According to Reuters News, President Barack Obama has found that his domestic and international policy agenda is sidelined as he has scrambles to deflect accusations that his administration's surveillance policies violate the privacy protections and civil rights guaranteed to Americans
So far the Obama Administration's security services and law enforcement agencies appear to have mishandled the Snowden problem at every turn, from the very beginning to the present
Since the NSA scandal has broken, the president and his various spokespersons have been trying to maintain a "party line" that all of the surveillance, disclosed and heretofor undisclosed, has been necessary to thwart attacks on the United States (See "Snowden leaves Hong Kong, frustrating U.S. extradition effort" by James Pomfret and Lidia Kelly, Reuters [Hong Kong/Moscow] [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/23/us-usa-security-flight-idUSBRE95M02H20130623]).
Now, it looks like all the NSA stuff can turn into a massive security breach for Humpty Dumpty Obama with little or nothing that all the kings horses and all the kings men can do anything about.
On Friday, the U.S. government filed espionage charges against Edward Snowden. The government's law enforcement wing has charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.
Whether the filing of these charges turn out to be a mere hollow gesture remains to be seen. However, Snowden's departure from Hong Kong, is likely to be an additional embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama. Why, only yesterday, U.S. authorities had been saying that they were optimistic Hong Kong would cooperate over the handling Snowden. Less than a day later, Hong Kong had let Snowden move beyond its jusirsdiction apparently without any exit formalities creating any undue burden or interference.
According to the report appearing on Reuters, the United States had asked Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of China, to send Snowden home. According to an official statement by the local Hong Kong government, "The U.S. government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden.... Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information ... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong." Nothing is available to indicate what further information officials in Hong Kong might have needed.
Reuters also reported that Snowden is being accompanied by a Wikileaks representative and that an Aeroflot plane had taken them to Moscow. Where Snowden and things go from there is very speculative. I can only wonder if there might be some mischief in store from President Obama's Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The White House had no comment about Edward Snowden's departure from Hong Kong or his reported transport-to and arrival-at Moscow.
In another new turn, raising the stakes even more, Reuters reports that the South China Morning Post has quoted Snowden as offering new details about United States' spy activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile telephone companies and targeting China's Tsinghua University. China's Xinhua news agency referred to Snowden's accusations about the hacking of Chinese targets as "clearly troubling signs"; adding, "They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age."
THE APPEARANCE OF NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY DIRECTOR ON ABC NEWS OFFERS NO COMFORT WHATSOEVER
"During an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander said this morning on 'This Week' that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has caused 'irreversible and significant damage' to the U.S. with his actions. But Alexander could not say why the NSA’s systems were not able to prevent Snowden from stealing and leaking highly classified documents, saying “the system did not work as it should have.' *** When asked by Stephanopoulos, 'Do you understand why the system did not blink red in a way that could prevent Snowden from leaving Hawaii in the first place with those secrets?' Alexander responded, 'No, I don’t.' " (See "NSA Chief Keith Alexander: ‘System Did Not Work As It Should Have’ to Prevent Snowden Document Leaks" by Imtiyaz Delawala, 6/23/13, ABC News [http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/nsa-chief-keith-alexander-system-did-not-work-as-it-should-have-to-prevent-snowden-document-leaks/]).
General Keith Alexander's appearance on "This Week" was nothing more than a PR diversion, much like what Susan Rice was sent out to do following Benghazi --- General Alexander handled his job just about as well as Susan Rice did. Even though he was handled with velvet gloves by George Stephanopoulos, General Alexander showed that Snowden and those standing with him a winning and that the U.S. is losing. If you listened to what was said, it doesn't get bigger than this.
THE NSA SCANDAL IS STILL VERY BIG --- THE NSA BREACH OF NATIONAL SECURITY IS GROWING
The NSA scandal is growing --- so is the NSA breach of national security caused by its contractor and agent, Edward Snowden. Everything being done by the Obama Administration about any of this has been like pouring gasoline on a fire.
5 comments:
Snowden will spend the next few years in a Villa in Ecuador writing books for millions of dollars.
It's the Amerikan way.
BACKFILL: Speaking on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos the NSA Director, General Keith Alexander, was asked, based on one of the documents leaked by Snowden, whether Alexander, as the head of the U.S. cyber command, had the power to launch an act of cyber warfare in emergency circumstances (See "This Week' Transcript: NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander," 6/23/13, ABC News [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-nsa-director-gen-keith-alexander/story?id=19457454&page=5#.UcfTGTvVAho]).
Alexander responded that while he can order offensive measures to keep enemies out of the United States' systems, he would need permission from the Secretary of State and the President to launch cyber-attacks against other countries.
Here is the generals complete answer:
"So to be clear, what I can do on my own right now is within our networks to launch offensive measures to stop somebody from getting into the networks. *** Anything that I want to do outside the networks that is offensive in nature, we would have to call the secretary and the president to get their approval. *** So there are things that we can do to stop packets in flight. But from our perspective, any actions that's offensive in nature would require the policymakers. This is no different than if you think about the nuclear situation. *** If somebody comes in and attacks the country, what we would do is immediately stand up a set of communications with the secretary, the president and the policymakers and say here's what's going on. Here's what we're doing to defend the networks right now and the actions we've taken. *** And those are described in that as the defensive cyber effects operations. And here's what we'd recommend to secure the nation. Here's the steps we need to take. *** And the president would have several options. He could take diplomatic. He could take military. He could take intelligence. He has a range of options. We would present some of the options. And then the president and the secretary would choose what to do. They may just call the offending country or actors and say stop. *** Or they may choose [something] else. But that's a policy decision."
NSA DIRECTOR INDIRECTLY ACKNOWLEDGES CHINA IS WINNING A CYBER-WAR AGAINST THE U.S.A.
The most disturbing thing said, or perhaps not said, by Genereal Alexander was in answer to the last question put to him by George Stephanopoulos, as follows:
"STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, was on this program a short while ago. And he said we're losing the cyber war to China. *** Is he right?"
This was the NSA Director's complete reply:
"Well, I think our nation has been significantly impacted with intellectual property, the theft of intellectual property by China and others. That is the most significant transfer of wealth in history. *** And it goes right back to your initial question: who's taking our information? Is one of the things I believe the American people would expect me to know. That's one of my missions. Who's doing this to us? And why? *** So when you asked your initial question, why, there's part of the answer. Who's coming after us? We need to know that so we can defend this nation."
There is nothing close to "No" in that answer. So, by implication the General's answer would be some form or version of "Yes" ,,,,,
BACKFILL: White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told CBS News Saturday that the U.S. government had asked Hong Kong authorities to extradite Edward Snowden, the man behind the recent leaks of classified government surveillance programs, back to the United States ( See " White House: "We expect" Hong Kong to comply with Snowden extradition" by Jake Miller [ Interviewer: Mark Knoller], 6/22/13, CBS News [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57590589/white-house-we-expect-hong-kong-to-comply-with-snowden-extradition/]).
Donilon said the White House expected Hong Kong to move forward with the extradition, as follows: "We believe that the charges presented, present a good case for extradition under the treaty, the extradition treaty between the United States and Hong Kong.... Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."
Hillary Clinton will no longer be a viable candidate for President when the details come out about her Secretary of State show.
There are few productions with as many shows going on at one time as the Obama Administration --- it's a regular "Three Ring Circus" always trying so hard to be "The Greatest Show On Earth."
Right now, Hillary is still a sideshow --- let's see how/what the big lumbering elephants do when she is the main show.
Remember, the elephants are always part of the circus and they almost always play the same part.
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