Gen. Dempsey: It ‘Wouldn’t Surprise Me’ If Russians, Chinese Have Obtained Snowden’s NSA Secrets

[Purveyor]

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Russian and Chinese governments had already acquired classified American information allegedly taken by Edward Snowden while he was working as a government contractor for the National Security Agency.

“No, it wouldn’t surprise me, ” Dempsey told ABC’s Martha Raddatz during an interview for “This Week,” saying earlier that that amount of information in Snowden’s possession was “obviously significant.”

Snowden is reported to be carrying 4 laptops with NSA secrets. He was granted one-year asylum this week in Russia after being holed up in a Moscow airport since late June, where he had arrived from Hong Kong. While he was in Hong Kong he revealed himself as the person who had leaked information about NSA surveillance programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Asked by Raddatz if it would be feasible for either the Russians or Chinese to obtain the information on one of Snowden’s computers without physically possessing it, Dempsey said he was unsure.

more...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/08/gen-martin-dempsey-it-wouldnt-surprise-me-if-russians-chinese-have-obtained-snowdens-nsa-secrets/?google_editors_picks=true

Only thing that would 'surprise me' is if they didn't...

[dkf]

1. Speculation from someone who obviously has no clue.

[frazzled]

2. As opposed to speculation from random members of this board

who really have no clues; mostly just vague repetitive incantations about "freedom" and a lot of fear-mongering.

[karynnj]

3. I suspect that he has been briefed by many security experts in government and out

Here he is NOT stating as fact that the information has been compromised, but stating it is very possible.

[FarPoint]

4. I had the same thoughts.

We would do the same if the situation was reversed.

[pnwmom]

8. The Chinese newspaper published information that came from documents they got from Snowden.

Snowden claimed the newspaper's account was wrong -- that he didn't give them the information so he must have been hacked.

Is he lying or did he voluntarily give China the information about our spying on them?

http://www.montereyherald.com/opinion/ci_23793990/los-angeles-times-snowden-should-be-prosecuted-but

Another consideration in the Snowden case is that not all of his revelations involved the collection of personal information about Americans. Snowden also gave the Guardian a document showing that the NSA had intercepted the communications of then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a Group of 20 summit in London in 2009. And Snowden revealed in an interview the specific dates and the IP addresses of computers in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland that had been hacked by the NSA over four years.

Disclosing intelligence operations directed at foreign countries does nothing to protect Americans' privacy, and it doesn't seem to us like whistleblowing.

[dkf]

9. It may not seem to them like whistleblowing but it sure works for me.

As far as I'm concerned we are committing acts against all the citizens of the world. Shame on us.

I have no interest in making all civilians the world over captive to our ability to spy on them for who knows what nefarious reasons. I don't trust our spy agencies especially since we have no idea what they are up to.

[pnwmom]

10. China steals intellectual property from us routinely. That costs American businesses billions

and denies jobs to Americans. As far as I'm concerned, we're perfectly within our rights to defend ourselves against that.

[dkf]

11. And how does spying on everyone else prevent that? What a BS excuse.

Maybe we should work on trying to prevent anyone from spying including the Chinese.

[pnwmom]

12. We spy on them in part to try to figure out how they're hacking into OUR systems.

And to try to prevent them from doing so.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d18f1e6a-ef97-11e2-a237-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2b4Z5kgCA

China is doing its best to conflate IP theft with the NSA’s listening. But aside from the use of internet tools to further their ends, these programmes and issues are otherwise unrelated. One represents the international theft of inventions as part of a national business model; the other is intended to promote national security. There is no evidence yet of any kind that the nations implicated by Mr Snowden in snooping have used their systems to undermine the economies of other nations or to gain a competitive commercial advantage.

The US and its allies have generally employed spies because they are charged with protecting and defending their countries against aggressors. Their success, in broad terms, is measured by a reduction in successful attacks. Certainly, they can and do escape accountability and become overzealous. But countries steal IP for baser, less defensible reasons: to make money and to gain an international economic advantage against their competitors.

In the post-information age, the global economy is driven by technology, and IP is its primary asset class. Wealth is the result of invention, and those individuals, companies or countries desiring wealth must obtain it by either inventing or stealing those inventions. Nations in this new information economy find themselves in one of two businesses: robbing others’ “information banks” or protecting their own. A successful IP theft or protection strategy can mean jobs lost and gained, middle classes destroyed and created and military power shifted.

Japan was the first post-second world war practitioner of this new “information mercantilism”. The country’s real growth in wealth came during the 1970s – in part from the theft of other nations’ IP. This activity included the transfer of secrets surrounding the design and manufacture of at least four leading US technologies: television, DRAM memory chips, video recording and playback, and speciality steel production – which resulted in legal action under the US Trade Act against the country.

SNIP

[Mojorabbit]

5. There is that four laptop thing again. Good grief. nt

[delrem]

6. It does seem majorly stupid, doesn't it?

Mixed with the major stupid idea that Snowden has to carry the files with him physically.

But hey, I hear that the US just declared a major brown alert, the biggest alert since 9/11 (wow!), based on NSA work! So be afraid. Be very afraid.

[AppleBottom]

7. Hitting new lows with their propaganda campaign.

Ooohhh the shame.

[Pelican]

13. Pay to play...

You wanna stay? Then they are going to ask for something in return.

[AgingAmerican]

14. It wouldn't surprise me if Putin spent 12 hours a day in drag

nt

[Waiting For Everyman]

15. Since 1.5 million people have top secret clearances, how would he know

(assuming his assumption is true) if info came from Snowden or another one of those employees that he never heard of? This is logical bullshit. The "community" is dysfunctional by design.

Yeah, I would assume too, with that many clearances, that the Russians and Chinese have that info. But it's a big, unjustified leap to assume that it came from Snowden. If the community thought before Snowden that its secrets were secret, they are kidding themselves.