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The former head of the National Security Agency said Sunday that not only does ending the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs seems unlikely, but he images those endeavors could expand in scope during the coming years. Former NSA chief Michael Hayden told television host Bob Schieffer of CBS’ Face the Nation over the weekend that the current program that collects the metadata of millions of American phone customers on a regular basis for the United States government could in the future perhaps be used to soak up even more statistics about US citizens. In early June, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...

The Mainstream (Establishment) Media is trying to once again do the Republican vs Democrat thingy: that Obama has proposed some serious (cough, laugh) changes to the NSA spying program, and those wascally wepubs (Rep. McCaul and Peter King (R-GOP-e) are trying to thwart him. I never thought that I would see a recent liberal rally where hundreds marched (not reported by the MSM-e) where a person would be carrying a sign that said Snowden, patriot and Pelosi, traitor. And even the New York Times (Editorial Board, June 6th: Obama administration has lost all credibility on the issue of the NSA...

The Talk Shows August 11th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa; Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.THIS WEEK (ABC): Edward Snowden's father, Lon; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Donald Trump.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN):...

Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Dallas-based Lavabit got a surge of new customers: $12,000 worth of paid subscribers, triple his usual monthly sign-up. On Thursday, though, Levison pulled the plug on his company, posting a cryptic message about a government investigation that would force him to “become complicit in crimes against the American people” were he to stay in business. Many people have speculated that the investigation concerned the government trying to get access...

WikiLeaks founder: Obama surveillance changes vindicate Edward Snowden By Keith Laing - 08/10/13 10:40 AM ET The founder of the WikiLeaks website said on Saturday that President Obama’s announcement of changes to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program this week vindicated Edward Snowden’s release of information about the program. “Today the President of the United States validated Edward Snowden’s role as a whistleblower by announcing plans to reform America’s global surveillance program,” WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange said in a statement. “But rather than thank Edward Snowden, the president laughably attempted to criticize him while claiming that there was a...

In an appearance on the Tonight Show, President Barack Obama criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he labeled a “cold war mentality.” At issue was Putin's grant of asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden and his refusal to allow the US to extradite him. “The whole idea of the 'reset button' was that our two governments would cooperate with each other,” Obama lamented. “Now, instead of doing what we ask the Russians have suddenly developed scruples against spying on citizens. They invented spying on citizens. They're such hypocrites.” The fact that the US has granted asylum to many defectors...

President Obama said Friday that he believes Edward Snowden – the whistleblower who revealed that the National Security Agency was collecting metadata and phone records of every American – was not a patriot for his leaking of classified documents. Obama, speaking at his first news conference since April, was responding to a question from NBC’s Chuck Todd about Snowden. “No, I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot,” Obama said before reiterating that as a senator he called for a review of the Patriot Act. “If in fact he believes that what he did was right, then, like every American...

The highly encrypted email service reportedly used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has gone offline - and its administrator claims the company is legally barred from explaining why. On Thursday, the homepage of Lavabit.com was changed to a letter from the company’s owner announcing that the site’s operations have ceased following a six-week long ordeal that has prompted the company to take legal action in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now in the midst of an escalating fight from the federal government aimed at cracking down on encrypted communications, one of the last free and secure services has thrown...

The National Security Agency, hit by disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said Thursday it intends to eliminate about 90 percent of its system administrators to reduce the number of people with access to secret information. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, the U.S. spy agency charged with monitoring foreign electronic communications, told a cybersecurity conference in New York City that automating much of the work would improve security. "What we're in the process of doing - not fast enough - is reducing our system administrators by about 90 percent," he said. The remarks came as...

The email service reportedly used by surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden abruptly shut down on Thursday after its owner cryptically announced his refusal to become "complicit in crimes against the American people."Lavabit, an email service that boasted of its security features and claimed 350,000 customers, is no more, apparently after rejecting a court order for cooperation with the US government to participate in surveillance on its customers. It is the first such company known to have shuttered rather than comply with government surveillance."I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or...

The e-mail service used by National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden is suspending operations. And they can’t tell us why — although this cryptic post heavily suggests it has something to do with a government request for information: I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I...

My Fellow Users, I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand,...

Original title: "Russia Responds To Obama Snub: "We Are Disappointed... But The Snowden Situation Wasn't Created By Us" (had to be truncated) Earlier we reported that in an act of embarassing political ineptitude not to mention detente reminiscent of the Cold War's worst days, the US president did his best Freudian transferrance attempt today by blaming Putin for his ever escalating headaches caused by one 30 year old NSA whistleblower, and cancelling bilateral talks with the Russian president. And can anyone blame him: with the US increasingly slighted by both superascedent eastern powers, Russia and China, the US finds itself...

President Barack Obama doesn’t have a strong hand or the dominant personality needed to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that’s why the United States backed out of a September one-on-one meeting, says Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. “If they neither fear you nor respect you, it’s going to be awfully hard to talk them into letting (NSA leaker Edward) Snowden come back into the United States in our custody,” King said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” …

Once again, Barak Obama stood before the American people and said…nothing. Well, not exactly “nothing”, he spoke for over an hour but after its conclusion one had to ask, “What was THAT all about?” This speech was touted as one that would announce a great economic plan and lay out details for getting the economy booming again. Instead, it was more of a campaign, political speech with nothing but attacks against his opponents and downright anger over what he calls “phony distractions”. Instead of identifying and providing solutions for the problems facing this nation, he once again blamed the “rich”...

If that infamous fly that usually lands on Obama’s face in the East Room were to make its way to a wall in Putin’s office, there’s a good chance Mr. Fly would get quite an earful. Imagine Vladimir Putin’s private reaction to a US president canceling plans to meet with him during his visit to Moscow next month. Like the rest of us, Vladimir is finding out what Americans – from Supreme Court Justices to governors of red states to conservatives and Tea Party members – already know: If you differ with Barack Obama, he doesn’t take it well. Lest...

President Barack Obama's decision to pull out of a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month punctuates a steady decline in relations and represents an unusually sharp rebuke for an administration pledged to engaging adversaries. Mr. Obama had planned to meet in early September with Mr. Putin before going to a Group of 20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. The White House said Wednesday he will still attend the G-20. The decision comes after Russia decided to grant asylum, over White House objections, to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information.

n a rare diplomatic snub, President Obama is canceling plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month. The decision reflects both U.S. anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights. Obama will still attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, but a top White House official said the president had no plans to hold one-on-one talks with Putin while there. Instead of visiting Putin in...

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has praised Russian authorities for not caving in to pressure from abroad, saying granting asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden would help prevent the establishment of a ‘global electronic prison camp’. “It is encouraging news that Russia is demonstrating its independence in this case as it has in many others, despite the pressure” said the head of the Holy Synod’s Department for Relations between the Church and Society. Vsevolod Chaplin added that the Snowden saga has been broadly discussed both on the domestic and international level, with Russia’s position potentially bolstering its image as a country upholding...

When former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked the existence of a massive spying program siphoning up Americans' personal phone records earlier this year, President Obama declared: "I welcome this debate and I think it's healthy for our democracy."Shortly thereafter, his administration revoked Snowden's passport and hit him with Espionage Act charges (filed under seal, naturally).That's the thing about the self-styled "most transparent administration in history": Often you can't find out what they're up to until somebody breaks the law to let you know.One suspects Obama "welcomes this debate" about as enthusiastically as Anthony Weiner greets the debate over...

Vague terrorist threats shutting down nineteen of our embassies, Russian strongman Putin thumbing his nose at President Obama, Iran jerking our chain – the U.S. hasn’t looked this cowardly on the world stage since the Jimmy Carter administration. Here at home, too, we’ve gone back to the Carter future; unemployment is high, Keynesian economics are all the rage, our professorial president is increasingly whiny and ineffectual; all that’s missing is a cardigan sweater and that infernal violin. Our recent contre-temps with Russia is a throw-back to the weak-kneed Carter era. President Vladimir Putin has granted temporary asylum to NSA leaker...

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said on Sunday that he believes National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, not a traitor. "He may be doing things overseas that we would find problematic, that we would find dangerous," Amash said on Fox News Sunday. "But as far as Congress is concerned, sure he is a whistleblower. He told us what we need to know." Amash explained that although members of the intelligence committees were informed of the details of the NSA's surveillance, most lawmakers were in the dark about the programs. "Without his doing what he did, members of Congress...

With his slow, steady stream of leaked NSA documents, Edward Snowden is offering a glimpse into what President Obama's pledge of transparent government might have looked like -- had he chosen to deliver on it. When he arrived in office, Obama declared that his administration would be "the most open and transparent in history" and rolled out a series of historic declassifications, including the Bush administration's legal justifications for so-called enhanced interrogation tactics and the size of American nuclear stockpiles. Each of these decisions broke with long-established precedent and seemed to signal a new era of government openness. Now, by...

Russia’s decision to grant a temporary one-year asylum to NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden was described as “unfortunate” and “extremely disappointing” by Presidential Press Secretary Jay Carney. Carney contrasted “Russia’s uncooperative stance with FDR’s extraordinarily accommodating attitude toward the repatriation of millions of unwilling refugees from the Soviet Union after World War II. FDR knew that these refugees didn’t want to go back. Many faced torture, imprisonment in the Gulag, and execution. He could have balked for humanitarian reasons. But his personal sense of obligation to Stalin overrode his qualms.” “Now with the roles reversed, Stalin’s heirs won’t even return...

Snowden’s escape was a personal blow to Mr. Obama, who had spoken by phone with Mr. Putin in recent weeks to appeal for the fugitive’s return to face justice in the U.S. Some Republicans said it was time for Mr. Obama to reconsider his administration’s “reset” with the Kremlin, initiated with fanfare during the tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia,” Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said in a joint statement. They called on the Obama administration to push for...

The White House Thursday expressed "extreme disappointment" at Russia's capitulation to the ProSnoSponVnt pressure, The general consensus anguish is spontaneous and saturates the white house from stem to stern, Jay Carney implied at a daily press briefing. Gnashing of teeth and self flagellation have not been ruled out according to inside sources. Nsa (Langly) prepares to allow agent gnash and sflag extreme disappointment demo.

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes. The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that GCHQ has to work hard to meet their demands. "GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight," a GCHQ strategy briefing said. The funding underlines the closeness of the relationship between GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency. But it will...

Several prominent voices in the alternative media are speculating that former CIA analyst and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden could be a double agent whose revelations are only serving to distract from the much bigger issue of the imminent escalation of the war in Syria.

MOSCOW — Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. security contractor, left the transit zone at Moscow’s international airport Thursday after Russian authorities granted him temporary asylum.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army has ordered its personnel not to go to the latest postings on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian to read revelations of information given to its reporter because it contains a “TOP SECRET slide show.” The email, which WND received from a Department of Defense source, was addressed to a couple hundred military personnel and civilians working for DOD. The source who provided the email asked for anonymity. “Do not go to ‘The Guardian’ news website as they have TOP SECRET slide show on the main page and you will be flagged,” according...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is "extremely disappointed" in Russia's decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the White House said Thursday. In its first public response to Russia's move in defiance of U.S. wishes, the Obama administration said it was not a positive development for U.S.-Russia relations and said that it undermined Russia's record of law enforcement cooperation with the U.S. The White House added that it is re-evaluating whether President Barack Obama should attend an upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

National Security Agency's XKeyscore system can collect just about everything that happens online, even things encrypted by VPNs, according to Edward Snowden.The National Security Agency has a system that allows it to collect pretty much everything a user does on the Internet, according to a report published by The Guardian on Wednesday, apparently even when those activities are done under the presumed protection of a virtual private network (VPN). The Guardian's information comes from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor now seeking asylum in Russia from U.S. authorities for revealing classified documents about the NSA's intelligence-gathering capabilities to...

National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander was met with both heckling and applause at the Black Hat information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday. Ever since the leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden thrust the agency’s domestic surveillance policies into the limelight and sparked widespread public debate, Alexander and other intelligence officials have been on the hot seat, in a persistent state of defense against seemingly unending press reports.

Snowden Gets Temporary Asylum in Russia, Leaves Airport By PAUL SONNE MOSCOW—National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has received asylum for a year in Russia and has left Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, his lawyer said on Thursday. NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, says the U.S. has left him "stateless". Is that the case? What happens when the U.S. revokes an American's passport? How often does that happen? How do you renounce your citizenship? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer. Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who has been representing Mr. Snowden in Moscow, said the U.S. fugitive received so-called "temporary asylum" for a period of...

The representative told Reuters that Snowden had crossed into Russia after spending more than month in the airport's transit zone.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country’s territory. The whistleblower has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia, Snowden's legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said. “I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” he added. Snowden has already left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, an RT crew at the scene has confirmed. His present location has not been made public nor will it be disclosed, Kucherena said, adding that Snowden is among the...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday released formerly classified documents outlining a once-secret program of the National Security Agency that is collecting records of all domestic phone calls in the United States, as top officials testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the hearing began, The Guardian newspaper published another document from the archives of Top Secret surveillance matters leaked to it by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden. It was a 32-page presentation describing the N.S.A.´s XKeyscore program, by which N.S.A. analysts can mine vast databases of phone and Internet information the agency has vacuumed up.

Washington, DC — The Al Jazeera news agency is reporting that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has safely landed in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered asylum to the former U.S. intelligence contractor on Friday who was believed to be waiting in transit at a Moscow airport. Guillermo Thomas who is a spokesman for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela told aljazeera.com that Snowden is currently in the country and that he is thrilled to be there. “We are very blessed to have Mr. Snowden in our country, it is a pleasure,” Thomas said. “There were no direct flights across...

The traitor to our country and NSA, Edward Snowden, is now making the rounds of the major Communist countries; China and Russia, with either Ecuador or Venezuela or possible Cuba being a final destination. Who knows, it may be someplace no one ever thought about. For all of you who labeled him a hero, I must excuse your ignorance on national security issues. If you haven’t worked in the intelligence community, you have no idea the damage that this sniveling coward has done to the intelligence community’s efforts and endangered your life and those of your loved ones.. When both...

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a letter sent to the Russian minister of justice this week that the United States would not seek the death penalty against Edward J. Snowden, and would issue him a passport immediately so he could travel back to the United States. The letter also offered reassurances that the United States would not torture Mr. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who faces criminal charges of disclosing classified information and has been hiding in an airport in Moscow in order to evade the American authorities. “We believe these assurances eliminate these asserted grounds for...

US Attorney General Eric Holder issued a written demand that the Russian Government apprehend NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden and send him back to the United States to face charges of leaking national secrets. In an effort to soothe concerns that Snowden might be ill-treated, Holder promised that “we will not be seeking the death penalty, nor will Mr. Snowden be subjected to torture.” To bolster his credibility, Holder cited the case of Private Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier on trial for providing documents to WikiLeaks. “Private Manning wasn’t tortured,” Holder pointed out. “He has been provided with full accommodations...

In March 2009 Hillary Clinton announced that the Obama Adminstration was going to push the reset button with the Russians. Unfortunately, the administration bungled their delivery and spelled out “overcharge” rather than “restart” on their button. ... This week the Russians pushed their own reset button. Moscow rejected US demands for the extradition of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

Attorney General Eric Holder has told the Russian government that the U.S. will not seek the death penalty for former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a letter sent to the Russian minister of justice this week that the United States would not seek the death penalty against Edward J. Snowden, and would issue him a passport immediately so he could travel back to the United States. The letter also offered reassurances that the United States would not torture Mr. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who faces criminal charges of disclosing classified information and has been hiding in an airport in Moscow in order to evade the American authorities.

Few things are more dangerous than Congress in heat, and so it is this week as a libertarian-left wing coalition in the House of Representatives is rushing to neuter one of the National Security Agency's antiterror surveillance programs. The chief instigator is Michigan Republican Justin Amash, the 33-year-old second-termer who has made opposition to the country's post-9/11 security programs a personal crusade. [Snip] Now he's back with an amendment to this year's defense spending bill that would bar the NSA from collecting metadata except when specific individuals are already being investigated and are subject to a court order. This would...

WASHINGTON — U.S. sanctions against any country offering asylum to Edward Snowden advanced in Congress Thursday as the 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker remained in a Moscow airport while Russia weighed a request for him to stay permanently. The measure introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., demands the State Department coordinate with lawmakers on setting penalties against nations that seek to help Snowden avoid extradition to the United States, where authorities want him prosecuted for revealing details of the government’s massive surveillance system. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the proposal unanimously by voice vote as an amendment to next year’s...

Russian officials and human rights activists on Thursday slammed the U.S. for “threatening Russia” in a bid to have former NSA contractor Edward Snowden returned, as suspense mounts over the fugitive’s impending departure from Sheremetyevo Airport. “They [the U.S.] are asking Russia to discriminate against a U.S. citizen who has turned to Russia for temporary asylum and thus blatantly violate human rights,” Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who is currently advising Snowden on immigration and other issues, told Interfax. In an unusual demonstration of solidarity with the government-connected lawyer, Svetlana Gannushkina, a prominent independent human rights activist who was nominated for...

Russia has not received extradition request for Snowden from the United States, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The ministry did receive a letter from Eric Holder explaining some aspects of the U.S. position on the status of Snowden... The "document did not contain (a) request for the extradition or deportation of this individual," the statement said.

A Russian lawyer who is assisting fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden with his asylum request said Tuesday that he had brought Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 19-century classic novel "Crime and Punishment" to a meeting with him at a Moscow airport. "I bought him Dostoyevsky’s "Crime and Punishment," because I think that he should read about Raskolnikov," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who arrived at Sheremetyevo airport Wednesday afternoon, said in an interview with Rossia 24 TV, referring to the novel's main character who repents after killing an elderly female pawnbroker and is sent to Siberia for punishment. "I am not saying there is...