Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.
TaoPhoenix:
It's all a little beyond me!
They're gonna try to censor and control stuff, anyway.
So it seems a little unnerving that just like anything can be a weapon, "anything can be abused into propaganda" just by the arts of altering an otherwise rational premise.
On another shard of the crystal, the agencies are busy hollering "but ... encryption is used by terrorists! So put in backdoors that we know about and that they'll never find (until they do, at which point it's the dev's fault!)."
Renegade:
Soooooooooo... A couple years later, the WH finally manages to say, "Piss off."
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden
OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO
Pardon Edward Snowden
A Response to Your Petition on Edward Snowden
Thanks for signing a petition about Edward Snowden. This is an issue that many Americans feel strongly about. Because his actions have had serious consequences for our national security, we took this matter to Lisa Monaco, the President's Advisor on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Here's what she had to say:
"Since taking office, President Obama has worked with Congress to secure appropriate reforms that balance the protection of civil liberties with the ability of national security professionals to secure information vital to keep Americans safe.
As the President said in announcing recent intelligence reforms, "We have to make some important decisions about how to protect ourselves and sustain our leadership in the world, while upholding the civil liberties and privacy protections that our ideals and our Constitution require."
Instead of constructively addressing these issues, Mr. Snowden's dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it.
If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and -- importantly -- accept the consequences of his actions. He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers -- not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he's running away from the consequences of his actions.
We live in a dangerous world. We continue to face grave security threats like terrorism, cyber-attacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address. The balance between our security and the civil liberties that our ideals and our Constitution require deserves robust debate and those who are willing to engage in it here at home."
Follow @WeThePeople on Twitter all day long for a series of Q+As with various Administration officials on the petition responses we released today.
Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.
--- End quote ---
At absolute best, it is dishonest and egregiously ignorant. Snowden doesn't get any right to any defense because of the national secrets act (or whatever it's called). He literally would not be allowed to defend himself in court. And they want him to come back to a kangaroo court where he'd be hanged before the sun set? Right.
It took over 2 years for them to vomit that nonsense onto the screen. Shameful.
IainB:
@Renegade: ^^ Amazing. Some people (not me, you understand) might say that that does seem to be a barely concealed, arrogant, "Piss off and there's nothing you can do about it", but I couldn't possibly comment. Those same people might go on to suggest that, when a government puts out apparently slanted propaganda BS like that, then it's arguably a sign that it is well past time to change the government, but again I couldn't possibly comment.
Reminds me of this American cartoon:
IainB:
I wasn't sure whether this came under the category of "silly humour" or "Snowdengate", but either way it made me smile:
Microsoft Invests In 3 Undersea Cable Projects To Improve Its Data Center Connectivity | TechCrunch
I guess this sort of thing is increasingly likely to happen, as US Cloud-hosting corporations attempt to at least give things a semblance of "wanting to be seen to be not in league with the NSA" and so start planting their data centres offshore of the North Americas.
It will be interesting anyway. There could be far more capacity in those cables than MS would be likely to need...
Maybe MS is about to offer telco services too? :tellme:
Some people (not me, you understand) might query whether the NSA will be connecting to these cables as they are being laid, or afterwards; however, I couldn't possibly comment.
_____________________________
-IainB (May 12, 2015, 02:55 AM)
--- End quote ---
Rather dryly, The Inquirer posts:
AWS announces UK region offering local cloud storage in wake of Safe Harbour ruling- The Inquirer
But what effect is May to December?
By Chris Merriman
Fri Nov 06 2015, 15:19
AWS announces UK region offering local cloud storage in wake of Safe Harbor ruling
AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS) has announced a new UK region for its cloud services. It is expected that the UK operation will be complete by the end of 2016, and that the facility will bolster the current AWS regional offerings in Dublin and Frankfurt.
The news has a double impact for customers in the UK. On an operational level, it will create a lower latency, higher speed offering for customers that will significantly affect organisations such as Channel 4 which uses AWS as the backbone of its All 4 service.
The second aspect comes from the continuing controversy surrounding the Safe Harbour ruling. UK companies will now be able to store data in the UK, thus avoiding any unpleasant laws governing access to files that may exist in other countries.
Of course, the news comes in the same week that the so-called Snoopers' Charter was revealed, which includes a number of clauses that will make UK-based storage less appealing.
Government CTO Liam Maxwell was glowing in his praise of Amazon's decision and referred to the need for onshore data storage.
"It’s great to see that AWS will provide commercial cloud services from data centres in the UK. Not only will this mean a significant investment in the UK economy, but more healthy competition and innovation in the UK data centre market.
"This is good news for the UK government given the significant amount of data we hold that needs to be kept onshore,” he said.
The announcement of a UK region comes just a day after Amazon revealed a string of new data centres in South Korea. Jeff Barr, one of the main cloud evangelists at AWS, said in a blog post: “We have always believed that you need to be able to exercise complete control over where your data is stored and where it is processed.”
Which is all very noble, but Amazon probably hadn't bet on Theresa May.
We reported last month on an Australian university that had made the decision to switch from Google Apps to Microsoft Office 365 specifically to ensure that its data would be stored in Europe rather than the US. It's an illustration of what's at stake when planning a cloud infrastructure.
--- End quote ---
Presumably AWS don't realise that people read the news on the Internet...
IainB:
Ahh, now it all makes sense - it seems that it was because of Snowden that all those people in Paris were massacred yesterday: Edward Snowden and spread of encryption blamed after Paris terror attacks
Oh, but wait, maybe that was a bit hasty:
* Paris’ Bataclan Theater was BDS and terrorist target for years
* Le Point Le Bataclan Theater Headline
* Pourquoi le Bataclan est-il régulièrement visé ? - Le Point
* Was the Bataclan targeted for Jewish ownership and support for Israel? | i24news - See beyond
I can't believe that the French security services would have known for some time that the Bataclan was a defined prime Islamic terrorist target and yet apparently have done nothing to anticipate it and protect French citizens...
Nah, it must have been Snowden's fault.
Maybe French citizens should start pressing for the right to carry arms, to avert such "workplace accidents" as this?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version