Greenwald's speech was great, but so far the most interesting one to me has been Jacob Appelbaum's speech where he gives a lot more technical details (including new information) about how the NSA is hacking systems and how far they are willing to go, like wanting to create a "Great Firewall of Earth" or even radiating people with up to 1KW in order to get what's in their computer, which just proves how out of control and power hungry the NSA is and how indefensible their actions are, despite what some of the NSA HN users around here or their supporters might say.
Reading this (and others) makes me conclude that we the people (or any country, but especially here in the US) are truly and royally fucked. For every brave person who stands up there are a hundred thousand who refuse to the see the sun rises in the east and continues to believe what they are being told, that it rises in the west.
We are only if people give up. Progress is a long road, at times. Not to directly compare the two, but look at the history of the civil rights movement in the US, from slavery, to Lincoln, to the 60ies and to the present day. That has been a fight carried out over generations, but things have gotten better.
>How the hell is James Clapper still in office?? Isn't what he did so obviously perjury?
Yes, what he did clearly meets the statutory definition of perjury. He's still employed by the government because our officials, elected and appointed, are almost completely unaccountable to the public due to the political process being broken down by a corporate-controlled media and corporatocratic (see: Mussolini) system of government. The law is no longer equally applied - wealthy, important, and powerful people are "too big to fail", while even the most urgent concerns of average proles is generally beneath notice of those in charge. The only exception to this is when the proles' concerns become so widespread that a movement forms and majority demand for democratic change might result. In these cases a number of pacification strategies are adopted, like co-opting the proletariat movement with well-spoken placebo change agents who offer strong messages of hope, and have absolutely no intention of following through with them, or discrediting the movement by airing the dirty laundry of those movement leaders who cannot be corrupted or co-opted.
A good summary of events so far, in a general sense. More important stuff to check out from/on Greenwald, one of the most important journalists in US history, at least by the nature of what he's helped publish (but of course more than that):
Thank you, tipped (he has a Bitcoin address in the README).
It's a sad era indeed when we have a whole network of American journalists living outside of U.S. borders for fear of imprisonment and other reprisals from their own government.
Hi, I just synchronized with the blockchain. Thank you for your donation! You just gave me my first Bitcoins ever! You truly represent what's good in the world. Thank you again.
Playing an unfortunate devil's advocate, all this ludicrous surveillance state gadgetry seems to be less of an attempt to be the United Stasi of America and more of a ridiculous over the top reaction in fear of being accused of going soft on terror.
I don't like it, and I don't agree with it, but I acknowledge that if a 2nd 9/11 level event were to occur after the government relented and imposed reasonable limitations on data collection that the party out of power at the time could easily scream bloody murder and take all 3 branches of government in a single election cycle. I'd previously only expected this from the party of Kang, but Obama's stance on drones and NSA surveillance has revealed the party of Kodos is no better.
Which is to say I think the surveillance state is a symptom more than the disease. America has lost all sense of perspective.
~30,000 automotive deaths (of which ~10,000 resulted from drunk driving) annually.
~11,000 gun deaths.
~6,000 deaths from falling off ladders.
~3,000 people died on 9/11.
Ergo we should ban ladders, guns, alcohol, and cars: it's the only way to be sure, no?
> more of a ridiculous over the top reaction in fear of being accused of going soft on terror.
As you wrote yourself, terrorism is a minor issue in the US. Most of the fear is fueled (and some of it created) by the government, because it's so convenient for manipulating the population. Therefore the government itself cannot be driven by the fear of being accused of going soft in this matter, because if that was the case, it'd simply stop perpetuing this fear of terrorism.
I'm sorry, but there is no cheap way out for this goverment. It's fundamentally evil and corrupt, it uses terrorism to keep a certain elite in power and to channel taxpayers' money to the pockets of the military-industrial complex. That's the only logical explanation I've seen so far.
Please read the transcript in its entirety. Specifically the latter parts about trade agreements and bi/multilateral negotiations. Placement of liability (w.r.t. the US common law) makes reform hard to envision yes, but that is just a minor concern in the bigger picture.
The surveillance state was never intended to stop terrorism, it is the true terrorism.
This malice cannot be explained by incompetence.
Thanks, I did it by hand. Emacs+Amarok. While I worked on this, I Googled for transcription software, but couldn't find any packages or readily available POSIX pipelines that I could use from Ubuntu, let alone web services that don't require a credit card. Maybe I didn't look very carefully. Took two days to complete, though. This is something that should be easily doable now, so here's my personal RFS: fix transcription software. A user should be able to either upload an audio file directly, use a Dropbox folder, or provide a link to an s/OGG/MP3/whatever, and get a text file in return. They can then listen to the audio while they make whatever edits that they need.
I'm very skeptical of Glenn Greenwald. I'm surprised by how many will readily accept whatever he says. That's kinda scary. There's a question of credibility when you don't fact check[1]. Makes you wonder what else is Greenwald exaggerating or not fact checking.
That article is textbook character assassination based on an unimportant nit-pick the washington post itself couldn't even "fact-check". Instead, Booz Hamilton provided Snowden's base salary - not how much he actually earned, which could have included overtime, bonuses, any other kind of allowance. It seems entirely likely to me that Snowden's actual take home could have been well above the base rate. Certainly no-one has tabled any evidence otherwise.
So you're basing your skepticism on what? That he used the word salary instead of income? That's why he has lost all credibility? Not to mention this personal detail has nothing to do with the actual allegations.
Congratulations, you swallowed this textbook hit piece hook, line and sinker. Its entire purpose was to make people "skeptical", of course, and it obviously worked.
Broadly stated: independent sources cross-confirming each other is the best way to ensure reliability (an old scientific, police, historian, and journalist principle). Simply because we agree with a single source's statements and viewpoints doesn't guarantee the single source is right.
However, a variety of people over the years (Drake & others) have also remarked on the over-the-top surveillance. It's also true that the NSA has admitted certain of Greenwald's accusations. So at least in principle, Greenwald has been confirmed.
They did not. For unknown reasons, the switch in the Conference hall got manipulated (unplugged). It carried both the Skype call and the stream to the outside world.
[+] [-] salient|12 years ago|reply
Highly recommend it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA
[+] [-] malandrew|12 years ago|reply
How was part 1 by Claudio Gaurnieri (@botherder) and Morgan Marquis-Boire (@headhntr)?
[+] [-] coldcode|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AlexanderDhoore|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aryastark|12 years ago|reply
The America of 2013 is absolute bullshit. I can't even fathom how corrupt this country is.
[+] [-] exarch|12 years ago|reply
Yes, what he did clearly meets the statutory definition of perjury. He's still employed by the government because our officials, elected and appointed, are almost completely unaccountable to the public due to the political process being broken down by a corporate-controlled media and corporatocratic (see: Mussolini) system of government. The law is no longer equally applied - wealthy, important, and powerful people are "too big to fail", while even the most urgent concerns of average proles is generally beneath notice of those in charge. The only exception to this is when the proles' concerns become so widespread that a movement forms and majority demand for democratic change might result. In these cases a number of pacification strategies are adopted, like co-opting the proletariat movement with well-spoken placebo change agents who offer strong messages of hope, and have absolutely no intention of following through with them, or discrediting the movement by airing the dirty laundry of those movement leaders who cannot be corrupted or co-opted.
[+] [-] _bfhp|12 years ago|reply
Conversations with History: Glenn Greenwald - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-qlF... ~2011
Glenn's "Frequently Told Lies" page - http://web.archive.org/web/20131007002618/http://ggsidedocs.... (it's currently down, both on archive.org and the original page)
The American columnist who can't live in America - http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/10/the-american-column... (this is before the striking down of the gay marriage law in question, I think)
How Glenn Greenwald Became Glenn Greenwald - http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/how-glenn-greenwald-became-glen...
Believing oppression only happens elsewhere - https://theoldspeakjournal.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/believin... (the original blog is down)
Endless War, Radical Presidential Power, and a Rotted Political Culture: A Talk by Glenn Greenwald - http://translationexercises.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/endless... [28 Mar 2013]
[+] [-] 3ds|12 years ago|reply
http://subtitles.media.ccc.de/
specifically here: http://subtitles.pads.ccc.de/5622
[+] [-] poppingtonic|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jnbiche|12 years ago|reply
It's a sad era indeed when we have a whole network of American journalists living outside of U.S. borders for fear of imprisonment and other reprisals from their own government.
[+] [-] poppingtonic|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dewey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] znowi|12 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEJIR0-KJu0#t=275
[+] [-] lispm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] varelse|12 years ago|reply
I don't like it, and I don't agree with it, but I acknowledge that if a 2nd 9/11 level event were to occur after the government relented and imposed reasonable limitations on data collection that the party out of power at the time could easily scream bloody murder and take all 3 branches of government in a single election cycle. I'd previously only expected this from the party of Kang, but Obama's stance on drones and NSA surveillance has revealed the party of Kodos is no better.
Which is to say I think the surveillance state is a symptom more than the disease. America has lost all sense of perspective.
~30,000 automotive deaths (of which ~10,000 resulted from drunk driving) annually.
~11,000 gun deaths.
~6,000 deaths from falling off ladders.
~3,000 people died on 9/11.
Ergo we should ban ladders, guns, alcohol, and cars: it's the only way to be sure, no?
[+] [-] lazyjones|12 years ago|reply
As you wrote yourself, terrorism is a minor issue in the US. Most of the fear is fueled (and some of it created) by the government, because it's so convenient for manipulating the population. Therefore the government itself cannot be driven by the fear of being accused of going soft in this matter, because if that was the case, it'd simply stop perpetuing this fear of terrorism.
I'm sorry, but there is no cheap way out for this goverment. It's fundamentally evil and corrupt, it uses terrorism to keep a certain elite in power and to channel taxpayers' money to the pockets of the military-industrial complex. That's the only logical explanation I've seen so far.
[+] [-] ptrf|12 years ago|reply
The surveillance state was never intended to stop terrorism, it is the true terrorism. This malice cannot be explained by incompetence.
[+] [-] beernutz|12 years ago|reply
I REALLY dig doing this via github as well. I submitted a pull request with some spelling changes.
[+] [-] mjallday|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] poppingtonic|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonnybgood|12 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/1...
[+] [-] enko|12 years ago|reply
So you're basing your skepticism on what? That he used the word salary instead of income? That's why he has lost all credibility? Not to mention this personal detail has nothing to do with the actual allegations.
Congratulations, you swallowed this textbook hit piece hook, line and sinker. Its entire purpose was to make people "skeptical", of course, and it obviously worked.
[+] [-] pnathan|12 years ago|reply
However, a variety of people over the years (Drake & others) have also remarked on the over-the-top surveillance. It's also true that the NSA has admitted certain of Greenwald's accusations. So at least in principle, Greenwald has been confirmed.
[+] [-] plg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] davedx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jokoon|12 years ago|reply
I even wonder if the NSA actually tried to DDOS the skype call conference.
[+] [-] danimo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asima123|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]