U.S. Officials Don't Know How Much Secret Material Snowden Took

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

U.S. officials don't know how much secret material Snowden took

By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Mon Jun 24, 2013 6:46pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies are worried they do not yet know how much highly sensitive material is in the possession of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose whereabouts are unclear, several U.S. officials said.

The agencies fear that Snowden may have taken many more documents than officials initially estimated and that his alliance with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange increases the likelihood that they will be made public without considering the security implications, they said.

Investigators believe Snowden, who was working in Hawaii for an NSA contractor, was partly successful at covering his tracks as he accessed a broad array of information about operations conducted by NSA and its British equivalent, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), according to the sources, who declined to be identified.

- snip -

But one non-government source familiar with Snowden's materials said that Feinstein grossly understated the size of Snowden's document haul and that he left for Hong Kong with thousands of documents copied from the NSA files.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE95N1F820130624

[bemildred]

1. And these clowns claim to be protecting us. nt

[BehindTheCurtain76]

8. Con Job

It was never been about protecting us...we were frightened into submitting to the phony war on terror. All electronic content is recorded...including many 'ambient taps' and 'roving bugs'. Much of this was just a relabeling of the failed and unpopular drug war as exposed by wikileaks in 2007 where it was shown that ALL telecoms will give police your pen registers, GPS coordinates, texts, tapped phone conversations and even ambient taps which record what is said in a room out loud near a phone even when the phone appears off. There is no warrant required since we gave the phone companies immunity under the Telecom Immunity Act of 2008 which even Obama flip flopped on an supported right before the 2008 election. There is a fee charged though that began at around $10 for a simple pen register list and up to hundreds of dollars for full tapping. This is how they got the phone companies to cooperate...now NSA can just intercept everything themselves...it was mostly about drugs and metastasized into law proceedings, journalism and political campaigns to gain leverage. The DEA has a $5000 machine the size of a CD player that mimics a cell phone tower so they can intercept any phone calls anywhere in a certain square mile vicinity...it's called a Stingray. Russ Tice, the 2005 NSA whistleblower that exposed Bush's illegal wiretapping in 2005, gave an interview last week where he said the majority of taps have nothing to do with terrorism and are mostly judges and lawyers in cases that affect corporate control...he said he personally saw orders to wiretap Justice Samual Alito and a certain man from Chicago running for senator in 2004, Barack Obama. He said journalists, politicians, lawyers and judges are who is being tapped mostly. Corporations have declared war on the people of the United States and have bought off many in the intelligence community and oversight positions with revolving door, sweetheart job offers.

[msongs]

2. totally incompetent nitwits who can't even spy on themselves. sheeesh nt

[avaistheone1]

33. T r u e !!

k&r

[mike_c]

3. to hell with "the security implications...."

Maybe they should have considered the security implications of their actions being revealed before they put up the indiscriminate dragnet of electronic surveillance without probable cause. I am sick to death of the government's culture of obsessive secrecy. If they have to hide from the American people, what does that say about our democracy, or the consent of the governed?

[azurnoir]

4. so wait a minute here

after everything we've heard about what secrets Snowden has given this or that government, ours actually doesn't know what he does or doesn't have?

Geebus

[Hydra]

24. It's actually better than that

This is them sideways admitting that the contractors like Booz-Allen really DO have more access, or even full access to all sorts of information they shouldn't have.

If they didn't, the state dept. should have a complete list of what he was authorized to see and how much of it he has leaked so far. This suggests he WAS authorized to see a lot more than they originally claimed.

SO gratifying to see them admit their previous answers were pure BS.

[DeSwiss]

5. ''We are led by the least among us.'' ~Terrence McKenna

- K&R

[aquart]

6. Three months of theft...could be quite a bit.

I wouldn't trust Booz Allen Hamilton to protect a hen house.

[jimlup]

7. He probably off loaded everything he could get his hands on...

He's clearly been planning this for some time. It would only take about a week of pre-planning to gather almost everything he could get his hands on. I wonder if the Justice department is smart enough to realize this (obviously some are but I mean the institution itself.)

This is becoming a bit of the "Keystone Cops."

[Tx4obama]

9. Snowden has said that he first starting thinking of leaking back in 2007. n/t

[Purveyor]

10. Perhaps but China and Russia do... ;) eom

[idwiyo]

13. ...!

[warrprayer]

11. Snowden is a KAOS agent!

Better use the "Cone of Silence"!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

17. LOL!!

[They_Live]

12. I'm getting a lot of irony in my diet

lately.

[Demeter]

22. That deserves a Duzy, IMO

I have the same problem...unfortunately, it is NOT constipating....

[idwiyo]

14. Are those the same people who are protecting US from terrorism? Oh my...

[Ash_F]

15. I already feel safer! /nt

[Major Hogwash]

16. " . . . his alliance with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange . . "

Well, I think that we can all trust Julian.
He'll do the right thing.

After all he's a good American citizen, right?

[Poll_Blind]

18. US outsources ultra-sensative work to third parties, has no idea what info they access.

Doesn't that just make everyone feel safer?

PB

[Kablooie]

19. Strange that a guy who had a questionable resume and only worked for a few months ...

was given full access to a huge amount of top secret data.

Something is really screwed up in our intelligence agencies.

[Catherina]

20. “They think he copied so much stuff — that almost everything that place does, he has,”

“They think he copied so much stuff — that almost everything that place does, he has,” said one former government official, referring to the NSA, where Snowden worked as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton while in the NSA’s Hawaii facility. “Everyone’s nervous about what the next thing will be, what will be exposed.”

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who has published a series of stories based on documents provided by Snowden, said he has exercised discretion in choosing what to disclose. Snowden, too, has said he was selective in choosing what to disclose.

“I know that he has in his possession thousands of documents, which, if published, would impose crippling damage on the United States’ surveillance capabilities and systems around the world,” Greenwald told CNN. “He has never done any of that.”

...

The damage assessment being conducted by U.S. officials is expected to take “a few months, at best,” said a senior intelligence official. “We’re looking for all of the information that was disclosed, and assessing the damage it may have caused in terms of national security sources,” he said.

...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-worried-about-security-of-files-snowden-is-thought-to-have/2013/06/24/1e036964-dd09-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html


Greenwald mentioned that he had 1 notebook so I think US officials are totally panicking because they can't account for anything. That's some security operation those jerks are running. Whether Snowden took 1 or 1,000,000 documents is irrelevant. These people aren't inspiring much confidence.

[Earth_First]

21. Psy Ops...

This is plain ole 'stir 'em into a frenzy' psy ops.

Give the public a huge dose of unknown to build outcry and distrust of Snowden in an effort to create larger government support for prosecution...

They know *exactly* what Snowden did/did not have access to, and EXACTLY what he took.

[Demeter]

23. I wouldn't bet on it

In fact, they don't even know where he is, despite all that equipment and wiretapping going on...

Because keeping track of security was the farthest thing from their agenda.

They should have called it the Hoover program, a double tribute to the vacuum cleaner and the FBI chief blackmailer.

[blkmusclmachine]

25. Professional

[pkdu]

26. How ever much he took , the Russians have copies of all 4 laptop hard-drives by now. How's about

them apples. All part of the plan or stupid move?

[Hissyspit]

27. Or they don't.

[pkdu]

29. Yep. Russians would absolutely not touch an American Spy's luggage once he landed in Moscow .nt

[Hissyspit]

30. Or they do. Or not.

Part of the plan?

He's being escorted by diplomats and lawyers, supposedly.

Do we even know he has the laptops anymore? Assange says he doesn't have them, so that would make it kind of difficult for the Russians.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/24/julian_assange_edward_snowden_is_not_a_traitor.html

In a conference call with reporters on Monday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stayed mostly quiet about Edward Snowden's travel plans. But while Assange refused to comment on Snowden's whereabouts ("he is in a safe place and his spirits are high&quot , he still managed to make news by implying that the NSA leaker may have turned over the four laptops he left Hawaii with to one or more media outlets. According to the Guardian, those laptops may contain access to "some of the US government’s most highly-classified secrets."

When an ABC News reporter asked if Snowden has maintained custody of the laptops, Assange said, "Mr. Snowden's material has been secured by journalistic organizations prior to travel." Assuming he isn't bluffing, Assange could have been referring to the Guardian—which published Snowden's original bombshell, and has been in contact with him in the weeks that followed—or the Washington Post, the South China Morning Post or another as-of-yet unknown outlet.

[pkdu]

31. Implying. May have. One or more. May contain. Mr Snowdens material (copies?). Guardian or

WaPo , or South China Morning Post....

Yes, lots of unknowns.

But 4 laptops dont just disappear. Will be interesting to see where they ended up ...

[Hissyspit]

32. They're with the Russians apparently.

[Hissyspit]

34. Even if he had the laptops, it's possible the Russians never got access:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014517531

[bemildred]

36. Assange has stated that it's all copied now.

So the information will not be suppressed regardless of what happens to Snowden. I assume that all happened before he went public.

Which is another reason this witch hunt is stupid, it won't "fix" the problem, and it will make us look even worse.

[longship]

28. The big question is "Why don't they know?"

They give a guy with a crumby résumé access to secrets from which he then reveals some of them and his overseers don't even know what he had access to?

That strains credulity. Either that or they have fucking lousy security protocols.

I highly suspect the latter.

[Sunlei]

35. all new hires had unlimited download access to everything? how many other of the 270,000 employees

helped themselves?