Showing posts with label Whistleblowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whistleblowers. Show all posts

Friday, April 14, 2017

Snowden: "I have one simple rule, when you see who is corrupt, call them by that name."

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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Freedom Watch Notifies Congress of “Deep State” Intelligence Whistle-Blower



Freedom Watch notifies congress of a “Deep State” intelligence community whistle blower, Dennis Montgomery, with hundreds of millions of documents showing CIA and FBI and Intelligence Committees were spying on, and conducting surveillance on, American citizens for political purposes.

Mr. Montgomery is trying to use a legal “whistle-blower” process and not follow the same approach as Edward Snowden.... FULL PDF AT THE LINK
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Monday, June 6, 2016

Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal





...The NSA, it seemed, had not told the public the whole story about Snowden's contacts with oversight authorities before he became the most celebrated and vilified whistleblower in US history....

The trove of more than 800 pages [pdf at the end of this story (at the link)], along with several interviews conducted by VICE News, offer unprecedented insight into the NSA during this time of crisis within the agency. And they call into question aspects of the US government's long-running narrative about Snowden's time at the NSA....

On April 5, 2013 — a year before the Vanity Fair story came out — Snowden clicked the "email us" link on the internal website of the NSA's Office of General Counsel (OGC) and wrote, "I have a question regarding the mandatory USSID 18 training."

United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) encompasses rules by which the NSA is supposed to abide in order to protect the privacy of the communications of people in the United States. Snowden was taking this and other training courses in Maryland while working to transition from a Sysadmin to an analyst position. Referring to a slide from the training program that seemed to indicate federal statutes and presidential Executive Orders (EOs) carry equal legal weight, Snowden wrote, "this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply Executive Orders have the same precedence as law. My understanding is that EOs may be superseded by federal statute, but EOs may not override statute."...

"[With] its story done, NBC is asking us to fact-check. Incredible," Vines wrote. "We'll get more info soon from the producer. In the meantime, there's apparently a fresh claim about email the leaker [Snowden] allegedly sent to OGC or a compliance official."

De, a staunch advocate for releasing Snowden's email, informed Vines that the NSA had already been speaking to the White House about Snowden's claims. He asked Vines to see if she could ferret out additional details from Cole about the interview.

Later that day, Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent word over to the NSA that she expected a "forceful NSA response" to Snowden's claims.

"You can help temper expectations by making clear [to Feinstein] that we were not aware of this story before it was publicly advertised and until yesterday had not been contacted to respond to any issues," the person wrote. "We have not been and don't expect to be given much if any detail beyond the public 'teaser.' We can only crystal ball so much, especially when the protagonist is not bound by facts or the truth."....
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Monday, May 16, 2016

INTERCEPT Releases Snowden NSA Archive Material...

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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Air Force whistleblower says Benghazi victims could have been saved



"I definitely believe that our aircraft could have taken off and got there in a timely manner, maybe three hours at the most, in order to basically at least stop that second mortar attack and have those guys running for the hills," a man purportedly stationed at Aviano Air Force base in Italy told Fox News on the condition of anonymity.

That's a particularly explosive claim, given that two of the four Americans who died in the attacks were killed in the second wave of attacks, which targeted a CIA annex the morning of Sept. 12. But the whistleblower has not spoken to Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who is chairman of the select committee investigating the attacks, because "there are so many ways you can get screwed over" for cooperating with lawmakers.

That frustrates Gowdy, who accused the Obama administration of preventing him from talking to all the relevant witnesses. "As a former federal prosecutor, I find it deeply troubling there are individuals who would like to share their stories, but have not because they are afraid of retaliation from their superiors," he said in a Wednesday evening response to the Fox report. "No one should be afraid of talking to their elected representatives in Congress."



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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Obama's administration harasses individuals who uncover corruption.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Whistleblower Releases Federal Drone Documents Illustrating Obama’s Bloody ‘Drone War’

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Saturday, June 6, 2015

Edward Snowden hails the end of the PATRIOT Act in a New York Times op-ed

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

“Old folks just don’t get it,” Romero said in a statement distributed by the ACLU. “The new generation will fix it if we don’t.”



Despite the generally mixed perceptions of Snowden’s leaks nationally, support for him among the nation’s younger and generally more technologically savvy has remained somewhat higher.

As the U.S. population steadily shifts, that could point toward long-term changes for the powers of government agencies like the National Security Agency. According to the Census Bureau, American millennials are expected to surpass baby boomers to become the country’s largest living generation this year.

“Old folks just don’t get it,” Romero said in a statement distributed by the ACLU. “The new generation will fix it if we don’t.”
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Monday, April 6, 2015

Glenn Greenwald: Here’s the truth about Edward Snowden





“The debate about his motives has always confounded me,” Grennwald said. “Put yourself in Edward Snowden’s place, where you decided you would take tens of found of top secret documents from one of the most secretive agencies of world’s most powerful government because you think there’s serious wrongdoing hidden from your fellow citizens.”

“You could sell it in secret to pretty much any intelligence agency on the planet and enrich yourself for the rest of your life without anyone knowing. If you were intending to harm your country or government, you could pass it secretly to adversaries of your government without anyone knowing about it,” Greenwald said.

“He could have just taken it all and put it up on the Internet, if his goal were to have this indiscriminate publication and harm the country,” Greenwald said.

“Instead, he did what you would want a whistle-blower in that circumstance to do; to meet with journalists who work with some of the largest news outlets in the West and say I am giving you this material, but based on promise that you will be extremely meticulous about going through every word of it and not publishing anything that can harm people, but instead only things necessary to inform the public debate,” Greenwald said.

“So you can have different views on surveillance policy, the extent to which government should be spying on us, but I think it is hard to call into question his motives were anything what he says they were and patriotic, and he genuinely believed if the government is going to spy on us indiscriminately, without any evidence of wrongdoing, we ought to at least know about that,” Greenwald said.

...he already proved to you, given the choice between a comfortable life and sanding up for what he believes is right, he will choose stand up for what he believes is right and give up a comfortable life. He already had a comfortable life he gave up,” Greenwald said.
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Monday, February 9, 2015

IT’S TIME TO ‘SNOWDEN’ PUTIN

◼ Ukraine has a secret weapon: huge amounts of Soviet KGB documents that it should declassify. - Peter Hannaford/American Spectator 2.9.15

Ronald Reagan once said, “The difference between a republic and a people's republic is a lot like the difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.”

The same can be said about lethal aid vis-à-vis non-lethal aid. When Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed Congress he said, “Blankets and night-vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with blankets!”

Ukraine’s military cannot defeat Russia militarily. It is quite likely that any “lethal” military aid sent will be enough to antagonize Putin, but not enough to make a difference.

We cannot treat Ukrainians (or Russians) like chess pieces. Both economies have been battered by this war. In 2014, Russia lost $100 billion from lower oil prices, and another $40 billion from sanctions. While the average Russian is hurting, Vladimir Putin is not.

America’s policy toward Tsar Vladimir is reminiscent of Prince Horace in “The Whipping Boy.” It is the story of a spoiled prince, who is never punished when he misbehaves, because Jemmy, his whipping boy, is beaten in his place. Even Third Graders can understand the moral of the story: When a prince cannot be punished, he will never grow up.

Putin is not suffering and he doesn’t care how many Ukrainians and Russians suffer. Five thousand people have already died. Putin will only change course when his approval rating drops.

Right now it is above 80 percent, despite the fact oil prices are at less than $50 a barrel and the ruble has lost half its value since the war began.

Before Putin seized Crimea, his approval rating was gradually declining from 78 percent in 2010 to 61 percent in 2013. The patriotic feeling in Russia in 2014 was stoked by his adventuring in Ukraine. Since returning to the presidency in 2012, Putin has used the anti-American card to bolster his image as Russia’s protector. Without East-West tension, the Russian public would shift back to domestic concerns and Putin would be in trouble.

If nothing changes, Putin will be remembered as a strong leader who brought Russia out of the chaotic 1990s. He was lucky that oil prices were high, but he also gave many Russians a sense of renewed confidence. To end this war in Ukraine, Russians need to believe that Putin is not the right man for Russia’s future.

For this to work, we need to “Snowden” Putin. Whether you think Snowden’s actions were misguided or deliberate treason, he sparked a big debate. Even with hindsight, it is, at best, naïve of him to think America was not free enough and then flee to China, and later Russia, for his “freedom.”

Unlike the NSA, the KGB really is an evil organization and could use a Snowden. Ukraine can trigger this by declassifying the 800,000 volumes of Soviet-era KGB documents in its possession. These documents are labeled “secret” and “top secret” because they contain a list of all the KGB informers in Ukraine.

Putin knows that a secret police force cannot function without a network of informers. In the past, declassifying the identities of these informers was resisted because of the fear of potential reprisals. For that reason, access to a victim’s file has been limited to relatives.

Since there are numerous marriages between Russians and Ukrainians, it is likely that Russians can learn about the fate of their relatives from the Ukrainian files. It might encourage them to end the war because it could be their only chance to know what really happened to those relatives. Reading these KGB files could also encourage some Russian speakers in Crimea, and the Ukraine’s Donbass region, to rejoin a federated Ukraine.

Once the KGB documents are declassified, the Ukrainians can launch a website where anyone can have unfettered access to any file. Instead of watching a soap opera on television, people can read true stories about how the KGB made others spy on their friends and relatives.

This could encourage files to be also declassified in the Baltic States and other former Soviet republics. This might even stir a real opposition movement among Russians who think the Soviet collapse was a “catastrophe.” For this war to end, and for Russia to move forward, we need to “Snowden” the KGB.
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Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late President Reagan for a number of years. He is a member of the board of the Committee on the Present Danger. His latest book is ◼ “Presidential Retreats.”
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Monday, December 15, 2014

DOJ wants testimony banned after prosecutor turns whistleblower on fire case

◼ Federal prosecutors are trying to keep a Department of Justice whistleblower’s testimony out of court and disqualify every defense attorney who helped collect it in a landmark wildfire case that has sparked allegations of official evidence tampering and government corruption. - Washington Examiner

The Nov. 24 move came barely a month after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California’s chief judge issued an ultimately unsuccessful order recusing all eight federal judges in the district from the case due to doubts about the potential “impartiality” of the court, given allegations that it was the victim of fraud.

...Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California led a civil case against Sierra Pacific, a major timber company, for its alleged role in causing the 2007 Moonlight Fire.

The company settled litigation against it by agreeing to a settlement in which it paid $122 million in 2012. It was the largest such award in U.S. history.

But after a state court threw the same case out and sanctioned the state fire unit for providing “evasive” and “dishonest” testimony and suppressing evidence that could have proved Sierra Pacific did not start the fire, the company's defense attorneys took the case back to federal court.

Sierra Pacific’s defense asked a federal judge in October 2014 if the company should still have to forfeit $122 million, given revelations of what they alleged was a “corrupt and tainted prosecution.” A major component of their argument was the testimony of Robert Wright, the former lead prosecutor on the case.

Weeks later, members of the DOJ office where Wright once worked filed a motion demanding the court disqualify both the defense team and Wright’s testimony on the grounds that Wright breached his attorney-client privilege with the U.S. government when he allegedly blew the whistle to Sierra Pacific’s attorneys....

“This case could turn out to be a huge embarrassment for the government,” he said. “It’s so unusual it’s hard to say what it will represent.”

EARLIER:
◼ What is it with the Obama administration and lumber-based businesses? - ED DRISCOLL/PJM

◼ Fed Up With Govt Misconduct, Federal Judge Takes Nuclear Option - Federal Prosecutor Alleges Boss Pressured Him To Engage in 'Unethical Conduct'; Judge Calls Abuses 'Egregious,' 'Pervasive,” and “Reprehensible” - New York Observer

In perhaps the most stunning documentation yet of abuses by Eric Holder’s Justice Department, two former Assistant United States Attorneys spoke to defense attorneys and revealed appalling deceit and corruption of justice. This latest litigation time bomb has exploded from multi-million dollar litigation originally brought by the Department of Justice against Sierra Pacific based on allegations that the lumber company and related defendants were responsible for a wildfire that destroyed 65,000 acres in California.

In what was dubbed the “Moonlight Fire” case, the tables are now turned. The defendants have discovered new evidence and filed a stunning motion. The new evidence and disclosures are being taken seriously by the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of California—as they should be. In a shocking action, Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ordered the recusal of every federal judge in the Eastern District of California.... KEEP READING

◼ The news about the shakedown of Sierra Pacific comes on the heels of this report from a year ago on Lumber Liquidators being raided... - IBD
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Sunday, October 19, 2014

And Again: Another Lumber Business Was Shaken Down for $55 Million by Eric Holder’s Justice Department

Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ordered the
entire judiciary recused from a case another
judge called “egregious” and “reprehensible”

◼ What is it with the Obama administration and lumber-based businesses? - ED DRISCOLL/PJM

◼ Fed Up With Govt Misconduct, Federal Judge Takes Nuclear Option - Federal Prosecutor Alleges Boss Pressured Him To Engage in 'Unethical Conduct'; Judge Calls Abuses 'Egregious,' 'Pervasive,” and “Reprehensible” - New York Observer

In perhaps the most stunning documentation yet of abuses by Eric Holder’s Justice Department, two former Assistant United States Attorneys spoke to defense attorneys and revealed appalling deceit and corruption of justice. This latest litigation time bomb has exploded from multi-million dollar litigation originally brought by the Department of Justice against Sierra Pacific based on allegations that the lumber company and related defendants were responsible for a wildfire that destroyed 65,000 acres in California.

In what was dubbed the “Moonlight Fire” case, the tables are now turned. The defendants have discovered new evidence and filed a stunning motion. The new evidence and disclosures are being taken seriously by the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of California—as they should be. In a shocking action, Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ordered the recusal of every federal judge in the Eastern District of California.... KEEP READING

◼ The news about the shakedown of Sierra Pacific comes on the heels of this report from a year ago on Lumber Liquidators being raided... - IBD
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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Hector Garza keeps breaking the Admin's blockade on truth

◼ Border Agent: Drug cartels taking advantage of ‘porous border’ with 70% of agents preoccupied by surge - The Right Scoop

Border agent Hector Garza has been incredibly candid and open in providing the alarming details at the border to the news media. In this interview with Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News, he says that 70% of border agents are pre-occupied with taking care of the illegal alien child surge, and drug cartels are taking advantage of the situation.

DRUDGE:
Violent gangs using border as recruiting hub...
UPDATE: MEXICOGUATEMALA FAST-TRACK DELIVERY OF ILLEGALS TO USA...
RAFT RIDES FOR $1.30...
BORDER AGENT: 70% OF FORCE PULLED OFF PATROLS FOR PAPERWORK...
Nebraska Vexed By Secrecy in Housing Illegals...
Hundreds sent to Chicago...
Black American In Baltimore: 'Where Can I Get Asylum?'
MAG: USA loses basic aspect of sovereignty...
LOWRY: The president's 'man-caused' disaster...
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Friday, May 30, 2014

"There are times that what is right is not the same thing as what is legal,” Snowden said. “Sometimes to do what’s right you have to break the law.”

◼ Edward J. Snowden, in an hour-long television interview broadcast Wednesday night, portrayed himself as a “patriot” who broke the law in an act of “civil disobedience” directed at “massive” constitutional violations by the U.S. government. - Washington Post
He called his disclosure of the documents an act of patriotism. “Being a patriot doesn’t mean prioritizing service to government above all else,” Snowden told Williams. “Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country and knowing when to protect the Constitution against the encroachment of adversaries. Adversaries don’t have to be foreign countries. They can be bad policies.”

Asked about his relationship with the Russian government, which Snowden criticized for its “deeply unfair” crackdown on press, the fugitive said he has none. “I’ve never met the Russian president. I’m not supported by the Russian government. I’m not taking money from the Russian government. I’m not a spy [For Russia], which is the real question.”

The moment he decided to fork over the documents to journalists was “intimidating,” he said. But he doesn’t regret it, he said, even though he potentially faces a long prison sentence. “I may have lost my ability to travel,” he said. “But I’ve gained the ability to go to sleep at night.”
◼ "Nobody is saying 'that news organizations should simply defer to the government when it comes to deciding what the public has a right to know about its secret activities'... which is how [NYT Public Editor Margaret] Sullivan mischaracterized [Michael] Kinsley’s argument [against Glenn Greewald]." - Althouse

◼ Michael Kinsley was right about government secrets - Charles Lane/Washington Post
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Meet Ajit Pai

◼ Commissioner who blew the whistle on the FCC policing the newsroom has more work to do - Washington Free Beacon

...Pai’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal was published on Feb. 10. Two weeks later the study was dead. The article had taken a life of its own, drawing outcry across the political spectrum from Fox News to the Atlantic.

“One of the things that all of us prize, whether we come from a particular political persuasion, is the fact that freedom of the press is just that, that the government does not decide for the American people what information is critical and what is not,” Pai said. “The notion that a contractor tasked by the government identifying critical information needs and then studying how independent, private news organizations meet those needs, that’s a notion I think has a lot of resonance with anyone in this country.”

“And I think that’s what you saw.”...
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The NSA Is Using Facebook to Hack Into Your Computer


◼ The spy agency is not above infecting networks with malware by posing as the social-media site, according to newly released Snowden files. - National Journal

Is the Facebook you log in to the real one?

This just in from the Edward Snowden vault of government secrets: The National Security Agency is breaking into "potentially millions of computers worldwide" and infecting them with malware "implants" as part of an effort that is increasingly relying on automated systems and not human oversight, according to a by First Look Media report published Wednesday.

And the NSA is pretending to be Facebook to get the job done.

"In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social-media site as a launching pad to infect a target's computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive," First Look reported on Glenn Greenwald's Intercept channel, citing a classified slide presentation from 2009. "In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer's microphone and take snapshots with its webcam.....
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

“The NSA, the sort of global mass surveillance that’s occurring in all of these countries, not just the U.S. — and it’s important to remember that this is a global issue — they’re setting fire to the future of the Internet,” Snowden said. “And the people who are in this room now — you guys are all the firefighters. And we need you to help us fix it.”

◼ link - Ashe Schow/Washington Examiner

Snowden’s suggestion was end-to-end encryption, which limits communication to just the party sending and the party receiving information.

“And the result of that is a more constitutional, more [inaudible] sort of intelligence-gathering model, law-enforcement model,” Snowden said. “Where if they want to gather somebody’s communications, they have to target them specifically. They can’t just target everybody all the time.”

◼ NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens... - Paul Lewis in Washington/The Guardian
Snowden, who is in Russia on temporary asylum, added: “But it’s equally if not more concerning that we’re seeing another ‘Merkel effect,’ where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it’s a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.”
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Monday, December 30, 2013

The alleged coverups included keeping quiet separate IG investigations that found that members of then-Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s security detail had engaged hookers and that the Belgian ambassador had solicited underage prostitutes.

◼ State Dept. whistleblower has email hacked, deleted - S.A. Miller/New York Post

...These were among a string of investigations by the service, responsible for protecting dignitaries and investigating crimes within the department, that were allegedly derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills.

Since the revelations in June, the department again mostly swept the cases under the rug.

...“We feel like we’re in a movie. It’s nuts. It makes us wonder ....maybe we’ve got something we don’t even realize or maybe they’re worried about something.”
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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Edward Snowden declares mission 'accomplished'



◼ National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden declared victory in his fight with the government, saying that his "mission's already accomplished." - Washington Examiner

In an interview published Tuesday in the Washington Post, Snowden said that his disclosures about the extent of NSA surveillance on phone and internet traffic had achieved his goal of sparking a debate over the nation's intelligence operations.

“For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” said Snowden. “I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated."

"I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself,” Snowden said about his leaks....

“All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,” Snowden told the Washington Post. “That is a milestone we left a long time ago. Right now, all we are looking at are stretch goals.”

◼ "I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it." Says Edward Snowden. - Althouse
◼ Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished - Barton Gellman/Washington Post

Snowden offered vignettes from his intelligence career and from his recent life as “an indoor cat” in Russia. But he consistently steered the conversation back to surveillance, democracy and the meaning of the documents he exposed....

The NSA’s business is “information dominance,” the use of other people’s secrets to shape events. At 29, Snowden upended the agency on its own turf....

By his own terms, Snowden succeeded beyond plausible ambition. The NSA, accustomed to watching without being watched, faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever....

People who accuse him of disloyalty, he said, mistake his purpose.

“I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA,” he said. “I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.”

What entitled Snowden, now 30, to take on that responsibility?

“That whole question — who elected you? — inverts the model,” he said. “They elected me. The overseers.”

He named the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees.

“Dianne Feinstein elected me when she asked softball questions” in committee hearings, he said. “Mike Rogers elected me when he kept these programs hidden. . . . The FISA court elected me when they decided to legislate from the bench on things that were far beyond the mandate of what that court was ever intended to do. The system failed comprehensively, and each level of oversight, each level of responsibility that should have addressed this, abdicated their responsibility.”

◼ Greenwald Snarks at MSNBC: I Defend Snowden Like You Defend Obama ’24 Hours a Day’ - Mediaite
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