Snowden: 'Hey, Assange, any more room on Ecuador's sofa?' NSA PRISM whistleblower Edward Snowden has requested asylum in none other than Ecuador, the country that’s also technically safeguarding WikiLeaker Julian Assange. Snowden is actually on his way to the South American nation to see if he can stay, while Assange remains ensconced on the sofa of the Ecuadorian embassy in London …
Guardian sets up bureau in Quito, Ecuador.
Tomorrow...
Guardian abandons bureau in Quito, Ecuador due to observing press gagging, and lack of any (meaningful) story to file.
In a week?
ElReg expresses a card table and laptop to cantina. Makes deal with owner for WiFi access. Encourages "leakers" to have a seat.
Months later.
Said card table is quite active as everyone is playing internet games. No "leakers" yet. ElReg decides it really wasn't worth trouble, as nothing really happens in Ecuador anyway. Good thing components were castoffs from BOFH operations. We understand that one of Simon's bosses may be exiled there as well.
Well, there was arguably a reason for Afghanistan, as there were terrorist training facilities there. Although, it has to be said, the method was probably the worst possible. Anyone who thinks the Taliban are finished is dreaming.
Iraq.....well nuff said. Absolutely no reason there as far as I can see. Weapons of mass destruction.....false. Oil.....true, but not really a legal reason. Saddam Hussein a nasty man......true, but he had been for decades and we'd supported him against Iran.
The Taliban which we are trying our best to destroy has never attacked any country outside of Afghanistan. It has attacked plenty of people who have invaded or tried to invade the country but never committed any terrorist atrocity outside of Afghanistan.
The only way to actually defeat the Taliban would be to take a leaf out of Hitlers book to see what he tried and failed with the Jewish population. Obviously this isn't going to happen, so we'll never defeat them. We never defeated the IRA in all of those years, so why do people think we'll win against the Taliban.
Off topic: But why destroy poppy fields in Afghanistan when we are spending money to grow poppy's in the UK for pharmaceutical use? Why not allow the Afghans to grow poppy's (afterall they've had plenty of experience) and use that instead? We'd save money destroying the crop, save money protecting the crops in the UK (farmers themselves aren't allowed to harvest said poppy fields), and probably get it a lot cheaper!
"The Taliban which we are trying our best to destroy has never attacked any country outside of Afghanistan. It has attacked plenty of people who have invaded or tried to invade the country but never committed any terrorist atrocity outside of Afghanistan."
True. The Taliban themselves have never attacked, but there were terrorist training facilities being hosted within the country, so you could argue they were liable for them. Problem is, the Taliban is not really an organisation. It's really a series of warlords who have a generally similar outlook. However, they are different, fought each other to some extent and have varying degrees of 'nuttiness'.
"The only way to actually defeat the Taliban would be to take a leaf out of Hitlers book to see what he tried and failed with the Jewish population. Obviously this isn't going to happen, so we'll never defeat them. We never defeated the IRA in all of those years, so why do people think we'll win against the Taliban."
This is the problem with wars. Very often wars are not actually 'won'. They often (especially these days) end up more as a stalemate, which is why a political solution has to be agreed in the end. The IRA didn't win, but neither did the UK. So, after a while people (on both sides) realised a negotiated settlement had to be reached. Same will be true of Afghanistan, Syria, Libya......all of them.
"Off topic: But why destroy poppy fields in Afghanistan when we are spending money to grow poppy's in the UK for pharmaceutical use? Why not allow the Afghans to grow poppy's (afterall they've had plenty of experience) and use that instead? We'd save money destroying the crop, save money protecting the crops in the UK (farmers themselves aren't allowed to harvest said poppy fields), and probably get it a lot cheaper!"
This is all to do with politics and money over common sense. The 'war on drugs' is lost and always will be. No matter what you do, removing illegal drugs from the streets is a fight we will never win, even remotely. We are more awash with drugs now than ever before. So, what do we do? Same as any other war....negotiate a settlement. That will undoubtedly mean at least some drugs become legal. It may take some time, but it will happen in the end unless they want the 'war' to continue. Getting the Afghans to grow the poppies is never going to happen, as there's good money for companies doing it in the UK and elsewhere. Money wins. Also, it's rather hard to justify giving a poppy contract to your 'enemy' the Taliban!!
It's nothing to do with practicality and everything to do with money and power.
between overseas communications and domestic ones.
What a load of poop.
Given that they know the difference between transmitters and receivers and they can figure out that most domestic cables do not cross the shore line even the sad excuse for womanhood, May May of Maidenhead, could figure which was which.
I have my popcorn out and am enjoying all the fuckwittery.
This is all but a distraction, we never had privacy, democracy is but an illusion, all governments are twats, it's all about nothing but money,.
Let's see, GCHQ is monitoring all the interwebs, when did this news break? about 6pm on Friday? Why would that be? Your all clever people and I wouldn't want to insult anyone's intelligence by answering it for you.
furthermore, at the end of the day there is fuck all you or I can do about all this, get over it, find a political party that will change it, oh wait, none have said they will or even want to, go fucking democracy,if you still think your free or that our children will have it any different then you are very naive.
"furthermore, at the end of the day there is fuck all you or I can do about all this, get over it, find a political party that will change it, oh wait, none have said they will or even want to, go fucking democracy,if you still think your free or that our children will have it any different then you are very naive."
I guess people have a choice. Accept this or try to change it. By the same argument, nobody should have fought the Germans in WWII. Just accepted the inevitable, let them in and live with it. Apathetic acceptance is (in my view) a poor place to be. Better to stand and be counted (and maybe fall) than do nothing. I want better for my children.
Me too, but again, no political party, either us or uk wants to touch this with a barge pole, what's the alternative, create your own political party and run for office? revolution like they have in Brazil?
Apathy pisses me off, not sure the German land grab is a good comparison though, that was out and out war, this is the controlling of the populace by monitoring their every move and you can be sure that all this information will be used to that end.
"Me too, but again, no political party, either us or uk wants to touch this with a barge pole, what's the alternative, create your own political party and run for office? revolution like they have in Brazil?
Apathy pisses me off, not sure the German land grab is a good comparison though, that was out and out war, this is the controlling of the populace by monitoring their every move and you can be sure that all this information will be used to that end."
I agree it's hard, but unless people start to stand up, it will keep getting worse and worse. Why not create a political party? Why not run for office.
If you look at what was happening during the 30s in Germany, it's a very apt comparison. The Nazis made sure they had control of their own populace and started the 'conditioning' before they invaded other countries. Now, compare that to what the US has done. Have they got control of the populace? Pretty much so. Are they 'conditioning' them? Pretty much so. Have they invaded any other countries? Mmmmmmmmm
You make some very good points.
Why not create a political party? Why not run for office.
I would love to, however the press is already best buddies with the political elite so regardless of the manifesto I would be written off as a racist or an Antisocialists loon, futurama puts it best with Jack Johnson and John Jackson, one of the few nuggets in the media that actually point out the obvious.
as with arseange why make it about the whistleblower as opposed the blown whistle?
I quote,
Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden is still in the transit area at Moscow airport, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has confirmed.
When did Russian presidents make statements about individual extradition requests?
The problem is that there is an implicit assumption that 5-Eyes intelligence will be used for good and not evil i.e. solely to capture terrorists. But what do we mean by terrorist? One man's definition can quickly morph from 'terrorist' to 'traitor' to just 'target'. How magnificently laws are amended in 'Animal Farm'!
Two examples from history where intelligence was abused. A. The IRA hit on the RUC with collusion in the "widest sense of the word" being investigated by the Smithwick Tribunal. B. The illegal methods used to track the whereabouts of a US senator's plane in the early days of the Patriot Act.
Should there be more US 'traitors', you can be bet your life that Prism will be used to hunt down the offender using extreme prejudice! But what if that traitor is in fact a whistleblower, divulging abuses by our elected officials, such as the Pentagon Papers bringing the Vietnam War to a close? ... What then?
Germany seeks UK surveillance assurances
To paraphrase someone Else's comment
how times have changed. Now the Germans are questioning our police state and the threat it poses to them!
I'm still shocked that the media coverage is fixated on Snowden and now the information he revealed. Anyone with an ounce of IT knowledge knows that terrorists and child abusers can stay hidden, which leaves Jo Public to be spied on...why?
"I'm still shocked that the media coverage is fixated on Snowden and now the information he revealed. Anyone with an ounce of IT knowledge knows that terrorists and child abusers can stay hidden, which leaves Jo Public to be spied on...why?"
Yes indeed. I mean, they caught Bin Laden quickly enough using this technology!! Or, was he simply clever enough to keep out of the way of it and was actually caught through one of his couriers? If someone has the desire to stay hidden on the internet, they pretty much can unless the intelligence capabilities go way beyond what is being revealed now. So, the serious players (most terrorists, child abusers etc.) can stay hidden, whilst medium and low players should get caught all the time. Funny thing is, you rarely hear of these lower players being caught by these means. Probably because the information can't be used in court, partly because they'd have to reveal what they're doing, but also because it was illegally obtained and therefore not usable!!
When looking at peoples intentions, it's generally a good idea to follow the money, as that is normally a good indicator for most people (and organisations). So, where does the money trail go here?
Hi,
Someone recently tried to use an application to sign in to your Google Account - @googlemail.com.
We prevented the sign-in attempt in case this was a hijacker trying to access your account. Please review the details of the sign-in attempt:
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 6:23:36 AM UTC
IP Address: 114.97.86.14
Location: Hefei, Anhui, China
If you do not recognize this sign-in attempt, someone else might be trying to access your account. You should sign in to your account and reset your password immediately.
Reset password
If this was you, and you are having trouble accessing your account, complete the troubleshooting steps listed at http://support.google.com/mail?p=client_login
Sincerely,
The Google Accounts team
This email was legit (in the sense it had no dodgy links) the email they referenced was not mine and I have never linked my gmail (not googlemail) to my hotmail account, coincidence? you decide, maybe they do really hold all the keys, and if they do then why the fuck are they reading comments on a tech site? Do they really have nothing better to do? I now take my tin foil hat off
Also on this subject I see a certain (you have nothing to fear) politician made even better quotes today
"We have not yet exhausted all the means of building up and extending our influence. It is not so much the relative size of our power that matters in the 21st Century, but the nature of it, and how agile and effective we can be in exerting it."
in other words, bend over the rest of the world.
is it just me or is this getting crazy?
"is it just me or is this getting crazy?"
It isn't just you. I receive a constant stream of very credible looking, but definitely dubious emails from all over the place. The usual suspects, such as Nigeria, but also plenty of other places as well. I often wonder how they know the information or how they've linked things I thought weren't linked. Maybe someone is doing some deep data mining? Of course, the NSA operating through proxies in China would make a great means of trying to deny what you're doing!!
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