“Fuck!” That is the word that comes to the mind of Christian Steffen, the CEO of German satellite communications company Stellar PCS. He is looking at classified documents laying out the scope of something called Treasure Map, a top secret NSA program. Steffen’s firm provides internet access to remote portions of the globe via satellite, and what he is looking at tells him that the company, and some of its customers, have been penetrated by the U.S. National Security Agency and British spy agency GCHQ.
Stellar’s visibly shaken chief engineer, reviewing the same documents, shares his boss’ reaction. “The intelligence services could use this data to shut down the internet in entire African countries that are provided access via our satellite connections,” he says.
Treasure Map is a vast NSA campaign to map the global internet. The program doesn’t just seek to chart data flows in large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. Rather, it seeks to identify and locate every single device that is connected to the internet somewhere in the world—every smartphone, tablet, and computer—”anywhere, all the time,” according to NSA documents. Its internal logo depicts a skull superimposed onto a compass, the eyeholes glowing demonic red.
The breathtaking mission is described in a document from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden provided to The Intercept and Der Spiegel. Treasure Map’s goal is to create an “interactive map of the global internet” in “almost real time.” Employees of the so-called “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance—England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—can install and use the program on their own computers. It evokes a kind of Google Earth for global data traffic, a bird’s eye view of the planet’s digital arteries.
(The short film above, Chokepoint, by filmmaker Katy Scoggin and Intercept co-founder Laura Poitras, documents the reactions of Stellar engineers when confronted with evidence that their company—and they themselves—had been surveilled by GCHQ.)
The New York Times reported on the existence of Treasure Map last November. Though the NSA documents indicate that it can be used to monitor “adversaries,” and for “computer attack/exploit planning”—offering a kind of battlefield map for cyber warfare—they also clearly show that Treasure Map monitors traffic and devices inside the United States. Unnamed intelligence officials told the Times that the program didn’t have the capacity to monitor all internet-connected devices, and was focused on foreign networks, as well as the U.S. Defense Department’s own computer systems.
The Treasure Map graphics contained in the Snowden archive don’t just provide detailed views of global networks—they also note which carriers and internal service provider networks Five Eyes agencies claim to have already penetrated. In graphics generated by the program, some of the “autonomous systems”—basically, networks of routers all controlled by one company, referred to by the shorthand “AS”—under Treasure Map’s watchful eye are marked in red. An NSA legend explains what that means: “Within these AS, there are access points for technical monitoring.” In other words, they are under observation.
In one GCHQ document, an AS belonging to Stellar PCS is marked in red, as are networks that belong to two other German firms, Deutsche Telekom AG and Netcologne, which operates a fiber-optic network and provides telephone and internet services to 400,000 customers.
Deutsche Telekom, of which the German government owns more than 30 percent, is one of the dozen or so international telecommunications companies that operate global networks—so-called Tier 1 providers. In Germany alone, Deutsche Telekom claims to provide mobile phone services, internet, and land lines to 60 million customers.
It’s not clear from the documents how or where the NSA gained access to the networks. Deutsche Telekom’s autonomous system, marked in red, includes several thousand routers worldwide. It has operations in the U.S. and England, and is part of a consortium that operates the TAT14 transatlantic cable system, which stretches from England to the east coast of the U.S. “The accessing of our network by foreign intelligence agencies,” said a Telekom spokesperson, “would be completely unacceptable.”
The fact that Netcologne is a regional provider, with no international operations, would seem to indicate that the NSA or one of its partners accessed the network from within Germany. If so, that would be a violation of German law and potentially another NSA-related case for German prosecutors, who have been investigating the monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
Reporters for Der Spiegel, working in collaboration with The Intercept, contacted both companies several weeks ago in order to give them an opportunity to look into the alleged security breaches themselves. The security departments of both firms say they launched intensive investigations, but failed to find any suspicious equipment or data streams leaving the network. The NSA declined to comment for this story, and GCHQ offered no response beyond its boilerplate claim that all its activities are lawful.
Deutsche Telekom and Netcologne are not the first German companies to be pinpointed by Snowden documents as having been successfully hacked by intelligence agencies. In March, Der Spiegel reported on a large-scale attack by GCHQ on German satellite operators Stellar, Cetel, and IABG, all of which offer satellite internet connections to remote regions of the world. All three companies operate their own autonomous systems. And all three are marked red in Treasure Map graphics.
Der Spiegel also contacted 11 of the international providers listed in the Treasure Map document. Four answered, all saying they examined their systems and were unable to find any irregularities. “We would be extremely concerned if a foreign government were to seek unauthorized access to our global networks and infrastructure,” said a spokesperson for the Australian telecommunications company Telstra.
The case of Stellar illustrates the lengths to which GCHG and NSA have gone in making their secret map of the internet, and its users.
One document, from GCHQ’s Network Analysis Center, lays out what appears to be an attack on Stellar. The document lists “central employees” at the company, and states that they should be identified and “tasked.” To “task” somebody, in signals intelligence jargon, is to engage in electronic surveillance. In addition to Stellar CEO Christian Steffen, nine other employees are named in the document.
The attack on Stellar has notable similarities with the GCHQ surveillance operation targeting the Belgian provider Belgacom, which Der Spiegel reported last year. There too, the GCHQ Network Analysis department penetrated deeply into the Belgacom network and that of its subsidiary BICS by hacking employee computers. They then prepared routers for cyber attacks.
Der Spiegel reporters visited Stellar at its headquarters in Hürth, near Cologne, and presented the documents to Steffen and three of his “tasked” employees. They were able to recognize, among other things, a listing for their central server as well as the company’s mail server, which the GCHQ attackers appear to have hacked.
The document also lays out the intelligence gathered from the spying efforts, including an internal table that shows which Stellar customers are being served by which specific satellite transponders. “Those are business secrets and sensitive information,” said Stellar’s visibly shocked IT chief, Ali Fares, who is himself cited in the document as an employee to be “tasked.”
The Stellar officials expressed alarm when they saw the password for the central server of an important customer. The significance of the theft is immense, Fares said. “This is really disturbing.”
Steffen, after spitting out his four-letter assessment, said he considers the documents to constitute proof that his company’s systems were breached illegally. “The hacked server has always stood behind our company’s own firewall,” he said. “The only way of accessing it is if you first successfully break into our network.” The company in question is no longer a customer with Stellar.
When asked if there are any reasons that would prompt England, a European Union partner country, to take such an aggressive approach to Stellar, Steffen shrugged his shoulders, perplexed. “Our customer traffic doesn’t run across conventional fiber optic lines,” he said. “In the eyes of intelligence services, we are apparently seen as difficult to access.” Still, he said, “that doesn’t give anyone the right to break in.”
“A cyber attack of this nature is a clear criminal offense under German law,” he continued. “I want to know why we were a target and exactly how the attack against us was conducted—if for no other reason than to be able to protect myself and my customers from this happening again.” Steffen wrote a letter to the British ambassador in Berlin asking for an explanation, but says he never received an answer.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom’s security division has conducted a forensic review of important routers in Germany, but has yet to detect anything. Volker Tschersich, who heads the security division, says it’s possible the red dots in Treasure Map can be explained as access to the TAT14 cable, in which Telekom occupies a frequency band in England and the U.S. At the end of last week, the company informed Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security of the findings of Der Speigel‘s reporting.
The classified documents also indicate that other data from Germany contributes to keeping the global treasure map up to date. Of the 13 servers the NSA operates around the world in order to track current data flows on the open Internet, one is located somewhere in Germany.
Like the other servers, this one, which feeds data into the secret NSA network, is “covered” in an inconspicuous “data center.”
I’m tempted to say (from a previous FP perspective, and a being pure German, albeit American), that after Germany’s history in the 20th Century, they’ve earned the right to be spied on forever, BUT Germany is now a consistent voice against military actions of all sorts (like Iraq), so constitutes a threat to ginned-up treasonous wars. That’s partly behind all the spying, but Germany as the Big Man of Europe and financial decider of EU monetary policy also makes them a giant target. The one central overweaning truth about mass unlimited spying is that it gives the collectors infinite power to bully, badger, and blackmail anyone… and it is impossible to possess such power without it being used.
Who made the routers that Netcologne uses? That’s the good next step to take this story. Software defects lead to device compromises. It’s time to put some heat on manufacturers to be more robust in the face of opponents like the NSA. It’s not just improving the quality of code that needs to happen, it’s also the ability to audit such systems to detect compromise and to be able to restore them to a known-good state after compromise.
I will not be shocked to hear, someday soon, that the NSA has been strong-arming router manufacturers to build in BIOS-level back door access to routers for years. Nor will I be shocked, as our idiot overseers no doubt will, when cyber-jihadis find those doors and launch a series of catastrophic attacks. Confidence in electronic banking systems is to western civilization what balance is to a unicyclist: everything.
Maybe we should look at tax breaks to see who might be working with the gov.
Okay. What does Angela Merkel say about this latest example of lawlessness by the US? What I would like her to say is “Sorry President Obama, but Germany wants out of NATO.”
Holy shit! So basically, moral of the story is the US and the UK so whatever they like regardless if its violating German laws or New Zealand laws or any laws for that matter. Its what they don’t know wont hurt them mentality. What a bunch of hypocrites! Wow for the US to go touting the fact that Chinese government officials were hacking into US corporate networks and stealing trade secrets and how wrong that is all the while they are doing the same thing but spying instead of stealing. And they, the NSA and GCHQ may very well be stealing trade secrets as well as spying! What moral high ground do these phonies have to stand on now! I’d really like to see how pissed the folks are over at the GCHQ and NSA over your little meeting with Stellar. Great reporting!
Well done with this article and video – clear proof that the NSA & GCHQ get their mitts into as much as possible, regardless of personal privacy, basic rights and law. The intelligence services believe they are above the law anyhow and act with impunity. Clearly we can see the UK house of cards, controlled by an ever increasingly rotten London establishment, is crumbling. People are waking up, thanks to the work you and others are doing at The Intercept. ADR
http://www.defeatgangstalking.org
This is conclusive evidence that the “Five Eyes” are hacking Satellites as well as fiber-optic cables via servers, in addition to conventional cables, and storing all the data on their own servers in massive facilities. When these jack-asses say “all” they mean ALL.
Well…screw them. We, the International people must fight back against dragnet mass surveillance which violates inalienable human rights to privacy. I was born free and refuse to accept false claims of superiority over my birthrights. I am not alone.
See: “13 Principles Week of Action: A World Without Mass Surveillance”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/principles-week-action-world-without-mass-surveillance
I would encourage similar-minded individuals to sign the international declaration which is available via link at the above noted article.
Thanks for your work at TI.
Great report and especially the video. Could I ask beg even for the Intercept to do followup stories on this company and others (Yahoo perhaps) about what steps they take to mitigate the effects of NSA malware. I am sure I am not alone in wanting to know how these invasions are being dealt with. Not tech details of course but what steps they are taking and broadly how they are going about it. i.e. new equipment etc.
One of the roots of such wasteful, foolish, thuggish, and tyrannous government is the ease with which it can create almost unlimited amounts of money out of thin air. Near-infinite money buys near-infinite government, and a bureaucracy that is generously funded can entertain an open-ended dream about how to expand its realm.
Every day more people are coming to the judgment that a carefully organized effort to repair the constitution via the States’ power to propose and ratify amendments has less risk to our liberty and prosperity than the present trajectory of the federal government and especially the federal bureaucracy.
The first order of business of an Article V Convention must be to limit government’s ability to create and spend near-infinite amounts of money.
This is realy quite unsurprising. If one looks at the Work or James Bamford over the last 25 to 30 years, he has ben saying that NSA/GCHQ have been dooing this kind of deep level espionage from the very beginning. The only thing that has been changed is the technological metholodologies and modes of operation. what we don’t know is exactly how the large trove of data is being applied and as a consequence of that it is right to be extremely concerned. Already we are seeing a gradual demonization of what i call vulnerable category people Tthis is the precursor to fascism and it is that in part, which was the harbinger of WW2. WW3 could very well be right round the corner if it hasnt already begun but this time round it has not been officially declared.
Thanks for the great work. A small remark:
The privacy tool https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/requestpolicy/ blocks access to vimeo as it tracks the user via akamaihd.net.
I wish to thank all the authors and especially Edward for exposing ever more pieces of Big Brother’s puzzle. A very dark picture has emerged…
I am of the mind that…if you pack them in like rat’s, they will act like rat’s…sure is packed tightly around here now and we are starting to eat each other…I’m old, I remember “party-lines” on Ma Bell and vast open spaces with no one in sight…all the news of today reflects the eating habits of an infested planet…Thanks, Peace
I, too, am of an older generation and wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. I remember party lines with a bit of fondness and also remember learning about over-population as a problem that needed to be addressed. We don’t hear it portrayed that way anymore. It’s framed as resource depletion. If China had truly enforced their much maligned one child policy, then how did they go from 600,000,000(that’s 600 million) to 1.3 billion in my lifetime? Lies, lies, and more lies have been the fodder for all us rats.
I have 2 comments:
1. WHY???? and
2. Did anyone beside me notice the consistent, sick references (clandestine, of course) to UFO??? As in… “U//FO”…
Well, 3. GIVE ME A BREAK!
U/FOUO. Unclassified/For Official Use Only. Nothing to do with UFOs
Just when I think I can’t be shocked any more…
Stunning article and video, team. This also needs to get out to as many outlets as possible.
Team? What team? Get out to as many outlets? What’s that?
Sweet Feline, take it easy, there is nothing to panic. The spies are doing their jobs as they must. They are not rogue persons beyond all controls of the elected people’s leaders. We have elected Mr President, and he manages and controls those spies. We will elect the next President as well and she will control the spies thereafter. Your panic seems to indicate that you fear the world is spinning out of control. It is not. John Key is still the NZ PM, and so will he remain, despite Glenn G and Kim D telling the voters today that he is peeping into every aspect of their lives. This is democracy and this is how it thrives. You could never lead if you didn’t know how to control your voters.
AstroTurf.
Irony actually.
I wouldn’t say I’m panicing, but your comment causes me to be concerned even more. Yes, I guess I do feel the world is spinning out of control; looking around at this and other events makes me feel like Lewis Carroll’s Alice sometimes!
I totally disagree with you that this kind of mass surveillance is just “spies doing their jobs.” And “we” have allowed the journey down this slippery slope. I don’t like the road we’re on and I AM concerned that a) folks won’t wake up until too late and b) the system is so broken, it’s going to be a very uphill battle to make ANY sort of progress.
I was referring in particular to the TI team who did this report and video. And YES, I think this needs to be widely disseminated. I guess we have to wake up folks one person at a time if necessary, so I would like to see folks continue to get the word out. For what it’s worth I did a post on my blog urging folks to read this article (If anyone reads it, that is…).
More importantly is who is controlling the politicos? Do we really vote and are we really represented and for who’s gain?
Good questions, Greg.
I try to be optimistic, but the more I ponder such questions, the more I tend toward cynicism.
General Hercules has to be taken in a satirical tilt. I suggest you read his reply again with that in mind. The first comment of his I read I wanted to reach through my laptop screen and strangle him. As satirical as he is though, there are people who really think like that, and many of them are our leaders. Now that IS a scary thought. We have a window of opportunity here to wrench control of our lives back from these scary people, and I’m not referring to terrorists. I’m not very optimistic when I try to engage people on this subject and their blank stare is all I get.
Good work Mister President!
It is obvious that the relations between the two allies have been damaged irreparably due to NSA interceptions, but it seems that there is much more than that because it appears that Germans are not willing to drop Russian energy supply:
http://goo.gl/3moNAu
Allies? Hah. There is only one entity, with subsidiaries all around the world: the globalists gobbling up resources under the guise of surveillance agencies.
Politics are theatre for the masses.
” “The accessing of our network by foreign intelligence agencies,” said a Telekom spokesperson, “would be completely unacceptable.”
What a laugh. Sounds just like Angela Merkel who hunkers and waits for unpleasant reality to go away (except when she’s creating it, such as pushing sanctions forward on Russia and crushing the ‘PIIGS’ with austerity.)
People need to understand reality in German politics. Everyone either has dirt can be exploited (such as faked PhDs, if you’re not ‘Dr’ in Germany, you’re nobody in politics) or is in the pocket of the USA (history of the German intelligence chiefs post WWII to the present) and the inconsistencies of German law. No matter the gravity of any offense, if it is in ‘the interest of the German state’ (i.e. pleases the USA) the federal prosecutors can decline to pursue a case. Oh, or they are absolute cowards, dead afraid of digging into the very alive and well Nazi legacy infecting Chancellor Merkel’s ruling coalition, with high officials derailing prosecutions of USA crimes on German soil:
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2013/07/09/reflections-on-a-snowden-rally-2/
^
And for those who prefer the satire:
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2013/07/15/not-my-last-tango-in-paris/
^
Dead right, Professor West. Germans are much more dangerous than the Iraqis and Afghans whose combined efforts killed only about ten thousand of our valiant soldiers, while the Germans have killed many more soldiers and Jews in the not-so-distant-past, and unless they are closely watched they can be very dangerous. Only Vietnamese and Canadians are more dangerous than Germans as they are the only two countries that we have ever lost to in wars. Pakis did trick us for a while, but finally after ten years we got our terror-master. Saudis are still tricking us, but then they control our dollar, so we have to respect them like this:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/obama-bows-to-saudi-king.jpg#obama%20bows%20to%20saudi%20king%20260×190
Ciao, for now time for the General. I am a great fan of both Alexanders, but the one with Keith’s in the end is so much dearer.
Well after all, what president can top this, General? Obama, is after all just following the precedence set by many of republicans before him.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dfd_1375495354&comments=1
Excellent piece of work, Congratulation Sir!
Has any media outlet, other than Der Spiegal and The Intercept, picked this up yet ??
Once this report gets the publicity it deserves, the consequences for the NSA & the GCHQ, will be wild.
This clearly shows that General Alexander meant exactly what he said, with his statement of “Collect it All”.
Essentially, this means that all we do, electronically, is intercepted all the time, stored and looked at whenever any one of these creeps wish.
And it also means that if we have an electronic device on our person or in our homes, or in our car, it is accessible at will to these agencies, even if is idle.
Orwells’ 1984 was kindergarten compared to this privacy invasion.
Mel, my dear, most media outlets are more patriotic than we credit them with. So they won’t report nasty stories that would benefit our enemies and other world terrorists. And even if they report, it won’t make any difference. I would encourage you to forget your paranoia and smile ever so often, so that you look nice and charming in all the photographs that they are gathering.
Sounds to me like you, General Ego, are the enemy within.
To “General Hercules” can someone say troll alert.
General schizophrenia
Am I alone in being struck by the naïveté on display here? Clearly, these Germans have no clue who/what they’re up against. Asking the British government for an explanation? Referring to illegality under German law? Wanting to know how they were hacked? Somebody’s not been keeping up with the times.
“Am I alone in being struck by the naïveté on display here?”
No. The idea that some actually think the comments and questions asked by the Germans of the GCHQ and NSA aren’t rhetorical, yet necessary, is puzzling, to say the least.
8^D
(specs & a large (Large) nose)
Excellent video that really does a great job of showing the depth of seriousness that the contents of these documents contain in a simple, uncomplicated way. Well done all involved.
Does anyone here think this will get much coverage on the MSM? I doubt it will get any on most if not all. Three westerners have been brutally beheaded, although I don’t know how you could behead someone un-brutally. It’s the optics that sway the public opinion which is why we here in the west have been shielded from the gruesome images of the aftermath of drone strikes and IEDs. These things are strictly controlled by whom? We like to view our press as independent entities and champions of the truth. The control and crafting of information that the government wants us to see is being done at all levels. The MSM has been bought and paid for and the government information entities are not going to tell us the truth. So that leaves us with sites like this and if I read this right TI could be coopted or just censored whenever the NSA, DNI, or FBI decreed it necessary. Turn key tyranny is here, not some time in the future, now.
Three? Who is the third one?
Now you know why “heads rolled” on the news.
Perhaps Germany will now consider proffering asylum so that Mr. Snowden and German IT experts can turn this espionage around on the USA to more fully expose NSA, its 4-State cybercriminal accomplices, and the serially disingenuous President Obama.
As long as the German gov doesn’t act in the interest of the German people? Unlikely. If it goes on, maybe People get pissed enough to vote in people that aren’t lap-dogs of the political USA.
Germans are happy with the way things are. They got rid of Kim Dotcom. What makes you think the need Snowden?
It just shows that we are all one….
Under their thumb.
When are we going to demand Nuremberg trials for these NSA traitors?
Via twitter:
The Government will continue its PR & propaganda lieing campaign using the following tactics as quoted by Joseph Goebbels .
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie
can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political,
economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State
to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus
by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” AND
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental
principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over
and over”
The following link is a must read ! This is not the Future. This is the here & NOW !
http://1933key.com/US-Empire/US-Patriot-Act-Compared-to-German-Enabling-Act
See also :
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/spying-meant-crush-dissent-terrorism.html
The supreme law of The USA is the Constitution, not the Patriot act the FISA act, or any other
such acts that have unconstitutional provisions,are invalid & it matters not how many public
officials say it’s legal, it’s NOT for the Constitutional Amendments say otherwise ! ! To say it is
legal only shows the public their betrayal of the Constitution, their oath of office, and the
American people.
More proof of lies, excuses rationalizations,or justificationsby the US & UK governments, the
public needs to hold these officials to account to the fullest extent of the law under Title 18 sec.
241 & 242 So any future traitors will know there will be consequences to such behavior. I hope
the United Kingdom has equivalent laws, but if not maybe it’s time to get some. Better late than
never.
Don’t blame Snowden or the Press for the actions of NSA & GCHQ & our Governments, they
are the ONLY ones responsible for the crimes they have committed ! ! ! See USC Title 18 Sec.
241 & 242 (Google it). So why no arrest warrants for high crimes, but only for misdemeanors ? ? ?
High crimes = NSA + GCHQ + PUBLIC OFFICALS OF THE UK & US ! ! !
Misdemeanors = Snowden, Manning, Assange, lAVABIT
REMEMBER: POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS AND DIAPERS SHOULD BE CHANGED
OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON.
This reporting is fantastic – particularly the video presentation showing how a normal person (the IT engineers) who have been tasked (surveilled) react so viscerally to being targeted by the NSA. Even though assured “it’s nothing personal – it’s because you have access” – HOW CAN IT NOT BE PERSONAL?
I look forward to The Intercept including more well produced video in as many outlets as possible to augment the already stellar reporting it does worldwide – it certainly adds a much needed view into how the NSA spying and related government overreach affects citizens around the globe.
I would suggest always use TOR browser, and never access any videos. Never de-activate the script blocker in TOR.
The Intercept should have a system of sending videos as encrypted attachments to encrypted emails on request. That way you still see the videos but don’t have to disclose your anti-NSA sentiments.
He’s Muslim too. Probably a turk. Who knows if he made any unacceptable comments on The Intercept!!! Better watch out for that guy.
The Government will continue its PR & propaganda campaign using the following tactics as quoted by Joseph Goebbels .
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie
can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political,
economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State
to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus
by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” AND
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental
principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over
and over”
The following link is a must read ! This is not the Future. This is the here & NOW !
http://1933key.com/US-Empire/US-Patriot-Act-Compared-to-German-Enabling-Act
See also :
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/spying-meant-crush-dissent-terrorism.html
The supreme law of The USA is the Constitution, not the Patriot act the FISA act, or any other
such acts that have unconstitutional provisions,are invalid & it matters not how many public
officials say it’s legal, it’s NOT for the Constitutional Amendments say otherwise ! ! To say it is
legal only shows the public their betrayal of the Constitution, their oath of office, and the
American people.
More proof of lies, excuses rationalizations,or justifications by the US & UK governments, the
public needs to hold these officials to account to the fullest extent of the law under Title 18 sec.
241 & 242 So any future traitors will know there will be consequences to such behavior. I hope
the United Kingdom has equivalent laws, but if not maybe it’s time to get some. Better late than
never.
Don’t blame Snowden or the Press for the actions of NSA & GCHQ & our Governments, they
are the ONLY ones responsible for the crimes they have committed ! ! ! See USC Title 18 Sec.
241 & 242 (Google it). So why no arrest warrants for high crimes, but only for misdemeanors ?
? ?
High crimes = NSA + GCHQ + PUBLIC OFFICALS OF THE UK & US ! ! !
Misdemeanors = Snowden, Manning, Assange, lAVABIT
REMEMBER: POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS AND DIAPERS SHOULD BE CHANGED
OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON.
I don’t have any problems putting Germans under surveillance. In fact, problem would have been there if nobody knew what those Germans are up to. Most of them are children and grand-children of people who committed mass murders of innocent and peaceful Jews, because of which now only violent, trigger-happy Jews are now alive and flourishing in Israel and neighboring countries, and in the US Congress. The German immigrants who came later are even worse – mostly from terrorist countries, and many seeking asylum for being incompetent to stand up and fight against terrorists. Many should have been hanged by now, but due to abolition of the death penalty in Germany they are still alive and kicking in relative comfort. NSA and GCHQ are doing the whole world a favor by keeping those Nazis under watch.
You are incredible. Your racist attitude towards millions of Germans who are absolutely not racist/nazi at all is pretty shocking. (By the way: about 70 years after the war most people who were responsible for these crimes are dead.) This attitude would indeed make you a good Nazi. Maybe you should be put under surveillance? This really makes me sad… blaming people for the crimes of their ancestors…
Your silent acquiescence to spying is an admission to whatever I have written.
Oh! I agree completely. In fact I would prefer to use the medieval English punishments. First you use the rack to really stretch ’em out (I think it hurts a lot), then hang ’em until they are nearly dead but not quite, then draw and quarter and disembowel them while they can still scream, and I would add laying them out on a solid concrete slab and running over them with a 50 ton steam roller and afterwards nailing their flattened corpses up around town as a reminder to all Krauts. After doin’ them all we can go back to being normal lovable civilized human beings. Everybody making comments here agrees.
Ahh – you need some watching, you really do, Thomas.
Hercules, you are right. The old SS called this “Sippenhaftung” (Kin liability), and it is very honorable that you keep up the tradition. Congratulations.
Actually I think you are a bit better at this than I am. You are the spark. So was Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad (unless Richrd Dawkins is right and he may not have existed) and Hitler (unless Christopher Hitchens was right etc. etc…)
That statement could equally apply to American citizens.
Obviously you have quite a lot with the Nazis in common, dear General Hercules. The same ignorance, lack of education and wild theories of collective guilt. Why don’t you catch up with the rest of humanity in terms of evolution and do some good, long reading. What about “War against the Weak” from investigative journalist Edwin Black for a head start. That is a meticulously researched account of how Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” actually was largely inspired by American Eugenic Legislation. As was its implementation: In the 1930s the Nazis carefully crafted eugenic legislation modeled on laws already introduced across America and upheld by the supreme court:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/06/race.usa
The journey from fiction to fact might rather exhausting for you, but don’t worry, there are more interesting books for you to read. Like: Why did roughly 25 percent of the Dutch Jews survive and 75 percent of the French Jews? Well, it had a lot to do with the fact, that the Netherlands had a carefully crafted Hollerith* infrastructure and the French not. And the US company IBM therefore could not organize the Holocaust in France as brilliantly as in the Netherlands. But don’t worry, IBM made a fortune with their complicity in the Holocaust anyway.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/ibm-holocaust_b_1301691.html
But if that’s too much for you, well then just try this one. It’s a nice overview of the complicity of American companies in the Holocaust and starts with Henry Ford, who set up a magazine “The International Jew” long before Hitler’s rise to power. Hitler said in an interview: “I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration”. Indeed, some passages of “Mein Kampf” greatly resemble Henry Fords anti-Semitic lunacy (Ford believed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be true). Oh, and the Rockefeller foundation was deeply engaged with the Nazis, too. They used their magnificent wealth to help laying the “scientific” foundation for Nazi eugenics and institutions, Mengele later worked for in Auschwitz. As was General Motors, Hitler’s car maker.
http://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Nexus-Corporate-Connections-Holocaust/dp/0914153099
No, Edwin Black is no Nazi-apologist. His parents are Holocaust survivors. One doesn’t have to share his political opinions, but his research is first class and fact-based. And last but not least: While a lot of people in the early 1930s across the globe, some of them in the US and Britain and elsewhere,
(Here’s some music for you, in case you’re tired of all that reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5ADdybTug&hd=1)
thought that Hitler was rather cool, quite a few Germans (such as trade unionist, dissidents, communists, etc. etc.) weren’t so enthusiastic. Why should they, being tortured and/or starved to death in the first concentration camps. The Holocaust wasn’t only about the Jews, there more much much more Nazi victims – just like they were much much more victims of Eugenic crimes against humanity in the US, decades before the Nazis ever came to power. The idea of gas chambers wasn’t conceived in Germany but on Long Island, financed by the Carnegie Institution.
All these great companies and famous people were never held accountable for their crimes. That is a fatal lesson, learned by IT-companies such as IBM: We can make a lot of money with serving totalitarian regimes (incl. genocide) and go unpunished. Maybe NSA & friends would be a bit less self-righteous today, if not only German Nazis** were sentenced in Nuremberg, but their buddies and helpers from the great defenders of democracy, too.
However, this separation-bullshit of “one nation is better than the other” is tearing us apart. And that’s just what NSA & friends want, because then they can manipulate us better. In the end, there are decent people and indecent people, and some happen to be German, some happen to be American and some have really bad luck and starve in North Korea or elsewhere.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith
** (that is, German Nazis who weren’t of use for the Allied Powers such as war criminal Klaus Barbie, who later worked for the CIA in Latin America)
You conveniently forgot to mention Siemens. Fact is, at the business end of things there are no borders.
General Hercules,
I’m agnostic, regardless I will pray for you, and if you wish I can suggest a really excellent psychiatrist who will treat your psychosis for free.
I could almost condone surveillance, if it was directed at people who think as you do. If you were not being surveilled before your comment, you can bet you are now…
Surveillance is universal, so just enjoy the attention.
That is repulsive!
Another fine example of “moral” western governments engaging in corporate espionage. Of course they will deny it, while accusing the Chinese of identical acts. Democracy seems to be barely breathing in GB and the US. No wonder the Scots want to leave.
The question always in the back of my mind is – what about the chip makers? Is it not possible to put malware into the very chips we use to run our computers? It would seem to me that NSA et al would like that very much. By doing that they would save a lot of work, no? But perhaps those documents were not available to Snowden.
There are three chip makers, and two of them are hand-in-glove with NSA.
Yes, and DELL is a prime perpetrator. It has conspired with INTEL to create a chip that allows them to access your laptop even when it is turned off (but the battery is attached). I discovered this through owning a DELL corporate laptop. They label the *feature* as an “administrative IT enhancement”. Right. Sure. You’ve got my back?! …….thanks.
Lots of stuff comes from China. Can anyone outside of China read Chinese Programming Language? I can bet it will be extremely complex and difficult to detect if they are residing on our mother-boards and printed circuits. I for one would easily mistake them for harmless aesthetic designs.
Anyone who is not “good” with the NSA /Five Eyes agenda is the enemy. They seem to have determined that they are the “good guy” and we all, are the enemy of their global dictatorial AMBITIONS
1.”an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment:
Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.” WE are those the NSA/Five Eyes dislike. WE are in the way of their AMBITIONS.
Their AMBITIONS can only succeed if they keep us ALL in the dark as to their plans for a New World Order Dictatorship.
WE all can see where this “BRAVE NEW WORLD” is leading humanity, NOT to a revitalized and real democratic, caring, sharing and free society, BUT into DEEPER debt slavery, a DEEPER divide between the 1% elite rich and the 99% common man and woman, a DEEPER more effective mind control system by the media, a DEEPER slide into the use of drugs to control and manipulate society, a DEEPER fall into a more hedonistic and demonic way of life, a DEEPER push into a Transhumanism for our children and grandchildren https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism, a DEEPER fall into the “endless war” scam, and more and more lies that only benefit their perverted and sick agenda of domination at any and all costs.
Well, boys and girls, at NSA/Five Eyes your ambitions are a dead dream and is CRUMBLING at this very moment. You better get out while you still have a chance.
A better and more beautiful world awaits humanity, and you can participate if you give up your ugly sick dreams of domination, manipulation, control and chaos.
It is your individual choice. You do know that you are free to make a choice? Your destiny is not to be a slave of some ugly, perverted society, but to be a free soul on an adventure of experience through the multi-universe.
Looks like Mike Wolf is back!
Reading this site is too much like reading George Monbiot of the Guardian (I don’t, because I can’t). He is SO FAR away from mainstream that it is impossible to have a sense of context, or to see where/how/IF I fit into the picture. IMO, that’s a journalistic failure.
I get the sense that GG and his colleagues are so far down the rabbit-hole they’ve lost sight of the sun, while we can no longer understand what they’re trying to tell us.
Reading a news site about this world should NOT feel like reading a news site about a different world. That would be a complete failure of communication. Wouldn’t it?
@name – Welcome to your new world.
“That makes me pretty uncomfortable.”
Actually he looked like he was shitting some rather large bricks.
Many thanks to all of you for this reporting. It will be interesting to see what, if any, progress these companies can make on the legal end of things. If the investigations into spying on Merkel’s phone are any indicator, I’m guessing it will be very little, but we’ll see. Rather I see hope in the expressions on these mens’ faces. They will do everything within their power to negate these intrusions. That supports rather strongly the idea that the solution to these massive invasions will be found within the tech community.
Indeed. I can’t even begin to imagine all of the implications of this invasion, but I would guess that he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since learning of this. And I’m guessing that fighting back will be fruitless. The control the intelligence agencies have over virtually everyone’s lives at this point is mind-boggling and terrifying.
Yes.
Regardless of whether any prosecutions result the Snowden revelations, or whether meaningful laws are passed, the tech community has been alerted to the rogue ways of FiveEyes. This permits them to have at least a fighting chance of countering this bullshit. And moving forward to assume the worst about the NSA’s “respect” for their company’s integrity and be as proactive against the snoops as possible.
Mona darling, you first convince The Intercept to stop providing links to videos. Unless people change their online habits no amount of ingenuity from programmers would help. I for one use TOR and never ever log into the fake email ID that I post here.
Does this mean that to be online using any device means to have one’s location “mapped?”
“They will do everything within their power to negate these intrusions. That supports rather strongly the idea that the solution to these massive invasions will be found within the tech community.” – Pedinska
I agree. In the final analysis, it is a battle for basic civil rights. Whereas in the US and many other “democratized” nations the average citizens have been stripped of any effective weapons to combat these intrusions, having been deprived of votes by gerrymandering and the corporate purchasing of elections as just a few examples of this practice, the tech community still has many tools available to fight back with.
OT – It appears the “Read More Comments” button is missing? Who do I complain to?…:}
The purpose of trolls is to reduce the thread to absurdity so followers will drift away.
Are they then dismissing the evidence presented or still investigating?
Would be? Do they not believe the evidence presented?
@avelna2001 – When it comes to evaluating the expertise of information security in different organizations, keep in mind that neither the DoD nor the NSA had a clue that people were hoovering gigabytes of data off their networks until it was made public . . .
So ALL our activity on the internet is captured stored and analyzed at will. This is true foe the entire world of the internet.
The internet is no longer something for our convenience and entertainment, a device to use for work or earning money it is ONLY a tool to spy on us and manipulate and control our lives. The fun things we do on the internet are exactly what the want us to do our every visit to Facebook or any Google service is material for them to use against us as individuals and society as a whole.
I really really don’t see how the existing internet which has been so completely and fundamentally compromised can be saved. It seems to me that if there is to be a safe to use internet another one will have to be built from scratch.
I suppose they are “searching” not only “terrorists” or it’s for industrial spionage. No, that germany is such in focus have surely also other reasons.
To Big Brother everyone’s a “potential” terrorist. It’s become obvious the excuse of keeping OUR world safer has never been their true motive.
It was always about industrial espionage. They have been completely outed; anyone who believed the terrorism reason, now knows beyond any doubt, that the plan is total awareness of the activities of each and every human being, all of the time.
Privacy is about to become extinct, unless one goes off the grid, fully off the grid.
The importance of what the NSA & GCHQ have done is clarified by the shocked German Engineer in the short film, towards the end, when he says that they could, having hacked the password of one organisation for sure and he wonders “possibly” hacked others, alter their settings and actually could shut them down as well. All this is stated to be illegal under German law. Apparently the German engineer has to now cut off the servers of these penetrated organisation(s) that are paying customers, to protect the others. I presume this means financial loss, possibly substantial, although this is a best guess. Mapping is not problematic if done with the consent of those who are included. All sorts of things are mapped. They did however go deeper than is needed to simply map. They went deep enough to actually be hacking and reading private and confidential data, and I ask why did they have to go so far. It must be either for scurrilous reasons (to benefit Corporations) or because the NSA & GCHQ think this is the way to prepare for and conduct cyberwarfare. This explains why it is all classified as “Top Secret” (see diagram). After a while and the dust has settled Obama will doubtlessly say a “few folks” were hacked just as he finally admitted “some folks” were tortured.
Obama is nothing more than a not very smart tool, foisted on an unsuspecting populace, part of the perception management program that is active and fully deployed in America and most of the world.
The “folksy” comments are designed to be somewhat colloquial, to give an air that all of this is inconsequential, and we “folks” should step back and know we are in good hands.
For several decades, they have been slowly and with extraordinary subtlety, been changing how the masses think and feel.
Everything government does that limits and more often gets rid of unalienable rights is being treated as “no big deal”, and allowed to stand; it’s over one year since Snowden blew the whistle on these masters of our destiny, and not one change has been permitted to occur to any of their programs. They are using a tried and proven tactic, which is do nothing, leave it alone and sooner than later people will accept the surveillance as the norm.
It seems to be working.
It’s strange that after all of the outcry by the right over constitutional violations in so many areas and threats to freedom, that you hear zero, nada, zilch about this most horrendous threat to our constitution and freedom everywhere. Where are the Limbaughs, Palins, and tea partiers now? You don’t hear a word from them…maybe Glenn Beck and Rand Paul have objected, but most of them are silent. It just demonstrates the disingenuousness and hypocrisy rampant on the right.
,
Also, the apparently broad, thorough, and deep entrenchment of the spying apparatus indicates to me the hopelessness of ever being able to stop it or even control it. They’re not even concerned any longer about being caught telling bold-faced lies about it all, once Clapper was let off the hook. It all seems hopeless.
When Obama said he would lead the most transparent administration in history, he meant it. It’s just that he meant the world would be transparent to the government, not the other way around…
!=1+[email protected]_#0ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZlf
This message sent by my IC-M710 using VeryPoorEncryption
Industrial espionage on an epic scale.
This article had nothing to do with industrial espionage…it says they breached this place as part of an effort to map network locations.
Why can’t it be both?
It can be whatever you want if you ignore the facts of the article.
Obama personally ascertained the network password? Sure! Why not.
“It can be whatever you want if you ignore the facts of the article.”
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
The fact that, per the article “the company, and some of its customers, have been penetrated by the U.S. National Security Agency and British spy agency GCHQ” along with the fact that the article clearly shows that the company “expressed alarm when they saw the password for the central server of an important customer” means that the NSA & GCHQ had unrestricted access to at least portions of the private businesses and individuals using their services, and therefore industrial espionage is as much a likelihood as any number of illegal things that the NSA & GCHQ have already been implicated in.
So, in fact, although the article makes no specific mention of industrial espionage, the mere fact that they had what appears to be almost complete access means it cannot be ruled out.
” Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.” – Tacitus
But this article is not even speculating that industrial espionage has occurred. The authors made no allegation nor did they even imply that NSA infiltrated their satellite systems for commercial purposes. What they accused the NSA of doing is accessing these satellites as part of its efforts to “map the entire Internet.”
You completely ignored the motivation which was explicit in the PowerPoint.
I didn’t say that it was an impossibility, just that there is no evidence or facts or supposition to support that. It isn’t impossible that Obama personally got the network password so I guess that is still on the table too.
<em:" It isn’t impossible that Obama personally got the network password so I guess that is still on the table too."
Yes, that’s the idea.
The issue here is that Northwestwoods legitimate question of “Why can’t it be both?” was not answered – it was maligned for being asked.
That’s not how the truth is discovered – that’s how dialog is stifled.
““There is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits.” – Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Some other ideas of what possibly could have happened:
* Laura could have also taken the password herself.
* Snowden forged the PowerPoint.
* Those guys from the company were cooperating with Intel agencies but don’t want to hurt their brand so they acted incredulous.
* This entire thing is a ruse produced by the Islamic State.
* That company was Punk’d
* this is all just a dream that you’re having. None of it is real.
I mean, there is no evidence for any of these but as you said “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” It’s beautiful really. If you subscribe to this reasoning, you’re never wrong.
“It’s beautiful really. If you subscribe to this reasoning, you’re never wrong.”
What part of reasoning is not understood?
http://sociology.about.com/od/Research/a/Deductive-Reasoning-Versus-Inductive-Reasoning.htm
I am not making a claim, per se, I’m saying that one cannot discount something from happening by saying no one said it happened.
That this article wasn’t making specific claims re: industrial espionage is a given – that they also were not ruling out industrial espionage is a given as well.
Given that the scenario is most definitely within the realm of reason as to what can be done by the NSA/GCHQ as explained by the article itself and the access they had it is most certainly an appropriate question that was asked: “Why can’t it be both?”
“Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.” – David Hume
With code names like TREASUREMAP and JOLLYROGER, it is clear how the NSA perceive themselves. But just because their operational instructions are ‘plunder whatever you can and bring back the booty’, doesn’t mean there isn’t a higher, invisible, legal framework in place. Both individuals and organizations have highly unreliable perceptions of themselves. If they see themselves as pirates, it strongly suggests the opposite is true; that they in fact operate with strict discipline, oversight and accountability.
quote”….. it strongly suggests the opposite is true; that they in fact operate with strict discipline, oversight and accountability.”unquote
The mere fact you show up here multiple times daily to shill for governments who torture and murder innocent people in the millions suggests you really are a scumbag NSA sockpuppet….
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/04/18/military-sock-puppets-nsa-trolls-cia-shills/
now fuck off you pathetic pile of shit.
Sockpuppets are only effective if they present convincing arguments. Your vituperation suggests you do find my arguments convincing, or at least are unable to counter them. This is no doubt because my logic is flawless and the arguments are impeccable, but you could attempt a counter-argument nevertheless. For example, you could present the proposition that, absurd as it may seem, using pirates as a role model suggests a casual disregard for rule of law. I might not respect the argument, but I would respect the attempt to make an argument.
Goodness, Mussolini here is one of the best commenters around. It’s fairly obvious that he or she is engaged in a long-running campaign of satire and has a very good grasp on how power operates, as if the name wasn’t enough to give it away. No sockpuppet I’ve ever encountered was able to do that!
See the character as performing a play, or acting as Machiavelli was hypothesized to do when writing The Prince – warning the populace of what those in power will think and how they will act.
Well said.The meta seems similar to Colbert Report but with fewer punchlines. Perhaps that’s because Mussolini and fascism should be less funny than Bill O’Rielly, and our Benito doesn’t pay a team of writers. I’m very much enjoy reading his perspective precisely because it fosters cynicism.
I could be funny if I wasn’t so bitter; the Republicans steal all my best platform planks and never give me any credit. And then the Democrats steal them from the Republicans. And meanwhile, with all that material to work with, Colbert is laughing all the way to the bank.
It’s easy for him to be funny under those circumstances.
I think your snark-o-meter needs recalibrating.
I’m not sure why you continue spending your time and energy railing against Mr. Mussolini. Look a little deeper and you should understand that he’s providing a much needed, satirical arc to the conversation. Or are you taking his satire one step further?
Yeah I agree, Chronicle, could you please give it a rest? We all know how you feel about Benito Mussolini, at least, the historical figure and not the avatar. Please can we move on now, without the invective? Thanks.
quote..”Or are you taking his satire one step further?” unquote
Surely you fucking jest.
avelna2001, I’m positive the victims of the real Mussolini would spit in your face. Thousands of people are dead because of this psychopath, some of my relatives included. So when someone makes use of the name, and the sadistic barbarism he perpetrated on human beings, as a tool to make satirical commentary, you can count me out as someone who thinks it’s funny. In reality, only an equally sick fuck reaps whatever benefit he gains here on the backs of the people who died in untold misery, torturous pain and heinous death at the hands of his murdering idol.
And no, I won’t give it a rest. Now fuck off.
That has to be the biggest load of crap analysis I have ever heard. You have absolutely nothing to back it up or explain it. It sounds almost as creepy as the NSA and Britain’s counterparts nefarious activities. It’s as if your saying “shih, nothing to see here children, now back to sleep, there are no monsters in the closet.”
You sound like a government ahole disseminating information.
You can’t prove that charge and you know it.
Popping in to say, again, I totally love you Mr. Mussolini.
Poppin in to say the subject of your love is a fucking creep.
Should I tell Ms.Minkoff that she officially has competition?
Hardly. Government stooges are never as forthcoming as Ben Nito.
Remember in the 1990’s when Globalization was in fashion and there were big promises for it.
Well, the oligarchs of the world have taken over the globe. And they are aided by military, surveillance state and banksters.
The environmental crisis and “capitalism” are joined to control the globe.
Here are the three introductory paragraphs from wiki article on globalization.
Globalization (or globalisation) is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture.[1][2] Advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the telegraph and its posterity the Internet, are major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities.[3]
Though scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history long before the European age of discovery and voyages to the New World. Some even trace the origins to the third millennium BCE.[4][5] In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the connectedness of the world’s economies and cultures grew very quickly.
The term globalization has been increasingly used since the mid-1980s and especially since the mid-1990s.[6] In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge.[7] Further, environmental challenges such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization.[8] Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, and the natural environment.
It might interest you that NetCologne provides hosting and access for the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz.
My heart goes out to the people at Stellar. That engineer almost cried.
“Any device, anywhere, all the time”, that sums up what their goal is and it contradicts everything Obama and intelligence officials have said on the subject since the release of the first Snowden documents.
“Any device, anywhere, all the time”, that sums up what their goal is and it contradicts everything Obama and intelligence officials have said on the subject since the release of the first Snowden documents.
That is the gist of the article. Thanks, Larry for bringing it back to that.