The Snowden Psyop Continues: Now Comes The Fallout

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's efforts to determine which highly classified materials leaker Edward Snowden took from the National Security Agency have been frustrated by Snowden's sophisticated efforts to cover his digital trail by deleting or bypassing electronic logs, government officials told The Associated Press. Such logs would have showed what information Snowden viewed or downloaded.

The government's forensic investigation is wrestling with Snowden's apparent ability to defeat safeguards established to monitor and deter people looking at information without proper permission, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the sensitive developments publicly.

The disclosure of Snowden's hacking prowess inside the NSA also could dramatically increase the perceived value of his knowledge to foreign governments, which would presumably be eager to learn any counter-detection techniques that could be exploited against U.S. government networks.

Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, was employed by Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii before leaking classified documents to the Guardian and The Washington Post. As a system administrator, Snowden had the ability to move around data and had access to thumb drives that would have allowed him to transfer information to computers outside the NSA's secure system, Alexander has said.

Source

The above, directly from an Associated Press article seems fairly innocuous and non-problematic on the surface. But between the lines there are some very, very dangerous tones being tiptoed around.

Anyone with a fair amount of computer knowledge will probably begin to zero in on the issues rather rapidly. Snowden was almost certainly utilizing FOSS ( Free open source software ) both in his job and in his ( supposed ) extra curricular activities.

The DoD uses multiple operating systems, but as this article suggests - when it comes to USB they are very pro Linux.

This article shows that the NSA also has a fondness for the Linux OS.

This becomes problematic when the rhetoric begins to circulate as is stated above... Making Snowden out to be a super hacker with a general sort of "This guy broke through our safeguards and we need to get to the bottom of this and make sure it doesn't happen again, blah blah blah..."

IE it is beginning to appear that the powers that be are going to be shifting blame toward the FOSS software Snowden ( and all of us ) had access to... and not, oh I don't know, the gaping HOLE IN THE STORY OF HOW A FEDERAL CONTRACTOR IN A SENSITIVE INSTALLATION WAS ABLE TO NOT ONLY SMUGGLE USB THUMB DRIVES IN AND OUT - BUT WAS PLACED AT WORK STATIONS WITH LIVE AND UNCONTROLLED USB PORTS!!!!

This is one of the many reasons I personally believe Snowden is an active agent and that this entire episode was planned and executed as a justification for a cyber coup.

If you fail to see the danger here... Well Microsoft and Apple are already very much in compliance with the NSA demands about how they engineer their closed source software. The last bastion of digital freedom does reside in FOSS software.

Even if you don't know a thing about Linux - think of it this way... In cyberspace Linux is every bit as important to our freedoms as the fight for gun rights is. The two fights are very, very similar in scope and consequence. If FOSS software is classified as dangerous by the US government, and we are all left with just Windows and Apples OS as our choices? Well we might as well just pull up a second chair and sit an NSA agent down next to us when we are online - because their view to our activities will be exactly that open and unimpaired.

Increasingly it appears that Uncle Sam is coming for your Ubuntu, your Fedora, your Arch... Name your flavor and understand that there are very powerful people who do not want you having the same level of privacy and security that THEY themselves rely upon.

This is certainly not the first thread I have authored upon this general subject... and I fear it will not be the last.

It is not hyperbole to say that if we allow Uncle Sam to outlaw or seek to control FOSS software - the fight for digital freedom is all but over.

Watch as this story develops to see if my instincts are right. I pray that they are not, but feel in my bones that I am right on the money with this one.

more and more i read more i like this guy..very cool person..very dare..hope God keep him alive an away from those who have bad mind..

reply to post by Hefficide


Cheers Heff....downloading ubantu now. Meh, better late than never I suppose.

Reading that thread yesterday about the CIA bloke - Mr Shipp and the CIA going rogue, if Snowden is still active then I'll put him in the same category as Mr Shipp. However, I reckon he is the real deal, as in, whistleblower on the run.


reply to post by cheesy

more and more i read more i like this guy..very cool person

I feel exactly the same way about you. Your humility knows no bounds, just beautiful.

I agree with the OP. Just want to throw in to keep an eye on Booz Allen. They pop up everywhere lately whenever investigative journalists looking into national security topics and/or whistleblowers are concerned.

Edward Snowden, Michael Hastings, Glen Greenwald, Chelsea Manning, Barrett Brown, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

I will give just one example re Mannings here from Bradley Manning’s Trial—Day 5 (Live Updates)

1:38PM EST Two of the witnesses—Peter Artale and Lt. Col. Thomas Hoskins—whose stipulated testimony was entered into the record in Bradley Manning’s trial today were, at one time, Booz Allen contractors.

Well, actually I will add a second example for emphasis:

2012 Sep 8 Barrett Brown tweets

And then U.S. can explain why ex-employees of Booz Allen Hamilton are so #ing scared of what their employer does in secret

Check link in signature for more on this

reply to post by MindBodySpiritComplex


Very astute observation - I too have commented upon Booz Allen Hamilton in previous threads. For those who do not know, this is the company Snowden was working for as a contractor at the NSA. Snowdens previous employer was the CIA.

Booz Allen Hamilton makes almost all of their money from government contracts and, on paper, looks to very much be a front company - possibly for the CIA... At least in my humble opinion.

ahhhhh is that you mr .heff??? do you remember me ahaha

I disagree. No one can control Linux. Linux is composed of thousands of individual packages written by thousands of different people all over the world. If you go to distrowatch, you'll see there are thousands of Linux spins. If it were discovered that someone was compromising Linux, people would simply move to another distribution. Many times when there are disagreements in the open source world, people fork projects. open office-> libre office, firefox -> ice weasel, etc. And it even happens to distributions, debian -> ubuntu -> mint linux, Fedora -> RHEL -> Centos -> Oracle Linux. Many components are interchangable, sendmail -> postfix ->exim -> qmail, init sysVinit->upstart->systemd, desktops gnome -> cinnamon -> mate -> kde, debian systems can even run a freebsd kernel. Linux cannot be controlled in the same way commercial software can be. there's no one person or company to make a deal with. Relax.

Booz Allen is the 2nd arm of the Administration, has been since GHWBush was in office. James Baker President maker, etc etc.
This might be a fishing expedition too for the NSA, trying to draw out actual whisteblowers and weaknesses in their systems. You're right about FOSS though, that's the potential thorn in their side they want gone. They have to keep everything down to 2 "choices" only, Republican or Democrat, coke or pepsi, Microshaft or Crapple.
Great point Heff.

Originally posted by inert
I disagree. No one can control Linux.

Don't have to control it. Just have to convince enough people it's ok to throw you in jail for having it on your computer or thumb drive.

consider the possibility that the Snowden/NSA may have an additional , hidden purpose... limit the ability of the NSA to use their information while keeping the Israeli/mossad control over AMDOCS, Comverse Infosys, credit card databases as a means of infiltrating and corrupting leading politicians and top bureaucrats in the military industrial complex...i.e., it is Israeli intelligence over NSA intelligence.
The Amdocs etc story was first exposed on Fox, then deleted from their archive.
A database of who calls whom by cell, who buys what by card, and what the actual content of the call was about allows, with additional spying using those leads, to the discovery of any weakness or the creation of such in any target.

Two Words...

Mount This!


lern | more



ETA: so it's not so minimal...

Every day I wake up and get a better picture of how helpless we are in all of this.

We're the ones that supposedly gave the keys to the same people that now act like they own the fact we even exist.

They no longer follow their own rules, let alone ours, and they think they're gods.

Unless we demand changes, it can only work out for them.

Before you know it, they'll be coming out with a list of "illegal code" across all variants, that by simply compiling will get you time behind bars. You know they want to!

No, this has to stop, because they have proven, beyond all doubt, that they can't be trusted to operate in a restricted set of confines.

There is absolutely no way to know whether that memo you thought secure, which revealed company secrets, and crucial to the success of your business, has fallen into the wrong hands.

I'm sure I don't have to start naming all the humans, recently caught doing unspeakable things to others, for you to know how bad some really are... and those are just the ones who got busted!

For now, all I'm hearing is.. yeah we're doing it, so what!

To close:

Trust you? Yeah right!

... three months ago Ariel Castro was a good neighbor!

reply to post by Hefficide


Heff,

I was so relieved to read your thread and find that some other person was willing to come out with their opinion that Snowden is a 'psyop'; in my opinion, it is the most well formed and powerful one of its kind since the Roswell narrative.

But, as far as the FOOS is concerned?

Even if you don't know a thing about Linux - think of it this way... In cyberspace Linux is every bit as important to our freedoms as the fight for gun rights is.

Strong work there; it's really hard to get folks to understand why it's so important, and you just did it in one sentence. I hope that people are paying attention. In that spirit, I will offer my own short version for your entertainment...

"It's the Unix, stupid". (...and math )

The problem is, in my opinion, that people are not aware enough to know that they need to act; the gun, the means for protecting themselves and their families, the method for educating themselves out of this hole we have found ourselves in, is laying right there in front of them. Will they pick it up?

Anyhow, thanks for the thread, may its message travel far.

I will say that I couldn't help but notice how well-spoken Snowden is. Almost, humor me here, "Spokesman-like." Trained even.

He seems very gifted at steering an interview exactly where he wants it to go. Assange had those qualities, to a somewhat lesser degree, as well.

Of course, a case for whom Snowden might work for can't be made by that kind of observation alone, but, like I said, it did kind of jump out at me and say, "Boo!" That's what Spooks do ain't it?

Having said that, I'm still on the fence as to what he is or isn't...but either way, he'll be used for something that ain't good for the ol' Constitution, eh?

Originally posted by inert
I disagree. No one can control Linux. Linux is composed of thousands of individual packages written by thousands of different people all over the world. If you go to distrowatch, you'll see there are thousands of Linux spins. If it were discovered that someone was compromising Linux, people would simply move to another distribution. Many times when there are disagreements in the open source world, people fork projects. open office-> libre office, firefox -> ice weasel, etc. And it even happens to distributions, debian -> ubuntu -> mint linux, Fedora -> RHEL -> Centos -> Oracle Linux. Many components are interchangable, sendmail -> postfix ->exim -> qmail, init sysVinit->upstart->systemd, desktops gnome -> cinnamon -> mate -> kde, debian systems can even run a freebsd kernel. Linux cannot be controlled in the same way commercial software can be. there's no one person or company to make a deal with. Relax.

Every spin and flavor is built upon the Linux kernel. A kernel tightly controlled by a rather small group of people. But that is beside the point of this OP. which is more a statement that FOSS software could conceivably be deemed dangerous and laws passed to either ban it or control it.

Originally posted by Hefficide
HOLE IN THE STORY OF HOW A FEDERAL CONTRACTOR IN A SENSITIVE INSTALLATION WAS ABLE TO NOT ONLY SMUGGLE USB THUMB DRIVES IN AND OUT - BUT WAS PLACED AT WORK STATIONS WITH LIVE AND UNCONTROLLED USB PORTS!!!!

This is one of the many reasons I personally believe Snowden is an active agent and that this entire episode was planned and executed as a justification for a cyber coup.

Bingo.

Im in this camp also.

Agent? Yes.

Cyber Coup? Maybe.

Infringing on EVERYONES rights? You bet.

S&F

Then, and only then, after it’s gotten some positive thumbs ups on the security mailing list, is it submitted to Linus Torvalds for inclusion in the Linux kernel. Linus Torvalds is not a person who suffers fools or government interference lightly. Really. He’s a total opinionated asshole. Which is why he is a software engineering god. If he thinks the code is good, it’s good. For SELinux we looked at that code and decided it added sufficient security enhancements to Linux that it was worth rolling into the mainstream Linux kernel. Which is no easy task, not with Linus Torvalds up there looking for a reason, any reason, to reject additional functionality for Linux. (He has to do that, otherwise the kernel would bloat to the size of Microsoft Windows). Every single line had to be proved necessary, and every single line had to be proved to do what it said it was doing. That’s just how things work in Linux. In short: The NSA has not inserted spy code into Linux. Period. Too many very smart people have vetted this code for that to happen. The very fact that the code came from the NSA was reason enough for people to go through it with more than a fine tooth comb — we went through that code with a friggin’ *microscope* looking for issues. There’s no “there” there — it does what it’s supposed to do (provide fine grained security controls), and no more.

NSA tracking you

This blog explains it nicely. I have always respected Linus Torvalds for his stubborness towards auhthorities and work on linux and it´s principles. Maybe his left-winged family tought him to be very suspicious when it comes to goverments ( who knows )... there has been times that he and linux has been tried to put in the corner but they have always got through the pressure.

reply to post by dollukka


I respect the Hell of out Mr Torvalds, but the stage is actually already being set. There is currently a fair uproar in the FOSS community over Ubuntu - some very serious folks even suggesting that all versions since 12.10 qualify as spyware due to the use of lenses in the search function.

Ubuntu also participates in the creation of Kylin - the official operating system of China.

IE Even if Mr Torvalds keeps the kernel, itself, totally pure... American spins and flavors could be required to include packages that Mr Torvalds would not approve of.

reply to post by Hefficide


That´s true. Torvalds is trying to keep kernel pure but he and co. cannot inspect every packages which might be included as linux base on open source.. and therefor can´t reject either. it´s kind of " own dog biting ". In other hand linux users are much more aware and also concerned what´s going on in their computers not like windows users who accepts multiple dll files which are imbedded there by NSA when they install windows. The Awareness has always been the key of linux survival.

Originally posted by Hefficide

IE it is beginning to appear that the powers that be are going to be shifting blame toward the FOSS software Snowden ( and all of us ) had access to... and not, oh I don't know, the gaping HOLE IN THE STORY OF HOW A FEDERAL CONTRACTOR IN A SENSITIVE INSTALLATION WAS ABLE TO NOT ONLY SMUGGLE USB THUMB DRIVES IN AND OUT - BUT WAS PLACED AT WORK STATIONS WITH LIVE AND UNCONTROLLED USB PORTS!!!!

In my experience USB drive access was controlled by the network policies that were pushed out weekly at a minimum. If Snowden had a policy exception like many Net Admins do, then he would've had USB access whenever he logged on. I used to have the exception for USB and the CD drive to burn disc's.

As far as smuggling a thumb drive in and out, that would be quite easy, it's not like they pull a TSA on you when you enter and depart. Though after all this, they may just start.

I think that with the way things played out, Snowden could have been working for someone else.