Web giants' wield 'irresistible power,' whistleblower Snowden warns

LISBON -- Technology has given internet giants "irresistible power" when they work in concert with governments, Ed Snowden told the Web Summit that opened in Lisbon on Monday.

"When we see government and corporations working in concert... they become the left and right hands of the same body. What we see is the concentration of power," he told the European celebration of startups and new technologies gathering high-tech entrepreneurs and investors.

"If you create an irresistible power... how do you police the expression of that power when it is used against the public rather than for it?" he asked, speaking by video link from Russia where he has lived since 2013.

The US government last month urged tech giants to allow police to read encrypted messages, saying access was essential to prevent serious crime despite privacy concerns.

Snowden has just published a book that lays out his reasons for passing tens of thousands of secret documents to major news organisations in 2013.

The files were compiled while he worked for the US National Security Agency and revealed a dense network of communications and internet scrutiny by the NSA and partner agencies around the world.

Snowden recognized that public awareness is growing over the abuses he has denounced, and he lauded efforts to protect privacy, especially in Europe.

But he told the gathering of some 70,000: "The problem is not data protection, it's data collection" and the blind faith that internet users must have in the internet's masters.

'HYPER-POLITICAL'

The four-day summit is expected to focus on politics and tax issues, as well as new mobilities, medical applications, robotics and crypto currencies, organizers said.

"Tech has become hyper-political," said Paddy Cosgrave, the Irish founder and boss of Europe's biggest tech gathering.

"Increasingly, the front page of newspapers around the world are dominated by issues relating to technology," he told AFP.

Among the main events are discussions on the future of money, cars, medicine, housing, advertising, medias and humans' presence in outer space.

But what has emerged as the leading topic is how high tech has become a crucial factor in the Chinese-US trade war, the monetary power of sovereign governments and the radicalization of social media.

As sector giants continue to face calls for fair taxation or even dismantlement, regulators such as the EU Commission's vice president and competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, are expected to draw a crowd.

Vestager is to close the summit on Thursday, speaking just after Michael Kratsios, who is being sent from the White House to present the US viewpoint on internet taxation and regulation.

Vestager has spearheaded European efforts to get companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to pay more in taxes in countries where they earn large amounts of their profits.

In addition to her post as EU competition chief, the Dane has also now been tasked with overseeing digital activities across the 28-member bloc.

Vestager "is incredibly popular... because she's trying to create a level playing field for innovators in particular in Europe," Cosgrave told AFP.

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA

At another event, former Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser is expected to outline risks to personal data in the run-up to the 2020 US presidential election.

The now defunct data consultancy allegedly hijacked personal data on Facebook users ahead of the 2016 US vote. 

Huawei's rotating chairman Guo Ping is another headliner.

He is likely to call for support from the tech community after the Chinese phone giant was banned from the United States owing to suspicion its systems could be used to collect data for Beijing.

A scheduled address almost certain to raise the issue of internet taxation is by Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is drafting a "unified approach" to a digital tax on internet giants and multinational groups to be presented by June next year.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Snowden says Assange arrest ‘dark moment for press freedom’

MOSCOW—Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden on Thursday slammed the arrest in London of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, calling it a "dark moment for press freedom."

Snowden fled to Russia in 2013 after leaking thousands of classified documents to the media about the US government's extensive surveillance activities.

"Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of -- like it or not -- award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," the former contractor with the US National Security Agency said on Twitter.

"Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," said the fugitive former US government contractor.

Snowden denounced Ecuador's decision to withdraw asylum from Assange, who had been living in its London embassy since 2012.

He called the decision an "extraordinary and very likely unprecedented revocation of what at least the United Nations considers a legitimate grant of asylum."

Like Snowden, Assange remains a polarizing figure, with some calling him a heroic campaigner for openness, while others accuse him of being an enemy of the US trying to avoid justice.

"I don't have to agree with every part of a man's journalism to believe he shouldn't be arrested for it," Snowden wrote in response to criticism of Assange's methods.

Snowden has largely maintained a low profile in Russia after being given refugee status by the authorities.

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U.S. House panel slams former NSA contractor Snowden

WASHINGTON - A U.S congressional intelligence committee on Thursday issued a scathing report accusing former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of leaking information that "caused tremendous damage" to U.S. national security, lying about his background and feuding with co-workers.

In a report endorsed by both its Republican and Democratic leaders, the House intelligence committee said Snowden was "not a whistleblower" as he has claimed.

Most of the material he stole from the NSA was not about invasions of privacy, but revealed intelligence and defense programs of great interest to America's foreign adversaries, it said.

The committee said that while the "full scope" of damage caused by Snowden's disclosures remains unknown, a review of materials he allegedly compromised "makes clear that he handed over secrets that protect American troops overseas and secrets that provide vital defenses against terrorists and nation-states."

The committee released only a four-page summary of what it said was a 36-page investigative report that remains Top Secret, but the summary contained strong words about Snowden's actions and background.

The report contains previously unreported allegations about Snowden and his possible motives for taking government secrets. It alleges that Snowden, who took refuge in Moscow after fleeing to Hong Kong, "was and remains a serial exaggerator and fabricator."

It says his official employment records show that while he claimed to have left U.S. Army basic training because of broken legs, in fact he "washed out because of shin splits." The report says Snowden claimed to have obtained a high-school graduation equivalent, but in fact never did.

It also says he claimed to have worked as a "senior advisor" for the CIA when in fact he was an entry-level computer technician.

While the report says Snowden "stole 1.5 million sensitive documents," other sources who have examined materials he turned over to media outlets say that the total is between 200,000 and 300,000 documents.

Some U.S. officials involved in Snowden-related investigations acknowledge that the U.S. government does not know how many documents Snowden downloaded, and that the 1.5 million figure is an estimate.

The report also disputes Snowden's motives for taking and leaking classified information, saying he got into a "workplace spat" with NSA managers in June 2012 over how to manage computer updates. It says a contracting officer reprimanded him for failing to follow proper grievance procedures, and he began downloading classified information two weeks later.

However, in 2013, Reuters quoted U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the matter as saying that Snowden began downloading such data in April 2012, almost a year earlier than had previously been reported at the time.

The issuance of the House committee report coincided with the release of "Snowden", a movie directed by Oliver Stone that portrays him as a whistleblower and hero. On Wednesday, prominent human rights advocates urged President Barack Obama to pardon Snowden before leaving office in January.

U.S. officials have said Obama is not considering a pardon for Snowden, who is facing U.S. criminal charges for providing classified information to unauthorized persons.

Ben Wizner, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents Snowden, dismissed the House committee report as lacking substance.

Wizner said the report's release a day before the Snowden film opens "is evidence that people in the intelligence community are taking us seriously, that they are concerned that Oliver Stone's movie will help solidify Snowden's image as a true patriot, which he is." (Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting by Dustin Volz; editing by John Walcott and Alan Crosby)

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Snowden film 'CitizenFour' wins top documentary award

LOS ANGELES - "CitizenFour," filmmaker Laura Poitras's documentary about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, was given the top award for best feature by the International Documentary Association on Friday.

The IDA award for "CitizenFour" follows the film's best documentary win at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards this week. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award last month and is among 15 films advancing in the Oscars best documentary race.

"CitizenFour" gives a fly-on-the-wall account of Snowden's tense days in a Hong Kong hotel and encounters with journalists as newspapers published details of NSA programs that gathered data from the Internet activities and phone records of millions of Americans and dozens of world leaders.

U.S. filmmaker Poitras shared a Pulitzer Prize this year for her role in publicizing the Snowden documents. She was awarded IDA's Courage Under Fire award last year for her "conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth."

The IDA, a 30-year-old non-profit organization that aims to support documentary films and culture, also bestowed honors on veteran actor-filmmaker and Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, who was given the career achievement award.

Cable network Show time's "Time of Death" was named best limited series, while best short documentary went to HBO Films' "Tashi and the Monk," about a Buddhist monk and his 5-year-old charge Tashi.

Last year's IDA best feature winner, Jehane Noujaim's "The Square," was nominated for an Oscar this year, losing out to "20 Feet From Stardom."

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Snowden to work for mystery Russian website

MOSCOW - US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden will on Friday start working for a major Russian website, his lawyer said, sparking speculation his new employer could be Russia's largest social network.

Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena declined to give the name of the company but attention centred on VKontakte which is seen as the Russian equivalent of Facebook.

"Edward Snowden will start working at a big Russian company on Friday, November 1. His job will be to support and develop a major Russian website," Kucherena told the Interfax news agency.

The charismatic founder of VKontakte Pavel Durov, often described as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg after the equally youthful Facebook supremo, publicly offered Snowden a post in August.

"We invite Edward Snowden to Saint Petersburg and will be glad if he decides to join the star team of programmers," Durov wrote on his social networking page on the same day as Snowden received asylum in the country.

Twenty-nine-year-old Durov, who co-founded the social networking service in 2006, suggested Snowden could work on "protecting the personal data of millions of our users".

VKontakte, or In Touch, says it has over 100 million users.

VKontakte spokesman Georgy Lobushkin told RIA Novosti news agency he could not comment on speculation that Snowden would work there.

Two other major Russian Internet companies, Mail.Ru Group and Yandex, issued outright denials, saying they had not hired Snowden, RIA Novosti reported.

Snowden spent more than a month in a Moscow airport before receiving a year's temporary asylum August after exposing massive surveillance by the US National Security Agency.

His lawyer has said in interviews that the fugitive is running short of money. So far a supporters' website has raised almost $49,000 in donations.

Snowden willing to 'shed light' on US spying in Germany

Lawyer Kucherena told Interfax that her client would not respond to questions from foreign secret services about US spying which has caused an uproar after revelations of eavesdropping on foreign leaders.

"According to an agreement, while he is in Russia, he cannot reveal secret information," she said, responding to a question on the possibility her client could be questioned over suspected eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel

However German public television ARD reported Thursday that Snowden had met with Green Party lawmaker Christian Strobele in a secret location with two journalists.

"He proved that he knows many things. He is willing in principle to help shed light" on the spying, Strobele told the station.

He added that Snowden declared his willingness "to come to Germany to testify" if the right conditions were in place, or to testify in Russia.

The most recent revelations from intelligence leaked by Snowden came in a Washington Post report alleging that NSA technicians had tapped into Yahoo and Google data centres around the world, winning access to vast amounts of private data.

Wanted for espionage by Washington, Snowden has been living in hiding and keeping off the radar in Moscow with what his lawyer called "small alterations in his appearance."

Popular Russian website Life News published a photograph on Thursday apparently showing Snowden on a boat trip in central Moscow, without glasses and wearing a cloth cap.

The website, which specialises in sensational scoops, said the photograph was taken in September and that it paid 100,000 rubles ($3,122) for the image.

The same website earlier this month published a photograph of Snowden pushing a shopping trolley, later confirmed as authentic by Kucherena.

Life News, which has close contacts with law enforcement officials, said the photograph "proves that the former US agent either lives permanently in Moscow or visits regularly".

A video was released this month showing Snowden meeting four US whistleblowers, who presented him with an award in an unidentified location that appeared to be in Russia.

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Snowden says he took no secret documents to Russia

WASHINGTON - US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden says he did not bring any secret documents with him to Russia when he fled there, ensuring Moscow had no access to the files.

In an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, Snowden said he gave all the classified papers he had obtained to reporters he met in Hong Kong before flying to Moscow, where he later secured asylum.

The former National Security Agency contractor did not take the documents with him "because it wouldn't serve the public interest," Snowden told the Times.

"What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of the materials onward?"

Snowden also insisted he was able to protect the documents from China's spy services because he was familiar with that country's intelligence capabilities through his work as an NSA contractor.

In his job, he had targeted Chinese operations and taught a course on Chinese cyber-counterintelligence.

"There's a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents," he said.

The interview took place last week over several days through encrypted online communications.

US officials and critics of Snowden have expressed concern that the documents in his possession could have fallen into the hands of Russian, Chinese or other potentially hostile foreign intelligence agencies.

Snowden, however, insisted the National Security Agency knew he had not cooperated with Russian or Chinese spies.

"NSA has not offered a single example of damage from the leaks. They haven't said boo about it except 'we think,' 'maybe,' 'have to assume' from anonymous and former officials," Snowden added.

"Not 'China is going dark.' Not 'the Chinese military has shut us out.'"

Snowden also said he never considered defecting while in Hong Kong or Russia, where he has been given asylum for one year.

Snowden said his decision to leak secret documents evolved gradually, and that his doubts about intelligence agencies dated back to his time working for the CIA in Geneva.

He said he clashed with a senior manager when he tried to warn the CIA about a vulnerability in its personnel Web applications.

The episode convinced him that trying to work through the system would only lead to punishment.

The 30-year-old, who faces espionage charges over his bombshell leaks, defended his disclosures as serving the country's interests by sparking a public debate and informing the public about secret surveillance.

"So long as there's broad support amongst a people, it can be argued there's a level of legitimacy even to the most invasive and morally wrong program, as it was an informed and willing decision," Snowden said.

"However, programs that are implemented in secret, out of public oversight, lack that legitimacy, and that's a problem.

"It also represents a dangerous normalization of 'governing in the dark,' where decisions with enormous public impact occur without any public input."

The NSA was not immediately available to comment on Snowden's interview.

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US fumes as Russia grants Snowden asylum

MOSCOW - Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday stepped out of the Moscow airport where he was marooned for over five weeks, after Russia granted him one year's asylum, sparking fury in Washington.

Snowden slipped out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in a cloak-and-dagger operation overseen by his Russian lawyer but unnoticed by the media hordes trying to follow his every move.

The White House said it was "extremely disappointed" that Moscow had given the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor asylum and would now review the need for a US-Russia summit in September.

Snowden, 30, is wanted on felony charges by the United States after leaking sensational details of vast US surveillance programmes, but Russia has refused to extradite him.

The fugitive was whisked away in a taxi to an undisclosed location, leaving his lawyer to reveal that he had received temporary asylum in Russia.

"Snowden has left Sheremetyevo airport. He has just been given a certificate that he has been awarded temporary asylum in Russia for one year," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told AFP.

A spokeswoman for Sheremetyevo confirmed he had left the airport after 2:00 pm (1000 GMT). A grainy still image broadcast by Rossiya 24 television showed a young man with a rucksack -- apparently Snowden -- about to get into a car outside the airport.

In a statement released by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, Snowden thanked Russia for giving him asylum and slammed the administration of US President Barack Obama for having "no respect" for international or domestic law.

"But in the end the law is winning," Snowden said.

'A safe place'

Kucherena, who had held several meetings with Snowden and helped him make his asylum application on July 16, added his new place of residence would be kept secret for security reasons.

"His location is not being made public for security reasons since he is the most pursued man on the planet. He himself will decide where he will go," Kucherena said, adding Snowden was now in a "safe place".

Interviewed by Rossiya 24 television, Kucherena held up a scanned copy of Snowden's asylum certificate. It was issued on July 31, valid until July 31 of 2014, and complete with his fingerprint.

Kucherena said Snowden would eventually emerge into public view and give media interviews but that the fugitive first required an "adaptation course" after so long in the transit zone.

Unspecified "American friends" would assist with the fugitive's security in Russia, he added.

Meanwhile, the founder of Russia's most popular social network VKontakte -- 28-year-old Pavel Durov -- offered Snowden a job as a programmer.

Snowden has been staying in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport north of Moscow since he flew in from Hong Kong on June 23. Until now, he had never formally crossed the Russian border.

'Extremely disappointed'

Russia's decision to award Snowden asylum status came two days after US soldier Bradley Manning was convicted of espionage for passing US secrets to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks, which has supported Snowden, said on Twitter he was still "under the care" of WikiLeaks British staffer Sarah Harrison who flew in with him from Hong Kong and is believed to have been with him ever since.

The White House warned the decision could prompt Obama to cancel a planned visit to Moscow in September for talks with President Vladimir Putin ahead of the Saint Petersburg G20 summit.

"We're extremely disappointed," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "We're evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this."

"This move by the Russian government undermines a long-standing record of law enforcement cooperation," he added.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that a meeting of foreign and defence ministers could also be scrapped.

But she also stressed areas of recent cooperation, adding that Washington and Moscow have "both been very clear that this is an example of something that we want to treat separately, that we don't want it to adversely affect the whole relationship."

Obama himself declined to comment when pressed by reporters in an Oval Office briefing.

Robert Menendez, chairman of the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described the asylum as a "setback" for US-Russia relations.

"Edward Snowden is a fugitive who belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia," he said.

But Putin's foreign policy advisor Yury Ushakov rapidly sought to limit the potential diplomatic damage.

"This situation is rather insignificant and should not influence political relations between Russia and the US," Ushakov said.

The Russian strongman has so far made no comment. As the news of Snowden's flight from the airport broke, Putin was holding a meeting on military cooperation with the visiting president of Tajikistan.

Analyst Steven Pifer of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, recommended a moderate response from the US.

"I'm not sure that pushing back really hard is going to help," said Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine.

"We don't know what motivated this particular decision by the Russians now, but Putin has shown that he reacts very badly to threats."

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US left helpless as Snowden takes flight

WASHINGTON - US threats that China and Russia face "consequences" if leaker Edward Snowden evades capture may prove just hot air, experts say, with Washington powerless in a game of cat-and-mouse.

Left red-faced after Snowden brazenly waltzed out of Hong Kong bound for Moscow at the weekend even after his passport was apparently canceled, US officials have angrily called on Russia to hand him over for trial.

President Barack Obama said Washington was using every legal channel to apprehend the former technician and the self-confessed source of explosive leaks detailing the extent of covert US phone and Internet surveillance.

Just two weeks after Obama cozied up with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a summit in California, White House spokesman Jay Carney lashed out at Beijing for letting Snowden go despite US extradition requests.

"We are just not buying that this was a technical decision by a Hong Kong immigration official," Carney said.

"This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the US-China relationship."

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has branded Snowden a traitor, warned of consequences to US-Sino and US-Russian ties saying it was "deeply troubling" if requests for his extradition were ignored.

But in reality, experts say there is little that Washington can do to force Moscow to return Snowden or even to persuade Ecuador and Venezuela, both possible places of refuge, to deny him shelter.

"I am skeptical," acknowledged Michael O'Hanlon, director of research for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, saying that "the United States will not have an interest in any kind of major retaliation."

While he told AFP he did not approve of Snowden's actions, he added: "I am not convinced this rises to a major security revelation or crisis and I am not convinced that Russia and China have done anything out of the ordinary with normal protocol."

With major international problems from Syria to Iran on the global agenda, the US might just be unwilling to see the Snowden affair explode into a full-blown diplomatic crisis.

US officials said Monday afternoon Snowden was believed to be still holed up in Moscow, as top officials including US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul and senior FBI leaders worked frantically to win his arrest.

"The fact that he is now in Moscow and did not get on the airplane for Cuba tells me that the old KGB officer -- now president of Russia, Putin -- is directing the show," said US Senator Bill Nelson.

Nelson added that he imagined that Vladimir Putin was probably "giving orders to milk him for every piece of information that he has."

"If he really doesn't have anything, then I think the president of Russia is going to decide whether or not he wants to have a good relationship with the United States and might allow him to be extradited to the US," he said.

Their pride somewhat bruised, US officials have noted that Snowden appears to be seeking refuge in countries not known for their freedom of speech.

"There is a certain irony here, of course, that somebody who says that he's about freedom of the Internet and freedom of information, of course, would seek out some of these countries in particular," said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

"You don't see him standing up for the free flow of information in some of these countries that don't always have that."

And certainly nations like Ecuador and Venezuela, which have prickly ties at best with the US, could seize on the moment to deal a blow to Washington in a game of diplomatic one-upmanship.

"In the case of Ecuador, there is once again, like Venezuela, a willingness and even an eagerness to kick sand in Uncle Sam's face," said Cynthia Arnson, director for the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

One direct consequence for Quito could be the end of some trade preferences granted by Congress, she said.

"I can imagine the US government taking steps to expel the Ecuadoran ambassador," she added.

"In the case of Venezuela it certainly runs contrary to what seems to be the interests of (President Nicolas) Maduro's government in improving the relationship with the United States."

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