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NSA Leaker: I Had Authority 'To Wiretap Anyone'
Breitbart ^ | 6/9/13 | Tony Lee

Posted on 06/09/2013 11:03:15 PM PDT by Nachum

Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old who leaked information about the NSA's data surveillance programs, said he had the authority to wiretap even the president's email if he had a personal email address.

In an interview with Glenn Greenwald the UK Guardian posted on Sunday, Snowden said while the NSA surveillance programs were at first more narrowly tailored, the agency now "specifically targets the communications of everyone" and stores them because "it's the easiest and most efficient" way to achieve their ends. He said he had the authority to wiretap nearly everyone in the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 666; anyone; genius; hero; leaker; nsa; obamaspeople; terrorism; threatmatrix; tyranny; wiretap
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1 posted on 06/09/2013 11:03:15 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: LucyT; thouworm; maggief; Myrddin; shibumi; Hardraade; Candor7; Absolutely Nobama; caww; ...

Shades of Lieutenant Quarles.

This goes out to the Threat Matrix Ping List. Anyone wanting on or off, you know the routine, I think.


2 posted on 06/09/2013 11:12:55 PM PDT by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: Nachum

The sweeping up of all communications has been reported for years in multiple MSM outlets. There is so much data that only a little of it can be analyzed. Again past reporting indicated that once they located a suspect and got a warrant they’d go into the archive and start pulling everything related to that individual and follow the threads. They need the data stored because without it they can only trace future activity.

Based upon the guys reported bio I am smelling a hoax. The FISA warrant apparently accurate, but where and how he got it is open to question. Annymous, Chinese or even our gov’t could have given this guy that document and a few others. One of the goals might be able to damage our intelligence collection ability for years in the same way the Church Commission did.


3 posted on 06/09/2013 11:25:15 PM PDT by airedale
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>> He said he had the authority to wiretap nearly everyone in the United States.

He couldn’t possibly wiretap everyone. So he might have had the authority to wire tap “anyone” that met certain parameters.

A phenomenal diversion this has been.


4 posted on 06/09/2013 11:34:53 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Nachum

thanks to this program, we are exactly one dictator short of a police state. the data is all there. only the moral character of public “servants” stands in the way of this db being used against whole factions of the people.


5 posted on 06/09/2013 11:36:27 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: Gene Eric

Who gave him the authority to wiretap nearly everyone in the US and how many people did he oversee?


6 posted on 06/09/2013 11:41:23 PM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: Gene Eric; MestaMachine
"A phenomenal diversion this has been."

The IRS, Bengazhi, gun running to Syrian insurgents and Mexican gangs all have much more palpable links to the White House.

This "thing" is an abuse that predates The Usurper.

Methinks they want this in the headlines - as it is.
7 posted on 06/10/2013 12:00:38 AM PDT by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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To: MestaMachine
Shades of Lieutenant Quarles.

The correct spelling is Leiutenant Quarles Harris Jr. (1983-03-07 to 2008-04-18), SSN 578-11-2856, dat's who!

8 posted on 06/10/2013 12:19:19 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: shibumi

This is all going to wash out, and the kid will go on to live his life with the recognition “he did the right thing”.


9 posted on 06/10/2013 12:19:46 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Gene Eric
‘There is so much data that only a little of it can be analyzed.’
‘He couldn’t possibly wiretap everyone.’

Once I shared those opinions. But the following programs
are very powerful and all encompassing.

‘. IGRAM Integrated Graphics and Multimedia Report - uses attached media, connected via hyperlinks, to enhance or clarify the information in the original serialized reports.
JDISS A tactical extension of the DODISS network that is capable of performing multiple functions and providing links to various intelligence systems and databases.
GALE Lite Generic Area Limitation Environment - A suite of tools and automated services designed to support a wide range of intelligence analysis functions.
NRTD Supplies a combined near-real-time intelligence picture derived from SIGINT and other sources to operational and intelligence customers at all levels.
OILSTOCK A high-resolution, geographic based graphics system used to display real-time and historical data over a map background.
VINTAGE HARVEST World-wide web-based analytic tool offering comprehensive information about signals to the U.S Intelligence community and second party partners.
WRANGLER Elint Database that provdes characteristics of non-communications emitters.
(this is one of my favorite concepts. TWB)

http://quizlet.com/20210774/print/
TWB

10 posted on 06/10/2013 12:22:43 AM PDT by TWhiteBear (Sarah Palin...The Flame of the North)
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To: Gene Eric
He couldn’t possibly wiretap everyone. So he might have had the authority to wire tap “anyone” that met certain parameters.

He was a sysadmin. They operate at a level below the audit trails and checks. Who knows what he could access!

Of course, he wasn't the only sysadmin, so he would have needed to be discreet.

11 posted on 06/10/2013 12:25:14 AM PDT by cynwoody
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: cynwoody; TWhiteBear
I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it is fantasy to think one guy, even with "root" access, could possibly wiretap "everyone". But that's not my concern. My point was made in the second sentence of my post:

So he might have had the authority to wire tap “anyonethat met certain parameters.

13 posted on 06/10/2013 12:40:28 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: cynwoody

Believe it or not, I was JUST coming back to correct that.
Thank you.


14 posted on 06/10/2013 12:48:58 AM PDT by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: Nachum
Man, have we got to keep the pressure on Congress to protect this guy.

With the amount of information and knowledge he has on Obama and his lackeys...

I can only imagine what is being said in the stench-ridden White House right now...

Just imagine what these psychopaths are saying on the phone and to each other.

"I want him dead" was probably said at least a dozen times this evening over there.

15 posted on 06/10/2013 1:05:25 AM PDT by Prole
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To: Gene Eric
So he might have had the authority to wire tap “anyonethat met certain parameters.

You make reference to the constraint, "that met certain parameters."

There needs to be a mechanism in place to enforce such a constraint. My point was, sysadmins are in a position to skate right past that mechanism (part of their job is maintaining the facilities that enforce the constraint for normal employees). The only real check on sysadmins is other sysadmins.

Who knows what resources Snowden had access to? E.g., perhaps he could have recorded POTUS's conversations on a USB stick. But for how long without being noticed? And for what purpose? And for what claim to fame compared to the one he now makes?

If I were he, I'd have loaded my USB stick with the most damaging possible rosters of NSA information. Then, I'd have made copies, placed them in envelopes addressed to suitable organizations, and entrusted them to different folks with the admonition, if anything happens to me ....

16 posted on 06/10/2013 1:08:39 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody

>> My point was, sysadmins are in a position to skate right past that mechanism

I believe you’re overstating the omnipotent authority of this particular system administrator.

>> Who knows what resources Snowden had access to?

That’s a good question. Who knows?

I’m done for the night. FRegards!


17 posted on 06/10/2013 1:16:48 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Gene Eric

Posted elsewhere on threads; fits here also:

Anyone who doesn’t think that at some point Obama and his regime thugs won’t use the data gathered by the NSA for their own nefarious reasons against individuals or groups of individuals of the opposite political party or religious groups, or pro-Israel groups, has rocks in their heads where a brain should be. The Obama thugs could pluck out info on you or me, on our entire internet lives. They would know everything, our e-mails, our bank accounts and/or credit cards, our health records, everything. Any politically oriented operative within the NSA could do this and bypass any required search warrant needed to do so by simply doing the search on an individual and surreptiously pass it on to whomever wants it, usually a political ideologue of liberal/socialist bent.

The dangers here are tremendous. The government is asking us to trust them on this data mining, that it will not be abused. We already know that the Obama regime is very willing to abuse and use gov’t agencies for their own political purposes. Look to the IRS spying and abuse of citizens of the opposite political party, or wrong religion in their eyes, or those with a pro-Israel bent.

Audits and grant stalling past elections to harm opposition parties from being able to organize and get their word out to educate the public on the constitution, etc., was the norm of this Obama Admin. Look at EPA bullying as a weapon by this Admin, or all the regulations being shoved down our throats, in particular affecting the business community; banks and corporations forced to become crony capitalists used by this crooked regime. Look to Obamacare and its thousands of rules and regulations that were hidden from the public and we are just now finding out what all is entailed in Obamacare.

What in heaven’s name would stop them from having ideologue plants spy on citizens’ e-mails and their backgrounds contained on the internet, basically their whole lives encapsulated therein, to use for their own politically evil intentions? I suspect they have already done this.

SCOTUS John Roberts might have been one of those whose background was looked into by the Obama regime and then used against him to blackmail him into voting for Obamacare. We’ll never know. But I wouldn’t sit here too comfortably and agree that this massive data mining is necessary for our safety rather than using more narrow targeting of data gathering with greater restrictions on its use and how it is mined. I have zero faith in the integrity of the current gov’t and what they would not stoop to in order to further their political cause. We have no true safeguards. Zero.


18 posted on 06/10/2013 2:22:27 AM PDT by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
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To: cynwoody

Has to be hundreds and hundreds of contractors with his level of security on and off.

Just saying that’s how it is.


19 posted on 06/10/2013 2:25:38 AM PDT by Monty22002
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To: maggief

Left town/job on May 1. What happened right before that that he may have “overheard” that prompted the decision to move forward? Had he been listening in to particular government official ? There are more shoes to follow. Tomorrows meeting with congress could easily be an attempt to get ahead of it


20 posted on 06/10/2013 2:58:56 AM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then!)
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