The daily dose of attention getting in the Snowden cult has brought the shocking information that the major intelligence branches of the U.S. and British governments have made enormous strides in breaking encryption. That that should be shocking is rather shocking in the British and Anglophile TV viewers of the U.S. who make up such a large percentage of our soi disant educated classes who are the ones who are being so regularly shocked on cue is rather shocking. Didn't they watch all of those BBC based Nova and Masterpiece shows about Alan Turing and the others at Bletchley? And they didn't have access to anything like modern computers. The uniqueness of Turing's genius would seem to be unlikely, though I've had someone recently express skepticism that there could be anything like a Chinese Turing, assuming that a country containing a significant percentage of the human population wouldn't have someone approaching his abilities. Which could make an interesting blog post in itself.
One of the things I've been assured of while raising the near certainty that the Chinese and Russian governments had whatever data that Snowden carried with him was that the Super Snowden's Amazing Powers of Encryption would guard it from them. Leaving aside the ability of those two governments to force him to give them the keys, presumably Snowden had read the documents that we are to be so shocked about in today's episode of this show. Are we to assume that the Chinese and Russian governments, which are hardly famous for the innocuousness of their intelligence agencies, wouldn't have at least the decryption capability of the British government?
It's too bad that Snowden can't be forced to answer questions about that because it looks like another very good reason to not believe anything that his cult has been saying on the basis of his and his promoters' assurances.
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ReplyDeleteConsidering how he complained that Greenwald originally didn't want to deal with him because encryption was haaarrrrd!, the idea that Greenwald, Poitras or Snowden could beat the encryption-decryption abilities of the various governments and intelligence agencies - among the most extensive and competent in the world is laughable. I get the feeling that Snowden watched too many spy movies or played too many video games. Or that he's what Foust has said, a defector. Greenwald is just holding on to the wagon he hitched his star to. I suspect it's going to crash eventually.
DeleteHave you seen the one and only photo of his rented mansion in Brazil? I wonder if it's really where he is living, not far from a pretty squalid slum. I'd love to have confirmation that's where he's really living or the refutation of that because I'd like to write about it.
The Metropolitan Police, based on what they seized from David Miranda, have surmised Snowden did pretty much what Manning did: scooped up as much as he could get away with, and ran.
ReplyDeleteHe took over 50,000 documents. I don't think there's anyway he had the time to read all of that before he stole it.
I do get a laugh out of the idea that he encrypted his communications with Greenwald.
If Snowden didn't know what he was taking with him, it's certainly one of the most massive cases of irresponsibility in the modern history of espionage. It makes me all the more suspicious that some of the biggest victims of his antics will be Chinese and Russian dissidents who have had contacts in the United States. And if that's the case, then it's only a matter of time before his irresponsibility becomes a real political issue in the United States.
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