Cheney Says Snowden Access 'Difficult to Understand'

[bemildred]

Source: PBS

For former Vice President Dick Cheney, who helped set up the now-penetrated and leaked U.S. surveillance system of international phone calls and emails, the big question from the Edward Snowden affair is how did a contractor have access to such a trove of data.

Snowden is on the run after publicly revealing elements of the government's surveillance program.

Cheney spoke Monday at the South Korean-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies conference in Washington, D.C., for an event marking the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance and the armistice that ended the Korean war. His speech reiterated his harsh criticism of President Barack Obama's security and defense "policies of weakness."

Taking audience questions, the former vice president, who was looking hale and hearty other than an occasional cough, said he was concerned that the former National Security Agency employee and contractor might have more information than he already has turned over to two newspapers and possibly now to Chinese and Russian interrogators.

Read more: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/06/cheney-on-snowden.html

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Yet he feels qualified to advise us all.

[lapfog_1]

1. he was either a sysadmin or secadmin

on a major secure storage system... probably one of the one that does analysis of many sources of data.

He may NOT have had access to the source systems (where the phone records were actually stored), but he would know about what those systems stored.

[bemildred]

3. I have been a sysadmin, this is ridiculous, what they let him do. There is no excuse.

After Manning especially.

[lapfog_1]

5. most likely a secadmin

but yeah, he knew a lot about what the NSA was gathering.

[JDPriestly]

16. He planned every step of his trip to Hong Kong. He did a lot of research

and put together a systems plan to maximize the dissemination of the material he collected while at Booze Allen.

He is an extraordinarily intelligent person. He thinks very logically and linearly. He is clear-headed and thorough. He could probably figure out from small pieces of information how the whole system worked. Such people exist.

This is his gift, and he did not want to use it for evil. Good for him.

We shall see how it all turns out, but I am grateful to him for letting me know how our government is working and thinking. The Obama administration has allowed itself to get involved in a pretty shady, nasty and very nosy business with this surveillance. This program is way beyond what is needed or constitutionally permitted for domestic law enforcement.

Shame on the Obama administration for not ending or strictly managing this program when they came into office.

All it takes is a really smart young person like Snowden. We are lucky that he is as honest and conscientious as he is. Another person with his talent would have been much more dangerous.

And Obama is foolishly making martyrs of him and others who have blown the whistle on this program.

[snooper2]

18. LOL

So why is Mr. Genius holding on to all the other classified material he supposedly has?

Is that his bargaining chip or something? Pay day?

[Progressive dog]

19. Martyrs is just a wee bit of an exageration

But if Obama kills him then the Paulites will have a saint. They could call him Saint Eddie of Exaggeration.

[Steviehh]

24. Cheney can't fathom why any American would be shocked at the surveillance

Just another clueless pol w/ they ability to lock away anyone in the world. And throw away the key, Constitution and rights of Americans.

Cheney, Where is the WMD?

[Autumn]

2. I remember the time Snowden outed a spy named Valerie Plame. Hang the bastard!

Oh wait, that was Dick fucking Cheney. Fuck him and every word that comes out of his mouth.

[wordpix]

22. yeah, I recall that, too, and no one went after Dickhead, and what about Iraq's WMDs?

Dickhead led the whole Congress and nation to believe we had to get them and they were nonexistent. Trillions of dollars and thousands of deaths and maimings later, no one says boo and Dickhead is free to exercise his free speech, and not from a jail cell, either

[Autumn]

23. Well ya know, looking back is bad

bad.

[warrant46]

34. Cheney Shearing a pig = Lots of squealing-- Very little Wool

LOL

[Cleita]

4. All I can say is that he has some brass ones.

He really should shut up. He's already been served up to the Hague for trial for War Crimes. All they have to do is catch him or get him extradited. Maybe this President won't do that but a future one might.

[bemildred]

6. I think he's just clueless.

You know one of those unknown unknowns? He doesn't know yet just how ignorant he is. They are still in denial about what they have done.

[go west young man]

8. Denial. I don't think so.

They knew all along what they were doing and have done.

[bemildred]

9. I'm talking about the consequences of this folly.

I'm quite sure he knows in the literal sense, he set it up, he says so.

[former9thward]

25. "He's already been served up to the Hague for trial for War Crimes"

What are you referring to?

[Cleita]

26. ...

http://www.ithp.org/articles/warrants.html

http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/25-01-2010/111844-war_criminals_bush-0/

[former9thward]

27. I guess you weren't aware these are not real.

No country or law enforcement body has requested charges or warrants. It would be like if you or I walked up to The Hague and demanded someone be arrested for something. It would be meaningless and we would be ignored just like this professor has been. That is the trouble with getting your news from Pravda. It was worthless when the Soviet Union existed and its still pretty bad.

[Cleita]

29. Whatever you want. Pravda isn't the only reports out there. You won't find

anything in our press because they are so upstanding about reporting all the facts and news. The fact is that there are countries none of them can go to without a good chance they could be arrested and sent to the Hague if there is a willingness on the part of that country to do so. It almost happened in Canada but the conservative Harper government didn't do so when Bush last visited there, but there was a movement to do it because a formal complaint is in the Hague. They do have a website if you want to wade through the thousands of cases and complaints they have outstanding. This is why the Bushies mostly don't leave this country anymore. They know this. If we ever get a really progressive government in this country that is willing to prosecute them and they are still alive, it can be done. The paper work has been done.

[Major Hogwash]

7. What's difficult to understand is how Cheney is still able to walk amongst us.

I will never understand why that zombie SOB never got thrown in to the hoosegow.

[Hydra]

10. Because the current Admin supports what he did

Quietly, so very quietly, but Holder's DoJ clearly shows muscle where they want to...so when they don't you know they have been told to leave it alone.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Innit? Imagine how difficult it is among those of us who didn't design it in the first place. n/t

[Downwinder]

12. There is an old saying:

"The plumbers faucet always leaks."

[Major Hogwash]

13. Oh, that one. I thought you were going to say something about the other one.

"Fart in a jar, save gas."

[Javaman]

14. I love when crashcart plays dumb...

it's so transparent.

when he and moron* farmed out this nations security to the lowest bidder, he wonders how this could happen?

[TrollBuster9090]

15. It's very easy to understand, Dick. It's called PRIVATIZATION.

You like to rail against government, and you and your ilk have been 'privatizing' government services for years, but the truth is that turning over government operations to private sector, FOR PROFIT corporations always leads to trouble.

FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC are perfect examples. If Fannie Mae had remained a department of the Federal Government, the 2008 crash would never have happened.

And if you hadn't OUTSOURCED NSA work to Booz Allen Hamilton, THIS would never have happened.

[Rain Mcloud]

32. Hey,hey,i know you did not forget the reconstruction of Iraq and Katrina

and the missing billions of dollars(on credit from China)for the smirking dick's old company Haliburton plus KBR and Bin Laden Construction.
Outsourcing of intelligentsia would appear to be the latest last gasp of the Neo-Con dream for a fascist police state farmed out to crony
no-bid contractors.

[warrant46]

17. Who gives a Damn what War Criminal Cheney has to say anyway?

[DallasNE]

20. I Don't Think Cheney Understands The Nature Of The Breach

So far we have seen nothing to indicate Snowden had access to the content of the actual security databases such as Prism. If he did he would have set up a dummy account of his own then published his account data and the Prism data showing the same data. Not doing that shows he didn't have the access he claims.

What Snowden did have access to is the internal Booz Allen PC network where the details of the program were stored. What we don't yet know is whether he was granted that access or whether he gave himself that access because his function was computer security. And this is at the heart of the issue yet it is not being discussed. What were the internal procedures at Booz Allen because heads need to roll that such lax oversight was in place that someone that only worked there for 3 months, which should have been a probationary period, was able to run so roughshod over the entire operation. Things like double signatures to protect against insider unauthorized access, etc. This is so serious that the CEO should step down along with the head of the security operation and others with direct responsibility. The focus belongs on Booz Allen.

[avaistheone1]

28. My thoughts too. I am surprised there is not more discussion in the media along this vein.

k&r

[onehandle]

21. Hey Dick. Have 50 cups of coffee and 100 donuts while climbing 1000 stairs.

No pressure.

[Luschnig]

30. Cheney knows damn well how Snownden got access

He had been vetted by a private company, NSA contracted that job out to. And he was employed by a private company which was hired by NSA to do its basic job. And these private companies are loyal only to the money they can screw out of the American government. Cheney knows all about this since that's exactly what he did all the time both from inside and outside the government.

[jmowreader]

31. Does anyone have Deadeye Dick's home address? I'll send him something to help him out

[4bucksagallon]

33. Why would he say that I have heard there are over 1 million people...........

with top secret clearances in the USA. Is that necessary if true?

[Solly Mack]

35. Why isn't he in prison?

That's the ONLY thing that ever need be said about Cheney anywhere. Not what he says. Not what he thinks.