ANP Hot News.....Around the Web

By Susan Duclos

FEATURED ARTICLES AT ANP:

 Suspicious Deaths Of Preppers On Rise - Another Family Dead! Signs Are 'The Lists' Have Been Activated!

We Are 'Living On Borrowed Time' - End Of The World As We Know It Event Is 'Guaranteed'

Links to Hot News.... Around the Web, via All News PipeLine

Jindal: Sharia “Colonization,” “Invasion” Of America
Special Report: Vaccine Death Toll Rises
The Collapse of Europe?
Watch Obama Refer to Himself 118 Times in 3 Minutes
Canada Just "Revised" All Of Its 2014 Job Gains 35% Lower
Measles Outbreak Spreads To Chicago
CBC Chair Threatens Racism Smear Against Fellow Dems
Saudi TV Blurs Michelle O's Face
Experts Unmask 'Regin' Trojan as NSA Tool
Amazon Offices Raided In Child Pornography Investigation
‘Obama Army’ Deploys To Tel Aviv To Topple Netanyahu
Iranian Website Threatens Top Israeli Officials
Moscow Promises 'Unlimited' Response To SWIFT Limits
Americans on Disability Skyrockets 50%
Travel Ban: The New Norm
Three More Beheaded Under New Saudi King

ANP Hot News.....Around the Web

By Susan Duclos

Links to Hot News.... Around the Web, via All News PipeLine


House Passes Bill To End Benefits For Nazis
Did The Dems Blow It With Obamacare?
Russia Secret Weapon Revealed
The Middle Class Spending Crash Explained
North Korea Accuses US Of Developing Ebola VirusEconomy Doesn't Make Clinton a Favorite in 2016
1,400+ Being Monitored For Ebola In U.S.
Hawking Warns Artificial Intelligence Could End Mankind
Russia Armed and Ready For New Cold War With US
NFL Player Posts 'Creepy' Picture of Malia Obama
Images From A Dark Detroit
Ferguson Decision Was Not a "Miscarriage of Justice"
Obama's Dangerous Legacy For Democrats
Edward Snowden Movie Snags Two Awards
Was North Korea Behind Cyberattack On Sony Pictures?
NATO Prepares 'Spearhead' To Ward Off Russia

Edward Snowden Bombshell! "America's Secret Government"

By Susan Duclos, via All News PipeLine

Edward Snowden has been called a traitor, a whistleblower, a patriot and a hero, all depending on who is talking about him, but it is inarguable that he exposed one of the biggest scandals of the Obama administration when he released documents proving the massive expansion of domestic and international spying conducted by the NSA.

In the video excerpted interview below with Lawrence Lessig, Snowden explains the reason he blew the whistle on the US secret programs and explains to the world all about "America's Secret Government."

"MonsterMind" Automated War! The Last Straw For Edward Snowden

By Susan Duclos

Some call Edward Snowden a hero, others a traitor, but in his biggest revelation to date we find out that the last straw, the one that broke the camel's back, so to speak, which made him go public with sensitive classified information obtained from NSA databases, then flee the country as a fugitive from the United States, was a project called "MonsterMind."

MonsterMind is an automated cyber weapon, which would monitor everything on the internet and decide, without a human brain behind it, to wage war. This cyber weapon, referred to as a "creature" by Popular Science, is housed in Utah "perched atop the data flows into the National Security Agency's Mission Data Repository."

According to Snowden, MonsterMind is not only dangerous, tremendously powerful, but is easily fooled.

The massive surveillance effort was bad enough, but Snowden was even more disturbed to discover a new, Strangelovian cyberwarfare program in the works, codenamed MonsterMind. The program, disclosed here for the first time, would automate the process of hunting for the beginnings of a foreign cyberattack. Software would constantly be on the lookout for traffic patterns indicating known or suspected attacks. When it detected an attack, MonsterMind would automatically block it from entering the country—a “kill” in cyber terminology.

Programs like this had existed for decades, but MonsterMind software would add a unique new capability: Instead of simply detecting and killing the malware at the point of entry, MonsterMind would automatically fire back, with no human involvement. That's a problem, Snowden says, because the initial attacks are often routed through computers in innocent third countries. “These attacks can be spoofed,” he says. “You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?”

We have seen people replaced with robotic creations, jobs lost to automation, the mixing of man with machine, automated systems going haywire over a short circuit, AI systems with the ability to "learn," and much more in this world where the rise of the machines is considered technological advancements, but do we really want a machine, with no human decision making process, no human brain behind it, no emotion or ethics, deciding to start a war, perhaps with countries that are nuclear powers themselves?

One has to ask themselves.... what could go wrong? The answer to that should terrify every human being on the planet."

Whistleblower Site: War Begins In July… Unless…

By Susan Duclos

 The whistleblower site Cryptome has announced that the biggest revelations to date from Edward Snowden will be released, all of them, in July to prevent a massive war.

All the remaining Snowden documents will be released next month, according t‪o‬ whistle-blowing site ‪Cryptome, which said in a tweet that the release of the info by unnamed third parties would be necessary to head off an unnamed “war”.‬

‪Cryptome‬ said it would “aid and abet” the release of “57K to 1.7M” new documents that had been “withheld for national security-public debate...

This came after Glenn Greenwald, who published the very first set of documents stolen by Edward Snowden which revealed the extent that Barack Obama had expanded not only foreign spying, but domestic surveillance on American citizens, promised a release of the names of those the NSA has been spying on, then 8 hours later tweeting "After 3 months working on our story, USG [the United States government] today suddenly began making new last-minute claims which we intend to investigate before publishing."

July is when war begins unless headed off by Snowden full release of crippling intel. After war begins not a chance of release,” Cryptome tweeted on its official feed. “Warmongerers are on a rampage. So, yes, citizens holding Snowden docs will do the right thing,” it said.

Many believe that Greenwald had been silenced by the US government and that is why he postponed his promised "biggest story."



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Cross posted at Before It's News

Snowden Granted Temporary Asylum In Russia, Finally Leaves Airport (Video)

By Susan Duclos

Russian authorities have granted NSA leaker, Edward Snowden,, temporary political asylum, finally allowing him to leave the Moscow airport's transit location after being stuck in limbo there for more than a month.

Snowden was unable to leave the Moscow airport due to a lack of travel papers after the U.S. revoked his passport and charged him with espionage for blowing the whistle on the Obama administration's expansion of domestic spying and providing documents to prove a high level of International spying.

According to Snowden's attorney, Anatoly Kucherena, the documents were issued on Thursday and will allow Snowden to live and work in Russia for a year while his permanent asylum application is pending.

I have just seen him off. He has left for a secure location,” Kucherena told the state broadcaster Russia 24.

Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.

Greenwald: Analysts Listening To Trillions of US Phone Calls Without Warrant (Video)

By Susan Duclos

In the new video below Glenn Greenwald talks about the NSA and how analysts, with no court orders, can listen to U.S. phones and claims he is working on a story that will prove it, also daring the Obama administration  to deny what he is saying is true.

Greenwald was one of the first journalists to provide documentation from NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, which has rocked the White House domestically and internationally.

"It's an incredibly powerful and invasive tool," Greenwald said of the program Snowden used, "exactly the type that Mr. Snowden described. NSA officials are going to be testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, and I defy them to deny that these programs work exactly as I've just said."

Greenwald describes the capabilities of the program, which is accessible to low-level private contractors: "The NSA has trillions of telephone calls and email in their databases. What these programs are are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things: it searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you've entered; and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or connected to that IP address do in the future. And it's all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst."

Thousands In Germany Protest NSA Spying : 1984 Is Now! (Video and Photos)

By Susan Duclos

Thousands of German's are taking to the streets of Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and up to 35 other German cities and towns, to protest the invasive spying of Internet users by the NSA, and the alleged part German officials have played in cooperation with the U.S.

Reports are being seen of protesters wearing tinfoil hats, carrying signs that say "Stop Watching Us," with others stating "Standing Against Prism."

The details below the RT video titled '1984 is now!': Germans protest Berlin's NSA spying role on Snowden Day, read: "Privacy rights activists have demonstrated across Germany against U.S. worldwide surveillance - and Berlin's role in it. The revelations by Edward Snowden, have ignited public anger among Germans who say that their government let them down - as RT's Peter Oliver reports."

Not only has Barack Obama infuriated Americans and divided them, he is also now causing division within other countries.

Obama's Website Promising To Protect Whistleblowers Goes Dark Days After Snowden NSA Revelations (Video)

By Susan Duclos

Just days after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden rocked the Obama administration with the first in a long line of revelations showing Barack Obama had expanded secret domestic spying and increased the level of international spying, Barack Obama's Change.gov, a website to make his agenda for the presidency accessible, went dark, now showing only a splash page that leads to the official White House website.

Those Snowden revelations included but are not limited to; the top secret Prism program, where the NSA is collecting meta-data on millions of Americans from top tech companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

The Obama administration also went to the secretive FISA court and obtained limitless three-month access to information on Verizon customers, on an ongoing daily basis, which includes over 100 million users.

On that Change.gov page that has now conveniently disappeared was a promise to protect whistleblowers:

"Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process."

 The Obama administration has charged Edward Snowden with espionage and are actively trying to prevent other countries from offering him political asylum.

It is also noteworthy to flash back to 2008, when the then-Senator Barack Obama, criticized President George Bush for a lack of transparency, specifically mentioning "intelligence" and warrant-less wiretapping, something Obama's administration now regularly engages in.

Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.

NSA Leaker Meets With Human Rights Groups in Russia ( Video)

By Susan Duclos

The first picture is available of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower who exposed the extent of domestic and international spying being conducted by the Obama administration, is meeting with members of a variety of human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and an official with the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees.

Snowden has also requested temporary asylum from Russia, who has already stated they would not hand him over to the U.S., who has charged Snowden with espionage. The asylum request is an attempt to give Snowden, who has been stuck in limbo in the Moscow airport for weeks, a level of freedom to travel to embassies with the ultimate goal of escaping the U.S. authorities to live in a country that is willing to offer him a permanent safe haven.

Snowden has also issued a statement, via Wikileaks, saying "Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.

It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets."

Full statement here.

Blockbuster Revelation: Microsoft Helped NSA Access Private Emails, Skype Calls And More

By Susan Duclos

In a series of revelations from NSA leaker Edward Snowden we partially saw the extent of domestic and international spying by the National Intelligence Agency (NSA).


The previous information reported on ranged from classified documents showing unprecedented levels of information collected by the NSA on Americans and foreign entities to slides confirming the NSA was instructed to obtain information, via direct access, to data from large tech companies which includes, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

The latest blockbuster revelation is that Microsft "collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Guardian."

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;

• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".

 Read the rest at The Guardian.

CNET reminds readers: In " 2008, when the company was owned by eBay instead of Microsoft, a Skype spokeswoman told CNET: "We have not received any subpoenas or court orders asking us to perform a live interception or wiretap of Skype-to-Skype communications. In any event, because of Skype's peer-to-peer architecture and encryption techniques, Skype would not be able to comply with such a request."

CNET asked Microsoft Wednesday morning whether that statement was still correct. Microsoft did not respond.


Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.

NSA Leaker, Ed Snowden Interview - Part 2 (Video)

By Susan Duclos

The Guardian has released the second part of an interview conducted by Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras with NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, seen in the video below.



Via The Guardian

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden contemplates the reaction from the US government to his revelations of top-secret documents regarding its spying operations on domestic and foreign internet traffic, email and phone use. This interview was recorded in Hong Kong on 6 June 2013

• Watch the first part of the exclusive interview with Edward Snowden

• Read the Guardian's full NSA files coverage

Snowden has revealed the extent and expansion of the Obama administration's domestic spying on Americans as well and providing confirmation about spying on other countries.

One of the latest revelations is the extent of the U.S. collection of data on Brazilians, which has Brazil adding it's name to countries expressing concern over the U.S. surveillance on their citizens.

Snowden In Venezuela? Hoax Or Truth?

By Susan Duclos

Social media has been seeing reports that NSA leaker, Edward Snowden had safely managed to land in Venezuela. The report came from PRLOG, which offered supposed quotes from a spokesman for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, claiming those quotes were told to Al-Jazeera.

Subsequent reports show the whole story is most likely a hoax as Al-Jazeera denies the story originated with them at all.

An email that was virally circulating earlier today claimed that Edward Snowden has safely landed in Venezuela. The report, sadly, is an outright lie.

Now, the email has found its way throughout the world of social networking, and at least one website has fallen for the hoax as real: ”The Al Jazeera news agency is reporting that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has safely landed in Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered asylum to Snowden on Friday who was believed to be waiting in transit at a Moscow airport.”

Naturally, this came as great interest to us at PoliticalBlindSpot.com. We have confirmed with Al-Jazeera contacts that wherever this hoax originated, it was not with their news agency.

 Hoax.

It is true that Venezuela, Bolivia and  Nicaragua have all offered Snowden asylum, but arrangements still must be made to get him from Moscow to the country he accepts the asylum offer from.

Venezuela and Nicaragua Offer NSA Leaker Asylum; Update- Bolivia Offers Asylum To Snowden

By Susan Duclos

[Update on Bolivia's offer below the video]

While it was reported yesterday that  Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro had agreed to offer Edward Snowden, the man who leaked documents showing the extent of Barack Obama's domestic and international spying, which has caused the Obama administration headaches both in the U.S. and across the world, asylum.

Reports now indicate that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said "if circumstances permit," he too will offer Snowden asylum from the U.S., who has charged him with espionage and theft.

President Maduro made his announcement in a speech on Venezuela's Independence Day.

"As head of state and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young US citizen Edward Snowden so he can come to the fatherland of Bolivar and Chavez to live away from the imperial North American persecution," President Maduro said.

The US wants to prosecute Mr Snowden over the leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents.

Earlier Mr Ortega said Nicaragua had received an application at its embassy in Moscow.
"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," Agence France-Presse quoted the Nicaraguan president as saying. (Source- BBC)

Getting Snowden from the Moscow airport to any country offering him asylum is a whole different ballgame, as evidenced Bolivian president Evo Morales' plane being forced to land because it was believed Snowden was on board. France, Spain, Portugal and Italy all closed their airspace and refused Morales passage which has sparked outrage among Latin America leaders and official complaints are being lodged with the UN. Latin American leaders are calling the incident an "imperialist hijack."

France has already apologized:

“The Foreign Minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over (French) territory," French Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Philippe Lalliot said in a statement.

Morales has threatened to close the U.S. embassy in Bolivia over this incident as the news clip below shows.


[Update] Bolivia is now offering Edward Snowden asylum as well.

Morales said: “I just want to say to the Europeans and Americans: we are going to give asylum if that American [Snowden] who is haunted by his countrymen asks us for it. We have no fear.”

Bolivia Accuses 'U.S. Tools' Of Kidnapping Bolivian President, Filing Complaint With UN

By Susan Duclos

Details from the video shown below:

Bolivia to file complaint with UN over Morales' plane blockade.

Bolivia plans to lodge a formal complaint to the United Nations after several European nations denied airspace to President Evo Morales plane.

"The decisions of these countries have violated international law.... We are already making procedures to denounce this to the UN Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon]," Bolivia's Ambassador to the UN Sacha Llorenti told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.

Bolivia says France, Spain, Portugal and Italy refused to allow Morales plane, which was flying from Moscow back to Bolivia, to cross their airspace on suspicion of carrying US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden onboard.

Llorenti added that the diversion was an "act of aggression" against his country, and was equal to "kidnapping" the Bolivian president.

He also warned that the move might cause "irreparable damage" to diplomatic relations with the European states.

"Bolivia not only condemns these acts, but will take all international legal steps so this is not overlooked," Llorenti said.

Morales's plane was forced to land in Austria en route to Bolivia. The aircraft left Vienna after a stopover of more than 12 hours.

"We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House. We have no doubt. For no reason whatsoever a diplomatic plane with a president in that plane should be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country," Llorenti added.

Bolivia's envoy to the UN mocked the countries which blocked Morales plane and described them as "tools" of the US, saying, "In the 19th century, the colonies were in Latin America, and now we see the colonies are in some countries of Europe."

Bolivia is one of the countries to which Snowden has reportedly applied for asylum.

PressTV. La Paz, Bolivia. Wednesday, July 3 of 2013. Produced by Dialplus.

[WATCH]

The World 'Will Be Shocked' Over Next NSA Leaked Bombshell (Video)

By Susan Duclos

Glenn Greenwald, Guardian journalist who broke the NSA surveillance story showing the extent of the expansion of domestic spying under Barack Obama, tells Fox and Friends that more is coming and the world "will be shocked" by the upcoming next bombshell.

Greenwald states "I will say that there are vast programs, both domestic and international spying, that the world will be shocked to learn about, that the NSA is engaged in with no democratic accountability and that’s what driving our reporting."

He continues "I think what the Obama administration wants, and has been trying to establish for the last almost five years now with the unprecedented war on whistleblowers that it is waging, and to make it so that everybody is petrified of coming forward with information about what our political officials are doing in the dark that is deceitful, illegal or corrupt."

[WATCH]



The recent leaks from Edward Snowden have caused Barack Obama headaches domestically over the domestic spying, as well as outraged other countries that have now received confirmation regarding the level of international spying.

France has threatened trade talks and demands the Obama administration spying end immediately with France’s president Francois Hollande saying "We cannot accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies."

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said he was "very concerned" by the reports and stressed the EU wanted a "full and urgent clarification".

Germany is preparing to charge the UK and US intelligence over fresh bugging allegations reported on by German news magazine Der Spiegel, which says it was privy to  parts of documents in Snowden's possession showing that Europeans were specifically mentioned as a "target" in the source document from September 2010.

Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.

Statement from NSA Leaker, Edward Snowden in Moscow

By Susan Duclos

Posted without comment, via Wikileaks, Edward Snowden has issued a statement:
 

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013

German News Reports NSA Bugged European Union Offices In DC, The UN, And Abroad

By Susan Duclos

[UPDATE]- Statement from President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz made the following statement on reports that EU offices have allegedly been bugged by the US authorities, shown below the original post.

The NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, reportedly shared more classified documents, this time with German news magazine Der Spiegel, which says it was privy to  parts of documents in Snowden's possession showing that Europeans were specifically mentioned as a "target" in the source document from September 2010.

The document suggests that in addition to installing bugs in the building in downtown Washington, DC, the EU representation's computer network was also infiltrated. In this way, the Americans were able to access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers.

According to those documents the US bugged the offices of European Union member state offices in Washington and at the UN and gained access to computer networks used at those location, The Verge reported.

In addition to NSA efforts to listen in on EU representatives in the US, the agency is said to have spied on telecommunications at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels (pictured above), where the Council of the European Union sits. EU member states have offices at the building with internet connections and phone lines, and it's presumed that the NSA tapped into at least some of those communications. It's not clear if this information comes from the same document, but Der Spiegel reports that five years ago security officers at the Justus Lipsius building traced some missed calls to NSA offices at a NATO building in Brussels.

This follows previous revelations by Snowden, who accessed and stole classified information before fleeing to Hong Kong, regarding a secret NSA program named Prism, where data from large tech companies on millions of Americans has been, and continues to be, collected by the Obama administration. Those companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

Other leaked information from Snowden's treasure trove of classified documents includes the U.S hacking into Chinese Mobile Phone Companies and stealing SMS data.

Those leaks and others have led to charges of espionage to be leveled against Snowden as he fled Hong Kong, supposedly to Russia where it is believed he is at the moment, although there are some serious questions of whether he is still there or not, since nobody but Wikileaks officials, who are protecting him and aiding him in avoiding arrest,  have actually seen him.

Related- Court Agrees To Release 2011 Ruling Calling NSA's Spying Unconstitutional And Illegal, Over DOJ's Objections

VIDEO- Germany most-spied-on EU country by US - leaked NSA report


[UPDATE]- Statement from President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz made the following statement on reports that EU offices have allegedly been bugged by the US authorities:

"I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices. If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations. On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations."


Full Wake up America NSA scandal coverage found here.

Russia Is Pulling Out Of Syria

By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle

And they are doing it fast.  Very fast.

You know that things are heating up in Syria when longtime ally of Bashar al-Assad's Syria is pulling their troops out of Syria.  Add to that Israel going on high alert, President Obama and his Security Council is not concerned, and one can expect the area to blow up soon.

Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus.

“Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts.

In another sign of an impending escalation in Syria, the Israeli Golan brigade staged Wednesday an unannounced war maneuver on the Golan, attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the government’s National Security Council into session in Downing Street on Syria. Opposition leader Ed Milliband was invited to attend the meeting, a custom observed only when issues of the highest security importance are discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, debkafile carried the following report in its special video presentation under the heading: Putin and Obama cross swords on Syrian. What Next?

The sullen confrontation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland last week condemned Syria to five months of escalating, unresolved vicious warfare – that is until the two leaders meet again in September.

For now, tempers are heating up between Washington and Moscow on Syria and other things too, notably the elusive American fugitive Edward Snowden.



Click here if the video doesn't load.

US and Israeli intelligence watchers see the Syrian crisis entering seven ominous phases:

1. The Syrian army plus allies and the fully-mobilized opposition will hurl all their manpower and weapons into winning the city.

Military experts don’t expect the rebels to hold out against Assad’s forces beyond late August.

2. Neither side has enough manpower or game-changing weaponry for winning the war outright.

That is, unless Presidents Obama or Putin steps in to retilt the balance.

3. The US and Russia are poised for more military intervention in the conflict up until a point just short of a military clash on Syrian soil – or elsewhere in the Middle East. US intelligence analysts have judged Putin ready to go all the way on Syria against the US - no holds barred.

The Russian president is meanwhile deliberately goading Washington and raising temperatures by playing hide-and-seek over the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, charged with espionage for stealing and leaking classified intelligence. At home, he is considered variously as a traitor and a brave whistleblower.

For several hours Snowden vanished between Hong Kong and Moscow – until the Russian president admitted he was holed up in the transit area of Moscow airport and would not be extradited by Russia to the United States.

4. Iran, Hizballah and Iraq will likewise ratchet up their battlefield presence.

5. A violent encounter is building up between Middle East Shiites flocking to Syria to save the Assad regime alongside Russia, and the US-backed Sunni-dominated rebel forces.

It could scuttle the secret US-Iranian negotiating track on its nuclear program, which was buoyed up by the election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran.

6. The Geneva-2 Conference for a political solution for the Syrian crisis is dead in the water. Moscow and the US are divided by unbridgeable issues of principle, such whether Bashar Assad should stay or go and Iranian representation.

7. So long as the diplomatic remains stuck in the mud, the prospects of a regional war spreading out of the Syrian conflict are rising. Iran, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon may be dragged in at any moment – if they have not already, like Lebanon.

A small mistake by one of the Syrian warring parties in Syria could, for example, touch off Israeli retaliation and a wholesale spillover of violence.

Source

What we are seeing is the product of President Barack Hussein Obama's foreign policy of leading from behind.  Behind truly is.  As we are getting the shaft right up our Ass.

Hong Kong Responds To U.S. On NSA Leaker: 'Pay More Attention To Names And Numbers'

By Susan Duclos

Hong Kong officials, in response to the Obama administration's harsh rhetoric regarding Hong Kong allowing NSA leaker Edward Snowden to board a plane and escape capture by U.S. authorities, is that the Obama administration should pay more attention to names and numbers, as they accuse the U.S. of providing the wrong name for Snowden and not providing Snowden's passport number.

It is a snarky excuse, basically saying the U.S. didn't dot every I and cross every T, therefore they couldn't prevent Snowden from leaving Hong Kong.

WSJ:

By now, the world is very familiar with the name Edward Snowden, the former U.S. government contractor who says he has leaked classified information about the U.S. National Security Agency’s data-collection methods. But at least when it comes to U.S. and Hong Kong authorities, his middle name is a matter of some dispute.

Hong Kong’s justice secretary, Rimsky Yuen, says that according to Hong Kong immigration records, Joseph is the middle name in Mr. Snowden’s passport. Yet when the U.S. government submitted documents as part of a request to their Hong Kong counterparts to issue a provisional arrest warrant for the former security contractor, they specified one Edward James Snowden. In another, they simply referred to him as Edward J. Snowden, according to Mr. Yuen.

That, among other factors, helped contribute to the processing of the U.S.’s request. What’s more, Mr. Yuen added, attempts to process the U.S. request were further complicated by the fact that the U.S. didn’t specify any passport number for Mr. Snowden in its documents.

Mr. Yuen’s comments come after the U.S. blasted Hong Kong and Chinese authorities for allowing Mr. Snowden to leave the Chinese territory aboard a flight to seek political refuge overseas. Mr. Snowden’s location is currently unknown. Reports have said he is headed for Ecuador.

Mr. Yuen said that Hong Kong authorities had asked for clarification on Friday, June 21, but had yet to get any reply by the time Mr. Snowden chose to leave the city on an international flight on Sunday morning.

“Until the minute of Snowden’s departure, the U.S. government hadn’t yet replied to our requests for clarification,” he said. “Hong Kong’s government had no legal basis to block his departure,” Mr. Yuen said. “Any suggestion that we have been deliberately letting Mr. Snowden go away or to do any other things to obstruct the normal operation is totally untrue.”

With the majority of Hong Kong's population considering Snowden some type of hero for exposing the extent of the Obama administration's  domestic and international spying, Hong Kong officials were most likely looking for a reason to make the apprehension of Snowden totally the responsibility of the U.S. with no appearance of helping them do so.

As far as China is concerned, Snowden and the U.S. are now Russia's problem, and as was reported yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, has made it clear that it is his position that Snowden “has not committed any crime” on Russian soil, is a "free person, " who is "entitled to buy a ticket and fly to wherever he wants."

In the meantime, Snowden appears to be stuck in the Moscow airport without a valid passport to buy a ticket, yet no one has been able to catch sight of him or get a picture of him, to prove he is even there at all.

Although dozens of Moscow-based journalists have been staked out at the airport since Sunday, not a single image of Snowden has surfaced.

A receptionist at the Air Express Capsule Hotel in Terminal E of Sheremetyevo Airport told RIA-Novosti that Snowden had in fact spent several hours in one of the suites, “but left a long time ago.”

Several journalists attempted to make contact with Snowden during his stay at the hotel, but were unsuccessful, the hotel employee continued. 

At this point it almost seems as if Russia, China, Snowden and Wikileaks officials, who are helping Snowden, are all enjoying watching Obama chase his own tail.