The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

[c1ue]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/ma...%2Findex.jsonp

Trying to play catchup, apparently.

Long article, worth looking at.

[Chomsky]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/ma...%2Findex.jsonp

Trying to play catchup, apparently.

Long article, worth looking at.

I read this article this morning, thought it was great. New journalism.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

Link in one of the comments below the times article...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJS7F-mShpI

On June 19, 2013, Tice claimed while being interviewed that the NSA had spied on Barack Obama himself while he was still a senator, along with monitoring federal judges, ranking military officials, and other members of congress, saying he himself had seen and held papers ordering such actions.

The whole thing's as looney as http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...-at-their-jobs

Hopefully, someone's writing a Broadway hit.

[Forrest]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/ma...%2Findex.jsonp

Trying to play catchup, apparently.

Long article, worth looking at.

+1

It was a fascinating look at how much even the Journalist's involved are on the run, and certainly makes for the background detail one needs to put credibility in Snowden.

Previously I have said I disliked Snowden's manner of giving out all of the international spying done by the NSA, rather than concentrating on the real breach of Civil Rights continuously here in the US, but I cannot help but now admire him for what he is daring to do.

I do hope that Snowden is not giving out more than a lot of proof of what the NSA is doing internationally, but I can understand that there may not be any way to seperate what the NSA is doing to Americans, and what it is doing to the rest of the world.

I do pray that the Journalists involved can stay safe, and one day, when more investigations have been made, that they will be able to return to the US.

I fear, however, that Snowden has burnt his bridges.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

I liked the part about taking the batteries out of your cell phone and putting your phone in the freezer, but this is even better...

"However, in a subsequent meeting, an intelligence agency expert argued that the material was still vulnerable. He said by way of example that if there was a plastic cup in the room where the work was being carried out foreign agents could train a laser on it to pick up the vibrations of what was being said. Vibrations on windows could similarly be monitored remotely by laser."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...stroyed-london

[Forrest]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

People these days, because of the high tech spying techniques need to go back to the old 'tradecraft' that was used during the 30's to 80's. They still work, and I certainly am in favor of journalist and sources setting up one time codes, embedded within other printed material. Yes, computers can do a lot, but simply moving information carefully, quietly, and not over the internet might do wonders for a journalist's peace of mind, and of course, their sources. Dead drops are such convenient things as well, particularly if you are simply passing on a flash drive with carefully dedacted material on it.

As people rely on technology, they stop training bunches of people to follow suspicious characters around...after all, computer programs, once begun, don't require a lot of funding to continue.

I admire what I know of Poitras...she is a very careful person.

[c1ue]

Re: The Grey Lady on Laura Poitras

I had thought that Poitras was being overly paranoid - referring to the taking out of the phone battery.

However, once I correlated the fact that the NSA has direct access to cell phone providers - and also was involved in creating Stuxnet, no doubt also other viruses, then the possibility of an update being inserted into one or more specific people's phones for the purpose of illicit monitoring is no longer science fiction.

The only reason it isn't commonplace is that the impact on your cell phone battery life would be tremendous. To give an example: the kickstarter project I'm going to go live with on 9/16 involves GPS.

A state of the art GPS chip consumes something like 35 mW. The GSM/cell radio itself consumes in the 30+ mW range. Having high accuracy for location, for example, requires at a minimum both GPS and GSM being on - the result would a significantly lower standby time and a noticeably poorer battery performance. Having a much lower location accuracy requirement - say 50 yards vs. 10 yards - would only require the GSM part because the cell towers can triangulate, but this would still manifest itself as significantly lower battery life/appreciable battery drain even when the phone is literally off (instead of standby).