Russia and China crack Snowden Cache

[Shelley]

On June 14, 2015 6:27:18 AM Zenaan Harkness <zen at freedbms.net> wrote:

[Snip]

> Seems like they'd want to keep something like this quiet if their
> > operatives really were in danger.  Jmo.
>
>>> Well, may be not.
>
> <can't resist>Lie back, relax. Now imagine you're 5 years old.</>
>
> Actually, so you have 20 operatives in say North Korea and you need to
> contact them urgently so they know their holiday picture taking is
> over and must return post haste, since their holiday cover is about to
> be blown - how do you contact them without personally contacting them,
> to maximise their safety?
>
> Is a daily Tor sign in the best idea for operatives in other
> countries? Of course for those who do their daily Tor duty, they
> presumably will be notified.
>
> So perhaps just reading the daily newspaper from the country from
> which you're officially on holiday from? "Oh, there's some
> international spy scandal going on, think we better leave now dear,
> since we foreigners might be targetted regardless - how about an
> opportunistic trip South?"


You do raise a valid point (and I enjoy "explain it like I'm five!")  It's 
an angle I hadn't considered; I should wait to reply until I'm not in the 
throes of insomnia ;)

The larger points, which occurred after I'd already hit 'send':  where did 
they get this 'cache'?  (Snowden insists he released what he had to 
Greenwald/Poitras et al in HK, and until proven otherwise I choose to 
believe him.)  Sure, I guess he could have been blackmailed / rubberhosed...

And the TLAs whine loudly about being thwarted by encryption, when they 
themselves have weakened EC anyway, and Russia/China have decrypted it but 
not the US?!  Why would they even admit to that...

I can't put my finger on it, and I'll readily admit I'm biased in that I 
don't trust the five eyes or their propaganda at all, but there is just 
something "off" about this whole thing.

-S