hours last week with Williams at a hotel in Moscow, where Snowden is living in exile while facing U.S. felony charges.

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Snowden: Obama Broke Vow to Change Bush Policies

Snowden says Obama broke vow on policy

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Edward Snowden says that while he was inspired by President Obama's election, he's disappointed that Obama "embraced" or "extended" the surveillance policies of President Bush.

In his exclusive interview with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, Snowden would not say if he voted for Obama, arguing that should be kept private.

"Whether or not I voted for President Obama, I was inspired by him. He gave me courage, he gave me hope. I really believed that he would be a positive force for the country," Snowden said.

"And I still hope he will be."

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Snowden said Obama has failed to carry through on a pledge to reverse some of the policies of his predecessor.

"He's embraced the policies and he's extended the policies," the former NSA contractor said.

"He's not Bush. He's his own president. But the consonance in the policies should be concerning for a lot of Americans because he was a candidate that promised that he would give the public back its seat at the table of government.

"And he still has time to do so."

For his first American television interview, Snowden met for about five hours last week with Williams at a hotel in Moscow, where Snowden is living in exile while facing U.S. felony charges.

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Snowden says Obama broke vow on policy

Edward Snowden about revealing NSA spying | Dear Kitty …

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Edward Snowden defends decision to reveal NSA spying in NBC interview

30 May 2014

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden provided a clear and articulate defense of his actions in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. In his first television interview with the American media, Snowden denounced the criminal activities of the American government, saying, The Constitution of the United States had been violated on a massive scale.

It is now nearly one year since the first of Snowdens revelations was made public in a June 5, 2013 article in the Guardian. Since then, Snowden has been hounded by the US government, forced into exile in Russia, vilified as a traitor, charged with violations of the Espionage Act, and threatened with violence or death.

Typical of the lying of the Obama administration were statements Wednesday from US Secretary of State John Kerry, repeated in different forms by various government officials on Thursday. Kerry denounced the whistleblower as a traitor and called him a coward for not coming back to the US to face a show trial for the public service he has carried out. Snowdens defense of his actions was, the head of the State Department declared in prose equal to the power of his arguments, dumb.

Snowden has maintained a principled stand throughout this yearlong campaign of threats and calumny. His ability to do so is a reflection not only of personal courage, but also the widespread popular support he continues to have. Despite their best efforts, the Obama administration and its accomplices in the media and other governments have failed to shift public opinion.

What Snowden has revealed in a series of leaks is the very advanced framework of a police state, both illegal and unconstitutional. The National Security Agency (NSA) and the US spy network are engaged in the collection of virtually all communications and the assembling of vast databases for the purpose of monitoring the personal, social and political activities of the entire population.

While attacking Snowden, the Obama administration and the NSA have sought to cover up their own crimes with lies, including the claim that American citizens are not spied on indiscriminately.

Now all of our data can be collected without any suspicion of wrongdoing on our part, without any underlying justification, Snowden said in the interview, refuting these claims. All of your private records, all of your private communications, all of your transactions, all of your associations, who you talk to, who you love, what you buy, what you readall of those things can be seized and held by the government and then searched later for any reason, hardly, without any justification, without any real oversight, without any real accountability for those who do wrong.

Snowden added, Now we have a system of pervasive pre-criminal surveillance, where the government wants to watch what youre doing just to see what youre up to, to see what youre thinking even behind closed doors. He described the ability of the state, on the basis of knowing the pattern of phone calls, to construct a pattern of life for anyone it wants.

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Edward Snowden about revealing NSA spying | Dear Kitty ...

Snowden Email Released by NSA Doesn’t Claim Wrongdoing

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The NSA declassified and released an email Thursday that Edward Snowden sent to its legal team last year, seeking to clarify the spy agency's boundaries when it came to surveillance on private citizens but not raising any whistleblower concerns.

Snowden is currently living in asylum in Russia after he stole secret government documents pertaining to the NSA's spy program and fed them to journalists.

"Hello, I have a question regarding the mandatory USSID 18 training," Snowden wrote in the April 5, 2013, message.

Urgent: NSA Spying: Do You Approve or Disapprove? Vote Now.

"The training states the following: The Hierarchy of Governing Authorities and Documents is displayed from the highest authority to the lowest authority as follows:

Snowden's question came after he underwent a training session on United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18), which pertains to the collection of data from U.S. and foreign citizens.

Three days later, Snowden received a response from an NSA lawyer.

"Hello Ed, Executive orders (E.O.s) have the 'Force and effect of law,'" reads the response. "That said, you are correct that E.O.s cannot override a statute.

"In general, DOD and DDNI regulations are afforded similar precedence though subject matter or date could result in one having precedence over another."

The agency released the emails in response to Snowden's claim during an interview with NBC News that he shared his concerns about the legality of the NSA's spying practices with the Office of General Counsel.

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Snowden Email Released by NSA Doesn't Claim Wrongdoing

Trading Barbs With the NSA? Just Another Day for Edward Snowden

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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden during a meeting with German Green Party MP Hans-Christian Stroebele regarding being a witness for a possible investigation into NSA spying in Germany, on Oct. 31, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.

By Colin Daileda2014-05-30 23:16:39 UTC

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has provided a trove of evidence to show how the agency spies on Americans as well as other governments, was again assailing the NSA on Friday for doing something he considered untruthful.

On Thursday, the agency released a single email Snowden sent while he worked as a contractor at the NSA. In it, Snowden asked a legal question about whether executive orders have precedence over federal statute law. His question apparently referenced a portion of text from an NSA training manual he felt was incorrect.

Snowden has always said he tried to relay his concerns to the agency before going public with them, but the NSA has denied this claim. When Snowden restated this position during a Wednesday interview with NBC, the NSA released the single email mentioned above.

Which brings us to Friday's happenings.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Snowden called the NSA's release "incomplete" and said the agency released the single document to gain a "political advantage."

Snowden also brought up the fact that the NSA had previously said he had made no attempts to contact them with concerns, which this email proves to be untrue.

Snowden then mentioned that Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Mark Udall (D-Colorado) knew about the NSA's mass surveillance in 2011 and thought it was "abusive," but felt they could do little about it. That alone, he said, "underscores how futile such internal action isand will remainuntil these processes are reformed."

Senator Udall's office offered a tepid response to Snowden's claim that Udall and Wyden have been unable to enact meaningful reform from inside the system.

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Trading Barbs With the NSA? Just Another Day for Edward Snowden

So long, TrueCrypt: 5 alternative encryption tools that can lock down your data

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Open-source legendTrueCrypt may be gone, but the usefulness of full disk encryption carries on. So what's a crypto fan to do now for their encryption needs?

Well, you couldcontinue to use older versions of TrueCrypt if you already have it installed. While the security community wasshocked earlier this week when the anonymous team behind the open source encryption tool seemingly shut down the project, leaving a neutered version 7.2 build of the tool that's only good for decrypting existing TrueCrypt volumes,a public audit of the TrueCrypt source code for version 7.1 was already underway and that effort will continue, according to the Open Crypto Audit Project.

The first phase of the TrueCrypt audit found no serious problems with the Windows build of TrueCrypt.If TrueCrypt 7.1 gets a clean bill of health it would continue to be a viable encryption option, though it's not clear if the encryption tool's development can or will continue under new management.

But if the brouhaha has you feeling skittish, or if you want to move on to encryption software that's actively being developed, options abound. As popular as it is (was?), TrueCrypt is far from the only encryption tool around. In fact, many mainstream operating systems already come with an encryption tool built-in.

Here's a look at a few full disk encryption options that can take the sting out of TrueCrypt's sudden disappearance.

BitLocker is built into select versions of Windows.

The most obvious alternative for Windows users is Microsoft's built-in utility, BitLocker. The encryption program is included in Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro editions, which means anyone who switched to Windows 8 during the $40 upgrade deal has BitLocker on their PC.BitLocker is also available on Windows Vista and 7 PCs running the Ultimate or Enterprise editions.

Check out ourtutorial on BitLockerto get started with Microsoft's encryption tool.

If you don't have the right flavor of Windows, another choice is Symantec Drive Encryption. While this program is just as closed-source as BitLocker, it implements PGP, a well known encryption method.

If you need further reassurances, security expert Bruce Schneier recently told The Register that Symantec's tool is what he's going to use post-TrueCrypt. That's good enough for me. SDE costs $110 for a single user license.

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So long, TrueCrypt: 5 alternative encryption tools that can lock down your data


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