Journalists who report on national security leaks should be punished, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “If they knew that this was classified information, I think action should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude,” King said. “I think something on this magnitude, there is an obligation, both moral but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security. As a practical matter, I guess it happened in the past several years, a number of reporters who have been prosecuted under us, so the answer is yes to your question.

Phan In Phlorida wrote:#$!&@ goin' down in Turkey.

Roger Dorn wrote:

Journalists who report on national security leaks should be punished, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “If they knew that this was classified information, I think action should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude,” King said. “I think something on this magnitude, there is an obligation, both moral but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security. As a practical matter, I guess it happened in the past several years, a number of reporters who have been prosecuted under us, so the answer is yes to your question.

First Amendment be damned.

Barry Jive wrote:

td11 wrote:i understand how grave the implications of being charged with treason are, but like, he violated a National Security Agency contract...

that doesn't necessarily constitute treason. maybe LG was just dropping "traitor" colloquially but that doesn't really hold up to the standards of such a serious offense

jamiethekiller wrote:China isn't quite an enemy though. but with all of the cyber espionage attacks coming from there its probably the last place a computer engineer that just stole lots of NSA information under the guise of helping the american public should go.

The Guardian revealed last week that seven technology companies – Google, Facebook, Skype, PalTalk, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo – were involved in the Prism surveillance scheme run by the NSA.

The Guardian understands that the NSA approached those companies and asked them to enable a “dropbox” system whereby legally requested data could be copied from their own server out to an NSA-owned system. That has allowed the companies to deny that there is “direct or indirect” NSA access, to deny that there is a “back door” to their systems, and that they only comply with “legal” requests – while not explaining the scope of that access.

The Prism program allows the NSA, the world’s largest surveillance organisation, to obtain targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers and without having to obtain individual court orders.

With this program, the NSA is able to reach directly into the servers of the participating companies and obtain both stored communications as well as perform real-time collection on targeted users.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on March 12, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked the intelligence czar if the NSA gathers "any type of data at all on millions of Americans.”

"No, sir," Clapper responded. "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."

Clapper's response appears to contradict recent revelations about the agency's large scale phone records collection program, first reported on by the Guardian last week. However, during the NBC interview, Clapper said Wyden's question did not have a straightforward answer.

"I thought, though in retrospect, I was asked -- 'When are you going to start -- stop beating your wife' kind of question, which is meaning not -- answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no," Clapper said in the interview, which aired Sunday. "So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner by saying 'no'."
Clapper said his remarks also reflected his definition of "collection," which he said has a specific meaning in an intelligence context.

"What I was thinking of is looking at the Dewey Decimal numbers-- of those books in that metaphorical library-- to me, collection of U.S. persons' data would mean taking the book off the shelf and opening it up and reading it," he said.

In a Tuesday statement, Wyden said he had notified Clapper of his question in advance, and had given his office a chance to give a "straight answer" after the March hearing.

“So that he would be prepared to answer, I sent the question to Director Clapper’s office a day in advance. After the hearing was over my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer,” Wyden said. “Now public hearings are needed to address the recent disclosures and the American people have the right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked whether it was true that the NSA had the ability to tap into Americans’ phone calls and electronic communications.

“False. I know of no way to do that,” Alexander responded.
The NSA chief, who is also a four-star Army general who oversees the U.S. Cyber Command, said he is pressing to declassify information on how often the information has been useful. “I’m pushing for that,” he said. “We do want to get this right and it has to be vetted across the community so what we give you, you know, is accurate.”

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) expressed outrage that the man who has admitted to the leaks, 29-year-old NSA contractor Edward Snowden, had access to wide array of top-secret information while working as a computer administrator. Tester noted that after the massive leak to WikiLeaks several years ago, the federal government supposedly moved to put stricter limits on access to secrets.

“Whatever one thinks of Edward Snowden, it looks to me like we’ve also got a big problem that is internal, not external,” the senator said, questioning the current focus on cyberattacks.

“The president has requested $13 billion in cyber spending for FY14. And yet a contractor, not even somebody who’s accountable to your chain of command or anyone else in the government, is able to get his hands on a copy of a FISA court order allowing the collection of metadata from Verizon. How on earth does this happen?” Tester asked. “And why does a contractor have access to information that we’re spending $13 billion to prevent outsiders from getting their hands on?”

Alexander echoed the point. “That’s one of the grave concerns we both have,” Alexander replied. He said the basic computer work at NSA “was outsourced about 14 years ago.”
We have system administrators who are contractors, working and running our networks. They don’t have total visibility of the network, but they get key parts to it,” the general added. “This individual was a system administration with access to key parts of the network. We’ve got to address that….It’s something that we’ve got to fix.”

Under questioning from Tester, Alexander said he wasn’t prepared to declare “yet” that the work should be done by government employees. “There are good contractors out there that are doing a good job,” he said

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) called for the prosecution of Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for The Guardian whose stories based on interviews with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden detailed the agency's phone and Internet spying programs.

Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked King on Wednesday whether he believed that Greenwald and Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who also wrote about the program, should be prosecuted for publishing the leaks.

"I’m talking about Greenwald," King said. "Greenwald, not only did he disclose this information, he has said that he has names of CIA agents and assets around the world, and they're threatening to disclose that. The last time that was done in this country, we saw a CIA station chief murdered in Greece ... I think it should be very targeted, very selective and certainly a very rare exception. But, in this case, when you have someone who discloses secrets like this and threatens to release more, yes, there has to be -- legal action taken against him."

Greenwald shot back on Twitter, calling King's reference to a threat to disclose CIA assets a "blatant lie."

Kelly asked King again if Greenwald should be prosecuted for what he's released so far. "I would say it should certainly be considered," he said. “The reason I say that is, this is putting American lives at risk and this is clearly done to hurt Americans."

King also took a shot at members of his own party for criticizing the NSA programs. "Too many Republicans and conservatives are becoming Michael Moores," he said.

U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world for years, apparently targeting fat data pipes that push immense amounts of data around the Internet, NSA leaker Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.

Among some 61,000 reported targets of the National Security Agency, Snowden said, are hundreds of computers in China -- which U.S. officials have increasingly criticized as the source of thousands of attacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. China has denied such attacks.
The Morning Post said it had seen documents provided by Snowden but was unable to verify their authenticity. The English-language news agency, which operates in Hong Kong, also said it was unable to independently verify allegations of U.S. hacking of networks in Hong Kong and mainland China since 2009.
Obama open to NSA changes Snowden told the paper that some of the targets included the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials and students. The documents also "point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets," the newspaper reported.

The claims came just days after U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to address cyberattacks emanating from China that Obama described as "direct theft of United States property."

Snowden's allegations appear to give weight to claims by some Chinese government officials that the country has been a victim of similar hacking efforts coming from the United States.

pacino wrote:irish terrorist sympathizer Peter King is pissed and wants media arrested:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) called for the prosecution of Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for The Guardian whose stories based on interviews with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden detailed the agency's phone and Internet spying programs.

Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked King on Wednesday whether he believed that Greenwald and Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who also wrote about the program, should be prosecuted for publishing the leaks.

"I’m talking about Greenwald," King said. "Greenwald, not only did he disclose this information, he has said that he has names of CIA agents and assets around the world, and they're threatening to disclose that. The last time that was done in this country, we saw a CIA station chief murdered in Greece ... I think it should be very targeted, very selective and certainly a very rare exception. But, in this case, when you have someone who discloses secrets like this and threatens to release more, yes, there has to be -- legal action taken against him."

Greenwald shot back on Twitter, calling King's reference to a threat to disclose CIA assets a "blatant lie."

Kelly asked King again if Greenwald should be prosecuted for what he's released so far. "I would say it should certainly be considered," he said. “The reason I say that is, this is putting American lives at risk and this is clearly done to hurt Americans."

King also took a shot at members of his own party for criticizing the NSA programs. "Too many Republicans and conservatives are becoming Michael Moores," he said.

Peter King says Greenwald is trying to hurt America. whatever you think of GG, that's not true. also, he didnt break any laws. Neither did the WaPo.

pacino wrote:Snowden doing stupid things that won't help his case that he's being a whistleblower about the US spying on its citizens:

U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world for years, apparently targeting fat data pipes that push immense amounts of data around the Internet, NSA leaker Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.

Among some 61,000 reported targets of the National Security Agency, Snowden said, are hundreds of computers in China -- which U.S. officials have increasingly criticized as the source of thousands of attacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. China has denied such attacks.
The Morning Post said it had seen documents provided by Snowden but was unable to verify their authenticity. The English-language news agency, which operates in Hong Kong, also said it was unable to independently verify allegations of U.S. hacking of networks in Hong Kong and mainland China since 2009.
Obama open to NSA changes Snowden told the paper that some of the targets included the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials and students. The documents also "point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets," the newspaper reported.

The claims came just days after U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to address cyberattacks emanating from China that Obama described as "direct theft of United States property."

Snowden's allegations appear to give weight to claims by some Chinese government officials that the country has been a victim of similar hacking efforts coming from the United States.

So the NSA is targeting computers in China they think are trying to attack our networks? IMAGINE THAT

jerseyhoya wrote:

Fatty McGov is looking pretty good. He's really lost a ton of weight. Also, that's kind of a surreal segment for a governor of a state to be involved in.

AlsoChristie and Buono had their first extended shared appearance tonight, if people want to watch a clip of Buono.

pacino wrote:actual scandal:

A review of classified US intelligence records has revealed that the CIA could not confirm the identity of about a quarter of the people killed by drone strikes in Pakistan during a period spanning from 2010 to 2011.

According to a purportedly exclusive report by NBC News that mirrors findings of an April analysis by McClatchy, between September 3, 2010 and October 30, 2011 the agency’s drone program over Pakistan routinely designated those killed as “other militants,” a label used when the CIA could not determine affiliation, if any.

The review by NBC News paints both a confusing and troubling picture of the CIA’s reported drone strike success, which three former Obama administration officials feared could have missed or simply ignored mistakes.

Of the 14 months worth of classified documents reviewed, 26 out of 114 attacks designate fatalities as “other militants,” while in four other attacks those killed are only described as “foreign fighters.”

Even more irregular are the cases when entry records conflict on the number of those killed, with one such example indicating a drone attack had killed seven to 10 combatants, and another estimating 20 to 22 fatalities.

By comparison, McClatchy’s April review of drone strikes revealed that at least 265 of up to 482 people that the CIA killed during a 12-month period ending in September 2011 were not senior al-Qaeda leaders, but were instead “assessed” as Afghan, Pakistani and “unknown extremists.” Corroborating media accounts show that US drones killed only six top al-Qaeda leaders during the same period.

One key term in analyzing drone strike records are what are known as “signature” strikes, when drones kill suspects based on behavior patterns but without positive identification, versus “personality” strike, which is when drone targets are known terrorist affiliates whose identities are verified.