If you're still interested in emerging details of the NSA/GCHQ story, keep reading. If not, feel free to delete the comment.

As you might have heard, a parliamentary investigative committee was set up in Germany to shed some light on at least some of the claims made by the press. They don't want to pay too close attention to it, given that our own intelligence services are just as bad, but that's another discussion.

Today, two expert witnesses were supposed to testify, William Binney and Thomas Drake, Everything was to be broadcast, as is custom, but they decided not to broadcast it after all. Given that recent interviews with both Binney and Drake indicated that they were planning to reveal quite a lot about shady cooperation between NSA/GCHQ and our own services, a set of rather embarassing details might have emerged. What a coincidence... [see footnotes]

Additionally, one of our public broadcasters, in cooperation with Jacob Appelbaum, revealed a piece of source code from a selector of XKeyscore. Hardcoded within, for some reason, we find the IPs of all servers running a TOR directory authority, once of them owned and maintained by a German student. So now we have the names of two German citizens under surveillance, and it'll be significantly harder for our Attorney General to find ways not to open up an invenstigation into espionage.

Also part of the revealed code was a confirmation that using TOR gets you labeled as an "extremist" and your ass is now amongst those whose activities will be monitored, constantly. A Google search for it is enough to land on their shit list, same for Tails.

That's the day so far, and it's not even 1pm.

Edit #1: Binney and Drake are considered witnesses, their statements are exempt from broadcast/streaming. Opposition forced a vote on it, government prevailed, no stream available.

Edit #2: I'll provide a summary of the juicy bits once they are done.

Edit #3: Members of the US Congress present, curious to see some (yet unmentioned) names.

Edit #4: Well, 0:20 and they're finally done for the day. Here's a summary of today's session, though the source can sometimes be a bit of a mouthpiece for the government.

@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.

A not-so-little update, if you're still around and interested.

Jacob Appelbaum working with "Der Spiegel" basically confirmed the existence of BadBIOS this morning. Dragos may not actually have it, but the Snowden files prove that the NSA has tools that do precisely what was attributed to BadBIOS.

The talk by Jacob Appelbaum and Julian Assange yesterday opened up with a surprise guest: Sarah Harrison, the WL lawyer/journalist/activist who got Snowden out of Hong Kong. I thought I saw her earlier in the day, but then again, there were at least three blokes who bear a striking resemblence to Snowden.

Also, a former MI5 analyst turned whistleblower gave a surprisingly harsh summary of the current state of affairs in western democracies. I'll submit that one later today, should be able to attract at least a couple of views.

I didn't make it in time for the talk by the ACLU's Chris Soghoian on government hacking and the next crypto wars. But I did get into the room for a marvelous talk about European companies (Gamma Group/HackingTeam) who provide the tools for dictatorships to control their population with regards to the internet, aka surveillance suits.

Surveillance teach-in: Bill Binney & Jacob Appelbaum has been added as a related post - related requested by kulpims.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Surveillance-teach-in-Bill-Binney-Jacob-Appelbaum

Surveillance teach-in: Bill Binney & Jacob Appelbaum has been added as a related post - related requested by kulpims.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Surveillance-teach-in-Bill-Binney-Jacob-Appelbaum