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President Barack Obama is planning to ask Congress to end bulk collection of US phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA).
NSA senior officials told the New York Times the agency would “end its systematic collection of data about Americans’ calling habits”.
Phone records would instead remain with telecoms companies, only to be accessed by government when needed.
It follows widespread anger at home and abroad after leaks revealed the full extent of US surveillance operations.
The documents – leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden – revealed that the US collects massive amounts of electronic data from communications of private individuals around the world, and has spied on foreign leaders.
In a speech in January, Barack Obama said it was necessary for the US to continue collecting large amounts of data, but that civil liberties must be respected.
Barack Obama is planning to ask Congress to end bulk collection of US phone records by the NSA
He said the current system, in which the NSA collects the details of the times, numbers and durations of phone calls, known as metadata, would come to an end.
According to the New York Times report, Barack Obama told the US justice department and intelligence officials to come up with a plan by March 28.
Under the new proposal, officials say surveillance “would require phone companies to swiftly provide records in a technologically compatible data format, including making available, on a continuing basis, data about any new calls placed or received after the order is received”.
The phone companies would not be required to hold on to the data for longer than they normally would, the New York Times says.
The NSA currently holds information for five years, whereas telecoms companies are required by federal regulation to retain customer records for 18 months.
The new proposal “would retain a judicial role in determining whether the standard of suspicion was met for a particular phone number before the NSA could obtain associated records”, the newspaper adds.
The Obama administration plans to renew the current NSA program for at least another 90 days until Congress passes the new legislation.
New legislation has also been developed separately by leaders of the House intelligence committee that would allow the NSA to issue subpoenas for specific phone records without prior judicial approval, the New York Times reports.
The New York Times report does not provide information on possible changes to the NSA’s surveillance of phone records from other countries.
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According to new reports, the US government has built a system that can record every phone call made over a month in an undisclosed foreign country.
The National Security Agency (NSA) program was created in 2009, the Washington Post reported.
Fugitive Edward Snowden, who leaked details of the system, promised more revelations.
Civil liberties groups called the report “chilling”, but US officials would not comment.
An NSA cover slide used for an internal briefing on the system, known as Mystic, shows a cartoon wizard wielding a staff with a mobile phone at the top.
Mystic is the only known US surveillance program to capture every single call across a nation’s telephone network, according to the Washington Post.
The NSA has built a system that can record every phone call made over a month in an undisclosed foreign country
The newspaper said that, at the request of US authorities, it would not name the foreign country, or others where the system’s use was envisaged.
It reported that a classified summary of the system suggested billions of conversations were being captured in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears out the oldest calls as new ones are made.
When asked about the report at his daily briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We don’t, as a general rule, comment on every specific allegation or report.”
But civil liberties activists said it was “a truly chilling revelation”.
“It’s one that underscores how high the stakes are in the debate we’re now having about bulk surveillance,” Jameel Jaffer, of the American Civil Liberties Union, told Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Edward Snowden appeared on Tuesday in the form of a remotely controlled robot at the influential TED conference in Vancouver, Canada.
“There are absolutely more revelations to come,” said Edward Snowden, who fled to Russia last year.
“Some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come.”
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Edward Snowden spoke before a packed auditorium of technology innovators via video link in Austin at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference on Monday.
Global mass surveillance conducted by the US and other governments is “setting fire to the future of the internet”, he said.
He added: “You guys are all the firefighters, and we need you to help us fix this.”
The former NSA contractor, who fled the US last year after leaking thousands of documents that revealed his employer’s extensive surveillance programs, spoke to the audience through a choppy Google Hangout video connection running through multiple proxy servers to conceal his location.
Although Edward Snowden has granted a handful interviews to the media since his revelations made global headlines and led to his seeking asylum in Russia, it was one of his first live appearances before a general audience.
During his one-hour session moderated by his lawyer, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Edward Snowden urged internet and computing experts to design and produce encrypted communication technology that the average user can use.
Often delving into the technical details of internet security, calling it “defense against the dark arts in the digital realm”, he said the systems currently available, if used by the general public, would make NSA bulk surveillance programs much more difficult.
Edward Snowden also denounced what he saw as a change in US priorities since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, focusing on breaking communication security rather than protecting information.
Edward Snowden spoke via video link at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin
“When you are the one country in the world that is sort of a vault that is more full than anyone else, it doesn’t make sense for you to be attacking all day rather and never defend your vault,” he said.
He also criticized the NSA’s mass data collection system as being ineffective and a waste of resources. Instead, he said, the agency should be focusing on the type of people who present a threat.
Edward Snowden cited Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan as individuals the government might have been able to catch if they had directed resources in the right areas.
“We spent all this money, we spent all this time hacking into Google’s and Facebook’s back end to look at their databases,” he said.
“What did we get out of that? We got nothing.”
Edward Snowden received a warm reception from the audience, and the question-and-answer session included words of praise in an email from internet pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who said his actions were “profoundly in the public interest”.
His appearance was not without critics, however. Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas wrote an open letter to the conference’s organizers on Friday, urging them to deny the NSA leaker a public platform to air his views.
Edward Snowden’s “only apparent qualification”, he writes, “is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of first amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin”.
At the start of the session, Ben Wizner, who serves as Edward Snowden’s legal advisor, replied that although freedom of expression protections are generally stronger in the US than in Russia, “if there’s one person for whom that’s not true, it’s Ed Snowden”.
If Edward Snowden were still in the US, he said, he’d probably be held by the government in solitary confinement.
Edward Snowden’s session is the latest event in a technology conference that has been dominated by talk of internet security, government surveillance and privacy rights.
In his final question, Edward Snowden was asked to assess the importance of his revelations.
“Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to know,” he said.
“I took an oath to support and defend the constitution, and I saw the constitution was violated on a massive scale.”
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has said that it will take the US two years and possibly billions of dollars to overcome the harm done by Edward Snowden’s intelligence leaks.
Gen. Martin Dempsey said the “vast majority” of documents taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were military-related.
Since last year, news organizations have published dozens of stories based on the leaked intelligence documents.
Gen. Martin Dempsey said the vast majority of documents taken by Edward Snowden were military-related
Edward Snowden faces spying charges in the US but has been given asylum in Russia.
Gen. Martin Dempsey told the House armed services committee on Thursday that a mitigation task force had been established to investigate the extent of Edward Snowden’s theft and to determine how to overcome it.
“The vast majority of [the pilfered documents] were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques and procedures,” Martin Dempsey said.
Gen. Martin Dempsey said the “magnitude of this challenge” suggested the task force would need to run for about two years.
President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize despite escalating tensions over sending Russian troops to Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Pope Francis, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban, are also on the list.
A record 278 candidates, including 47 organizations, have received nominations for this year’s prize, the Norwegian Nobel Institute’s director Geir Lundestad said.
Committee members met Tuesday to add their own suggestions. They focused on recent turmoil around the globe, including the crisis in Ukraine.
Russia seized control of Crimea after Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted on February 22. It has led to the most serious confrontation between Moscow and the West since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize despite escalating tensions over sending Russian troops to Ukraine’s Crimea region
Geir Lundestad said: “Part of the purpose of the committee’s first meeting is to take into account recent events, and committee members try to anticipate what could be the potential developments in political hotspots.”
Malala Yousafzai, 16, who was shot int e head by the Taliban for campaigning for equal education rights for girls, and Russian dissidents who have spoken out over human rights are also believed to be among the candidates.
The list of nominees also includes Pope Francis and Edward Snowden.
Conflicts between protesters and the governments of Thailand and Venezuela are also expected to be debated by the committee.
“We are getting an increasing number of nominations from people in countries that have never submitted nominations before,” Geir Lundestad said.
The nominations are kept secret for half a century but thousands of people can propose candidates, including members of national assemblies, and many make their choices public.
The committee reduced its list of potential winners to between 25 and 40 on Tuesday and will create a shortlist of about 12 names by the end of April.
The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901.
The prize includes 8 million Swedish crowns ($1.15 million) in cash.
Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced on the second Friday of October and the prize will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
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Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has demanded NSA leaker Edward Snowden return the documents he has “stolen”.
At a Senate hearing, James Clapper harshly condemned Edward Snowden, saying his leaks caused “profound damage”.
James Clapper said the leaks had gone “way beyond [Edward Snowden’s] professed concerns” about domestic spying.
Edward Snowden, 30, remains in Russia on asylum but faces espionage charges in the US.
The documents from the NSA that Edward Snowden has leaked to journalists have shed new light on electronic spying operations in the US and UK.
Among other revelations, the documents showed the NSA collected data on millions of phone calls, collected millions of text messages per day, tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sought to collect intelligence by spying on users’ mobile apps, and more.
Some of the intelligence was shared with British spies in the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), according to the documents.
Edward Snowden, who was a contract computer technician for the NSA before he fled the US last year, has said he no longer has copies of the documents.
“Snowden claims that he’s won and that his mission is accomplished,” James Clapper told the Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday.
James Clapper has demanded NSA leaker Edward Snowden return the documents he has stolen
“If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents that have not yet been exposed to prevent even more damage to US security.”
James Clapper did not clarify whom he meant by “accomplices”, but his spokesman told the Associated Press news agency he “was referring to anyone who is assisting Edward Snowden to further threaten our national security through the unauthorized disclosure of stolen documents related to lawful foreign intelligence collection programs”.
The former NSA contractor has said in recent interviews he believes the leaks have prompted a global reaction and a political debate within the US over spying programs.
But James Clapper said on Wednesday the leaks had damaged US national security and undermined co-operation with the country’s foreign partners.
US enemies “are going to school on US intelligence sources, methods and trade craft and the insights that they are gaining are making our job much, much harder,” he said.
As the hearing opened on Wednesday, protesters heckled James Clapper – one saying: “Should we be asking for James Clapper’s resignation for lying to Congress?”
James Clapper has been criticized for telling legislators during a hearing last year the US did not collect data on millions of Americans, though Edward Snowden’s leak has suggested the NSA had indeed been gathering data on calls of many Americans.
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Edward Snowden has alleged the National Security Agency (NSA) engaged in industrial espionage.
In an interview with Germany’s ARD TV channel, Edward Snowden said the agency would spy on big German companies that competed with US firms.
The former NSA contractor, who was granted temporary asylum by Russia, also said he believed that US officials wanted to kill him.
Edward Snowden’s leaks caused outrage in Germany when it came to light Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone had been bugged.
After the row broke out last year, Angela Merkel accused the US of an unacceptable breach of trust.
Last week President Barack Obama indicated to Germany’s ZDF TV that US bugging of Angela Merkel’s mobile phone had been a mistake and would not happen again.
Edward Snowden has alleged the NSA engaged in industrial espionage
Referring to the German engineering company Siemens, Edward Snowden told ARD: “If there is information at Siemens that they [the NSA] think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they’ll take it.”
Edward Snowden also said he believed US agents want to kill him, referring to an article published by the Buzzfeed website in which intelligence operatives are quoted as saying they want to see him dead.
In August, Russia granted Edward Snowden asylum for one year, after he leaked details of US electronic surveillance programs.
The US has charged Edward Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
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During an online Q&A session, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has said he has “no chance” of a fair trial in the US and has no plans to return there.
Edward Snowden, 30, said that the 100-year-old law under which he has been charged “forbids a public interest defense”.
“There’s no way I can come home and make my case to a jury,” he said.
Edward Snowden has temporary asylum in Russia after leaking details of NSA electronic surveillance programmes.
He said that his predicament over not having a fair trial was “especially frustrating”.
“Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which, through a failure in law, did not cover national security contractors like myself,” he told the Free Snowden website.
Edward Snowden has said he has “no chance” of a fair trial in the US and has no plans to return there
“Maybe when Congress comes together to end the programs… They’ll reform the Whistleblower Protection Act, and we’ll see a mechanism for all Americans, no matter who they work for, to get a fair trial.”
In December Edward Snowden delivered an “alternative” Christmas message to Britain’s Channel 4 TV, in which he called for an end to mass surveillance.
Earlier on Thursday an independent US privacy watchdog ruled that the bulk collection of phone call data by US intelligence agencies is illegal and has had only “minimal” benefits in preventing terrorism.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) advised by a 3-2 majority that the program should end.
The report from the PCLOB is the latest of several reviews of the NSA’s mass surveillance program, the details of which caused widespread anger after they were leaked by Edward Snowden.
In a separate development on Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder told MSNBC television that he was unlikely to consider clemency for Edward Snowden.
Eric Holder said that the US authorities “would engage in conversation” about a resolution of the case if Edward Snowden accepted responsibility for leaking government secrets.
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Edward Snowden may have collaborated with Russia, Mike Rogers, the chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee, has alleged.
“I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an agent in Moscow,” Rep Mike Rogers told CBS’s Face the Nation program.
Mike Rogers offered no firm evidence to back his theory, and the FBI is said to remain sure Edward Snowden acted alone.
The former NSA contractor has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.
Edward Snowden faces espionage charges over his actions, but denies turning over documents to any foreign government.
Mike Rogers suggested that Edward Snowden may have collaborated with Russia
Mike Rogers – a Republican who represents Michigan – told NBC that some of the things Edward Snowden did were “beyond his technical capabilities”.
It appeared “he had some help and he stole things that had nothing to do with privacy”, such as large amounts of data on the US military, Mike Rogers alleged.
And it would cost the US “billions and billions” to put right its capabilities following the intelligence breaches, he said.
“I don’t think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB,” he added, referring to the Russian state security organization.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Californian Democrat who heads the Senate intelligence committee, told the same program Edward Snowden “may well have” had help from Russia, but “we don’t know at this stage”.
Last week, the latest leaks to emerge via Edward Snowden suggested that the US had been collecting and storing almost 200 million text messages every day across the globe, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 News.
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President Barack Obama is to announce changes to NSA’s electronic spy programs after revelations made by Edward Snowden.
The president aims to restore public confidence in the intelligence community.
Barack Obama is expected to create a public advocate at the secretive court that approves intelligence collection.
The president’s proposals come hours after UK media reports that the US has collected and stored almost 200 million text messages per day across the globe.
According to the Guardian newspaper and Channel Four News, the National Security Agency (NSA) program extracted and stored data from the SMS messages to gather location information, contacts and financial data.
The report is the latest in a series of revelations from files leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor charged in the US with espionage and currently a fugitive in Russia.
Barack Obama’s speech on Friday at Department of Justice comes after a five-person White House panel given the job of reviewing US electronic spying programs in the wake of Edward Snowden’s disclosures presented their report in December.
President Barack Obama is to announce changes to NSA’s electronic spy programs after revelations made by Edward Snowden
Among their recommendations was the creation of a public advocate position at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), where judges have approved the mass spying program. Currently, only the US government is represented in front of FISC judges.
In details leaked to various US media by the White House, Barack Obama is expected to endorse that position, as well as extending some privacy protections for foreigners.
He is also expected to include increased oversight of how the US monitors foreign leaders and to limit how long some data can be stored.
However Barack Obama is not expected to endorse one of the panel’s headline recommendations – shifting the storage of phone records from the NSA to the telecommunications firm or a third party where it can be queried under limited conditions.
He is expected to leave the decision on whether that should be implemented to Congress.
Civil rights and privacy groups were wary ahead of the speech.
The Guardian report describes an NSA program called Dishfire, which analyses SMS messages to extract information including contacts from missed call alerts, location from roaming and travel alerts, financial information from bank alerts and payments and names from electronic business cards,
It also alleges that the NSA’s UK counterpart GCHQ searched the NSA’s database for information regarding people in the UK.
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The NSA used secret technology to spy on computers that were not even connected to the internet, it has been reported.
Citing documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times reported 100,000 machines were fitted with small devices that emitted radio waves.
Targets included the Chinese and Russian military as well as drug cartels, the newspaper claimed.
On Friday, President Barack Obamais expected to address concerns over NSA activity.
Quoting sources “briefed” on Barack Obama’s plans, the Times reported that restrictions on the scope of collecting bulk telephone data will feature, and that a person will be appointed to represent the views of the public in secret intelligence meetings.
Furthermore, tighter controls on foreign surveillance will be implemented – an attempt, the paper suggests, to dampen the political fall-out from revelations the US had obtained data from the communication tools of world leaders without their knowledge.
This latest leak details how the NSA accessed targets by inserting tiny circuit boards or USB cards into computers and using radio waves to transmit data without the need for the machine to be connected to a wider network.
It is a significant revelation in that it undermines what was seen to be one of the simplest but most effective methods of making a system secure: isolating it from the internet.
While the technology involved is not new, its apparent implementation by US security services was previously unknown.
Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA used secret technology to spy on computers that were not even connected to the internet
In a statement made to the New York Times, an NSA spokeswoman said none of the targets were in the US, adding: “NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements.”
“We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of – or give intelligence we collect to – US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”
The NSA used secret technology to spy on computers that were not even connected to the internet, it has been reported.
Citing documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times reported 100,000 machines were fitted with small devices that emitted radio waves.
Targets included the Chinese and Russian military as well as drug cartels, the newspaper claimed.
On Friday, President Barack Obamais expected to address concerns over NSA activity.
Quoting sources “briefed” on Barack Obama’s plans, the Times reported that restrictions on the scope of collecting bulk telephone data will feature, and that a person will be appointed to represent the views of the public in secret intelligence meetings.
Furthermore, tighter controls on foreign surveillance will be implemented – an attempt, the paper suggests, to dampen the political fall-out from revelations the US had obtained data from the communication tools of world leaders without their knowledge.
This latest leak details how the NSA accessed targets by inserting tiny circuit boards or USB cards into computers and using radio waves to transmit data without the need for the machine to be connected to a wider network.
It is a significant revelation in that it undermines what was seen to be one of the simplest but most effective methods of making a system secure: isolating it from the internet.
While the technology involved is not new, its apparent implementation by US security services was previously unknown.
In a statement made to the New York Times, an NSA spokeswoman said none of the targets were in the US, adding: “NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements.”
“We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of – or give intelligence we collect to – US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”
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According to new reports, the NSA is building a quantum computer to break the encryption that keeps messages secure.
The NSA project came to light in documents passed to the Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The agency hopes to harness the special qualities of quantum computers to speed up its code-cracking efforts.
The NSA is believed to have spent about $80 million on the project but it has yet to produce a working machine.
If the NSA managed to develop a working quantum computer it would be put to work breaking encryption systems used online and by foreign governments to keep official messages secure, suggest the documents excerpted in the Post.
The quantum computer is being developed under a research program called Penetrating Hard Targets and is believed to be conducted out of a lab in Maryland.
The NSA is building a quantum computer to break the encryption that keeps messages secure
Many research groups around the world are pursuing the goal of creating a working quantum computer but those developed so far have not been able to run the algorithms required to break contemporary encryption systems.
Current computers attempt to crack encryption via many different means but they are limited to generating possible keys to unscramble data one at a time. Using big computers can speed this up but the huge numbers used as keys to lock away data limits the usefulness of this approach.
By contrast, quantum computers exploit properties of matter that, under certain conditions, mean the machine can carry out lots and lots of calculations simultaneously. This makes it practical to try all the possible keys protecting a particular message or stream of data.
The hard part of creating a working quantum computer is keeping enough of its constituent computational elements, called qubits, stable so they can interact and be put to useful work.
The NSA is not believed to have made significant breakthroughs in its work that would put it ahead of research efforts elsewhere in the US and Europe. However, the documents passed to the Post by Edward Snowden suggest the NSA’s researchers are having some success developing the basic building blocks for the machine.
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Edward Snowden has delivered an “alternative” UK Christmas message, urging an end to mass surveillance.
The broadcast was carried on Channel 4 as an alternative to Queen Elizabeth’s traditional Christmas message.
Edward Snowden, 30, focused on privacy, saying: “A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.”
He has temporary asylum in Russia after leaking details of US electronic surveillance programs.
Edward Snowden has delivered an “alternative” UK Christmas message, urging an end to mass surveillance
Edward Snowden opened his two-minute message, recorded in Russia, with a reference to novelist George Orwell, author of 1984, saying the surveillance technology described in his works was “nothing compared to what we have today”.
He said: “A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought.
“The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it.
“Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.”
Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message has in the past featured Iran’s then-President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and fictional characters Ali G and Marge Simpson.
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In a recent interview, Edward Snowden – who leaked details of NSA electronic surveillance programs – says he’s achieved his aim.
“In terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” he told the Washington Post.
“I already won,” said 30-year-old Edward Snowden, whose extensive leaks have caused a reassessment of US surveillance policy.
Edward Snowden was interviewed in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum on August 1st.
The former NSA contractor fled the US in late May, taking a huge cache of secret documents with him. He faces espionage charges in the US.
Edward Snowden was interviewed in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum
“As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself,” Edward Snowden told the newspaper.
“All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,” he said.
The NSA, accustomed to watching without being watched, faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever, the Washington Post reports.
Edward Snowden told the newspaper he had no way of knowing whether the public would share his views.
“You recognize that you’re going in blind… But when you weigh that against the alternative, which is not to act, you realize that some analysis is better than no analysis.”
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President Barack Obama has suggested at his end-of-year news conference there may be a review of surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the wake of a series of spying revelations.
Barack Obama said in “light of disclosures that have taken place” and public concerns about the programmes “there may be another way of skinning the cat”.
However, the president said ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden had caused “unnecessary damage” by leaking documents.
He declined to say whether or not Edward Snowden could be offered an amnesty.
Edward Snowden fled the US in late May, taking a huge cache of secret documents with him. He faces espionage charges in the US and has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.
Barack Obama has suggested there may be a review of surveillance by the NSA in the wake of a series of spying revelations
“There are ways we can do it, potentially, that gives people greater assurance that there are checks and balances, that there’s sufficient oversight and sufficient transparency,” Barack Obama said.
He said that programmes like the bulk collection of phone records “could be redesigned in ways that give you the same information when you need it without creating these potentials for abuse”.
Barack Obama said he would make a “definitive statement” in January about recommendations by the White House panel.
“I have confidence in the fact that the NSA is not engaging in domestic surveillance or snooping around,” he added.
“We may have to refine this further to give people more confidence. And I’m going to be working very hard on doing that.”
On the subject of possibly granting Edward Snowden an amnesty, Barack Obama said: “I will leave it up to the courts and the attorney general to weigh in on Mr. Snowden’s case.”
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New details of people and institutions targeted by the US and UK surveillance have been published by The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel.
The papers say that the list of around 1,000 targets includes a EU commissioner, humanitarian organizations and an Israeli PM.
The secret documents were leaked by Edward Snowden, now a fugitive in Russia.
They suggest over 60 countries were targets of the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ.
Edward Snowden left the US in late May, taking a large cache of top secret documents with him
The reports are likely to spark more international concern about the surveillance operations carried out by the US and the UK.
News that the National Security Agency (NSA) had monitored the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel triggered a diplomatic row between Berlin and Washington in October.
The New York Times that GCHQ monitored the communications of foreign leaders – including African heads of state and sometimes their family members – and directors of UN and other relief programmes.
The paper reports that the emails of Israeli officials were monitored, including one listed as “Israeli prime minister”. The PM at the time, 2009, was Ehud Olmert.
The Guardian wrote that GCHQ targeted the UN development programme, UNICEF, German government buildings and the EU Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia.
Edward Snowden offered to collaborate with Brazil’s investigation into the mass surveillance programs Tuesday, writing an open letter that hinted at his asylum request to the country.
In a letter published in the Folha De S. Paulo newspaper, Edward Snowden praised the “inspiring” reaction around the world – and in Brazil – after he unveiled the NSA’s far-reaching spying program, which included the monitoring of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s personal cellphone.
“I have expressed my willingness to assist wherever appropriate and lawful, but unfortunately the United States government has worked very hard to limit my ability to do so,” Edward Snowden wrote in An Open Letter to the Brazilian People.
“Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak,” he added.
Edward Snowden offered to collaborate with Brazil’s investigation into the mass surveillance programs
Brazilian lawmakers have been trying to interview Snowden as part of their investigation but he seemed to suggest in his letter that he would only do so if he were welcomed into the country.
Edward Snowden previously requested asylum in Brazil but he has not received any response. He is currently living under temporary asylum in Russia, after spending weeks in limbo at Moscow’s international airport.
Documents Edward Snowden leaked exposed Brazil as the top NSA target in Latin America, with surveillance that included hacking into the network of state-run oil company Petrobras and monitoring Dilma Rousseff’s and ordinary Brazilians’ phones.
The revelations soured relations between Brazil and the US with President Dilma Rousseff canceling a state visit to Washington.
“Only three weeks ago, Brazil led the United Nations Human Rights Committee to recognize for the first time in history that privacy does not stop where the digital network starts, and that the mass surveillance of innocents is a violation of human rights,” Edward Snowden wrote, adding that “American officials should never decide the freedoms of Brazilian citizens.”
Edward Snowden’s open letter was also published on the Facebook page of David Miranda, partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, who first published Snowden’s leaks in June. David Miranda has started a petition calling for Brazil to offer Edward Snowden asylum.
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The White House has rejected the idea of an amnesty for fugitive Edward Snowden.
Earlier today, top National Security Agency (NSA) official had suggested that a deal could be reached if Edward Snowden stopped leaking documents.
However, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Edward Snowden still faced felony charges for leaking classified data.
It came as a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s snooping on telephone calls is likely to be unconstitutional.
US District Judge Richard Leon wrote that the programme probably violated Americans’ right to be free of unreasonable searches.
He stayed his own ruling pending an expected appeal by the government.
White House spokesman Jay Carney has rejected the idea of an amnesty for fugitive Edward Snowden
In Monday’s daily press briefing, Jay Carney said government officials continue to press Russia – where Edward Snowden has been granted asylum – to return him to the US.
“There’s been no change in our position,” Jay Carney told reporters.
Edward Snowden “faces felony charges here, he ought to be returned to the United States, again, where he will face full due process and protection under our system of justice, which we hope he will avail himself of”, Jay Carney added.
The US has charged Edward Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
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The National Security Agency (NSA) is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an agency’s official says.
The man in charge of assessing the leaks’ damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open to an amnesty deal.
Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA’s spying activity.
But NSA Director General Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea.
Richard Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal: “So my personal view is, yes it’s worth having a conversation about.
“I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part.”
But Gen. Keith Alexander, who is retiring early next year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for Edward Snowden.
The NSA is considering offering an amnesty to Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents
“This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then say, <<if you give me full amnesty, I’ll let the other 40 go>>. What do you do?”
In an earlier interview with the Reuters news agency, Richard Ledgett said he was deeply worried about highly classified documents not yet public that are among the 1.7 million files Edward Snowden is believed to have accessed.
Edward Snowden’s disclosures have been “cataclysmic” for the agency, Richard Ledgett told Reuters.
Earlier this month, The Guardian’s editor told UK MPs only 1% of files leaked by Edward Snowden had been published by the newspaper.
The state department says its position has not changed and that Edward Snowden must return to the US to face charges.
The US has charged Edward Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
At the weekend, the NSA allowed a CBS television crew into their headquarters for the first time in its history, in an effort to be more open about what the agency does with the data it collects.
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Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger revealed only 1% of files leaked by Edward Snowden have been published.
Alan Rusbridger told the Home Affairs Select Committee in UK parliament that the Guardian was not a “rogue newspaper”.
He insisted the paper’s journalists were “patriots” and patriotic about democracy and a free press.
Alan Rusbridger said senior officials in Whitehall and the US administration had told the paper “no damage” had been caused.
Last month intelligence chiefs used their appearance before a different committee to criticize the Guardian, suggesting it had endangered national security.
However, Alan Rusbridger said their accusations were “very vague and not rooted in specific stories”.
“There are different views about this,” he said.
Alan Rusbridger revealed only 1 percent of files leaked by Edward Snowden have been published
“It’s impossible to assess because no one has given me specific evidence.”
He added: “There are countries – and they are not generally democracies – where the press are not free to write about this and where the security services do tell editors what to write.
“That’s not the country we live in, in Britain, and it’s one of the things we love about the country.”
The Guardian editor said the paper had “made very selective judgments”‘ about what to publish and had not revealed the names of any officials.
He said the files taken by Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA) were in four locations – with The Guardian and the Washington Post newspapers, as well as in Rio de Janeiro and Germany.
Alan Rusbridger said editors of “leading” newspapers had also decided to publish details in the NSA files.
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Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reportedly revealed that Australia’s intelligence agencies spied on phone calls of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and close confidantes.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady and Vice-President Boediono were reportedly amongst those targeted.
The documents leaked by Edward Snowden were published by broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Guardian newspaper.
Indonesia said Australia should “urgently” clarify the spying claims.
The report is the latest in a series of spying allegations that have strained relations between the two allies.
On November 1st, Indonesia summoned Australia’s ambassador amid reports that Australia’s Jakarta embassy was used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.
The latest leaked document showed that Australia spy agencies named Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady, Vice-President Boediono and other senior ministers as targets for monitoring, the reports said.
The presentation from Australian spy agency the Defense Signals Directorate (now known as the Australian Signals Directorate) showed that agencies attempted to listen to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s calls at least once, and tracked calls made to and from his mobile phone, in August 2009, the ABC and the Guardian added.
Australia’s intelligence agencies spied on phone calls of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and close confidantes
The news organizations published slides from the presentation, which appeared to show a list of Indonesian “leadership targets” and the handset models used by each target, as well as a diagram of “voice events” of the Indonesian president in August 2009.
One slide entitled “Indonesian President voice intercept (August ’09)” appeared to show an attempt to listen to the content of a phone call to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
On Monday, responding to questions in parliament, Australian PM Tony Abbott said: “The Australian government never comments on specific intelligence matters.”
He added: “I will never say or do anything that might damage the strong relationship and the close co-operation that we have with Indonesia, which is all in all, our most important relationship.”
Last week, commenting on the earlier claims, PM Tony Abbott had described the term spying as “kind of loaded language” and suggested that “researching” would be more appropriate.
On Monday Indonesian presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah, said: “[The] Australian government urgently needs to clarify on this news, to avoid further damage.”
“The damage has been done,” he added.
Indonesia has publicly voiced anger over previous allegations of Australian spying.
Vice-President Boediono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said last week that the Indonesian public was “concerned” about the spying allegations.
“I think we must look forward to come to some arrangement which guarantees that intelligence information from each side is not used against the other,” Boediono said.
Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners.
Australia requires Indonesia’s co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat, but there are tensions on the issue.
Earlier this month, Indonesia declined an Australian request to receive a boat of asylum seekers whose vessel, bound for Australia’s Christmas Island, had got into trouble after it departed from Indonesia.
The reports are amongst the series of documents leaked by Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorized disclosures.
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The US Congress and the White House have rejected clemency for former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.
“Mr. Snowden violated US law. He should return to the US and face justice,” said White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer.
Edward Snowden, 30, asked for international help to persuade the US to drop spying charges against him in a letter given to a German politician.
He fled to Russia in June after leaking details of far-reaching US telephone and internet espionage.
Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum, allowing him to live in Russia until July 2014.
In a surprise move last week, German Green MP Hans-Christian Stroebele met Edward Snowden in Moscow and revealed the former intelligence contractor’s readiness to brief the German government on NSA’s spying.
Edward Snowden set out his position in a letter, which Hans-Christian Stroebele showed to reporters at a news conference in Berlin on Friday.
The US Congress and the White House have rejected clemency for former NSA analyst Edward Snowden
“Speaking the truth is not a crime,” Edward Snowden wrote. He claimed that the US government was persecuting him by charging him with espionage.
On Sunday, the White House said that no offers for clemency were being discussed.
This view was echoed by the Republican Congressman Mike Rogers and Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein.
Dianne Feinstein said that if Edward Snowden had been a true whistleblower, he could have reported privately to her committee, but had chosen not to.
“We would have seen him and we would have looked at that information. That didn’t happen, and now he’s done this enormous disservice to our country,” Senator Dianne Feinstein said in an interview on CBS television.
“I think the answer is no clemency,” she said.
The scale of the alleged US espionage has provoked international concern and calls for tighter supervision.
Reports that the US bugged German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone for years have caused a diplomatic rift.
The head of US intelligence has defended the monitoring of foreign leaders as a key goal of operations but the US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad.
It has also been reported that the NSA monitored French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and that it conducted surveillance on millions of French and Spanish telephone calls, among other operations against US allies.
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Germany is keen to hear directly from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden about the US spy agency’s activities.
“If the message is that Mr. Snowden wants to give us information then we’ll gladly accept that,” said German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
Edward Snowden’s lawyer said a meeting could occur in Moscow, but not Germany.
Edward Snowden, 30, fled to Russia in June after leaking details of far-reaching US telephone espionage. He has temporary asylum, allowing him to live in Russia until next June.
In a surprise move, a German Green MP, Hans-Christian Stroebele, has met Edward Snowden in Moscow and revealed the former intelligence contractor’s readiness to brief the German government on NSA spying.
Edward Snowden set out his position in a letter, which Hans-Christian Stroebele showed to reporters at a news conference on Friday.
The scale of the alleged US espionage has provoked international concern and calls for tighter supervision.
Asian countries have protested at claims that Australia was involved in a US-led spy network.
China has demanded an explanation of the reports, while Indonesia has summoned the Australian ambassador to Jakarta.
German Green MP Hans-Christian Stroebele has met Edward Snowden in Moscow
Reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was bugged by US spies for years overshadowed last week’s EU summit and she remarked with irritation that spying on friends is “really not on”.
According to Hans-Christian Stroebele, Edward Snowden is not keen on German investigators going to see him in Moscow, but would be ready to go to Germany if it could be guaranteed that he would not be extradited to the United States.
It is not clear whether Edward Snowden would get legal protection in Germany. The US authorities want to get him extradited to stand trial for revealing official secrets.
But the German government says it would welcome a meeting with the whistleblower.
“We will find a way, if Mr. Snowden is willing to talk,” Hans-Peter Friedrich said.
“Any clarification, any information and facts that we can get, is good.”
Edward Snowden “will not go to Germany”, his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said.
“This is not possible because he has no right to cross Russian borders.
“Within the framework of international agreements Snowden can give testimony in Russia but this should be decided by the German authorities.”
The Bundestag – the lower house of parliament – has the power to decree that someone addressing it has immunity.
Speaking to German ARD television, Hans-Christian Stroebele said that Edward Snowden “is fundamentally ready to help bring things to light”.
“The conditions for that have to be established. We had a long discussion about that.”
The MP said he had suggested that investigators could question Edward Snowden in Moscow about the NSA.
Edward Snowden “made it clear that he knows a very great deal,” he went on.
Hans-Christian Stroebele described the former intelligence contractor as “amazingly talkative – he has a mission, an urge to communicate, he wants things to be put back on a legal basis”.
Edward Snowden is starting work on Friday for a major private website in Russia, his lawyer has said.
Anatoly Kucherena would not disclose which site has employed Edward Snowden, citing security concerns.
Australia’s ambassador has been summoned in Indonesia amid reports that Australian embassies have been used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), diplomatic posts in Asia were being used to intercept phone calls and data.
China has also demanded an explanation from the US over the allegations.
The reports were based on an NSA document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The document, which was originally published by German newspaper Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence programme called Stateroom which involves the interception of radio, telecommunications and internet traffic using equipment in US, British, Australian and Canadian diplomatic missions.
Diplomatic posts involved included those in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, amongst others, SMH reported on Thursday.
Australia’s ambassador has been summoned in Indonesia amid reports that Australian embassies have been used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia
A former Australian intelligence officer, who was not named, told SMH that the Australian embassies in Jakarta and Bali were used to collect signals.
In a statement, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said: “[The government] cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the US embassy in Jakarta.”
“If confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics.”
“The reported activities absolutely do not reflect the spirit of a close and friendly relationship between the two neighbors and are considered unacceptable by the government of Indonesia,” the foreign ministry added in a statement.
Australian ambassador Greg Moriarty was summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday.
He described the talks, which reportedly took less than half an hour, as “a good meeting”.
Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners. Australia requires Indonesia’s co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat.
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing was “extremely concerned” about the report.
“[China] demands that the US offer a clarification and explanation,” she said.
“We demand that foreign embassies in China and their staff respect the Vienna Convention.”
Malaysia’s foreign ministry, in a statement, said it had sought clarification on the issue from the US envoy in Kuala Lumpur, adding that Malaysia’s “security and sovereignty” remained the priority.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. PM Tony Abbott said: “Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official… operates in accordance with the law.”
The reports are the latest in a series of documents leaked by Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorized disclosures.
The US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad.
However, correspondents say that in reality most governments conduct surveillance or espionage operations against other countries whose activities matter to them.
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Edward Snowden, who is now living off scant donations under Russia asylum since July, will be starting a job at an undisclosed but large Russian website.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has found a job working for a website in Russia, where he was granted asylum after fleeing the United States, a Russian lawyer who is helping him said on Thursday.
“Edward starts work in November,” lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said, according to state-run news agency RIA.
“He will provide support for a large Russian site,” he said, adding that he would not name the site “for security reasons.”
Edward Snowden, 30, a former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed secret U.S. internet telephone surveillance programs, fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia in June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected U.S. pleas to send Edward Snowden home to face charges including espionage, and the temporary asylum he was granted in early August can be extended annually.
Edward Snowden will be starting a job at an undisclosed but large Russian website
Edward Snowden’s location in Russia has not been disclosed and since July he has appeared only in a handful of photographs and video clips from a meeting this month with visiting former US national security officials who support his cause.
Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy, said repeatedly that Russia would only shelter Edward Snowden if he stopped harming the US.
But state media have treated him as a whistleblower and the decision to grant him asylum seemed to underscore Vladimir Putin’s accusations that the US government preaches to the world about rights and freedoms it does not uphold at home.
Vladimir Putin has dismissed the widespread assumption that Russian intelligence officers had grilled Edward Snowden for information after he arrived, and Anqatoly Kucherena has portrayed him as trying to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.
He said earlier that he hoped Edward Snowden would find a job because he was living on scant funds, mostly from donations.
A tabloid news site on Thursday published what it said was a photo of Edward Snowden on a Moscow river cruise this summer, and the same site earlier published a photo of a man who looked like Snowden pushing a shopping cart in a supermarket parking lot.
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