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October 26th, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

A Rally Against Mass Surveillance Right now the NSA is spying on everyone's personal communications, and they’re operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 571,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress that we want them to rein in the NSA.

On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, we're taking the next step and holding the largest rally yet against NSA surveillance. We’ll be handing the half-million petitions to Congress to remind them that they work for us -- and we won’t tolerate mass surveillance any longer. 12pm Eastern, Saturday October 26th

Gather at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station, then march to the Capitol Reflecting Pool



Here is the thing I wrote for New Statesman. It's long, there are jokes. http://t.co/... — Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) October 24, 2013

More Russell Brand, talking about his work with New Statesman this month and a link to the piece he wrote. Apparently he edited this NS issue.I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been waiting for this guy to lose it. This interview sends up some red flags for me for a number of reasons. Keith Alexander presumably arranged for this interview to be done. It is conducted by Jessica L. Tozer , "science journalist for the government" and published on the Dept. of Defense YouTube channel. There are so many odd things about this interview, from the music, to the fact that the questions are not presented verbally but are captioned, even though the government journalist is sitting there in the room with Alexander along with the video crew and someone taking still photos of him as well, to the content of the interview itself. I guess this technically is not propaganda since they don't try to hide the fact that it was produced and published and broadcast by the government, but what prompted this? Is it a public service announcement of some kind? Alexander is very high level officer in the Dept. of Defense so it seems likely that it's more a case of him interviewing himself.

The government journalist sends this out:



The Pentagon sends this:



"I Spy, No Lie" Gen. Alexander, NSA Director discusses myths and rumors surrounding NSA. http://t.co/... pic.twitter.com/yjUmryGLGz — U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) October 24, 2013

No, seriously.



The interview is set in the NSA museum where the glory days of spying from World War II are curated. Alexander, when referring to the museum, refers to the things that were done during WWII and doesn't say much about the wars between then and now, though he does say that the current programs were advanced during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact he calls upon David Petraeus and says that the NSA helped turn the tide in Iraq.

I've listened to this twice now and watched a lot of it, though most of the time I was doing multi-tasking while listening. I'm not exactly sure what his purpose was, other than the obvious defense of the NSA. As he has often done before, he cites the vast expertise in the agency and makes sure to emphasize that the people of the NSA, not Snowden, are the heroes. I've seen him spend a lot of time in interviews, speeches and hearings praising the NSA employees and I have no doubt that what he says about them is true for most. But at this point, it's starting to sound to me like he is talking about himself when he makes these long statements. That's just my opinion. I'm sure he is worried about the image of the NSA employees and veterans being tarnished and its legacy too but it's feeling more and more like a personal thing for Alexander each time I hear him go on about it. You can imagine that he would be worried that the NSA will be changed profoundly. He's clearly worried that the Cyber Command and the NSA SIGINT divisions will be separated. It's a huge amount of power in one place.

I could go on for longer but I'll just add one more thing and perhaps (but not likely given my circumstances) write some more about this later in a separate diary. I find it interesting, toward the end, when he talks about some specifics that are not related to terrorist attacks on "the homeland". First he emphasizes, several times, that the NSA programs are perhaps even more valuable to our allies than to ourselves and he cites Europe more than once. I think that might be a signal that he is worried that our intelligence arrangements with allies might be damaged perhaps because we went too far with them, broke confidences, or maybe just because the citizens of those countries know more and will apply political pressure. And ultimately, I guess it's inevitable that this is about his legacy.

But he also talks about Wall Street. This isn't the first time he's referenced them. How much of the cybersecurity is being driven by Wall Street? From what I know, they have robust cybersecurity teams of their own, but of course, they can't (or at least I think they can't) tap the internet backbone and undersea cables, etc. He also talks about a gas company. And then he talks about how "we" want to use an iWallet for money transactions. Who is "we"? Is this part of a national strategic plan or is this the goal of some business interests? That whole segment of the interview is interesting. Anyway, see for yourself. I'm curious to hear others' reactions to this.

NSA chief: Stop reporters 'selling' spy documents The head of the embattled National Security Agency, Gen. Keith Alexander, is accusing journalists of "selling" his agency's documents and is calling for an end to the steady stream of public disclosures of secrets snatched by former contractor Edward Snowden. "I think it’s wrong that that newspaper reporters have all these documents, the 50,000—whatever they have and are selling them and giving them out as if these—you know it just doesn’t make sense," Alexander said in an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog. "We ought to come up with a way of stopping it. I don’t know how to do that. That’s more of the courts and the policymakers but, from my perspective, it’s wrong to allow this to go on," the NSA director declared.

ProPublica also provide an interactive. Alexander is still using these numbers to this day as you can see in the DoD interview video above.

Claim on “Attacks Thwarted” by NSA Spreads Despite Lack of Evidence Two weeks after Edward Snowden’s first revelations about sweeping government surveillance, President Obama shot back. “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany,” Obama said during a visit to Berlin in June. “So lives have been saved.” In the months since, intelligence officials, media outlets, and members of Congress from both parties all repeated versions of the claim that NSA surveillance has stopped more than 50 terrorist attacks. The figure has become a key talking point in the debate around the spying programs.

Former spy chief overheard giving off-the-record interview from Acela train

Fellow passenger tweets details as former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden 'bashes' Obama administration Who will watch the watchers? Some guy on a train with a Twitter account, it turns out. The former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden ended up on the wrong end of a surveillance stakeout on Thursday afternoon when, while riding a commuter train, he was overheard "disparaging" the Obama administration. The over-hearer was a private citizen – Tom Matzzie, an entrepreneur who previously worked for MoveOn.org and John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

Hayden was bragging about rendition and black sites a minute ago. — Tom Matzzie (@tommatzzie) October 24, 2013

Michael Hayden on Acela giving reporters disparaging quotes about admin. "Remember, just refer as former senior admin" #exNSAneedsadayjob — Tom Matzzie (@tommatzzie) October 24, 2013

@tommatzzie You are so screwed. — Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) October 24, 2013

Michael Hayden, head of the NSA, head of the CIA, and global security uber-expert. And apparently he doesn't have allies wise enough to immediately send him some kind of emergency message that the guy sitting in front of him, Tom Matzzie @tommatzzie, is live tweeting everything (with a hashtag #HaydenAcela) he's saying to a reporter on the phone. I'll include some of the tweets below but you can also see them in this Storify that was put together. Matzzie was with Jeremy Johnson @JeremyJ, also tweeting. Maybe more will come out later, but after all that, they really didn't tweet many specifics about what he said. But still. Hayden's office finally called him and told him what was going on and to Hayden's credit, he handled it graciously and even let them take a pic with Matzzie. Then the news stories started flowing, etc. Just amazing. Another person on Twitter said it's not unusual for him to rant in front of people. The media is so compliant about anonymous sources that he's seems to fee confident that he can say anything and never be held accountable.

Good god, they even got a picture.



This has been the most interesting @acela ride of all time. Yes, Michael Hayden just sat down with @tommatzzie and I pic.twitter.com/fg9oDVIm4b — Jeremy Johnson (@JeremyJ) October 24, 2013

@JeremyJ @tommatzzie @ACELA I assume either a lethal injection of something, or a bug was planted when he put his arm around you. — Adam (@slottedpig) October 24, 2013

@JeremyJ @tommatzzie Can I also assume that at the time this picture was taken, he was not aware his 'secret' calls were tweeted? :) — Adam (@slottedpig) October 24, 2013

@slottedpig Indeed, though that was short lived. As far as I can tell, @tommatzzie is still alive though. #HaydenAcela — Jeremy Johnson (@JeremyJ) October 24, 2013

@tommatzzie Isn’t it a little troubling that former CIA & NSA boss thinks giving background interview on DC Acela is good OPSEC? — Richard Allen Smith (@rockrichard) October 24, 2013

For those asking, no shoe phone. — Tom Matzzie (@tommatzzie) October 24, 2013

Follow @tommatzzie to see whose spycraft went missing — Igor (@IgorGreenwald) October 24, 2013

@tommatzzie Tom, do you mind if we use your pic with Michael Hayden on our website? — MailOnline Pic Desk (@MailOnline_Pics) October 24, 2013

Man overhears off-the-record interviews with former NSA director Michael Hayden on the Acela, live-tweets everything: http://t.co/... — New York Magazine (@NYMag) October 24, 2013

FB commenters on this Hayden-@tommatzzie story:

"Loose lips sink ships"

"Loose tweets sink fleets"

http://t.co/... — Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 24, 2013

Former NSA chief learns the other side of eavesdropping thanks to a Twitter user Reached by phone Thursday evening, Hayden denied chastising the Obama administration. “I didn’t criticize the president,” Hayden told The Post. “I actually said these are very difficult issues. I said I had political guidance, too, that limited the things that I did when I was director of NSA. Now that political guidance is going to be more robust. It wasn’t a criticism.” Hayden later played down the signifcance of the exchange. And he urged The Post not publish a “story from a liberal activist sitting two seats from me on the train, hearing intermittent snatches of conversation.” (Time’s Calabresi did not return calls and an e-mail seeking comment.)

[...]

While a CIA strike team never burst onto the train, someone must have tipped Hayden off, because when the former official finished one of his calls, he got up — and walked straight over. “Would you like a real interview?” he asked Matzzie. “I’m not a reporter,” Matzzie replied. “Everybody’s a reporter,” said Hayden.

Ex-snooper in hotseat Michael Hayden gets snooped on in train, tweeted to world We know this because the bloke sitting in front of Michael Hayden spied on him - eavesdropping on his public conversation and then tweeting about it.

Mr Hayden should have known better. He is the former head of the National Security Agency, which is the outfit in the hot seat over the spying allegations, and a former head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

He was once the Principal Deputy Director General of National Intelligence, a wordy title that made him the most senior intelligence officer in the armed forces.For all that experience Mr Hayden allegedly allowed himself to be spied upon by a bloke called Tom Matzzie, who describes himself on his twitter feed as a clean tech entrepreneur, a Dad and a former member of the progressive MoveOn group.

EU summit. Guardian liveblog yesterday. Key players have now arrived for the EU summit in Brussels. It is unclear how long the summit will last. I’m going to wrap up this live blog for the day with a summary of the day’s key events: • Angela Merkel has said that trust between the US and its partners will have to be “built anew” following reports that the US targeted the German chancellor’s mobile phone. Merkel spoke as she arrived at an EU summit in Brussels where US and UK surveillance is expected to be discussed – although concrete action from the EU may be unlikely. • US and British intelligence services have monitored Italian telecoms networks, targeting the government and companies as well as suspected terrorist groups, Italian weekly L'Espresso reported. • The White House has denied monitoring David Cameron's communications, according to the Daily Telegraph. • Lord Carlile, the former British terrorism watchdog, said the Guardian had committed a “criminal" act by publishing stories based on Edward Snowden’s leaks, adding that it was wrong to present this newspaper’s journalists as “virtuous whistleblowers”. • Britain’s intelligence and security committee has announced that at 2pm on Thursday 7 November it will be holding an open evidence session with the heads of GCHQ, MI5, and MI6. In addition the British parliament is to hold a debate next Thursday on oversight of the UK’s spying agencies.

Down under.Latest from Snowden files. This one is by James Ball, The Guardian. NSA calls the White House, Pentagon, State Dept, et al their "customers" and they urge them to hand over the private phone numbers, or fax numbers, etc. of their contacts to the NSA. One person gave them 200 numbers which were immediately "tasked" which means they became monitored numbers. This information came from a 2006 memo. Media keeps asking Jay Carney whether the US ever monitored Angela Merkel's number. She found her mobile number in some US document so she knows there's something going on. Carney and any other spokesperson who is questioned keeps providing the same sentence in response and won't address past tense. They repeated say that the US "is not monitoring and will not monitor" Merkel. Now this new Guardian article reveals that among the 200 numbers provided by the unnamed US official back in 2006 were the numbers of 35 world leaders and the EU leaders are all together for an EU summit in Brussels.

I suspect that a lot of world leaders will be getting new cell phones, perhaps keeping a separate one for communications with any US officials. I guess they're not entirely shocked that someone would spy on them and you'd think they'd have separate phones for different purposes, and would change them periodically for security reasons, but I don't know the protocol about private numbers between world leaders. I would think that it's taboo to share the super private direct lines and that there are certain lines expected not to be crossed. The whole thing is just creepy. I keep wondering whose job it is to monitor the communications of specific world leaders. What's it like to do that kind of job? How many people work for our government listening to and reading other people's communications? And if it's no big deal, to be expected, blah blah, then why was it so secret?

The wording in some of these docs and slides are just downright creepy. And you can't tell me that people don't disclose or chat among themselves about what they've read or listened to in people's communications. Russell Tice claims that he saw, with his own eyes, orders to monitor particular numbers, one of them being Obama when he was a senator. So who ordered that? Who read the call transcripts?

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts • Agency given more than 200 numbers by government official

• NSA encourages departments to share their 'Rolodexes'

• Surveillance produced 'little intelligence', memo acknowledges The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

[...]

The NSA memo obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other US officials to do so.

[...]

"This success leads S2 [signals intelligence] to wonder if there are NSA liaisons whose supported customers may be willing to share their 'Rolodexes' or phone lists with NSA as potential sources of intelligence," it states. "S2 welcomes such information!"

Former NSA Director Isn't Too Thrilled About Having His Private Conversations Tweeted When HuffPost asked Hayden over email whether Matzzie's version of his phone conversation was faithful, Hayden replied that the depiction was "not especially accurate." Hayden didn't respond to another email asking for specifics.

[...]

Matzzie seemed impressed by Hayden's graciousness after the eavesdropping was busted. Until, that is, he heard that Hayden had called his version of events inaccurate. "Well, he should get specific, if he's going to make challenges," Matzzie replied. "Or say it to my face. He's not in government anymore. We're two Pittsburgh boys."

We need a new word that means "irony in the extreme" or "intense irony". X-Irony. IronyX.I don't understand what's going on in the Middle East. There is a lot of chatter and arguing going on among foreign policy journos and bloggers. I'd like to think that Obama is bucking the Saudi/Israeli contingent in a major way, but given the way they pushed so hard for bombing in Syria, I have to be skeptical of that. Is it possible that they knew the country would push back like crazy and Congress would reject it and force Obama and Kerry to back down? Those hearings with Kerry, Hagel and Dempsey really were surreal, especially Dempsey with his slouching in the chair thing, and Kerry acting like a person we'd never seen before. Was all of that to convince the Saudis and Israelis that Obama did his best but the country just emphatically said no, planning all a long to back down? I guess it's possible but after flooding the media with the graphic videos of CW victims... that was really extreme and way out of the ordinary for this country. They went to extremes to try to change public opinion but it just wasn't budging, no matter what they did. So I seriously doubt it.

But now we're seeing a White House who wants to try to delay further sanctions on Iran and we saw the breaking of the ice between the US and Iran, despite the fact that it would cause chaos with the Saudi and Israeli allies. Foreign policy journos are arguing about whether Obama will "go the distance" in keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons, etc. And you've got to take into consideration the way that Netanyahu went to great lengths to undermine Obama just before his relection, and who even knows what happened in the background. What we saw in public was bad enough. What else was going on?

Then there is the whole issue of the requirement that "Assad must go". This is being imposed as a term before the Syrian opposition and jihadists will go to the Geneva II talks. The Syrian oppositon is fracturing like crazy. It's a total bloody mess. Who is going to run this country if Assad is taken out or steps down? And if some transitional govt. is put in place will the jihadists go along with them or will the violence and chaos just continue? They have their own ideas about how they want to rule the joint and with whom. Who are we even backing right now? A significant number of the fighting groups have broken away from the exiles/proposed transitional govt. I guess this is what they want to settle at the Geneva II talks. But if the condition is that Assad must go then who represents the Syrian government at the Geneva talks?

This article indicates serious disagreements within the administration itself. So the confusing signals that we've seen so far are very likely a result of deep divisions within the administration. Kerry, of course, would want to score some kind of victory as Secretary of State. But both of his major efforts appear to be pipe dreams. The Israeli-Palestinian talks and goal of a two-state solution probably has no chance of success. And the Geneva II talks are probably a pipe dream too. The inside dirt on this situation is probably very interesting. How much involvement does the troika of Hillary, Susan Rice and Samantha Power have in all of this? And of course this is just one article and maybe they are spinning it in a misleading way because of someone's agenda. So there's that.

Exclusive: Kerry and Top State Dept Officials Split Over Syria Talks Secretary of State John Kerry is at odds with several senior State Department officials over whether to press ahead with plans for a high-profile peace conference next month that is designed to put negotiators from Syria’s main opposition groups and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into the same room for the first time. Kerry is strongly committed to holding the talks and has spent the past several days prodding key Syrian opposition figures to take part in the negotiations. But according to several senior State Department officials, some of Kerry's top advisors believe that the conference should be called off because the most important of those opposition leaders are unlikely to come. “The only person who wants the Geneva conference to happen is the secretary,” a senior U.S. official told The Cable. “Who’s going to show up? Will they actually represent anyone? If not, why take the risk?”

[...]

Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, is in Istanbul this week as part of a last-ditch effort to convince the opposition leaders to change their minds and participate in the Geneva talks. Even if he succeeds, however, it’s far from clear that they will be speaking for the rebels fighting on the ground in Syria. Last week, 65 of the rebel militias, including several linked to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, said they no longer recognized the Syrian National Council and wouldn’t feel bound by any deals it struck.

The Saudi/Israeli/US Relationship I have said for several years that SA was likely to turn away from the US relationship in search of a situation in which it is not dependent on the US as its sole protector. The forces of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC are inconsequential. [...] There has also been the benefit of Saudi money to some illegal US covert projects when funds could not be obtained from the US Congress. Lastly, the direct financial benefit that has been provided to US based foundations, think tanks, lobbyists, public relations firms and journalists has been impressive for decades. It is not an accident that this story of Saudi unhappiness is being pushed hard in the press. The Saudis and their Likud phantom allies are unhappy that they recently have failed to move US policy with regard to Syria and Iran. So much money (Saudi), so much political and propaganda effort (Likud/AIPAC) has been expended that these two governments are understandably unhappy at any sign of resistance on the part of the US to foreign manipulation. Well, to hell with them both! They need us. We do not need them. The US is well on its way to energy self-sufficiency and neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia is really important to the defense of US core interests. It will be a brave new world. pl

Washington Teacher Dyes Hair Pink in Bet With Students "One of the kids said, 'Would you entertain dying your beard pink if we brought in 20 pounds of candy?'" Robinson said. "Then it escalated to my hair, and I finally said, 'Here's the deal. I'll dye both my hair and my beard for one week if you bring in 45 pounds of candy.'"

Last Friday, on the final day of the candy drive, Robinson's students' candy collection weighed in at 46 pounds.

On Monday, Robinson, a 24-year military veteran who is retiring this year after 15 years of teaching, showed up at school with both his hair and beard a neon shade of pink.

Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest

Pat Lang. He doesn't mention John Brennan. You have to wonder whether Brennan is having a bird over this given his close ties with the Saudis.Go look at the pic :)

The Evening Blues









WikiLeaks Sabotages 'Fifth Estate' With Its Own Julian Assange Film http://t.co/... — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 24, 2013

Edward Snowden on the anti-surveillance rally to take place in DC this Satudray https://t.co/... — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 24, 2013

NYT editor, in so many words: The Obama administration is lying its ass off about surveillance and might want to stop http://t.co/... — Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) October 25, 2013

Here is the thing I wrote for New Statesman. It's long, there are jokes. http://t.co/... — Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) October 24, 2013

WH Homeland Security & Counterterrorism Advisor Lisa Monaco uses @USATODAY op-ed to defend US communications surveillance operations. — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 25, 2013

"We are not listening to every phone call or reading every e-mail. Far from it," says Monocao in the op-ed. — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 25, 2013

According to NSA chief Alexander, illegal mass surveillance isnt the problem - journos who report it are the problem https://t.co/... — David Sirota (@davidsirota) October 25, 2013

UC Davis pepper-spray cop receives $38K damage for the "way he was treated afterward." Are you fucking kidding me? http://t.co/... — Jillian C. York (@jilliancyork) October 25, 2013

Best thing about @tommatzzie tweeting Hayden is people FINALLY waking up to realize he's as big a dangerous buffoon as Alexander and Clapper — emptywheel (@emptywheel) October 25, 2013

@d_seaman My goal with the book is to convince every reader to hit the streets and protest... — Amber Lyon (@AmberLyon) October 25, 2013

Release to the open source community the source code to http://t.co/... https://t.co/... — Jeremy Zilar (@jeremyzilar) October 25, 2013

Pathway To Paradise, Bora Bora, French Polynesia #EarthPics pic.twitter.com/7UVx4sL18m — Google Earth Pics (@GoogleEarthPics) October 25, 2013

Justice Hugo Black: "The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people." Sorry, Keith Alexander. — Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) October 25, 2013

Chris Hayes Referees 'Brutal Takedown' of Ezra Klein by Joan Walsh (VIDEO) http://t.co/... (Column By @tommyxtopher) — Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 24, 2013

This new primer on elliptic curve cryptography is really great. Totally readable explanation of a hard concept: http://t.co/... — Sexy Parker Higgins (@xor) October 24, 2013

Rahm on running blue dogs in '14: "This is a map Republicans designed nationwide and if you want to win you got to be able to pick the lock" — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) October 24, 2013





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