US-UK governments spying on millions of people

This video from the USA says about itself:

12 June 2013

Edward Snowden’s decision to leak a trove of secret documents outlining the NSA’s surveillance program has elicited a range of reactions. Among his detractors, he’s been called “a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison,” (Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker), who’s committed “an act of treason,” (Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate intelligence committee).

To supporters, Snowden is a hero for showing that “our very humanity [is] being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe,” (author Douglas Rushkoff), one whom President Obama should “thank and offer him a job as a White House technology advisor,” (American Conservative editor Scott McConnell).

We host a debate with two guests: Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at the Nation Institute and former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times; and Geoffrey Stone, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Stone served as an informal advisor to President Obama in 2008, years after hiring him to teach constitutional law.

By Eric London:

Communications of millions subject to US-UK spying

22 June 2013

Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed on Friday that the UK intelligence agency GCHQ and the NSA record the content of phone calls, email messages, Facebook posts and browser histories of tens of millions of people. By tapping into fiber-optic cables—the infrastructure through which all Internet traffic must pass—the two agencies have created a systematic procedure for procuring, filtering and storing private communications.

The leak is the latest in a series that have left the US and UK governments scurrying to cover up their deeply antidemocratic maneuvers with scripted lies. It comes one day after the release of secret FISA Court documents showing the NSA has almost complete latitude to monitor the communications of US residents (See, “NSA monitoring US communications without a warrant, documents show”)

Hours after the release of the latest documents, the US government announced that it was filing charges against Snowden under the Espionage Act, which contains a possible penalty of execution.

Longtime sources have stopped talking to the Associated Press in response to the Obama administration’s secret seizure of the wire service’s phone records, said AP president Gary Pruitt on Wednesday during a speech at the National Press Club: here.

British government moves to censor media coverage of spying operations: here.

What the US spy scandal means for Australians: here.

Nancy Pelosi Booed, Heckled Over Edward Snowden, NSA Comments At Netroots Nation 2013: here.

Germany: The government said yesterday that it is seeking information from Britain on a report that British spies are running an online eavesdropping operation so vast it outstrips the US internet surveillance effort.

Related articles

• Snowden: The U.K.’s spying operation is worse than PRISM (dailydot.com)
• The UK Government Has a Massive Internet Spying Programme (gizmodo.co.uk)
• If Obama Wants No More Snowdens, He Should Stop Spying and Assassinating, Says WikiLeaks (reason.com)
• FOCUS | Edward Snowden’s Ordeal Is Just Beginning (readersupportednews.org)