Saturday, June 22, 2013
POLITICAL CONTROL OF FACEBOOK POSTS
My NSA posts aren't making my Facebook general news feed, it appears.
Evidently, a Facebook program is blocking those with words like nsa, cyber, spy, data and so forth.
Perhaps Babylon the Great is hoping to prove that it isn't dead.
My Facebook address is
https://www.facebook.com/paul.conant.39
The site is public.
There probably isn't another "Paul Roger Conant" Facebook user, so you should -- barring interference -- be able to reach my page with that name.
My NSA posts aren't making my Facebook general news feed, it appears.
Evidently, a Facebook program is blocking those with words like nsa, cyber, spy, data and so forth.
Perhaps Babylon the Great is hoping to prove that it isn't dead.
My Facebook address is
https://www.facebook.com/paul.conant.39
The site is public.
There probably isn't another "Paul Roger Conant" Facebook user, so you should -- barring interference -- be able to reach my page with that name.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
U.S. security chiefs rage
but finger points at them
The security chiefs, and their congressional backers, screaming the loudest about Edward Snowden's surveillance disclosures are directing attention away from their own outrageous bungling.
Every spy agency -- including the National Security Agency -- has known for decades about the extraordinary dangers posed by defectors. And yet, somehow their system permitted a high-school drop-out hacker to inflict what they themselves assert is tremendous damage. And so they stand convicted by their own words.
They are not talking about why none of them seems to have had the slightest concern about what a defector might do, despite many, many lessons from the Cold War period. What we have here is unprofessionalism at its worst. How could they have set up a system that didn't include firewalls to limit the damage any one defector might do?
Of course, Snowden does not quite fit the classical profile of a defector. But that's small comfort to the national security big cheeses who have been made fools of by a canny "low level" insider.
Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen
Snowden reportedly spirited away some 1 million secret documents from his NSA spy post. As a top-flight hacker, we can expect that he has them well-hidden in computer memories around the world, and even if a computer owner somehow ran across the file, it would be super-encrypted NSA style, with many backup copies elsewhere.
In other words, the current national security system is dead, slain by Snowden. Many in the system are not awake to this, but it has to be so, because those 1 million documents are bound to contain numerous career-wrecking secrets. That means there will be a mad scramble of infighting, which at first may not be visible, but eventually will become so.
Perhaps a system just as wicked will arise from the wreckage. Be that as it may, the current system has met its doom, like the cocky Titanic bragging its way across the treacherous seas, full steam ahead.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
SEE THAT CLOUD OF DUST OVER YONDER?
THAT THAR'S THE FRENCH FRY COMMANDOS
riding our of Fort Meade to string up any low-down varmint that says anything bad about the NSA or the security agencies. They don't cotton to no french-fry eatin' terrorist lovers.
Yes sir, you should have seen 'em go after the french-fry eaters just before the Iraq war. By God, they gave 'em hell.
THAT THAR'S THE FRENCH FRY COMMANDOS
riding our of Fort Meade to string up any low-down varmint that says anything bad about the NSA or the security agencies. They don't cotton to no french-fry eatin' terrorist lovers.
Yes sir, you should have seen 'em go after the french-fry eaters just before the Iraq war. By God, they gave 'em hell.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Is Snowden a brilliant hacker
with dirt on high-level officials?
How could a person without a college degree obtain an important post at the CIA? How could a systems administrator at an outpost NSA station obtain documents meant for 30 or 40 high-level officials?
Why would the CIA give diplomatic cover to a man with no academic credentials for a short stint in Switzerland, especially as a systems administrator?
These are questions raised by intelligence sources interviewed by the Washington Post.
However, this reporter knows personally a high school drop-out whose computer savvy vaulted him to a high-level corporate position by the time he was 21.
So a good bet is that Edward Snowden was hired by the CIA after 9/11 because of his reputation among peers as a first-rate hacker. Somehow he ended up as a contractor (more money maybe) on a pleasant Pacific island. But then, one can guess, he found that he had a lot of time on his hands and was curious to see what he could see in the NSA system.
Unless Snowden was extraordinarily naive, one would expect that he downloaded all sorts of sensitive data on specific persons in order to try to protect himself. Does he have dirt on top intelligence gurus, FBI people, judges and justices, members of the Senate intelligence committee, leading pubishers and financiers, and so forth? Hard to know. But one would think he's got something on at least a few very powerful people.
Of course, he may have after all been terribly naive, especially in light of his self-declared epilepsy which might indicate a brain-damage syndrome affecting judgment.
From the Washington Post:
Several former officials said he easily could have been part of a surge in computer experts and technical hires brought in by the CIA in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as its budget and mission swelled.
Some former CIA officials said they were troubled by aspects of Snowden’s background, at least as he described it to The Post and the Guardian. For instance, Snowden said he did not have a high school diploma. One former CIA official said that it was extremely unusual for the agency to have hired someone with such thin academic credentials, particularly for a technical job, and that the terms Snowden used to describe his agency positions did not match internal job descriptions.
Snowden’s claim to have been placed under diplomatic cover for a position in Switzerland after an apparently brief stint at the CIA as a systems administrator also raised suspicion. “I just have never heard of anyone being hired with so little academic credentials,” the former CIA official said. The agency does employ technical specialists in overseas stations, the former official said, “but their breadth of experience is huge, and they tend not to start out as systems administrators.”
A former senior U.S. intelligence official cited other puzzling aspects of Snowden’s account, questioning why a contractor for Booz Allen at an NSA facility in Hawaii would have access to something as sensitive as a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Cour don’t know why he would have had access to those . . . orders out in Hawaii,” the former official said. The Guardian initially reported the existence of a program that collects data on all phone calls made on the Verizon network. Later in the week, the Guardian and The Post reported the existence of a separate program, code-named PRISM, that collects the Internet data of foreigners from major Internet companies.
Among questions is how a contract employee at a distant NSA satellite office was able to obtain a copy of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a highly classified document that would presumably be sealed from most employees and of little use to someone in his position.
A former senior NSA official said that the number of agency officials with access to such court orders is “maybe 30 or maybe 40. Not large numbers."
Or is the NSA just incompetent?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/09/edward_snowden_why_did_the_nsa_whistleblower_have_access_to_prism_and_other.html
with dirt on high-level officials?
How could a person without a college degree obtain an important post at the CIA? How could a systems administrator at an outpost NSA station obtain documents meant for 30 or 40 high-level officials?
Why would the CIA give diplomatic cover to a man with no academic credentials for a short stint in Switzerland, especially as a systems administrator?
These are questions raised by intelligence sources interviewed by the Washington Post.
However, this reporter knows personally a high school drop-out whose computer savvy vaulted him to a high-level corporate position by the time he was 21.
So a good bet is that Edward Snowden was hired by the CIA after 9/11 because of his reputation among peers as a first-rate hacker. Somehow he ended up as a contractor (more money maybe) on a pleasant Pacific island. But then, one can guess, he found that he had a lot of time on his hands and was curious to see what he could see in the NSA system.
Unless Snowden was extraordinarily naive, one would expect that he downloaded all sorts of sensitive data on specific persons in order to try to protect himself. Does he have dirt on top intelligence gurus, FBI people, judges and justices, members of the Senate intelligence committee, leading pubishers and financiers, and so forth? Hard to know. But one would think he's got something on at least a few very powerful people.
Of course, he may have after all been terribly naive, especially in light of his self-declared epilepsy which might indicate a brain-damage syndrome affecting judgment.
From the Washington Post:
Several former officials said he easily could have been part of a surge in computer experts and technical hires brought in by the CIA in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as its budget and mission swelled.
Some former CIA officials said they were troubled by aspects of Snowden’s background, at least as he described it to The Post and the Guardian. For instance, Snowden said he did not have a high school diploma. One former CIA official said that it was extremely unusual for the agency to have hired someone with such thin academic credentials, particularly for a technical job, and that the terms Snowden used to describe his agency positions did not match internal job descriptions.
Snowden’s claim to have been placed under diplomatic cover for a position in Switzerland after an apparently brief stint at the CIA as a systems administrator also raised suspicion. “I just have never heard of anyone being hired with so little academic credentials,” the former CIA official said. The agency does employ technical specialists in overseas stations, the former official said, “but their breadth of experience is huge, and they tend not to start out as systems administrators.”
A former senior U.S. intelligence official cited other puzzling aspects of Snowden’s account, questioning why a contractor for Booz Allen at an NSA facility in Hawaii would have access to something as sensitive as a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Cour don’t know why he would have had access to those . . . orders out in Hawaii,” the former official said. The Guardian initially reported the existence of a program that collects data on all phone calls made on the Verizon network. Later in the week, the Guardian and The Post reported the existence of a separate program, code-named PRISM, that collects the Internet data of foreigners from major Internet companies.
Among questions is how a contract employee at a distant NSA satellite office was able to obtain a copy of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a highly classified document that would presumably be sealed from most employees and of little use to someone in his position.
A former senior NSA official said that the number of agency officials with access to such court orders is “maybe 30 or maybe 40. Not large numbers."
Or is the NSA just incompetent?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/09/edward_snowden_why_did_the_nsa_whistleblower_have_access_to_prism_and_other.html
Monday, June 10, 2013
Obama spy chief denounces press
for publishing without permission
What did James Clapper mean by a "rush to publish"? That editors weren't clearing their stories with the intelligence system first?
Top intelligence officials in the Obama administration and Congress pushed back against the journalists responsible for revealing the existence of the massive surveillance programs and called for an investigation into the leaks.
Clapper, in an interview with NBC that aired Saturday night, condemned the leaker’s actions but also sought to spotlight the journalists who first reported the programs, calling their disclosures irresponsible and full of “hyperbole.” Earlier Saturday, he issued a statement accusing the media of a “rush to publish.”
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/
Americans see feds as untrustworthy on their freedoms
Ominously, only 30 percent feel that the federal government is a protector of individual rights. The poll found that 56% feel that the federal government is a threat to individual rights. This is up ten points since Rasmussen's December poll.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/06/05/Poll-Americans-Upset-Over-Dept-of-Justice-Snooping-on-Reporters
Post sources puzzled by 'whistleblower'
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhwere... I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
for publishing without permission
What did James Clapper mean by a "rush to publish"? That editors weren't clearing their stories with the intelligence system first?
Top intelligence officials in the Obama administration and Congress pushed back against the journalists responsible for revealing the existence of the massive surveillance programs and called for an investigation into the leaks.
Clapper, in an interview with NBC that aired Saturday night, condemned the leaker’s actions but also sought to spotlight the journalists who first reported the programs, calling their disclosures irresponsible and full of “hyperbole.” Earlier Saturday, he issued a statement accusing the media of a “rush to publish.”
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/
Americans see feds as untrustworthy on their freedoms
Ominously, only 30 percent feel that the federal government is a protector of individual rights. The poll found that 56% feel that the federal government is a threat to individual rights. This is up ten points since Rasmussen's December poll.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/06/05/Poll-Americans-Upset-Over-Dept-of-Justice-Snooping-on-Reporters
Post sources puzzled by 'whistleblower'
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhwere... I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
Friday, June 7, 2013
Cameron agrees to gag order
imposed by Bilderberg elite
The British prime minister's office says no details of his discussions with the financial elite at the Bilderberg conference will be disclosed to the public.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/david-cameron-attend-bilderberg-group
imposed by Bilderberg elite
The British prime minister's office says no details of his discussions with the financial elite at the Bilderberg conference will be disclosed to the public.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/david-cameron-attend-bilderberg-group
Thursday, June 6, 2013
FBI clamps national security lid
on Saudis tied to '9/11 hijackers'From the Miami Herald:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/03/v-fullstory/3430633/mystery-of-sarasota-saudis-deepens.html
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