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Snowden defends his surveillance question for Putin

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MOSCOW, April 21 (UPI) -- NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden wrote an op-ed in The Guardian newspaper defending his staged question to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding mass surveillance in Russia.

In the op-ed, Snowden said he regretted that his appearance and question appeared to the west to be a staged stunt to show support for Russia and allow Putin to take a shot at the U.S.

"I regret that my question could be misinterpreted, and that it enabled many to ignore the substance of the question -- and Putin's evasive response -- in order to speculate, wildly and incorrectly, about my motives for asking it."

Russia is known for having a large mass surveillance infrastructure to spy on its citizens and a very tightly controlled state media. Putin said that the existence of such a surveillance system would be against Russian law, a statement seen as a swipe at the Obama administration and the NSA surveillance programs that have been slammed as a violation of the U.S. constitution.

Snowden said his motives were purely to push the conversation forward about mass surveillance and took an advantage to use the tightly controlled Q&A broadcasted on state television to talk about the taboo subject.

"I expected that some would object to my participation in an annual forum that is largely comprised of softball questions to a leader unaccustomed to being challenged. But to me, the rare opportunity to lift a taboo on discussion of state surveillance before an audience that primarily views state media outweighed that risk. Moreover, I hoped that Putin's answer -- whatever it was -- would provide opportunities for serious journalists and civil society to push the discussion further."

He added that while he understands the concern of his critics, he pointed out that the only way to invalidate Putin's claims is for Putin to make them in the first place, which he says he wanted to facilitate.

[HuffPost Live] [The Guardian]

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Snowden defends his surveillance question for Putin

Snowden Regrets Participating in Putin Propaganda

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NSA leaker and indefinite Russian tourist Edward Snowden is not yet a pro at PR. After he showed up on state television to lob Vladimir Putin a question about the countrys own surveillance apparatus Putin dunked an incredulous, anti-U.S. blanket denial Snowden tried to explain that he was hoping to get Putins evasive response on the record. Now Snowdens allies are admitting the whole thing was a bad look. I dont think theres any shame in saying that he made an error in judgment, an anonymous source close to Snowden told the Daily Beast.

He basically viewed the question as his first foray into criticizing Russia. He was genuinely surprised that in reasonable corridors it was seen as the opposite, said ACLU lawyer and Snowden adviser Ben Wizner. It was the strongest possible question that could possibly get through [Putins propagandists], another person added. Predictably, Snowden was not permitted a follow-up.

I know this is hard to believe. I know if I was just watching from afar, Id think, Wow, they forced him [Snowden] to do this, Wizner added. But its not true. He just fucking did it.

If the plan was to kickstart a discussion, it worked the problem is were talking about Snowdens mistakes, not Putins.

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Snowden Regrets Participating in Putin Propaganda

Activists want net neutrality, NSA spying debated at Brazil Internet conference

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IDG News Service - A campaign on the Internet is objecting to the exclusion of issues like net neutrality, the cyberweapons arms race and surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency from the discussion paper of an Internet governance conference this week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A significant section of the participants are also looking for concrete measures and decisions at the conference rather than yet another statement of principles.

The proposed text "lacks any strength," does not mention NSA's mass surveillance or the active participation of Internet companies, and fails to propose any concrete action, according to the campaign called Our Net Mundial.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the surveillance programs of the U.S., which allegedly included real time access to content on servers of Internet companies like Facebook and Google.

The Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, also called NETmundial, released Thursday a document to guide the discussions starting Wednesday among the representatives from more than 80 countries .

An earlier document leaked by whistle-blower site WikiLeaks proposed international agreements for restraining cyber weapons development and deployment and called for the Internet to remain neutral and free from discrimination. WikiLeaks said the document was prepared for approval by a high-level committee.

Dilma Rousseff, the president of host country Brazil, has been a sharp critic of surveillance by the U.S. after reports that her communications were being spied on by the NSA.

Though the Brazil discussion document does not directly mention NSA surveillance, it refers to the freedom of expression, information and privacy, including avoiding arbitrary or unlawful collection of personal data and surveillance.

The meeting's call for universal principles partly reflects a desire for interstate agreements that can prevent rights violations such as the NSA surveillance, wrote Internet governance experts Milton Mueller and Ben Wagner in a paper. The Tunis Agenda of the World Summit on the Information Society also called for globally applicable public policy principles for Internet governance.

"But there have been so many Internet principles released in recent years that it is hard to see what the Brazil conference could add," Mueller and Wagner wrote.

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Activists want net neutrality, NSA spying debated at Brazil Internet conference

Activists want net neutrality, NSA spying debated at Internet governance conference

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A campaign on the Internet is objecting to the exclusion of issues like net neutrality, the cyberweapons arms race and surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency from the discussion paper of an Internet governance conference this week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A significant section of the participants are also looking for concrete measures and decisions at the conference rather than yet another statement of principles.

The proposed text lacks any strength, does not mention NSAs mass surveillance or the active participation of Internet companies, and fails to propose any concrete action, according to the campaign called Our Net Mundial.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the surveillance programs of the U.S., which allegedly included real time access to content on servers of Internet companies like Facebook and Google.

The Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, also called NETmundial, released Thursday a document to guide the discussions starting Wednesday among the representatives from more than 80 countries .

An earlier document leaked by whistle-blower site WikiLeaks proposed international agreements for restraining cyber weapons development and deployment and called for the Internet to remain neutral and free from discrimination. WikiLeaks said the document was prepared for approval by a high-level committee.

Dilma Rousseff, the president of host country Brazil, has been a sharp critic of surveillance by the U.S. after reports that her communications were being spied on by the NSA.

Though the Brazil discussion document does not directly mention NSA surveillance, it refers to the freedom of expression, information and privacy, including avoiding arbitrary or unlawful collection of personal data and surveillance.

The meetings call for universal principles partly reflects a desire for interstate agreements that can prevent rights violations such as the NSA surveillance, wrote Internet governance experts Milton Mueller and Ben Wagner in a paper. The Tunis Agenda of the World Summit on the Information Society also called for globally applicable public policy principles for Internet governance.

But there have been so many Internet principles released in recent years that it is hard to see what the Brazil conference could add, Mueller and Wagner wrote.

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Activists want net neutrality, NSA spying debated at Internet governance conference


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