15 May 2014
NSA Customs Cross-Border Implant Program
Related: CIA/NSA Special Collection Service:
http://cryptome.org/cia-nsa-scs.htm
http://cryptome.org/2013/10/cia-nsa-scs.htm
NSA slide on implanting becons (via Glenn Greenwald
release,
p. 149):
From: Wayne Madsen <waynemadsendc[at]hotmail.com>
Subject: For publication
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 11:09:15 -0400
To: <jya[at]cryptome.net>
The author of "No Place to Hide" Glenn Greenwald was asked by Amy Goodman
on "Democracy Now" what the term "Customs" meant in relation to NSA's placement
of "implants" into computer systems.
"AMY GOODMAN: Customs?
GLENN GREENWALD: Yeah, I'm not sure what that is, actually. We've asked several
experts. It could be, you know, some tactic that people aren't aware of."
There are those who are, unlike Greenwald, totally aware of what is meant
by Customs. Greenwald insists on sitting on his alleged cache of hundreds
of thousands of classified documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden. "Customs"
is a serious program. It means that every time someone crosses a border posting
and is asked to hand over their laptop computers, smart phones, or other
devices to the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) personnel, there is a risk of NSA installing implants that
can later "beacon" data to NSA capture points. This is why ICE says it has
the authority to hold devices at border crossings indefinitely. The revelation
also means that the diplomatic pouch privileges traditionally afforded embassy
and other diplomatic personnel are likely being routinely breached during
the transit of pouches on planes and ships.
Former NSA/CIA Special Collection Service employee Snowden knows what Customs
means. Why wasn't he one of the "experts" consulted by Greenwald and
the First Looker team?
Greenwald and his Pierre Omidyar-funded colleagues routinely redact information
from NSA documents obtained from Snowden. Who determined what redactions
are made? Have any First Lookers ever served as a national security information
Original Classification Authority? It is doubtful.
In addition, Greenwald constantly downplays the culpability of corporations
in NSA spying. Greenwald has made no secret of his libertarian leanings and
his belief that government is inherently more dangerous than corporations.
This was made quite obvious in his interview with Goodman:
". . . what the NSA will do, whenever it decides that it wants to, is, once
somebody orders a product from Cisco, Cisco then ships it to that person;
the NSA physically intercepts the package, takes it from FedEx or from the
U.S. mail service, brings it back to NSA headquarters, opens up the package,
and plants a backdoor device on one of these devices, reseals it with a factory
seal and then sends it on to the unwitting user, who then provides Internet
service to large numbers of people, all of which is instantly redirected
into the repositories of the NSA."
AMY GOODMAN: So, they get the Cisco routerwith the knowledge or without
the knnowledge of Cisco?
GLENN GREENWALD: It's unclear. There's certainly no evidence that Cisco
knows about this or participates in it. [emphasis added] They could
be an unwitting victim. [emphasis added] But at the same time, Cisco
is listed as one of the NSA's strategic partners, so they certainly cooperate
in some way with the NSA. Whether they cooperate on this specific program
or are victimized by it [emphasis added] is something that we're not
able to discern."
That's total B.S. and Greenwald knows it. His benefactor, Omidyar, founder
of PayPal, is also one of NSA's strategic partners, although Greenwald and
his "journalist" colleagues are loathe to admit it. Greenwald knows that
Cisco is a major partner of NSA and it placed implanted network routers in
the European Parliament twenty years ago. Cisco, like Paypal, is no damned
"victim." Just as Greenwald is no damned "victim." Greenwald is not living
in Brazil to escape the clutches of NSA. Snowden is the only one who is living
in forced exile. Greenwald lives in Brazil because the gay scene in Sao Paulo
and Rio matches up nicely with his gay marriage to a Brazilian national.
No more, no less.
Greenwald is a self-serving charlatan. It would have made much better sense
for Snowden to have passed his documents to John Young of Cryptome or Tony
Bunyan of Britain's Statewatch. Neither would have made deals with the likes
of Omidyar, The Guardian and its weak-kneed sister paper, The
Observer, and the NSA censors.
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