Here's What Putin Didn't Tell Snowden About Russia's Spying

[okaawhatever]

"Does Russia intercept, store or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals?" former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

"We don't have a mass system of such interception, and according to our law it cannot exist," the Russian leader responded.

Well, as NPR's Tom Gjelten tweets, the bipartisan Center for Strategic & International Studies has now provided "an actual answer" to Snowden's query.

Here are some excerpts from what the center posted today:

"Three programs, SORM-1, SORM-2, and SORM-3, provide the foundation of Russian mass communications surveillance. Russian law gives Russia's security service, the FSB, the authority to use SORM ('System for Operative Investigative Activities') to collect, analyze and store all data that [are] transmitted or received on Russian networks, including calls, email, website visits and credit card transactions. ...
"Russian law requires all Internet service providers to install an FSB monitoring device (called 'Punkt Upravlenia') on their networks that allows the direct collection of traffic without the knowledge or cooperation of the service provider. ...
"Collection requires a court order, but these are secret and not shown to the service provider. According to the data published by Russia's Supreme Court, almost 540,000 intercepts of phone and internet traffic were authorized in 2012. ...
"SORM is routinely used against political opponents and human rights activists to monitor them and to collect information to use against them in 'dirty tricks' campaigns. Russian courts have upheld the FSB's authority to surveil political opponents even if they have committed no crime. ..."

Continued at Link:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/18/304530695/heres-what-putin-didnt-tell-snowden-about-russias-spying

[Cali_Democrat]

1. So Putin lied to Snowden?

That's utterly shocking....

[1000words]

2. You expected full disclosure?

What was the lie the NSA told when initially asked the same question?

[joshcryer]

4. Huh? Putin flat out lied.

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Full disclosure from Putin? Of course not.

Snowden was used by Putin as a propaganda tool on Russian state TV. Snowden is essentially assisting, willingly or not, in the legitimization of the Russian surveillance state which monitors the communications of Russian citizens....all this while denouncing NSA surveillance.

Mission accomplished for Putin.

What's even more pathetic is Snowden's op-ed he wrote where he claimed to be holding Putin's feet to the fire. I don't know how anyone could have read that while keeping a straight face.

[TroglodyteScholar]

3. Snowden's part of propaganda now whether it was his intention or not

No way to know whether he was coerced. But the natural action for an "information longs to be free" type of person would be to write these SORM-X programs into the question. But somehow that wasn't the case, and Putin took the opportunity to state an outright lie that went unchallenged as far as the people of Russia are concerned.

[2naSalit]

6. Just like

it's done here.

What's all the fuss about?

[HipChick]

7. So basically Snowden is an idiot

and a toy of Putin?

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Comrade got played? Quelle Surprise! The whole world's laughing at his dumb ass.

Well, at least those of us on planet earth. His diehard supporters, however, are in a whole different galaxy.

[JDPriestly]

9. Figured the truth would come out. Thanks to Snowden for forcing Snowden to either lie or

admit the truth. Thanks to NPR for pointing out the truth. Of course, if you listened carefully, Putin used weasel words to avoid really lying while not admitting the truth either, just hoodwinking ordinary people who can't understand weasel words.