And here I thought the claims around his four laptops were put to rest in July of last year or, at the very latest, after his meeting with Ray MacGovern, Jesselyn Radack and Thomas Drake in October.

There was nothing of substance on those laptops and to suggest otherwise with any credibility demands extraordinary proof.

Why?

Because of two primary reasons, as far as I am concerned:

- Any of Snowden's claims has yet to proven false. The entire apparatus is trying and they failed miserably so far. Probably because Snowden actually knows what he's talking about, unlike such cranks as Rep. Peter King.

- Snowden spent years working within the intelligence industry (CIA, NSA, private contractors) and he has proven to be careful and meticulous. Unlike the public (or the British MoD), he'd know better than to transport any sensitive information on a device like a laptop or a smartphone. Or an external harddrive. Or a disk. He'd use flash memory, possibly a thumb drive, probably an SD card -- the less embedded controllers a device has, the better. Heavily encrypted, of course, and if anyone doesn't believe that crypto works... tough luck, I'm done trying to convince people otherwise.

So, the only people who received data from him are Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. American journalists reporting on American issues, just like he said.

As for the the revelation of "tons of national secrets and techniques": he has revealed nothing. Let me say that again: Snowden has revealed nothing.

He has empowered members of the press, the fourth estate, to do their bloody jobs and fullfil their role as watchdog over the government, something they failed at miserably in this particular regard. All revelations happen at the discretion of those journalists who are now the sole proprietors of the Snowden-documents.

If, however, you don't subscribe to the notion of a free press as a line of defence against government abuse, then I can't change your mind.

By the way, "putting American lives at risk" should have received a trademark by now, the way it has been waved around to kill uncomfortable conversations. I vividly remember how desperate they were to find proof that the Afghan/Iraqi War Logs and the Gitmo Files were endangering lives. As far as I know, they never found any. And as far as I know, all releases based on Snowden-documents were carefully chosen and redacted where neccessary to protect the identity of human assets. All claims to the contrary need to provide evidence.

But I'm glad to see that the "American industry" has found its way into the argument. At least we don't have to pretend that this is solely about terrorism anymore. Industrial espionage, diplomatic advantages and... keeping your own population in check.

Yay! It's just like the old days.

Oh wait, I forgot. My country has been under full scale surveillance by the US, the British and the French since the late '40s, so it's actually business as usual.

This is my point I don't give a fuck what Greenwald or Snowden wants, I want a Nuclear Fucking Bomb. I want every little secret from every administration to come out and I want to plant a baseball bat into the side of every bastards head who has supported the evil that is done around the world.

You want to talk about morality? Not killing everyone involved in this is immoral.

Not even Greenwald wants that. There are genuine reasons for some information to be kept secret, both moral and practical.

On the moral side, everyone involved has said there is information in there that could lead directly to people being killed.

On the practical side, the second they do that and someone is killed, they instantly lose all credibility.

I don't give a shit if Joe Bloggs is a CIA agent undercover with Spectre. It's not relevant to me. I DO care that the NSA are spying on everyone. Snowden is doing the right thing.

@Yogi

Releasing everything in one big pile didn't get us anywhere in case of the Afghan War Logs, the Iraqi War Logs or the Gitmo Files. Piece by piece keeps it front and center, at least over here in Europe. Not to mention the fact that it also nullifies all criticisms of careless dumping of sensitive info, which reduces his risk of lead poisoning.

@shinyblurry

He wouldn't be stuck in Russia if a) the US hadn't canceled his passport and b) the entirety of Europe wasn't such whipped dogs. If, for instance, Germany had offered him asylum, he'd probably be in Berlin right now, just like Laura Poitras, Sarah Harrison and Jacob Appelbaum.

And no, I don't think the Russians, the Chinese, or anyone for that matter, have gained access to his hardware before he handed everything over to Greenwald amongst others. Snowden knows what he's doing.

If, however, you don't think that crypto works, then I can't convince you otherwise.

@zor

The copyright owner, a German public broadcaster, made sure it's geofucked on YouTube. By the time I submitted this, DailyMotion was the only source available without a German proxy. That said, Adblock Edge + Ghostery + NoScript and you don't have to endure any ads on DailyMotion.

Your video, Bill Maher interviews Glenn Greenwald, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

I'm relieved Greenwald shared my opinion of Snowden's "they basically have freedom of access over your entire life" (paraphrasing) comment, because Mahar's labeling of that perspective as crazy was really unexpected. I don't see how you can't see that as the present and definite-future on our current path, when you look at the history of humans and power. You have to have a lot of (misplaced) trust to think any of the people in charge running that show are capable of showing restraint.
We need to understand that we're pretty far behind the curve for making a change to this. It doesn't matter what "laws" get passed or (false) changes are made to their system. Individuals are basically fucked for privacy from here on out, end of story. It's going to take a war to stop it at this point. I am so glad I don't have children.

Heard in passing the official stance second-hand on NPR (National Promulgation Regurgitatio) from the fake president that Greenwald here refers to and can't stand the lame-duck fuck with renewed gusto.

Your video, VICE Meets Glenn Greenwald: Snowden's Journalist of Choice, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Your video, Glenn Greenwald's keynote speech at 30C3, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

First day of talks is up on YT, including Greenwald's and O'Brien's.

Everything will be streamed and made available for download.

However, almost everything being discussed at the annual conference is of little interest to the public, Greenwald/Assange/O'Brian being the exception this year. There's also the matter of language, since about half the talks will be given in German, if not more.

Case in point, last year's keynote by Jake was the only talk I could see surpassing the magic 10 votes on the Sift...

It's been all the rage on Twitter, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Snowden and Poitras also recorded this year's Christmas message for Channel 4 -- and as Jeremy Scahill pointed out:

"Amazing how any time we actually hear from Snowden in his own words, it bears no resemblance to cartoonish depiction of him by commentariat."

I'll be at the 30C3 this weekend and the keynote speech will be held by Greenwald with focus on Snowden/NSA. Alexa O'Brian (carwinb) is scheduled for a talk about the trial of Chelsea Manning and Assange/Appelbaum are due for their annual call for a revolution -- the anticipation is killing me here.

And while we're at it: happy holidays!

Also, not gonna go all live-commenting here, but Greenwald notes the difference in reaction to surveillance of Merkel and to politicians vs the german public, there is an obvious difference: it goes without saying that the NSA is not actually listening to every german personally, but that this sort of thing is done to snap up conversations of interest. But targeting politicians is a completely different form of surveillance, where the privacy of the individual is being mapped and all their communication noted (probably) iow, theres a difference between having parts of your communications (among millions of individuals and billions of messages) potentially being snapped up, and being under constant surveillance, as in a specific target. And when that target is a democratically elected leader, the problem is even bigger.

"Targeting ordinary germans, by the hundreds of millions"
Germany has a population of 80 million. Way not to sound hyperbolic, Greenwald. Alright, gonna watch rest of video now.

I am always impressed by Greenwald's intellect and presentation. I'm totally with him. Government secrecy is a cancer.