President Obama Calls Ed Snowden A 'Hacker' When He Didn't Hack Anything
from the smearing dept
This is odd. In talking about Ed Snowden, President Obama referred to him as a “hacker.” After being asked about what kinds of efforts the administration was making to capture Snowden, the President (thankfully) claimed that they weren’t going to go too crazy over it, but chose an odd descriptor for Snowden:
“I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” he told reporters during a news conference in Senegal.
Leaving aside the fact that Snowden recently turned 30, calling him a “hacker” seems like a calculated move to try to reframe these leaks as something nefarious where someone “broke in” to get classified info, rather than a whistleblower on the inside, who saw what was going on, the widespread abuses, the lying to the American public and Congress, and decided to do something about it. This attempt at reframing whistleblowing is all too consistent with the administration’s practice of declaring war on whistleblowers.
Filed Under: barack obama, ed snowden, edward snowden, hacker, nsa leaks, whistleblowers
Comments on “President Obama Calls Ed Snowden A 'Hacker' When He Didn't Hack Anything”
Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
What is the point? What is the endgame? Why is all of this being done?
Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
They want to instill the idea that whistleblowers pose as much of a threat to National Security as actual terrorists, which could prevent potential future whistleblowers from blowing said whistle, which in turn would allow the government to erode our civil rights without any oversight.
Re: Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
Don’t forget the none-too-subtle attempts (forceful drive) at framing “hacking” as a terrorist activity.
Dissidents are being cataloged, count on it.
Re: Re: Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
Effective today “Hacking Tools” are classified as “Terrorist Tools”
All users of Notepad++, Visual Studio, Eclipse, IntillaJ, ect… Must Register with the Government. Users found not in compliance will be sent out for Reeducation.
Re: Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
I would have said that they want to convince potential whistle-blowers that if they blow the whistle their life will not be worth living afterwards.
Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
Here ya go: http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/how_cash_secretly_rules_surveillance_policy/
There are other reasons, but this is a big one.
Re: Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
There’s a more fundamental reason – the US government is a second-wave industrial government trying to find ways to make itself important and relevant in a third wave post-industrial world. By creating a new resource that it can wield over everyone the government is reasserting its power.
Read PowerShift by Alvin Toffler. Frightening stuff. But the signs that the power shift has started is all around us.
Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
“What is the point? What is the endgame? Why is all of this being done?”
Because barry is the NWO?s shill?
Up next on barry?s agenda?raise the price of everything with carbon taxes?no no no it?s for the children?s sake.
Re: Re: Lets tread on conspiracy; Shall we?
Ooo, can I sell you several tinfoil hats?
Seriously, NWO? Barry? Carbon taxes as secret plan?
Faux called, they said you were a too-paranoid crazy-eyed loon for them to let you watch their station.
If Obama digs a deeper hole he might just end up meeting Edward Snowden in China.
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Too late.
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If Obama digs a deeper hole he might just end up meeting Edward Snowden in China.
“during a news conference in Senegal.”
Seems like he made a wrong turn somewhere…
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Seems like he made a wrong turn somewhere…
Probably Albuquerque.
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This administration certainly is looney enough.
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LOL…what’s up doc
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In A-a-a-albuquerque!
Well to cut long story short, he got away with my snorkel. But I made a solemn vow that I would not rest, I would not sleep for an instant, until the one-nostriled man was brought to justice!
…But first I decided to buy some doughnuts.
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musta been that left turn in Albuquerque!
clearly the government is not going to do anything productive. What we will need to do is lean on Tech companies to re-commit to respecting users data and develop zero knowledge encryption strategies, and if they don’t do it we should do it ourselves. This isn’t up to government. We are the internet and we choose what goes on and what is acceptable. Its really up to us we will need to take matters into our own hands and get this right.
Why the focus on the 29
Seems like every report out there has to introduce him as 29. I’m not sure the effect they are trying to achieve. Are they trying to point out that he’s young? Or that he’s mature (i.e. been an adult for over a decade)? I just don’t get it. I can’t think of any other news celebrity whose age is highlighted so much.
Re: Why the focus on the 29
I think it’s trying to paint him as “some punk Internet kid” to sell their point to the older generation that still believes everything they see on the mainstream news.
Re: Re: Why the focus on the 29
Yep. But directly referring to him as “that young punk” would be so… 1986. Or 1968.
P.S. Get off my lawn.
Re: Why the focus on the 29
Simple, they hate that he is too young to have had a lifetime of cold war brain washing. Not to mention they fear that which they don’t understand technology, and the young are the wielders of it.
That's a heck of a reference
Whether the President is using the term hacker correctly, meaning someone who can write creative code solutions on the fly, or incorrectly, referring to a ‘cracker’, someone who can break into data bases with little difficulty, it makes a heck of a job reference, I’d hire him.
Re: That's a heck of a reference
Dr. Obvious sez: If Mr. Obama were to publicly refer to Snowden as a “cracker” during an involuntary spasm of political posturing, his use of that term might be taken the Wrong Way. His choice of epithets in this instance are somewhat limited.
Paging Doctor Freud...
Maybe this is the President’s unconscious slip of the tongue in admitting to what the NSA is really up to -hacking Americans-, and since Snowden was in their employee on these programs he is thus by default a hacker.
Re: Paging Doctor Freud...
I’m more worried about “the other” slip. If it’s true that E.S. is in some Russian airport,they will do everything in their illegal (abuse of) power to prevent him from reaching any destination. Of course he (or someone down the chain) is going to scramble jets.
They know that IF he gets to any country that’s going to grant him asylum, it’s going to be a very long halt. Of course, if that doesn’t play out, the second option always apply in their sick-twisted-criminal minds: they most certainly will attempt to snatch him in the dark, special force’s style. They don’t give a single fuck about other Nation’s Sovereignty.
For this matters alone, I really hoped he could have stayed in China or Russia, the only two countries that could have granted him some decent protection.
I really hope I’m dead wrong, but hey, it’s the U.S.A. “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave”
It seems to me that this administration is trying to turn the word “hacker” into the same all-purpose scary buzzword that “terrorist” became under Bush.
=
“hacker” = “cyber-terrorist” = ‘anybody who used a computer to do anything I don’t like’
I hear that too and thought “WTF?!” I know the President was just trying to give a snarky answer but at least he could get the facts right when giving it.
So what he was really saying is that he’s so butt hurt that this 30 year old is doing a better job of defending the Constitution (something he promised to do before he took office and swore under oath to do when he took office) than he is that it’s making him look so bad that he can’t even get the basic facts on the guy straight.
Uh, Mr. President, WHAT exactly did he hack? By all known accounts, he had security clearance AND authorized access to every piece of information that he possessed. Oh, you don’t actually KNOW what the word “hacking” means? Well, it would probably be a good idea to find out before you try to use it, because when you misuse a term in a way that shows you don’t know what you are talking about, it only makes you look foolish and further undermines the credibility of your argument. Just a little piece of advice.
PS: You might want to fire your advisers because they probably should have told you this long ago.
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Well. It is secret service for a reason… Everything going on in it is secret, and we will likely not get the information needed to make the determination!
It sounds like they have found out that he was cracking along on the local mom and pap NSA hideaway. Now, if he figured that world was not enough he might have hacked his way into some server with data he did not have clearance for.
That would make him a hacker technically and since I know Obama is decently versed in the lingo, I would expect that he knows the difference which would make it a concious designation.
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Really? He doesn’t know how old the guy is even when it’s been all over the news that his birthday was Friday, but he knows the meaning of the word “hacker”. And with all the squirming they have been doing to try to spin this as espionage instead of whistleblowing all of their attempts to dig up dirt to paint him as a criminal, if they had found ANY evidence that he used unauthorized access to gain any of the data, then you don’t think they would have thrown that out there deliberately to show what a bad, dangerous guy he is? Really? You know good and well they would have made a HUGE point of it had there been ANY evidence of it. But they haven’t so sorry, don’t buy that.
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“I know Obama is decently versed in the lingo”
And just because he uses a word, it doesn’t mean he knows what it means. That’s typical of politicians these days. Does “Series of tubes” ring a bell?
I think he is trying to get the label hacker attached to Snowden so they have another vague book to throw at him.
Trouble is they already look foolish as it is, as they have been caught with their pants down doing the very things that Obama claimed they weren’t doing.
I suspect without proof that Obama’s oath doesn’t mean much as most likely the NSA has some sort of leverage on him through all this spying. If it ever comes out, most likely you will find all the judges, and all the politicians are likewise compromised and that is how we have gotten to the point we are today. Somehow, I serious doubt this is all by happenstance without arm twisting of some sort.
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It’s worse, it’s the strings that hold our elected puppets aloft
Tit for Tat
Mr. Obama was probably just upset after what Paula Deen’s brother reportedly called him.
Recalling how the Occupy protesters were gone after, treated, spied on, claimed to be terrorists so that the FBI could be involved in collecting data; I’d say it was highly likely you are correct.
Another way of looking at this
I think Obama may also be trying to downplay the threat Snowden poses to the affected government agencies (and by extension, his administration).
While it’s true that the government tends to overreact to anything it feels falls under the CFAA, there’s still enough of the “old guard” left (population-wise)that someone can be instantly marginalized simply by declaring them to be a “hacker.” The word conjures up ineffectual, pasty young men who still live in their parents’ basement and cannot comfortably exist in the “real world.”
When Obama says he won’t be scrambling jets to go after a “29 year old hacker” (also notice: “29” sounds much more young, callous and irresponsible than “30” does), it seems to me he’s implying that Snowden is beneath the administration’s attention. And if Snowden and his leaks can’t make Obama panic, then maybe he’s just some hacker punk messing around with a few hard drive’s worth of unimportant documents.
Re: Another way of looking at this
Depending on how many drives are in the laptops he took, you may be right on the quantity of hard drives he has with him. The quality of the data inside of those drives, on the other hand, is something different altogether when you look at how freaked out the NSA has been.
Re: Another way of looking at this
Here’s the thing, Snowden’s actions merely confirmed what a lot of people already knew (or least mostly suspected for lack of actual proof) and just forced it a little more into the public consciousness (where I can tell you a lot of people are still deliberately ignoring the issue).
The real threat Snowden’s revelations posed are when people starting asking the bigger questions of access:
1)If Snowden had access to all this information, how many other people did as well?
2) How do we know Snowden was the first person to access all this data, and what might they have done with it?
I posed those questions the other day, and a few hours later I was reading about Snowden being stuck in a Russian airport, where Putin was quoted as saying “Snowden didn’t tell us anything we already didn’t know.”
I’m willing to bet they aren’t really so mad that it’s been revealed the information is there, but how easy it was to compromise, because I’m also willing to bet it’s been compromised for quite some time.
so even Obama is blaming Snowden for things he hasn’t done, just to make the blame appear to be with him rather than with the NSA and other law enforcement agencies. Obama needs to think why this situation is as it is. basically because he told those that blew the whistle would be protected, but in true politicians style, he lied! i dont think that is anything to be proud of and i am waiting to see what shit comes out when some other country does something that goes against ‘human rights, privacy and freedom’ he aint got a damn thing he can say when he goes down the same path! is it any wonder why the USA is getting more and more despised each day? it has lost it’s path and whoever is pushing/leading it, needs removing before something serious comes out of it!
Stoopid monkey.
Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
“Last week NSA Director Keith Alexander told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Snowden was able to access files inside the NSA by fabricating digital keys that gave him access to areas he was not allowed to visit as a low-level contractor and systems administrator. One of those areas included a site he visited during his training that Alexander later told reporters contained one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court orders published by The Guardian and The Washington Post earlier this month.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/greenwald-snowden-s-files-are-out-there-if-anything-happens-to-him.html?source=socialflow&account=thedailybeast&medium=twitter
According to that description, he’s a hacker.
Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
There’s only two ways to interpret this statement:
1) Mr. Alexander is a bald-faced liar, or
2) The NSA is hopelessly incompetent with security systems
…and I seriously doubt the answer is #2.
If properly implemented, it is the next best thing to impossible to “fabricate digital keys”, particularly by a single person without access to some serious computing resources.
If Snowden did manage to pull this off, then yes, he’s hacking. But the more serious revelation would be the crippling incompetence of the NSA.
Re: Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
It could also just be a euphemism for guessing/sniffing passwords or otherwise compromising someone else’s account.
Re: Re: Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Yes, but that makes Mr. Alexander a bald-faced liar. “Digital keys” and passwords are very, very different things.
Further, guessing/stealing a password, tailgating onto a machine that someone left logged in, etc., aren’t even on the same continent as “fabricating a digital key”.
Re: Re: Re:2 Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Alexander told a closed committee that Snowden used some sort of privilege escalation to gain access to files he shouldn’t have. None of us have the detail, nor do we know exactly what Alexander said.
Privilege escalation is a hack, no matter how he did it, and it is the most reasonable explanation for how he had access to the files he stole. Do you really think you can just roll up to BAH and get the keys to the kingdom within three months? Further, he took the job at BAH specifically to gain access to those files.
He’s a hacker. The President spoke correctly. “President Obama Calls Ed Snowden A ‘Hacker’ When He Didn’t Hack Anything” is BS.
Re: Re: Re:3 Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Wait a second…
Which is it — did he fabricate a digital key, or did he use a privilege escalation hack? Those two things can’t be easily confused. They’re totally different acts.
So now we’re being told two contradictory things about what Snowden actually did. That the NSA can’t keep its story straight is an even greater indication that they’re lying.
Maybe he is, I don’t know.
The only indication of it is the NSA’s say-so. The NSA had already lost most of its credibility by lying to Congress about all this stuff, and the story I’m hearing about this particular point is even sketchier than that. it’s certainly nowhere near credible enough to justify an unqualified accusation that he’s a hacker.
Re: Re: Re:4 Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Which is easier to believe?
1. Snowden targetted the NSA using the BAH job knowing there was a vector by which he could gain access to sensitive information, and gained access via that vector.
2. Snowden was given access to the files as a new employee to FISA files that have never been leaked in the history of FISA.
Re: Re: Re:5 Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Honestly, I don’t know. Either way, the NSA comes out of it looking terrible.
Interestingly, recent news reports I’ve been hearing have cited the NSA as saying that Snowden did not actually access any super-sensitive files, and that he only copied the more abstract and generally available (to cleared employees) things like that slide show.
What’s really clear to me is that we’re getting a lot of contradictory information from the NSA. This is a standard spy tactic to mitigate the release of real information: you fill the media with a bunch of made-up crap so that nobody can be sure which information is accurate.
Re: Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
If he could just fabricate keys then they really weren’t paying him enough since he is clearly an unprecedented genius at finding and exploiting security flaws.
Re: And now they can charge him for "theft" under 18 USC 641
The DOJ has to accuse him of some sort of “criminal entry, or criminal or civil trespass,” so they could charge with “theft of government property” under 18 USC 641 (see the criminal complaint). See Techdirt article about DOJ guidelines:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130624/12345623597/doj-guidelines-inappropriate-to-prosecute-leaking-govt-information-as-theft-govt-property.shtml
More specifically, the DOJ guidelines state (see part 3):
“for the reasons set forth below,…it is inappropriate to bring a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. ? 641 [theft] when: (1) the subject of the theft is intangible property, i.e., government information owned by, or under the care, custody, or control of the United States; (2) the defendant obtained or used the property primarily for the purpose of disseminating it to the public; and (3) the property was not obtained as a result of wiretapping, (18 U.S.C. ? 2511) interception of correspondence (18 U.S.C. ?? 1702, 1708), criminal entry, or criminal or civil trespass.”
There you go!
Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
If you are in charge of maintaining and repairing a Certificate Authority, then having access to keys and generating new keys is no more hacking than a Verisign employee generating a test key. Without the whole story, this is more likely like driving away in a running car from the local store, ie it’s not theft but unauthorized use.
Re: Uh, I'm not sure how you missed this...
Cue “Pirates of the Caribbean” song “He’s a pirate!” as a background to your comment along with all the fantasy. I’m with mr Fenderson there. NSA lies too much and too often for us to believe it along of course with all the other points he exposed. I say he had access to the files and this is just a smear campaign like many others to draw attention to the character and destroy him.
Yeah, I saw that clip. He stuttered right before he said hacker… I wonder if he didn’t want to say it, or was “ordered” to say it…
But still, the old obama that got elected by the people wouldn’t let stuff like this go unchecked. Too bad he “changed” >.> . There is no reason to debate about whether or not he has changed, it’s too obvious. The people of the US would never vote someone like obama is now into presidency.
When He Didn’t Hack Anything
That may or may not be true, there have been reports that he created codes that allowed him access to files that under normal circumstances he would not have access to.
This is plausible due to the NSA instituting a two person policy.
Unix, Administrator, Superuser, Account Creation.
What he meant to say was
“And we would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.”
In other news Obama and the population of the USA now comes to the realisation that Obama himself is just a Hack.
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Actually, I would say both are just aggravated employees. Snowden is tired of breaking the Constitution he swore to uphold, and Obama is tired of whiny employees that feel they are above Presidential privileges.
Welcome to the land of States secrets…
I suppose if he meant it literally, it could mean that Snowden had planned this well in advance, and specifically obtained his clearances and sought out that job as part of his plan to expose everything.
Uhhh, he used it correctly
The term hacker is not only used to define someone who breaks into computer systems… its just someone who has detailed knowledge of operating systems. So, he used the term correctly.
Re:
Did snowden copy the movies of the prez and reggie love???
Ninja’d by Velox. I was going to say:
Hacker is the new terrorist.
Obama is a tool of the elite.
Truth
THEY ARE ALL TOGETHER, BUSH, OSMA, BILDERBERG, ANONYMOUS HACKERS, ?THAT EX GENERAL THAT USED TO RUN THE FEDS , THE ISRAELI SECRET ?SERVICE, BILDERBERG AND ALL NOT ONLY ARE THEY ACKING INTO ALL OF US THEY ARE ROBBING FAMILIES OF THEIR HARD WORK AND STEALING FROM BROKERS HUGE TANSACTIONS WORTH TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS. ?YOUR WATER IS DRUGGED SO YOU DO NOT REACT. ?THE DRONES ARE WATCHING YOU AND DARE TO REVOLT WATCH HW FAST THEY ?ZAP YOU AND KILL YOU. ? THE EVIL MONSTERS ARE WITH THE BANKING FAMILIES FAKE JEWS THAT ARE GERMANS AND TOOK THE IDENTITY OF JEWS THEY KILED SO THEY WOULD NOT BE GIVEN THE GUILLOTINE FOR THE NIGHTMARE ?HORRORS THEY CAUSED THE JEWS, BLACK PEOPLE WHEN THEY SLAVED THEM AND THE STORY CONTINUES. ?NOW THE WHOLE WORLD IS UNDER ATTACK AND THEY WANT TO PUT US IN THEIR CAMPS AND RATION OUR FOOD THAT IS WHY ALL IS GOING ON, FOOD IS EXPENSIVE,OBAMA WANTS TO MAKE LAW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GROW IN YOUR OWN GARDEN ? ?AND SOOOOOOO MUCH MORE. ? PEOPLE GOD SEES AND GOD WILL CRUSH THEM ALL, HE TOLD ME IN A LOUD VOICE AND WATEVER YOU DO DO NOT GIVE THOSE TYRANTS, THOSE DEVILS YOUR GUNS. ?GOD IS HERE HE SEES AND TRUST E THEY WILL GET IT FOR ALL THE SUFFERINGS THEY ARE CAUSING