I just finished the reading of "Permanent record" by Edward Snowden, its autobiographic book.
I find it interesting because it is revealing the atmosphere in US before and after 9/11, and the state of mind of Snowden and NSA in that period.
The book becomes interesting when Edward Snowden discovers the internet in the '90.
Being anonymous on internet allowed him a teenager to interact with older and wiser people from universities.
He summarise his experience in the following phrase that I quote from memory: "so what if you were older and stronger than me ? In internet we are all equals and it matters who is smarter"
It makes you wonder:
With instant access to information what value have the knowledge of old people ?
Old people have social skill and patience, their social network precedes the birth of current contestants, no wonder that most leaders have above 40 ears of age.
If the strength would not matter why people are fleeing Afganistan, Syria and Africa ?
In a society where is no violence and humans rights are respected physical strength doesn't matter.
A school girl like Greta Thunberg could protest in XXI Sweden but not in viking era, where the size did matter in hand to hand combat.
Snowden deplores the fact that Internet transformed from a platform where people exchanged ideas , in a place in which money are extracted and fake news are spread.
The Internet is based on cables,servers, electricity and this doesn't pay for it self. The entering of business extended this network, and allowed thousand of new economical possibilities.
Without internet thousand of young Asians, east Europeans, Africans, south Americans would be unemployed because the outsource and software business would not exists.
Snowden then describes how he started to hack internet sites while his parents divorced.
He says something interesting: When something new is created, the one who creates cannot foresee its effects.
For example: a colony of termites constructs a mound but this has as side effect attracting apes who are eating termites. Termites create the mound to protect but they concentrate and attract other predators.
Other examples unintended consequences: NSA needed cyber experts, it outsourced this to different companies who brought young idealists like Snowden in contact with its secrets.
The first contact he had with goverment was when as teenager he entered on the Los Alamos Laboratory site and read a lot of private documents.After some effort we convinced the site admin to fix the issues.
It seems that US administration have a chronic problem with security.
Snowden as a teenager entered in Los Alamos Nuclear laboratory site and read a lot of private information.
Then at 18-19 years of age he as civilian we worked on premises of Fort Meade without clearance. Then at 27 years he runaway with documents from an NSA compound in Hawaii.
He seems that he has a privacy problem also:
In the book he details the infatuation that he had for his boss in 2001, a married woman, and how he lived 9/11 attacks.
Serious Mr. Snowden ? You preach privacy but you disclose details that could affect the life of a married woman ?
After 9/11 he joined the army despite his fathers advice. He was disappointed and he was released on medical grounds.
Then he joined CIA in order to be a kind of Q in IT, but in more dangerous places.
He enters in conflict with his superiors because he demands better living conditions. During training they were living in a shitty motel with a broken stair who finally collapsed.
After demanding to his superior to fix the accommodation, and not receiving an answer he escalated the issue to higher echelons.But instead of receiving an answer for his demands we was reprimanded because he didn't used the hierarchical channels.
So Snowden a white middle class american man, raised in spirit of constitution, who believes that the people rule and politicians are servants of public interests, and you can make a petition and the problem is analysed, was reprimanded because he used his rights.
As punishment he is dispatched to Geneva not where he wanted: Afghanistan.
In this way he was separated by envy from his former colleagues who all wanted an European post.
It seems that is a CIA tradition to be cheap with new recruits, former CIA chief of operation for Europe Tyler Drumheller recounts on his book: 'On brink' how in 1975 when he was recruited he received a 250$ check with which he could buy only one suit.
In same book Tyler Drumheller says that during Bush Jr. administration (2001-2009) CIA was very politicised, being ruled effectively by Dick Chenney and it mattered more political obedience than the professionalism.. (Maybe Cheney's politics trickle down to Snowden superiors?)
Tyler Drumheller says that Bush administration tried to change privacy laws in Western Europe. In same time NSA widen its dragnet.
In Geneva Snowden recalls how difficult it was for CIA to hide its searches online. It has to spend money to make a front company in order to search on internet some scientist.
It seemed that CIA was lagging behind NSA in terms of technology and importance. In his own words Edward Snowden said that it was easier to infect the computer of a target and stole the informations unknowingly than to try to bribe him. So NSA tools we cheaper and safer than the ones of CIA. He describes how CIA agents hurried and failed to recruit a Saudi official.
The suspense part is when he works for NSA in Hawaii
He is overworked and starts to have epileptic seizures.
He finds out about the desire of NSA to put on permanent record every information about a person in pure Chinese style. He says that by mistake he have found a file that describes everything.
He explains the rationale behind the intercepting communication of american civilians: the terrorists hid within a population, US must prevent another 9/11 we must intercept all persons of interest and the persons who are related. Within this dragnet also US citizens personal information can be collected breaking the constitutional right. it seems that 9/11 was the excuse for invading Iraq and spy US citizens.
He decides to tell to the media, and searches for a safe heaven far from US but not controlled by China or Russia. The only place is Hong Kong.
The most thrilling part is we he gets away with the SD cards full of information and then he waits 10 days in his hotel chamber for journalists.
He tried to reach Ecuador but is trapped on Moscow. His passport his cancelled but can use a UN refugee passport given by Ecuador.
He waits 44 days in airport eating burgers and refusing offers from FSB.
What is the fuss with privacy ?
Personal information modifies the our social image and determines the social alliances that we can have. More friends we have more powerful we are.
The Catholic Church controlled its believers using the guilt for the original sin, and guilt of the priests who broke their celibacy sermon.
Only catholic church could redeem your should and forgive your sins and welcome you in middle of community.
The sins of the clergy were tolerated because a vulnerable priest could be punished easily.
A holy man as Jan Hus was more dangerous to the church hierarchy than a Borgia.
The actual masters of digital information control are doing the same, they can forget Justin Trudeau sins and present him as an exemplary who welcomes brown refugees from Syria, or they excommunicate him and show a picture in which Trudeau is dressed as Aladin and with face painted brown.
Justin next time respond to the phone.
In this world only children as Greta Thunberg can change something, because they don't have a past, they don't have children to fed, they don't have a job to attend to. They are generous and hopeful.
But even children as Greta can be denigrated: in purest soviet style her speeches and actions are dismissed as actions of a deranged girl with Asperger and depression.
What is worse to be mentally ill and fight for a good cause ? Or sane and work for evil politicians and CEO as a pen for hire?
The solution to avoid mobbing and shaming is to forgive as it is said in prayer "Our father":
"
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen."
If we don't forgive others online trespasses ours won't be forgiven.
If we forgive the mistakes of the people and we don't became tribal, the leaking of personal information won't have any effect.
Conclusion:
After Snowden affair, the future has 2 possibilities either will be a world like in novel "We" by Evgeni Zamiatin , where people lived in transparent houses and everything was monitored and controlled either it will be a world in which we will use encryption more often and we will forgive more.
Regarding encryption: US Navy Intelligence developed free Tor browser to cloak internet traffic, Snowden exposed flaws used by NSA to spy.
People don't foresee consequences when they are doing something: those who tried to spy supply you with tools for self defence.
It seems that entropy wins every time.
I find it interesting because it is revealing the atmosphere in US before and after 9/11, and the state of mind of Snowden and NSA in that period.
The book becomes interesting when Edward Snowden discovers the internet in the '90.
Being anonymous on internet allowed him a teenager to interact with older and wiser people from universities.
He summarise his experience in the following phrase that I quote from memory: "so what if you were older and stronger than me ? In internet we are all equals and it matters who is smarter"
It makes you wonder:
With instant access to information what value have the knowledge of old people ?
Old people have social skill and patience, their social network precedes the birth of current contestants, no wonder that most leaders have above 40 ears of age.
If the strength would not matter why people are fleeing Afganistan, Syria and Africa ?
In a society where is no violence and humans rights are respected physical strength doesn't matter.
A school girl like Greta Thunberg could protest in XXI Sweden but not in viking era, where the size did matter in hand to hand combat.
Snowden deplores the fact that Internet transformed from a platform where people exchanged ideas , in a place in which money are extracted and fake news are spread.
The Internet is based on cables,servers, electricity and this doesn't pay for it self. The entering of business extended this network, and allowed thousand of new economical possibilities.
Without internet thousand of young Asians, east Europeans, Africans, south Americans would be unemployed because the outsource and software business would not exists.
Snowden then describes how he started to hack internet sites while his parents divorced.
He says something interesting: When something new is created, the one who creates cannot foresee its effects.
For example: a colony of termites constructs a mound but this has as side effect attracting apes who are eating termites. Termites create the mound to protect but they concentrate and attract other predators.
Other examples unintended consequences: NSA needed cyber experts, it outsourced this to different companies who brought young idealists like Snowden in contact with its secrets.
The first contact he had with goverment was when as teenager he entered on the Los Alamos Laboratory site and read a lot of private documents.After some effort we convinced the site admin to fix the issues.
It seems that US administration have a chronic problem with security.
Snowden as a teenager entered in Los Alamos Nuclear laboratory site and read a lot of private information.
Then at 18-19 years of age he as civilian we worked on premises of Fort Meade without clearance. Then at 27 years he runaway with documents from an NSA compound in Hawaii.
He seems that he has a privacy problem also:
In the book he details the infatuation that he had for his boss in 2001, a married woman, and how he lived 9/11 attacks.
Serious Mr. Snowden ? You preach privacy but you disclose details that could affect the life of a married woman ?
After 9/11 he joined the army despite his fathers advice. He was disappointed and he was released on medical grounds.
Then he joined CIA in order to be a kind of Q in IT, but in more dangerous places.
He enters in conflict with his superiors because he demands better living conditions. During training they were living in a shitty motel with a broken stair who finally collapsed.
After demanding to his superior to fix the accommodation, and not receiving an answer he escalated the issue to higher echelons.But instead of receiving an answer for his demands we was reprimanded because he didn't used the hierarchical channels.
So Snowden a white middle class american man, raised in spirit of constitution, who believes that the people rule and politicians are servants of public interests, and you can make a petition and the problem is analysed, was reprimanded because he used his rights.
As punishment he is dispatched to Geneva not where he wanted: Afghanistan.
In this way he was separated by envy from his former colleagues who all wanted an European post.
It seems that is a CIA tradition to be cheap with new recruits, former CIA chief of operation for Europe Tyler Drumheller recounts on his book: 'On brink' how in 1975 when he was recruited he received a 250$ check with which he could buy only one suit.
In same book Tyler Drumheller says that during Bush Jr. administration (2001-2009) CIA was very politicised, being ruled effectively by Dick Chenney and it mattered more political obedience than the professionalism.. (Maybe Cheney's politics trickle down to Snowden superiors?)
Tyler Drumheller says that Bush administration tried to change privacy laws in Western Europe. In same time NSA widen its dragnet.
In Geneva Snowden recalls how difficult it was for CIA to hide its searches online. It has to spend money to make a front company in order to search on internet some scientist.
It seemed that CIA was lagging behind NSA in terms of technology and importance. In his own words Edward Snowden said that it was easier to infect the computer of a target and stole the informations unknowingly than to try to bribe him. So NSA tools we cheaper and safer than the ones of CIA. He describes how CIA agents hurried and failed to recruit a Saudi official.
The suspense part is when he works for NSA in Hawaii
He is overworked and starts to have epileptic seizures.
He finds out about the desire of NSA to put on permanent record every information about a person in pure Chinese style. He says that by mistake he have found a file that describes everything.
He explains the rationale behind the intercepting communication of american civilians: the terrorists hid within a population, US must prevent another 9/11 we must intercept all persons of interest and the persons who are related. Within this dragnet also US citizens personal information can be collected breaking the constitutional right. it seems that 9/11 was the excuse for invading Iraq and spy US citizens.
He decides to tell to the media, and searches for a safe heaven far from US but not controlled by China or Russia. The only place is Hong Kong.
The most thrilling part is we he gets away with the SD cards full of information and then he waits 10 days in his hotel chamber for journalists.
He tried to reach Ecuador but is trapped on Moscow. His passport his cancelled but can use a UN refugee passport given by Ecuador.
He waits 44 days in airport eating burgers and refusing offers from FSB.
What is the fuss with privacy ?
Personal information modifies the our social image and determines the social alliances that we can have. More friends we have more powerful we are.
The Catholic Church controlled its believers using the guilt for the original sin, and guilt of the priests who broke their celibacy sermon.
Only catholic church could redeem your should and forgive your sins and welcome you in middle of community.
The sins of the clergy were tolerated because a vulnerable priest could be punished easily.
A holy man as Jan Hus was more dangerous to the church hierarchy than a Borgia.
The actual masters of digital information control are doing the same, they can forget Justin Trudeau sins and present him as an exemplary who welcomes brown refugees from Syria, or they excommunicate him and show a picture in which Trudeau is dressed as Aladin and with face painted brown.
Justin next time respond to the phone.
In this world only children as Greta Thunberg can change something, because they don't have a past, they don't have children to fed, they don't have a job to attend to. They are generous and hopeful.
But even children as Greta can be denigrated: in purest soviet style her speeches and actions are dismissed as actions of a deranged girl with Asperger and depression.
What is worse to be mentally ill and fight for a good cause ? Or sane and work for evil politicians and CEO as a pen for hire?
The solution to avoid mobbing and shaming is to forgive as it is said in prayer "Our father":
"
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen."
If we don't forgive others online trespasses ours won't be forgiven.
If we forgive the mistakes of the people and we don't became tribal, the leaking of personal information won't have any effect.
Conclusion:
After Snowden affair, the future has 2 possibilities either will be a world like in novel "We" by Evgeni Zamiatin , where people lived in transparent houses and everything was monitored and controlled either it will be a world in which we will use encryption more often and we will forgive more.
Regarding encryption: US Navy Intelligence developed free Tor browser to cloak internet traffic, Snowden exposed flaws used by NSA to spy.
People don't foresee consequences when they are doing something: those who tried to spy supply you with tools for self defence.
It seems that entropy wins every time.
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