Russia Likely to Extend Political Asylum for Patriotic Snowden

At this point it is difficult to see the Obama administration, the warmongering neocons at the State Department and the constantly squealing authoritarian freaks in Congress getting any bigger bug up their asses than the one that they already have embedded there against Russian leader Vladimir Putin so it remains to be seen how much weeping and gnashing of the teeth will occur now that the word out of Russia is that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's asylum is likely to be extended. This would be great news for those of us in The Homeland and the larger world outside who value the great service that the patriot has already provided by outing the NSA as a smoother, more sophisticated version of the East German Stasi - although from the ongoing flurry of stories based on Snowden's leeks they are obviously far less competent. The Snowden leaks have allowed the post September 11, 2001 star-spangled fascist surveillance machine to be seen as exactly the menace to freedom that it is and the US establishment has been furious ever since he was able to elude capture by US goons in Hong Kong last June.

So much for the dishonest calls for Snowden to come home to argue his case that was floated by that pathologically dishonest bitch Hillary Rodham Clinton during her interview with The Guardian last week. Hillary may be able to successfully sell her bullshit that he would have a chance at a fair trial to many but that is just sucker bait for the rubes who don't have an inkling that the totalitarian dream that is the Espionage Act of 1917 precludes any potential defense that Snowden could be entitled to. Were he to return he would rapidly be thrown into some dank, brutal and cold hell on an undisclosed military base where he would be tortured and subjected to psychological torment because hey, that is just the way that we roll in the USA! USA! USA! anymore. The effeminate Skull and Bones pedigreed doofus John Kerry's demand that Snowden "man up" is just a less sophisticated taunt to get Snowden's goat - he is far too smart for either of the venal, immoral slimeballs who have risen to the apex of the Democratic party and Russia is as good as it is going to get until this filthy, corrupt power structure has been banished and driven back into the sewers where it belongs.

The momentum set off by Snowden - despite widespread propaganda, demonization and disinformation ops being waged in the corrupt state-corporate media - has continued despite every effort to quash it. Critical European ally Germany just hosted two pre-Snowden whistleblowers in William Binney and Thomas Drake to give official testimony on NSA abuses to a government committee. Then there are  Glenn Greenwald and Barton Gellman who continue to report on the abuse of the NSA programs that were said to only be necessary to combat "terrorism" in order to collect data on law abiding Americans including those who are targeted for their religious and political views and according to some reports there even may be another NSA leaker besides Snowden. The US establishment can no longer claim the moral high ground when it comes to conducting economic espionage and snooping on dissenters and this is a hugely important factor when it comes to exposing the criminal racketeers who run the government as their credibility suffers the death of a thousand cuts.

Outside of the sheep who choose to live within electronically reinforced cocoons of willful ignorance there is a rapidly growing number of people who are waking up to the scam, much like being freed from the pods in the classic metaphor-movie The Matrix and sooner or later there will be a tipping point reached. Revolutions are really never started by the majority but rather a dedicated vanguard of those who are informed and determined cast off those painful shackles of tyranny, it is history and it is most importantly OUR history as Americans. If you really believe that the Founding Fathers wouldn't be immediately hung as traitors by our current government just as Jesus Christ would be summarily thrown into a 4 x 6 cell at Gitmo were he to return to Earth tomorrow preaching the same message then you don't get it.

But every day people more do get it and the number continues to grow, thanks to Edward Snowden. The man should be brought home to parades and honors and awarded the Medal of Freedom if this country truly existed as it falsely promotes itself as being rather than the lawless, tyrannical bunting-draped banana republic that it has become.

Is There a Second NSA Leaker in Addition to Edward Snowden?

A very interesting question has come out regarding a story on the NSA's targeting of those who utilize internet privacy tools, specifically the browser Tor (The Onion Router) and portable Linux based operating system Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) as potential "terrorists" and "extremists". The question being is that the copy of the XKeyscore code published by German website Das Erste apparently was not a part of the collection of NSA documents procured by whistleblower Edward Snowden but may actually have come from a second leaker. If true this would be a bombshell as well as a game-changer that could reverberate throughout the world and shake the US national surveillance state to its very roots.

The big story which is written by Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz originally broke in Germany's Tagesschau (you will need Google Translate) and cites the NSA targeting of a German student and internet privacy activist named Sebastian Hahn who is involved with the Tor Project. The NSA has determined that anyone who even searches for information on internet encryption and privacy tools is deemed to be an "extremist". They are then flagged for a higher level of monitoring, data-mining and retention of content instead of the limited hangout of only the metadata. This goes far beyond what has been openly admitted to by the Obama administration and the array of national intelligence goons - even if they did manage to retroactively legalize their snooping as divulged in the report by that independent executive branch internal oversight office the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

This is where it begins to get really scary now that NSA has been outed for officially crossing over into thought crime. Internet privacy organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called out NSA for infringing upon the First Amendment "Dear NSA, Privacy is a Fundamental Right, Not Reasonable Suspicion":

Learning about Linux is not a crime--but don't tell the NSA that. A story published in German on Tagesschau, and followed up by an article in English on DasErste.de today, has revealed that the NSA is scrutinizing people who visit websites such as the Tor Project's home page and even Linux Journal. This is disturbing in a number of ways, but the bottom line is this: the procedures outlined in the articles show the NSA is adding "fingerprints"--like a scarlet letter for the information age--to activities that go hand in hand with First Amendment protected activities and freedom of expression across the globe.

The EFF also encourages the continued use of Tor and Tails:

One question that is sure to come up is whether this means people desiring anonymity should stop using Tor or Tails. Here's the bottom line: If you're using Tor or Tails, there is a possibility that you will be subject to greater NSA scrutiny. But we believe that the benefits outweigh the burdens.

In fact, the more people use Tor, the safer you are. That's why we're continuing to run the Tor Challenge. The ubiquitous use of privacy and security tools is our best hope for protecting the people who really need those tools--people for whom the consequences of being caught speaking out against their government can be imprisonment or death. The more ordinary people use Tor and Tails, the harder it is for the NSA to make the case that reading about or using these tools is de facto suspicious.

My personal take on this is that if you are currently using these tools or otherwise engaged in fighting the surveillance state then you are already on their list so just f*ck the NSA. At this point activists and those who challenge the system still have a relative degree of freedom to do exactly that so why retreat into the sheep pack when you have a vested interest in challenging the bastards - especially when that vested interest is in saving one's own skin. If someone is already on the pickup list, the primary objective is to do everything possible to keep the black vans from rolling on that day when it becomes politically acceptable to give the order - such as the next "terrorist" attack like the one that Dick Cheney has promised.

The key aspect of this story - anyone who gets it has understood for a long time that the NSA is lying their asses off and has been using their surveillance systems to build electronic dossiers on journalists, activists, bloggers, political dissidents and anyone who may one day pose a threat to the gangster state - is that the code apparently did not come from Mr. Snowden. According to a piece at the blog Boing Boing, written by Cory Doctorow and entitled "If you read Boing Boing, the NSA considers you a target for deep surveillance" I except the following:

I have known that this story was coming for some time now, having learned about its broad contours under embargo from a trusted source. Since then, I've discussed it in confidence with some of the technical experts who have worked on the full set of Snowden docs, and they were as shocked as I was.

One expert suggested that the NSA's intention here was to separate the sheep from the goats -- to split the entire population of the Internet into "people who have the technical know-how to be private" and "people who don't" and then capture all the communications from the first group.

Another expert said that s/he believed that this leak may come from a second source, not Edward Snowden, as s/he had not seen this in the original Snowden docs; and had seen other revelations that also appeared independent of the Snowden materials. If that's true, it's big news, as Snowden was the first person to ever leak docs from the NSA. The existence of a potential second source means that Snowden may have inspired some of his former colleagues to take a long, hard look at the agency's cavalier attitude to the law and decency.

Doctorow then cites security expert Bruce Schneier (who has worked with Glenn Greenwald) who writes at the blog Schneier on Security who has stated in his recent post "NSA Targets the Privacy-Conscious for Surveillance" that "And, since Cory said it, I do not believe that this came from the Snowden documents. I also don't believe the TAO catalog came from the Snowden documents. I think there's a second leaker out there." Greenwald himself seems to acknowledge this possibility in a Tweet.

That would be huge - particularly now that Greenwald's big story -that promised "fireworks show" - has been shut down by the US government which has gotten to either the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist himself or to the decision makers at the abysmal (at least to this point anyway) Pierre Omidyar backed venture The Intercept. The prospect of a second NSA leaker - who if he/she is smart, will avoid outing themselves and then being subjected to the concerted campaigns of media and establishment demonization and vilification - must send cold chills up the spines of the American Stasi high command over at Ft. Meade and the rotten to the core political class that protects it from any form of oversight.

It would be even better if there were more than two and with the website Cryptome having alluded to the coming release of all the Snowden material nothing could make for a bigger and better party than a couple of wild cards floating around out there with more seriously explosive evidence like the set of XKeyscore instructions that shows the lengths to which this monstrous surveillance colossus is prepared to go in order to lock down its gains.

Would You Buy a Car From This Man?

As an American would you put your full faith and trust in not only an agent of the US Government but one of President Barack Obama's hand-picked best and brightest, a man who will never simply be thrown under the bus in an election year like the freshly jettisoned Eric Shinseki? This is no ordinary man but one of mighty power who presides over the national intelligence apparatus, the Big Kahuna who is able to lie to Congress with impunity and as Director of National Intelligence presides over the red, white and blue Orwellian security state that is beyond reproach and despite the damage done by the leaks of patriotic whistleblower Edward Snowden the hyrda is already re-configuring with the sneering, bald head of James Clapper erupting from it's scaled, winged body in all of his hissing, forked-tongue resplendence.

The Obama administration and the United States Government itself is asking all Americans to place their blind faith in the behemoth of the surveillance state as though it were almighty God himself and swallow the tale hook, line and sinker that Snowden lied about ever escalating his concerns through the appropriate channels before performing his act of great service and exposing that the bastards are engaged in mass surveillance, data-mining and Christ only knows what else. Put your faith in James Clapper and others just like him because that is exactly what is being requested by Leviathan.

The inevitable counter-attack against Snowden after his Wednesday night blockbuster interview with the big state ass-kisser and establishment media mouthpiece Brian Williams is on and the NSA is wailing "LIAR" as it has released a lone email from Snowden that it claims is the only one that it can find that provides proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the erstwhile contractor did not adhere to the proper protocol in following the chain of command. While making hay out of Snowden's "I was trained as a spy" statement - which by any reasonable definition of what exactly a "spy" does is true the tactics have shifted. I excerpt the following from ABC News but similar cookie-cutter attacks can be found pretty much everywhere today.

Edward Snowden said in a recent interview he tried to go through internal channels to raise his concerns about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs before he slipped out of the country with a trove of secret documents. The NSA disagrees and says it has the email exchange to prove it.

“I actually did go through channels, and that is documented. The NSA has records, they have copies of emails right now to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks from me raising concerns about the NSA’s interpretations of it – legal authorities,” Snowden told NBC News in a wide-ranging interview. “I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities. And I went even further in this, to say that they could be unconstitutional, that they were sort of abrogating our model of government in a way that empowered presidents to override our statutory laws. And this was made very clear. And the response was, more or less, in bureaucratic language, was, ‘You should stop asking questions.’”

In the interview, Snowden called on Congress to verify that the communications exist.

Today the NSA posted online the email exchange to which the government agency says it believes Snowden is referring. The exchange released by the NSA took place in early April, months after Snowden reportedly contacted journalists in preparation to expose the secret programs.

According to the documents posted online, Snowden wrote to the NSA’s Office of General Counsel on Friday, April 5, 2013 asking for legal clarification about whether Presidential executive orders can supersede federal statute, and whether Department of Defense (DOD) or Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) regulations get “greater precedence.”

The response from the General Counsel’s office, dated Monday, April 8, says that while executive orders have the “force and effect of law,” they cannot override a statute. The response also said that DOD and ODNI regulations are afforded “similar precedence” and one may have more depending on subject matter or date. The respondent invites Snowden to “give [him or her] a call if [he] would like to discuss further.”

The NSA said in statement that Snowden’s email “did not raise allegations or concerns about wrongdoing or abuse, but posed a legal question that the Office of General Counsel addressed.”

“There was no additional follow-up noted,” the NSA said. “There are numerous avenues that Mr. Snowden could have used to raise other concerns or whistleblower allegations. We have searched for additional indications of outreach from him in those areas and to date have not discovered any engagements related to his claims.”

For what it's worth which isn't much in the treacherous US state media Snowden offered a rebuttal to the NSA's Sgt. Schultz "I know nothing" treatment of his attempt to bring the actions of the run amok American Stasi to light but really, the man has already been judged in NBC's kangaroo court by the set for life power suckler Brian Williams. I just did a quick Google search and every fake media and opinion outlet from "conservative" to "liberal" is running with the Snowden lied narrative. 

Who are you going to believe?

First off anyone who has ever worked for a large corporation knows that reporting any type of malfeasance through the "appropriate channels" is bullshit and that human resources departments exist solely to protect the interests of upper management, functioning as a de facto sort of Gestapo in ensuring that valid complaints are quashed and that those making them are punished and usually escorted out of the building. To believe that this would NOT be the practice in the climes of big government and especially American taxpayer dollar devouring leeches like national security contractors is asinine. One wonders just how fucking dumb that the American sheeple are to constantly gobble down the bullshit biscuits fed to them by their corrupt government and it's media propaganda machine - I mean do any of them actually bother to use logic by applying the same rules that their employers use writ large? Not that I would expect any sort of an  answer to that one after the last thirteen and a half years of living as a peasant in  The Homeland under constant surveillance. Americans just line up to salute whatever horseshit that is run up the flagpole by their benevolent leaders. 

The late, great Hunter S. Thompson had it right in his short diatribe "Hey Rube":

“Hey, Rube” is an old-timey phrase, coined in the merciless culture of the traveling carnival gangs that roamed from town to town in the early 20^th century.

Every stop on the circuit was just another chance to fleece another crowd of free-spending Rubes – Suckers, Hicks, Yokels, Johns, Fish, Marks, Bums, Losers, Day Traders in Portland, fools who buy diamonds from gypsies, and anyone over the age of nine in this country who still believes in his heart that all cops are honest and would never lie in a courtroom.

These people are everywhere. They are Legion, soon to be a majority, and 10,000 more are being born every day. It was P.T. Barnum, the Circus man, who explained the real secret of his vast commercial success by repeating his now-famous motto, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” in this country, ahd his job was to keep them amused, with a zeal that has never been equaled in the history of American show business.

Barnum knew what people wanted: Freaks, Clowns, and Wild Animals. The Barnum & Bailey Circus came to town only once a year, and those days were marked as sacred holidays on the John Deere calendars of every Rube in America…. Those dates were special; many schools closed when the Circus came to town, and not every student returned when the public frenzy was over. “Running away with the Circus” was the dream of every schoolboy and the nightmare of every mother with a bored and beautiful daughter. 

Whoever believes the official government fairy tales on Snowden, whether it be that he is a liar, a low level hacker, a narcissist (like Obama), a man living in a James Bond-Jason Bourne style fantasy world or a Chinese-Russian agent is a sucker and a chump and one who should wise up before it is too late. Unfortunately such types breed like rabbits here in the land of the sheep and the home of the slaves.

Clapper is only the figurehead, the barker outside of the geek tent at the local fair selling tickets to the feces eating context but he represents the US establishment itself - just go to Photoshop and cut and paste any of their heads onto his body, they are all the same beneath the surface. 

Hey Rube, wanna hear something......

9/11 Museum Gift Shop is a Gross Exploitation of Tragedy

Over three thousand innocent Americans were murdered and all that I got is this lousy T-shirt. While I jest with that line there is nothing even remotely funny about the gift shop at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. That the museum itself should be a national outrage and more shameful exploitation of the tragic events that took place on that horrific Tuesday morning on September 11, 2001 in that the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center is yet another point. The attacks have been used as justification for the implementation of unconstitutional mass surveillance and data-mining programs, turned the US into a meaner than a snake torture state, allowed for the gutting of the Constitution and given a corrupt political class and the oligarchy that it serves cover to strip mine the domestic economy for self enrichment. Then there are the wars which will never end as long as the enabling act that is the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution ( AUMF) that was rammed down the throats of a terrified America like the USAPATRIOT Act while the stench of rotting corpses still was strong in the morning Manhattan breeze exists. Yes indeed - now there is something to memorialize.

It was drilled in that it was the Day that Everything Changed and the "new normal" became the type of flag-wrapped fascism that Sinclair Lewis once warned of in his book "It Can't Happen Here". Americans were to shut up and be subservient to their corrupt government and the neoconservative world domination machine as put forth by The Project for the New American Century or PNAC and in the early days speaking out would have one smeared as a traitor or worse. The worship of 9/11 became our national religion for how else to justify the wars of aggression and the redistribution of wealth into the surveillance state Gomorrah that arose out of the ashes - death and spying were the new growth industries in the USA, USA, USA. The tenth anniversary of that day, which fell on a Sunday and with the assistance of the National Football League and state corporate media it was as former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury turned prolific writer Paul Craig Roberts put it "a propaganda exercise that hardened the 9/11 lies into dogma". Now we have the September 11 Museum and it's disgusting gift shop. 

The museum charging 24 bucks for entry is shameful in its own right but the gift store takes it to a completely new level. It is gaudy, tasteless, insensitive, ghoulish and an insult of the highest order towards the victims and their families. The New York Post has written about the sheer crassness of the gift shop and when such a rag is outraged about anything in the real world you know that it is pretty damned bad. I excerpt the following from the article that is entitled “The 9/11 Museum’s Absurd Gift Shop”:

The museum at Ground Zero tells the dark story of the 9/11 terror attacks with spectacular artifacts and exhibits. It pays heart-wrenching tribute to the innocents and heroes killed that day.

It also has a gift shop.

The 9/11 museum’s cavernous boutique offers a vast array of souvenir goods. For example: FDNY, NYPD and Port Authority Police T-shirts ($22) and caps ($19.95); earrings molded from leaves and blossoms of downtown trees ($20 to $68); cop and firefighter charms by Pandora and other jewelers ($65); “United We Stand” blankets.

There are bracelets, bowls, buttons, mugs, mousepads, magnets, key chains, flags, pins, stuffed animals, toy firetrucks, cellphone cases, tote bags, books and DVDs.

You can pick up an assortment of oak leaf jewelry at the 9/11 museum gift shop.

Even FDNY vests for dogs come in all sizes.

AND

Among the museum shop’s specially designed items:

 A black and white “Darkness Hoodie” printed with an image of the Twin Towers. The pullover, like other “Darkness” items, bears the words “In Darkness We Shine Brightest.” Price: $39.

 Silk scarves printed with 1986 photos by Paula Barr, including a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline. Another depicts “lunchtime on the WTC Plaza.” They go for $95 each.

 “Survivor Tree” earrings, named after a pear tree that stood in the World Trade Center plaza and survived 9/11. Made of bronze and freshwater pearls, a pair costs $64. A leaf ornament molded from the swamp white oaks at the memorial is said to change from amber to dark brown “and sometimes pink around the time of the 9/11 anniversary.”

 Heart-shaped rocks inscribed with slogans such as “United in Hope” and “Honor.” One rock bears a quote by Virgil that is emblazoned on a massive blue-tiled wall in the museum: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” It costs $39.

The gift shop is actually not that far off the mark from something I heard on the liberal firebrand Mike Malloy Show a few years ago that I transcribed. It was an email read on air from a listener named “Grand Vizier Mark of Silicon Valley”:

 If for some reason, the proposed so-called Ground Zero mosque doesn’t get built, I suggest that the old Gap store which is where this would be built be turned into something that really celebrates or rather venerates this country’s true god which is the almighty dollar.

 My idea, turn it into a nine dollar and eleven cent store! A 9-11 store. Something that would by the way fit in nicely with all the low rent commercial establishments in the area like the head shops, the Burger King and other fast food joints, strip clubs etc, etc. Yes, think of all the 9-11 souvenirs one could get for nine dollars and eleven cents: mugs, flags, pennants, cds, dvds, photos, calendars, t-shirts, plastic World Trade Center models, piggy banks, snow globes, commemorative coins, Christmas ornaments, action figures…it is sooo American!

 And to commemorate America’s response to 9/11; Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld bobblehead dolls, model airplanes just like the ones used to carpet bomb Iraq, leaving 300,000 dead and 3 million homeless, bobbleheads of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, plastic U.S. soldiers and Afghan Taliban freedom fighters, create your own battlefield and live out your wildest fantasies...

THERE’S MY IDEA!

I’d make a killing, I would. And for just two million dollars, the amount my old church owes me I’ll let you have it.

Oh well, you know me, you learned free so give free. I’m willing to let anyone use my idea as long as they give me credit.

It was meant as a joke but the ongoing commoditization of EVERYTHING including the murder of over 3,000 Americans and the first responders who died or later suffered terribly - particularly from respiratory disease -in the aftermath that that day there is really nothing sacred.  One would think that the national religion of “9/11” would somehow be sacrosanct but who am I kidding here?

What's next - a September 11 theme park?