Snowden to Brazil: Swap you spying help for asylum

Edward Snowden has written an "open letter to the people of Brazil" offering to assist Brazil's government investigate allegations of U.S. spying, but on the condition that the South American nation grant him political asylum.

The letter was published Tuesday in Brazil's Folha newspaper.

"I've expressed my willingness to assist where it's appropriate and legal, but, unfortunately, the U.S. government has been working hard to limit my ability to do so," the letter says.

Snowden to Brazil

"Until a country grants me permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak out," Snowden adds.

He says that, "Many Brazilian senators agree and asked me to help their investigations into suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens."

The Snowden letter was published one day after a U.S. district judge ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records likely violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on unreasonable search.


One would think that the Intel Snowden has against the U.S. spying illegal activities, would be worthy of asylum.
Hmmm, curious as to what happens next



Edward Snowden Pens 'Open Letter' Offering To Help Brazil Investigate U.S. Spying

In a letter obtained and published early Tuesday by the respected Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Snowden said he's been impressed by the Brazilian government's strong criticism of the massive NSA spy program targeting Internet and telecommunications around the globe, including monitoring the mobile phone of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

An Open Letter to the People of Brazil

A portion of his letter:

Six months ago, I stepped out from the shadows of the United States Government's National Security Agency to stand in front of a journalist's camera.

I shared with the world evidence proving some governments are building a world-wide surveillance system to secretly track how we live, who we talk to, and what we say.

I went in front of that camera with open eyes, knowing that the decision would cost me family and my home, and would risk my life. I was motivated by a belief that the citizens of the world deserve to understand the system in which they live.

My greatest fear was that no one would listen to my warning. Never have I been so glad to have been so wrong. The reaction in certain countries has been particularly inspiring to me, and Brazil is certainly one of those.

At the NSA, I witnessed with growing alarm the surveillance of whole populations without any suspicion of wrongdoing, and it threatens to become the greatest human rights challenge of our time.

The NSA and other spying agencies tell us that for our own "safety"-for Dilma's "safety," for Petrobras' "safety"-they have revoked our right to privacy and broken into our lives. And they did it without asking the public in any country, even their own.

Today, if you carry a cell phone in Sao Paolo, the NSA can and does keep track of your location: they do this 5 billion times a day to people around the world.

When someone in Florianopolis visits a website, the NSA keeps a record of when it happened and what you did there. If a mother in Porto Alegre calls her son to wish him luck on his university exam, NSA can keep that call log for five years or more.

They even keep track of who is having an affair or looking at pornography, in case they need to damage their target's reputation.

American Senators tell us that Brazil should not worry, because this is not "surveillance," it's "data collection." They say it is done to keep you safe. They're wrong.

There is a huge difference between legal programs, legitimate spying, legitimate law enforcement - where individuals are targeted based on a reasonable, individualized suspicion - and these programs of dragnet mass surveillance that put entire populations under an all-seeing eye and save copies forever.

These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power.

^^^^May read more at the link above ^^^^

reply to post by snarky412


Ha! He just read about the beaches, the ladies, and Carnivale!!!

I, too, will swap what I know, for an all-expenses paid month in Brasil during....Carnivale!!!

But how do we know this is even Snowden, and not just a guy writing in the newspaper office making up a story to sell papers? Would Snowden write an "open letter" to the people of Brasil, or would he just contact who he needed to contact through private conversation.

Aleister
reply to post by snarky412

 

Ha! He just read about the beaches, the ladies, and Carnivale!!!

I, too, will swap what I know, for an all-expenses paid month in Brasil during....Carnivale!!!

That's what I was thinking but didn't post!
Besides warmer weather too!!

But how do we know this is even Snowden, and not just a guy writing in the newspaper office making up a story to sell papers? Would Snowden write an "open letter" to the people of Brasil, or would he just contact who he needed to contact through private conversation.

Could be he wants to keep everything out in the open.
He waited until after the court decision to post the letter

Hi OP. Can you please confirm if the allegations of USA spying on Brazil is related to the following. The Snowden-Brazil connection sounds interesting. What else will happen in the months to come? Being from Asia i'm curious as to how spying over continents via the internet is occuring, especially with names like Google and Yahoo appearing in these reports.

In September 2013 Brazilian television network Globo News released a report based on classified data divulged by former CIA worker Edward Snowden.

m.g1.globo.com...

The report itself blew the whistle on US government spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, but hidden in amongst the data was information the NSA had impersonated Google to get its hands on user data.

Globo TV showed slides from a 2012 NSA presentation explaining how the organization intercepts data and re-routes it to NSA central. One of the convert techniques the NSA uses to do this is a ‘man in the middle’ (MITM) hack attack.

This particular method of intercepting internet communications is quite common among expert hackers as it avoids having to break through encryption.

- Essentially, NSA operatives log into a router used by an internet service provider and divert ‘target traffic’ to a copycat MITM site, whereupon all the data entered is relayed to the NSA.

- The data released by Edward Snowden and reported on by Globo News suggests the NSA carried out these attacks disguised as Google.

When the news broke about the NSA gathering information through internet browsers, tech giants such as Google and Yahoo denied complicity, maintaining they only handover data if a formal request is issued by the government.

The tech giants implicated in NSA’s global spying program have denied criticism that they could have done more to resist NSA spying. Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, claimed that speaking out about the NSA’s activities would have amounted to ‘treason’ at a press conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

In Yahoo’s defense, she argued that the company had been very skeptical of the NSA’s requests to disclose user data and had resisted whenever possible. Mayer concluded that it was more realistic to work within the system,” rather than fight against it.

rt.com...

after he let out the NSA revelations, when everybody said, "gee that sucks." , it left him with his back against the wall. people are mostly apathetic. it's pretty sad.

reply to post by AsianAlienKungFusion

Hi OP. Can you please confirm if the allegations of USA spying on Brazil is related to the following. The Snowden-Brazil connection sounds interesting. What else will happen in the months to come? Being from Asia i'm curious as to how spying over continents via the internet is occuring, especially with names like Google and Yahoo appearing in these reports.

The actual 'how' they did it, I can't say with 100% certainty, but they did get caught spying on both Pres. from Brazil and Mexico, among some others
As far as them impersonating Google to achieve their goal, I wouldn't put it past them and to be honest, I'm not surprised.
And yes, expect more to intel to leak in the near future


Now then, I know you're not from the U.S. but I'm sure you've heard all about the Obamacare fiasco.

Our deceitful government can set up complex spying tricks on our allies, as well as it's citizens, and yet they can't even get the Healthcare site to run right. *shakes head*

I guess we see where their priorities lie.....Gathering Data
All the name of 'terrorism' .........yeah right
*sigh*


Much respect~
snarky

reply to post by snarky412


Thank you for the reply.