Snowden

NSA snooping failing to prevent terrorist attacks, watchdog group says
Out of 225 terrorism cases on the territory of the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NSA'€™s PRISM program did little to protect the nation from terrorism, according to a new study. The bulk collection of metadata phone records by the National Security Agency “has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism,” according to a study by the New America Foundati [...]
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Former NSA whistleblowers plead for chance to brief Obama on agency abuses
A group of former National Security Agency insiders who went on to become whistleblowers have written a letter to President Barack Obama, requesting a meeting with him to offer "€œa fuller picture"€ of the spy agency's systemic problems. The group of four intelligence specialists - William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis and Kirk Wiebe [...]
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Obama 2013: How low can you go?
No doubt 2013 will go down as Barack Obama'€™s annus horribilis. The President of the United States (POTUS) currently faces a 55 percent disapproval rating on "€œthe way he is handling his job,"€ according to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll. [...]
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Israeli PM slams US spying activities as “€˜unacceptable”€™, demands investigation
Israel'€™s Prime Minister has condemned the US spying on Israeli leaders, saying such things are "€œunacceptable"€ and "€œmust not be done"€ between close allies. Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded investigation into the matter. [...]
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Cyber Command and NSA breakup looming over Snowden leaks – report
The fallout over the Snowden affair hits "critical stage" as Washington continues the push to separate Cyber Command, which oversees cyberspace operations, from the National Security Agency. [...]
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Edward Snowden Wins Whistleblower Award in Germany
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been awarded the biennial "whistleblower prize"€ in Germany, in recognition of his "€œbold efforts"€ to expose the monitoring of communications data by his former employer. In Snowden’s address on the presentation of the 2013 Whistleblower Award - channeled by internet activist and journalist Jacob Appelbaum [...]
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Merkel demands clarity on NSA’€™s role in Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded that Washington give Germany clarity over the future of the NSA in the country, stating that the practice had put transatlantic ties "€œto the test.-€œThe allegations are grave,"€ she said. Merkel kicked off the session by tackling the controversial issue of the US tapping her personal phone calls and the “millions” of associated NSA data int [...]
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Edward Snowden says calls for reforms prove his leaks are justified
Debates about mass surveillance and calls for "€œreforms to politics, supervision and laws"€ mean leaks about US secret service were justified, a former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden wrote in his "€œManifesto for the Truth." In his opinion piece, published in German Der Spiegel news magazine on Sunday, Snowden writes that his revelations have in fact been useful and society will benefit fr [...]
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“Time to reform surveillance state”: Stop Watching Us rally challenges NSA spying
Twelve years after Americans were stripped of their rights in the name of fighting terrorism, thousands have gathered in Washington DC to protest unconstitutional NSA spying programs revealed by Edward Snowden, and call for repeal of the Patriot Act. [...]
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FIRST VIDEO: Snowden receives Sam Adams Award in Moscow
The first videos of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have surfaced since he received asylum in Russia. The footage, provided by WikiLeaks, was taken during the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence awards ceremony. [...]
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Assange: “€˜Snowden safe but journalists dealing with him at risk”
Edward Snowden is safe in Russia, but the fates of journalists who helped him and published his leaks are now of more concern for WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said in an exclusive interview with RT Spanish "€˜Behind the News"€™ host Eva Golinger. Assange also shared his views on the NSA scandal in Latin America and the future of freedom of information. [...]
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Snowden’s father arrives in Moscow
The father of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has arrived in Moscow. Lon Snowden's flight touched down at Sheremetyevo Airport - where his son famously spent five weeks in transit limbo before receiving asylum in Russia. The plane carrying Lon Snowden landed in Moscow Thursday morning, RT crew on the scene reported. [...]
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“US unchained itself from constitution” Whistleblowers on RT after secret Snowden meeting
Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA surveillance programs prove that the US has abandoned the rule of law, betraying its own constitution, whistleblower Thomas Andrews Drake, told RT. A group of US whistleblowers and activists has present Snowden with a Sam Adams Award for ‘Integrity in Intelligence’ in Moscow on Wednesday. [...]
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Former Qwest CEO says refusal to comply with NSA spying landed him in jail
Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, who spent over four years in prison for insider trading, now says his conviction was based on his company'€™s refusal to cooperate with NSA requests to spy on its customers. Nacchio says he feels “vindicated” by ongoing revelations provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the NSA does, in fact, access massive amounts of metadata and communique in [...]
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Russia looks East, the new cold spell and mutually assured stability
Russia Direct presents the third in its series of monthly roundups from U.S.-based think tanks focused on Russia and Eurasia. In August, the leading U.S.-based think tanks focused on Russia turned their attention to several key issues that could impact the future of U.S.-Russian relations: Russia’s China pivot, the Snowden Affair, new international security concerns in the Asia-Pacific and the c [...]
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Putin speaks on Syrian conflict prior to G20
In an interview with Channel One and the Associated Press, the Russian president talks about Syria, Obama, Snowden and the LGBT community. Before the G20 Summit, in an interview with Channel One and the Associated Press, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about his attitude toward the conflict in Syria and the former CIA officer Edward Snowden. [...]
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Greenwald, Scahill vow to unmask NSA’€™s “€˜US assassination program”
American investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald say they have teamed up to prepare a report on the National Security Agency's role in what one of them described as the "US assassination program." “The connections between war and surveillance are clear. I don't want to give too much away but Glenn and I are working on a project right now that has at its center how the Nation [...]
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NSA uses metadata “to create sophisticated graphs” of US citizens’€™ social connections
The US National Security Agency has been exploiting US citizens' personal information drawn from its large collection of metadata to create complex graphs of social connections for foreign intelligence purposes, the latest Snowden leaks have revealed. Documents obtained by the New York Times from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden say that the practice has been going on since November 2010, [...]
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Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked
The American Empire stands naked, called out by one man among a hundred thousand who knew its dirty secrets and systematic betrayal of the world's trust. While international politics in the West has been leaping over each other to suck up to The Empire's New Clothes following September 11, 2001, the United States wasted no time in reinforcing the order of Pax Americana - that the US would establis [...]
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