Edward Snowden Q&A: NSA whistleblower answers your questions

Originally posted by HumanPLC
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I do agree mate, and if its is the real Snowden participating im sure the Q&A and its participants will be very closely watched.

Are you kidding? This is a newspaper inviting readers to submit questions online. It's no big deal and the government isn't going to care.

By the way, how do you imagine the government is going to 'watch' someone who submits an anonymously posted question online?

I would ask him where he wants to be buried.

I am pretty sure there is a drone strike with his name on it.

Once you have killed a few Americans...It must get easier.

However, The man did make agreements with the US Government.

I wish he could of taken a "Whistle Blower" type of approach.

Originally posted by Gazrok
Personally I don't think we are going to see any major disclosures as we have no way of knowing this is really Edward Snowden and not some NSA intern..

I'd like to be convinced he's not an NSA intern to begin with.

No lie, I tried to retrieve his bonafides and all I can tell is that he was in some branch of the military. His record jacket still has a master record in an older index set (not the newer one) but the record it points to is just friggin' BLANK. Not so much as an indication of what service he was in. No billeting records. No utility records. No TDY records. Nothing. Federal, state, county or city. The guy is a cypher.

I was afraid to ping his scattered castles or jpas records.

It would be sweet to think he was real but I'm just...not...sure.

We need more people like Snowden working as public servants. We need people who understand the constitution and are willing to uphold it. I watched the news when Dick Cheney called Snowden a traitor. These disgusting (the word is actually too weak to describe them) individuals have the audacity to call him a traitor when they themselves are the traitors to the American people as well as the world. They caused more unnecessary deaths than any whistle blower in recorded history ever could. They are responsible for more misery than can ever be expressed.

I literally feel sick to my stomach when I see them on TV lambasting Snowden or Assange. They don't deserve our trust and they don't deserve the positions they are holding. They should be let nowhere near any sort of power. I wouldn't trust them to work as janitors, let alone as Vice Presidents and other important Government roles.

I am just so unhappy about the state of affairs. This is a disaster. Finally we see Republicans and Democrats agree on something. Unfortunately that something is them trying to cover their a$$es, because both parties know that their respective administrations are both nearly equally responsible for what's going on and they don't want to admit any wrong-doing. They are both guilty as hell.

and yes .. you can call in and ...

get your ph# tracked in seconds.. logged and archived

I'll pass..

reply to post by HumanPLC


he shouldn't answer qestion number 2 lmao. after that he gets iced...

i think it's curious that the nsa can "see our thoughts form as we type" yet he's gonna answer questions online. how do we know the answers will be his? or that we'll see the answers? i'd rather interview a shark on land than in the water lol.

Originally posted by Sankari

Originally posted by HumanPLC
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I do agree mate, and if its is the real Snowden participating im sure the Q&A and its participants will be very closely watched.

Are you kidding? This is a newspaper inviting readers to submit questions online. It's no big deal and the government isn't going to care.

By the way, how do you imagine the government is going to 'watch' someone who submits an anonymously posted question online?

anonymously posted? u may not exactly understand precisely what prism is. any part of this equation that deals with anything happening online means no anonymity. they see what you're typing as you type it. are you sure you're posting in the right thread? lol

Actually there is a way he can prove himself and his future messages even though his location etc is anonymous. He could make a one time public youtube video of him holding up a piece of paper with his hash code digital fingerprint he uses to encrypt his messages. Then the one receiving the message can post and verify that indeed his message shows that identifier.

Originally posted by HumanPLC
Obama's campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.

I have doubts these answers are coming from Ed Snowden based on the above. Either he's trying to say he knew about all of this in 2008, which is impossible as his releases are from much more recent timeframes, OR he's saying he knew about this last year but believed the further lies of a blatant, proven liar. I find it near impossible that an individual with the access Snowden had to information would have placed any faith in the current resident of the White House in 2012. Combined with his positive stance towards the CIA plant group Wikileaks, I'm smelling some bullcrap circulating around this imposter's replies.

Originally posted by IAmbivalenceI
reply to post by HumanPLC

 

Has anyone in the last 50 years had the delusion that anything they do is private?

Irrelevant, irrelevant and irrelevant.

How he got the job, who interviewed him etc etc is all irrelevant to the central issue.

The fact that we have all "assumed" the NSA was tapping into our communications is one thing. Having it confirmed is another.

It's like a large retail store assuming that employees and customers are stealing....hell, you know it is happening. When it is confirmed the individuals are not just allowed a pass because "we all know" it's happening, they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The same should apply to those in our government who break the law of the land (violate our Constitutional Rights), they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Period.

reply to post by Sankari

By the way, how do you imagine the government is going to 'watch' someone who submits an anonymously posted question online?

How can they watch? How would they know?

Normally, this is where I would link something or have a clever retort in the way of a quote to fit the moment. Right now though? I think all I need do is direct you to open the newspaper or watch the broadcast news of any outlet, anywhere in the Western World.....and your answer should come in very short order. You do watch and read something outside blogs occasionally, yes?

Interesting thread. I read through the entire Q&A source (thanks to the OP for that link).

The whole time, I was thinking of Jeremy Scahill's book Dirty Wars. It was just released - I'm about halfway or so through it, and EVERYTHING that Snowden said on the Q&A thing is PRECISELY what Scahill is disclosing in his book.

If you guys want more information on how nefarious all of this crap is, pick up a copy and read it. This has been going on since 9/11, and it's true that Obama lied about cleaning up the 'wrong-doing' - instead, he is supporting it. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush started it - secret programs that were kept quiet from Congress -
and Obama has ratcheted it UP, not made it better.



This is NOT A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE RELEASE - it is NOT "HOLLYWOOD" sensationalizing things. It is an indie film, getting only limited screenings in a few cities -
Please look at the site linked above for more information. WE ALL need to know this stuff.
Snowden is providing even more evidence to what Scahill has uncovered and EXPOSED.

Originally posted by Gazrok

Personally I don't think we are going to see any major disclosures as we have no way of knowing this is really Edward Snowden and not some NSA intern.....while the real Ed is feeding the worms.

Whatever anyone's opinion of Snowden is, he is not dumb. He warned the NSA in his original comments to the press. He knows the location of every CIA station house in the world...Had unfettered access to personal and professional communications of .."A Federal Judge...A Congressman...even a President"

He is also a paranoid...whether justified or not. He made comment that he often shields himself and his computer with a blanket when entering passwords...lest the gov. had placed hidden cams in his room etc. etc.

And he has the technical aptitude to understand exactly how they would hunt him.

All of this makes me think he has "buttoned" himself...an insurance policy.

It works like this...you hide a trove of damaging information somewhere...automatically set to snail-mail or email to several press sources...unless you call or log in with a password once every few days. A dead-mans switch of sorts for leaks.

He thought this out carefully. I strongly suspect he has the dead-man's switch in place and communicated the same to the NSA in his public statements....

I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President, ....

..........

I had access to the whole roster of everyone at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets all around the world, the locations of every station that we have, what their missions are, and so forth. If I had just wanted to harm the US, you could shut down the surveillance system in an afternoon

reply to post by Indigo5

All of this makes me think he has "buttoned" himself...an insurance policy. It works like this...you hide a trove of damaging information somewhere...automatically set to snail-mail or email to several press sources...unless you call or log in with a password once every few days. A dead-mans switch of sorts for leaks.

I am in agreement with you on this.
I can't imagine that he didn't have it in place before he came out.

Originally posted by bbracken677

Irrelevant, irrelevant and irrelevant.

How he got the job, who interviewed him etc etc is all irrelevant to the central issue.

I disagree here...BIG TIME!

See ...Ironically the very existence of Snowden proves his concerns and debunks the Government's defense. It's a closed loop of logic.

The Government keeps saying over and over that your information is SAFE, it is not vulnerable to constitutional breeches, everything is secure with safeguards against unconstitutional breeches etc. etc.

And all we have to do is look at this 29 year old employee of a PRIVATE firm, who apparently had access to EVERYTHING...slipped passed all of the gov.'s "safeguards" and "screenings"...was able to walk in with a effen THUMB DRIVE and walk out with the goods on the Gov.s most secretive spying operation.

Tell me again how the secretly gathered private communications of Millions of Americans are safe? That the gov. has it all under control? That it is impossible for the information to be abused?

The very existence of Snowden proves that the Government is failing to implement safeguards against abuses.

Want to be a Billionaire?...Get a job as an analyst for SAIC or Booze-Allen....tap the comms of just a few guys, starting with Warren Buffet, plus the CEO of Goldman Sachs...toss in a few Hedge Fund managers...etc. etc. It can be something you do during your lunch break with a thumb drive.

reply to post by Indigo5


You raise what is probably one of the single BEST points of the entire issue here, outside the specific nature of each abuse.

The nation has chosen to 'out-source' and 'privatize' all the wrong things and to absurd extremes. We hear politicians on both sides crying about different areas of privatizing services. Some whined about Social Security either going private or not having done so yet. Other whined about Health Care in the very same way. Those are social issues and deserve the open and honest debate, as reasonable people would agree, I'm sure.

I think we need to draw A THICK BLACK LINE on privatizing Military combat and Intelligence operations or gathering *OF ANY SORT*, in ANY WAY. Period. No buts....No Ifs....NO EXCEPTIONS EVER.

I'm sick by the fact that as bad as we all agree oversight and command/control can be from the CIA down to an Army Platoon in the field? Those are the BEST of the bunch. Those are the ones at least under SOME control. The private firms define control in ways all their own ...as this shows, along with Triple Canopy and Blackwater, to name just 2 of dozens.

Private companies DO need to make the guns, bugs, computers and assorted gizmos. Indeed... They need to deliver them and sometimes, install them. THAT SHOULD END THEIR ROLE. Never should they be operating what they make in the real world. against real targets. Some things really are a government's role.....with the accountability that carries. Eh?

Originally posted by butcherguy

Originally posted by HumanPLC
reply to post by butcherguy

 

Yes mate, i noticed that one.

Actually there are some really interesting and well though out questions being asked! I suppose it comes down to whether those questions actually get answered though.

Its certainly interesting to watch!

It see that conspiracy theorists are getting their questions in...

I saw on about 9/11 and the Kennedy assassinations on page 11.

I hate to say this seeing as most people on here seem to think this person is a freedom loving hero, but I find it odd that he is embracing the celebrity aspect of this so much and if he did say anything about 9/11, JFK, ET life etc, they would lap it up and consider it 'the truth'.

What he has said so far is not really that major, and not even necessarily illegal - not when you boil it down to the facts rather than the hype. How is that now getting twisted into him somehow knowing everything about everything?

Originally posted by vivid1975
reply to post by HumanPLC

 

Keep up the flow of info Human please!

Mate, i owe you an apology as i did not keep up the flow of conversation (questions and answers). I did make a conscious decision to do this, it was simply because as the thread was developing, a lot of other people were also quoting his comments. This lead me to conclude that my posts echoing the questions and answers were pretty much pointless and essentially were probably doing more damage than good by breaking up the natural flow of conversation in the thread.

If id have known at the time it was benefiting you i would have most certainly continued though.

Anyway mate, my bad... sorry for that.

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reply to post by uncommitted

How is that now getting twisted into him somehow knowing everything about everything?

I believe it is a case of conspiracy theorists that have been hanging on for so long, waiting for their 'holy grail' proof of their beliefs, that since he has 'Secret info' they are hoping that the proof is in there.
It is possible, but highly unlikely.