NSA Has Been Tracking Bitcoin Users Since 2013, New Snowden Documents Reveal

 

By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge | 

During his 2015 trial, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht’s defense attorneys raised questions about the government’s case that, although they were ultimately disregarded by the jury, have continued to bother crypto users with an affinity for so-called “conspiracy theories.” They pointed out vagaries in the FBI’s account of its years-long pursuit of Ulbricht, and questioned whether the bureau had truly discovered Ulbricht’s involvement on its own, or whether it had help from other deep state elements, namely the National Security Agency.

Of course, the judge, who eventually sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison without the possibility of parole, refused to entertain their argument. But if they were correct, it would mean that the government’s whole case was built on evidence that was ultimately inadmissible.

As it turns out, Ulbricht’s lawyers were on to something.

In a blockbuster report published Tuesday in the Intercept, reporter Sam Biddle cited several documents included in the massive cache of stolen NSA documents that showed that the agency has been tracking bitcoin users since 2013, and has potentially been funneling some of this information to other federal agencies. Or, as Biddle puts it, maybe the conspiracy theorists were right.

It turns out the conspiracy theorists were onto something. Classified documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden show that the National Security Agency indeed worked urgently to target Bitcoin users around the world – and wielded at least one mysterious source of information to “help track down senders and receivers of Bitcoins,” according to a top-secret passage in an internal NSA report dating to March 2013. The data source appears to have leveraged the NSA’s ability to harvest and analyze raw, global internet traffic while also exploiting an unnamed software program that purported to offer anonymity to users, according to other documents.

Using its ability to siphon data directly from the fiber-optic cables, the NSA managed to develop a system for tracing transactions that went well beyond simple blockchain analysis. The agency relied on a program called MONKEYROCKET, a sham Internet-anonymizing service that, according to the documents, was primarily deployed in Asia, Africa and South America with the intention of thwarting terrorists.

The documents indicate that “tracking down” Bitcoin users went well beyond closely examining Bitcoin’s public transaction ledger, known as the Blockchain, where users are typically referred to through anonymous identifiers; the tracking may also have involved gathering intimate details of these users’ computers.

The NSA collected some Bitcoin users’ password information, internet activity, and a type of unique device identification number known as a MAC address, a March 29, 2013 NSA memo suggested. In the same document, analysts also discussed tracking internet users’ internet addresses, network ports, and timestamps to identify “BITCOIN Targets.”

…

The NSA’s budding Bitcoin spy operation looks to have been enabled by its unparalleled ability to siphon traffic from the physical cable connections that form the internet and ferry its traffic around the planet. As of 2013, the NSA’s Bitcoin tracking was achieved through program code-named OAKSTAR, a collection of covert corporate partnerships enabling the agency to monitor communications, including by harvesting internet data as it traveled along fiber optic cables that undergird the internet.

…

Specifically, the NSA targeted Bitcoin through MONKEYROCKET, a sub-program of OAKSTAR, which tapped network equipment to gather data from the Middle East, Europe, South America, and Asia, according to classified descriptions. As of spring 2013, MONKEYROCKET was “the sole source of SIGDEV for the BITCOIN Targets,” the March 29, 2013 NSA report stated, using the term for signals intelligence development, “SIGDEV,” to indicate the agency had no other way to surveil Bitcoin users. The data obtained through MONKEYROCKET is described in the documents as “full take” surveillance, meaning the entirety of data passing through a network was examined and at least some entire data sessions were stored for later analysis.

Naturally, once the NSA got involved, the notion of anonymity – whether with bitcoin, or even some of the privacy-oriented coins like Zcash – was completely crushed.

Emin Gun Sirer, associate professor and co-director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts at Cornell University, told The Intercept that financial privacy “is something that matters incredibly” to the Bitcoin community, and expects that “people who are privacy conscious will switch to privacy-oriented coins” after learning of the NSA’s work here. Despite Bitcoin’s reputation for privacy, Sirer added, “when the adversary model involves the NSA, the pseudonymity disappears. … You should really lower your expectations of privacy on this network.”

Green, who co-founded and currently advises a privacy-focused Bitcoin competitor named Zcash, echoed those sentiments, saying that the NSA’s techniques make privacy features in any digital currencies like Ethereum or Ripple “totally worthless” for those targeted.

While bitcoin appeared to be the NSA’s top target, it wasn’t the agency’s only priority. The NSA also used its unparalleled surveillance powers to take down Liberty Reserve – a kind of proto-ICO that was involved in money laundering. Though the company was based in Costa Rica, the Department of Justice partnered with the IRS and Department of Homeland Security to arrest its founder and hand him a 20-year prison sentence.

The March 15, 2013 NSA report detailed progress on MONKEYROCKET’s Bitcoin surveillance and noted that American spies were also working to crack Liberty Reserve, a far seedier predecessor. Unlike Bitcoin, for which facilitating drug deals and money laundering was incidental to bigger goals, Liberty Reserve was more or less designed with criminality in mind. Despite being headquartered in Costa Rica, the site was charged with running a $6 billion “laundering scheme” and triple-teamed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the IRS, resulting in a 20-year conviction for its Ukrainian founder. As of March 2013 — just two months before the Liberty Reserve takedown and indictment — the NSA considered the currency exchange its No. 2 target, second only to Bitcoin. The indictment and prosecution of Liberty Reserve and its staff made no mention of help from the NSA.

Of course, several of the agency’s defenders argued that the notion that the NSA would use these programs to spy on innocuous bitcoin users is “pernicious”, according to one expert source.

The hypothesis that the NSA would “launch an entire operation overseas under false pretenses” just to track targets is “pernicious,” said Matthew Green, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. Such a practice could spread distrust of privacy software in general, particularly in areas like Iran where such tools are desperately needed by dissidents. This “feeds a narrative that the U.S. is untrustworthy,” said Green. “That worries me.”

But forget bitcoin: the notion that the NSA has been illegally feeding intelligence to other federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies has been a watershed issue for civil libertarians, with implications far beyond cryptocurrency money laundering. The process, known as “parallel construction”, would, if definitive proof could ever be obtained by a defense attorney, render an entire case as inadmissible.

Civil libertarians and security researchers have long been concerned that otherwise inadmissible intelligence from the agency is used to build cases against Americans though a process known as “parallel construction”:building a criminal case using admissible evidence obtained by first consulting other evidence, which is kept secret, out of courtrooms and the public eye. An earlier investigation by The Intercept, drawing on court records and documents from Snowden, found evidence the NSA’s most controversial forms of surveillance, which involve warrantless bulk monitoring of emails and fiber optic cables, may have been used in court via parallel construction.

The timing of the Intercept’s report is also interesting. We reported last year that a Russian national named Alexander Vinnick, the alleged mastermind of a $4 billion bitcoin-based money laundering operation, had been arrested following an indictment that levied 21 counts of money laundering and other crimes that could land him in a US prison for up to 55 years.

And given the justice system’s treatment of other cryptocurrency-related criminals, the notion that Vinnick might spend multiple decades in prison is not beyond the realm of possibility. Of course, if the case against him is built on illegally obtained evidence, one would think his defense team would want to know.

Heavily redacted versions of the Snowden documents are available on the Intercept’s website.

The post NSA Has Been Tracking Bitcoin Users Since 2013, New Snowden Documents Reveal appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Is This What You Call Being Prepared?

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

In talking with American clients about their need to prepare themselves for the upcoming socio-economic/political upheaval in their country, my advice to them primarily revolves around the concept that, if you’re living in a bad neighbourhood, the obvious solution is to leave.

Many choose to do just that. Those who have limited funds seek out employment in a country that’s less likely to be dramatically impacted than their home country. Those who are a bit more well-heeled generally liquidate what they can in their home country and forward the proceeds to one where the economy and socio-political situation are more stable - and one where the rights of the individual are more greatly respected.

They then convert their wealth into a more protectable form, by buying real estate in such countries and, particularly, by converting wealth into precious metals and storing it in a top-rate facility in the chosen country.

If they can afford it, they additionally rent or purchase a home and acquire the right to residency in such a country so that, if their home country suddenly becomes less liveable, they can simply pack a carry-on and be on a plane that day.

However, far more individuals say something to the effect that “I’m too invested in where I am. I’ll make a stand right here. Let the bastards come and get me if they want to. I’ve got plenty of guns and ammunition.”

This position is, of course, very manly. It smacks of the protection of home and family. And, like John Wayne in his role as Davy Crockett at the Alamo, it has a truly patriotic ring to it.

Of course, it’s also true that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo, along with all those who fought alongside him. (Not at all a positive outcome.)

So, let’s have a realistic overview of this commonly stated “plan” to “make a stand.”

What if the authorities arrive without aggression?

It’s entirely possible that authorities will go door-to-door, neighbourhood to neighbourhood, to confiscate provisions and weaponry. If you see personnel carriers loaded with SWAT teams, who then approach your door quietly, but armed, are you really going to throw open the door and start blazing away, or are you going to recognize that giving up your weapons is better than certain death?

Do you possess adequate weaponry?

When I’ve visited the US, I have, on quite a few occasions, been shown the gun collections of those who described themselves as “armed and ready.” They’ve shown me a wide variety of weapons, from AK-47’s to crossbows. (The former might be a good choice to fight off an assault, but the latter would be a very poor choice.) The “defender” invariably has weapons of a variety of calibres—an assortment of handguns and rifles.

Unfortunately, as any combat veteran will advise, having racks of weaponry in differing calibres is a very poor approach to defence. Instead, a semi-automatic long weapon with plenty of clips of ammunition is the way to go, possibly backed up by a spare, plus a handgun or two, holstered. This should be the outfit for each defender within the home. Not an interesting but ineffective gun collection.

And, even if you’re more combat-ready, with, say, a dozen M-16’s, if you don’t also have a dozen trained defenders living in your home, they’ll do you little good.

Do you have adequate troops?

Some defenders assume that they’ll put the wife and kids in the cellar, while they alone take on the invaders. Others train the wife and kids to fight. If the latter, the defender should first ask himself if the wife and kids are capable of coping with a combat situation. And, in either case, he should face the fact that, once the shooting has started, if he’s not the victor, his wife and kids are also likely to be killed.

Can you man the ramparts 24/7?

Historically, if invaders are repelled, they tend to bear a grudge and, if possible, return again. When they do so, they’re likely to have a better plan and be more determined. Consequently, once your home has been hit once and you’ve survived, the war isn’t over. From that day on, constant vigilance will be needed if another attack is to be survived.

Can you remain at home for months at a time?

Once the fighting begins, it’s not possible to arrange to have battles occur when it’s convenient. There can be no trips to the supermarket or the doctor, as it’ll be too dangerous. It’s essential that you and your family can remain in your “fortress” for an extended time. It may be weeks or months before you can go out the door, and you’d need to be entirely self-sufficient during that period.

Can you actually bring yourself to kill others?

Combat veterans and ex-cops have had the training that allows them to shoot another human being without question. There are also those with sociopathic tendencies who have no qualms about shooting someone who’s facing them. Most other people will not know if they can pull the trigger until they’re facing another person with a gun in his hand. Many hesitate, which is likely to be fatal. Training the wife and kids may therefore be a death sentence for them.

Are you prepared to sacrifice your life and that of your family?

Regardless as to whether you may be visited by the authorities, in riot gear and with automatic weapons, or whether one or more bands of raiders attack your home, what you’re essentially accepting by saying that you’ll stay and defend it is that you’ve made the decision to live in a potential war zone. Given the choice to either put yourself and your family in harm’s way, or move to a safer place (perhaps a country that’s not experiencing conflict), which do you think is the more responsible choice?

Would you not rather be lying on a beach somewhere?

Without being overly alarmist, it seems increasingly evident that the US and possibly some other countries are not so far away from dramatic civil unrest. Whether it be the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, state or local police, raiders from a nearby city who have become opportunistic, or simply a neighbour who’s run short of food and has become desperate, literally millions of Americans are of the belief that invasion by one group or another is in the cards and are arming themselves as a result. Certainly, their anger is understandable, but their conclusion may not be.

Some of these people will take to the streets, but many more simply want to protect their homes. This is a noble sentiment, but if you and your family are at great enough risk that you’re planning to face being under siege, would it not be more responsible to leave before the bullets start to fly?

Most people, in the course of their lives, move from time to time. In most cases, when they do, it’s because they’d like to live in a better neighbourhood. In this case, the “better neighbourhood” means one where your family’s lives are not in imminent danger.

If this means moving to another jurisdiction entirely - one that’s less likely to be under siege - would that not be the best preparation of all?

*  *  *

There’s a sensible, level-headed way to avoid civil unrest and safely protect your family and wealth from any government run amok. Click here to download your free PDF copy of our new special report, Getting Out of Dodge.

Technotyranny: The Deep State’s Spy Secrets Revealed (VIDEO)

By: Rutherford Institute | 

The government has become an expert in finding ways to sidestep what it considers “inconvenient laws” aimed at ensuring accountability and thereby bringing about government transparency and protecting citizen privacy. Indeed, it has mastered the art of stealth maneuvers and end-runs around the Constitution. It knows all too well how to hide its nefarious, covert, clandestine activities behind the classified language of national security and terrorism. And when that doesn’t suffice, it obfuscates, complicates, stymies or just plain bamboozles the public into remaining in the dark. Case in point: the National Security Agency has been diverting “internet traffic, normally safeguarded by constitutional protections, overseas in order to conduct unrestrained data collection on Americans.” It’s extraordinary rendition all over again, only this time it’s surveillance being outsourced instead of torture.

Copyright © 2017 The Rutherford Institute

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Power Corrupts: A Culture Of Compliance Breeds Despots And Predators

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

Power corrupts.

Worse, as 19th-century historian Lord Acton concluded, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a politician, an entertainment mogul, a corporate CEO or a police officer: give any one person (or government agency) too much power and allow him or her or it to believe that they are entitled, untouchable and will not be held accountable for their actions, and those powers will eventually be abused.

We’re seeing this dynamic play out every day in communities across America.

A cop shoots an unarmed citizen for no credible reason and gets away with it. A president employs executive orders to sidestep the Constitution and gets away with it. A government agency spies on its citizens’ communications and gets away with it. An entertainment mogul sexually harasses aspiring actresses and gets away with it.

Abuse of power - and the ambition-fueled hypocrisy and deliberate disregard for misconduct that make those abuses possible - works the same whether you’re talking about sexual harassment, government corruption, or the rule of law.

For instance, 20 years ago, I took up a sexual harassment lawsuit on behalf of a young woman - a state employee - who claimed that her boss, a politically powerful man, had arranged for her to meet him in a hotel room, where he then allegedly dropped his pants, propositioned her and invited her to perform oral sex on him.

Despite the fact that this man had a well-known reputation for womanizing and this woman was merely one in a long line of women who had accused the man of groping, propositioning, and pressuring them for sexual favors in the workplace, she was denounced as white trash and subjected to a massive smear campaign by the man’s wife, friends and colleagues (including the leading women’s rights organizations of the day), while he was given lucrative book deals and paid lavish sums for speaking engagements.

William Jefferson Clinton eventually agreed to settle the case and pay Paula Jones $850,000.

Here we are 20 years later and not much has changed.

We’re still shocked by sexual harassment in the workplace, the victims of these sexual predators are still being harassed and smeared, and those who stand to gain the most by overlooking wrongdoing (all across the political spectrum) are still turning a blind eye to misconduct when it’s politically expedient to do so.

This time, it’s Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein - longtime Clinton associate and a powerhouse when it comes to raising money for Democrats - who is being accused of decades of sexual assaults, aggressively sexual overtures and harassment.

I won’t go into the nauseating details here. You can read them for yourself at the New York Times and the New Yorker.

Suffice it to say that it’s the same old story all over again: man rises to power, man abuses power abominably, man intimidates and threatens anyone who challenges him with retaliation or worse, and man gets away with it because of a culture of compliance in which no one speaks up because they don’t want to lose their job or their money or their place among the elite.

This isn’t just happening in Hollywood, however.

And it’s not just sexual predators that we have to worry about.

For every high-profile power broker who eventually gets called out for his sexual misbehavior, there are hundreds - thousands - of others in the American police state who are getting away with murder - in many cases, literally - simply because they can.

The cop who shoots the unarmed citizen first and asks questions later might get put on paid leave for a while or take a job with another police department, but that’s just a slap on the wrist. The shootings and SWAT team raids and excessive use of force will continue, because the police unions and the politicians and the courts won’t do a thing to stop it. Case in point: The Justice Department will no longer attempt to police the police when it comes to official misconduct. Instead, it plans to give police agencies more money and authority to “fight” crime.

The war hawks who are making a profit by waging endless wars abroad, killing innocent civilians in hospitals and schools, and turning the American homeland into a domestic battlefield will continue to do so because neither the president nor the politicians will dare to challenge the military industrial complex. Case in point: Rather than scaling back on America’s endless wars, President Trump—like his predecessors—has continued to expand America’s military empire and its attempts to police the globe.

The National Security Agency that carries out warrantless surveillance on Americans’ internet and phone communications will continue to do so, because the government doesn’t want to relinquish any of its ill-gotten powers. Case in point: The USA Liberty Act, proposed as a way to “fix” all that’s wrong with domestic surveillance, will instead legitimize the government’s snooping powers.

Unless something changes in the way we deal with these ongoing, egregious abuses of power, the predators of the police state will continue to wreak havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives.

For starters, let’s recommit to abiding by the rule of law.

Here’s what the rule of law means in a nutshell: it means that everyone is treated the same under the law, everyone is held equally accountable to abiding by the law, and no one is given a free pass based on their politics, their connections, their wealth, their status or any other bright line test used to confer special treatment on the elite.

We need to stop being victimized by these predators.

As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, I’m not just talking about the political predators in office, but the ones who are running the show behind the scenes—the shadow government—comprised of unelected government bureaucrats whose powers are unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and beyond the reach of the law.

There is no way to erase the scars left by the government’s greed for money and power, its disregard for human life, its corruption and graft, its pollution of the environment, its reliance on excessive force in order to ensure compliance, its covert activities, its illegal surveillance, and its blatant disdain for the rule of law.

“We the people” - men and women alike -  have been victims of the police state for so long that not many Americans even remember what it is to be truly free anymore. Worse, few want to shoulder the responsibility that goes along with maintaining freedom.

Still, we must try.

Can The Government Keep Us Safe?

Authored by Andrew Napolitano via LewRockwell.com,

Here we go again. The United States has been rattled to the core by an unspeakable act of evil perpetrated by a hater of humanity. A quiet, wealthy loner rented a hotel suite in Las Vegas, armed it with shooting platforms and automatic weapons, knocked out two of the windows, and shot at innocents 32 floors below. Fifty-nine people were murdered, and 527 were injured.

The killer used rifles that he purchased legally and altered illegally. He effectively transformed several rifles that emit one round per trigger pull and present the next round in the barrel for immediate use (semiautomatics) into rifles that emit rounds continuously when the trigger is pulled — hundreds of rounds per minute (automatics). Though some automatic rifles that were manufactured before 1986 can lawfully be purchased today with an onerous federal permit, automatic weapons generally have been unlawful in the United States since 1934. Even the police and the military are not permitted to use them here.

I present this brief summary of the recent tragedy and the implicated gun laws to address the issue of whether the government can keep us safe.

Those who fought the Revolution and wrote the Constitution knew that the government cannot keep us safe. Because they used violence against the king and his soldiers to secede from Great Britain, they recognized that all people have a natural right to use a weapon of contemporary technological capabilities to protect themselves and their liberty and property. They sought to assure the exercise of this right by enacting the now well-known Second Amendment, which prohibits the government from infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms.

When the Supreme Court interpreted this right in 2008 and 2010, it referred to the right to keep and bear arms as pre-political. “Pre-political” means that the right pre-existed the government. It is a secular term for a fundamental, or natural, right. A natural right is one that stems from our humanity — such as freedom of thought, speech, religion, self-defense, privacy, travel, etc. It does not come from the government, and it exists in the absence of government.

The recognition of a right as fundamental or natural or pre-political is not a mere academic exercise. This is so because rights in this category cannot be abrogated by the popular will. Stated differently, just as your right to think as you wish and say what you think cannot be interfered with or taken away in America by legislation, so, too, your right to own, carry and use arms of the same sophistication as are generally available to bad guys and to government officials cannot be interfered with or taken away by legislation. That is at least the modern theory of the Second Amendment.

Notwithstanding the oath that all in government have taken to uphold the Constitution, many in government reject the Second Amendment. Their enjoyment of power and love of office rank higher in their hearts and minds than does their constitutionally required fidelity to the protection of personal freedoms. They think the government can right any wrong and protect us from any evil and acquire for us any good just to keep us safe, even if constitutional norms are violated in doing so.

Can the government keep us safe? In a word, no.

This is not a novel or arcane observation but rather a rational conclusion from knowing history and everyday life. In Europe, where the right to keep and bear arms is nearly nonexistent for those outside government, killers strike with bombs and knives and trucks. In America, killers use guns and only stop when they are killed by law-abiding civilians or by the police.

The answer to government failure is a candid recognition that in a free society - one in which we are all free to come and go as we see fit without government inquiry or interference - we must be prepared for these tragedies.

We must keep ourselves safe, as well as those whom we invite onto our properties.

Surely, if the president of the United States were to have appeared at the concert venue in Las Vegas to address the crowd, the Las Vegas killer would never have succeeded in bringing his arsenal to his hotel room. Government always protects its own. Shouldn’t landowners who invite the public to their properties do the same?

Add to government’s incompetence its useless intrusive omnipresence. In present-day America, the National Security Agency — the federal government’s domestic spying agency — captures in real time the contents of every telephone call, email and text message, as well as all data sent over fiber-optic cables everywhere in the U.S. Thus, whatever electronic communications the Las Vegas killer participated in prior to his murders are in the possession of the federal government.

Mass surveillance is expressly prohibited by the Fourth Amendment, but the government does it nevertheless. It claims it does so to keep us safe. Yet this exquisite constitutional violation results in too much information for the feds to examine in a timely manner. That’s why the evidence of these massacres - from Sandy Hook to Boston to Orlando to San Bernardino to Las Vegas - is always discovered too late. At this writing, the government has yet to reveal what it knew about the Las Vegas killer’s plans before he executed them and executed innocents.

This leaves us in a very precarious position today.

The government cannot keep us safe, but it claims that it can. It wants to interfere with our natural rights to self-defense and to privacy, but whenever it does so, it keeps us less safe. And in whatever arena it keeps us less safe and falsely fosters the impression that we are safe, we become less free.

Freedom Is A Myth: We Are All Prisoners Of The Police State's Panopticon Village

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

"We"re run by the Pentagon, we"re run by Madison Avenue, we"re run by television, and as long as we accept those things and don"t revolt we"ll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche.... As long as we go out and buy stuff, we"re at their mercy… We all live in a little Village. Your Village may be different from other people"s Villages, but we are all prisoners.”

- Patrick McGoohan

First broadcast in Great Britain 50 years ago, The Prisoner - a dystopian television series described as “James Bond meets George Orwell filtered through Franz Kafka” - confronted societal themes that are still relevant today: the rise of a police state, the freedom of the individual, round-the-clock surveillance, the corruption of government, totalitarianism, weaponization, group think, mass marketing, and the tendency of humankind to meekly accept their lot in life as a prisoner in a prison of their own making.

Perhaps the best visual debate ever on individuality and freedom, The Prisoner (17 episodes in all) centers around a British secret agent who abruptly resigns only to find himself imprisoned, monitored by militarized drones, and interrogated in a mysterious, self-contained, cosmopolitan, seemingly tranquil retirement community known only as the Village.

The Village is a virtual prison disguised as a seaside paradise: its inhabitants have no true freedom, they cannot leave the Village, they are under constant surveillance, their movements are tracked by surveillance drones, and they are stripped of their individuality and identified only by numbers.

The series’ protagonist, played by Patrick McGoohan, is Number Six.

“I am not a number. I am a free man,” was the mantra chanted on each episode of The Prisoner, which was largely written and directed by McGoohan.

In the opening episode (“The Arrival”), Number Six is told that he is in The Village because information stored “inside” his head has made him too valuable to be allowed to roam free “outside.”

Throughout the series, Number Six is subjected to interrogation tactics, torture, hallucinogenic drugs, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation, and various forms of social indoctrination and physical coercion in order to “persuade” him to comply, give up, give in and subjugate himself to the will of the powers-that-be.

Number Six refuses to comply.

In every episode, Number Six resists the Village’s indoctrination methods, struggles to maintain his own identity, and attempts to escape his captors. “I will not make any deals with you,” he pointedly remarks. “I’ve resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.”

Yet no matter how far Number Six manages to get in his efforts to escape, it’s never far enough.

Watched by surveillance cameras and other devices, Number Six’s getaways are continuously thwarted by ominous white balloon-like spheres known as “rovers.” Still, he refuses to give up. “Unlike me,” he says to his fellow prisoners, “many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages.”

Number Six’s escapes become a surreal exercise in futility, each episode an unfunny, unsettling Groundhog’s Day that builds to the same frustrating denouement: there is no escape.

The series is a chilling lesson about how difficult it is to gain one’s freedom in a society in which prison walls are disguised within the trappings of technological and scientific progress, national security and so-called democracy.

As Thill noted when McGoohan died in 2009, “The Prisoner was an allegory of the individual, aiming to find peace and freedom in a dystopia masquerading as a utopia.”

The Prisoner’s Village is also an apt allegory for the American Police State: it gives the illusion of freedom while functioning all the while like a prison: controlled, watchful, inflexible, punitive, deadly and inescapable.

The American Police State, much like The Prisoner’s Village, is a metaphorical panopticon, a circular prison in which the inmates are monitored by a single watchman situated in a central tower. Because the inmates cannot see the watchman, they are unable to tell whether or not they are being watched at any given time and must proceed under the assumption that they are always being watched.

Eighteenth century social theorist Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon has become a model for the modern surveillance state in which the populace is constantly being watched, controlled and managed by the powers-that-be and funding its existence.

Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide: this is the new mantra of the architects of the police state and their corporate collaborators (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Instagram, etc.).

We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology, which answers not to us but to our government and corporate rulers.

Consider that on any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

This is the electronic concentration camp—the panopticon prison—the Village—in which we are now caged.

It is a prison from which there will be no escape if the government gets it way.

Even now, the Trump Administration is working to make some of the National Security Agency’s vast spying powers permanent.

In fact, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing for Congress to permanently renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows government snoops to warrantlessly comb through and harvest vast quantities of our communications.

And just like that, we’re back in the Village, our escape plans foiled, our future bleak.

Except this is no surprise ending, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People: for those who haven’t been taking the escapist blue pill, who haven’t fallen for the Deep State’s phony rhetoric, who haven’t been lured in by the promise of a political savior, we never stopped being prisoners.

So how do we break out?

For starters, wake up. Resist the urge to comply.

Think for yourself. Be an individual. As McGoohan commented in 1968, “At this moment individuals are being drained of their personalities and being brainwashed into slaves… As long as people feel something, that"s the great thing. It"s when they are walking around not thinking and not feeling, that"s tough. When you get a mob like that, you can turn them into the sort of gang that Hitler had.”

We have come full circle from Bentham’s Panopticon to McGoohan’s Village to Huxley’s Brave New World.

You want to be free? Break out of the circle.

Cryptocurrencies – The Next Level of Power and Control Developed by The NSA (VIDEO)

In November 2013 we learned that bitcoin was built on technology the NSA had developed. The original source was deleted from an interview conducted that month and, unfortunately, is now lost to history – it doesn’t change the facts. Now we learn that information was 100% spot on correct. The NSA developed blockchain technology and released the information in a white paper that has been uncovered by Ken Schortgen, Jr., The Daily Economist. This confirms what has been reported by very few people, including us here at The Daily Coin.

Over the past several months I have stated, and plenty of people have attacked me for even thinking, much less stating, that cryptocurrencies will either be outlawed or overtaken by central banks. ALL – repeat – ALL of the banksters, government and military power and control comes from the Federal Reserve Note and people have this misguided belief that since someone developed a new math equation the banksters are going to roll over and simply hand over ALL their power and control.

Not only have I been discussing these issues, the research I put into a three part series detailing all the criminal banksters, government and other scum circling cryptocurrencies, should’ve been enough to garner at least a question or two. Why has no one been questioning all these banksters, governments and others becoming so involved with blockchain and bitcoin in particular? Even Blythe – the queen of financial weapons of mass destruction – Masters left JPMorgan to develop a cryptocurrency, but still no alarm bells.

Japan and Australia have both legalized bitcoin as currency. Japan would chop off half the island if the U.S. told them to and Australia is nothing more than a larger land mass of Japan – both lapdogs to the deep state pulling the strings within the U.S. government. Can you say grooming, training and assimilation? I feel confident some of you can.

Now, Ken Schortgen, Jr, has brought the goods to the table and anyone willing learn what has been known for several years can now learn for themselves. “The Phoenix” is definitely rising, probably in 2018 just as the Rothschild owned The Economist magazine stated in 1988. I just don’t think it is something any of us should be celebrating.

Is Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies the result of a government experiment imagined 12 years before Satoshi white paper? by Ken Schortgen, Jr. – The Daily Economist

Is it coincidence or irony that the now famous Satoshi white paper that started the cryptocurrency industry was published during the very month of the financial crisis that many analysts believed was sufficient enough to take down the entire economic system?  Because certain documents uncovered from the NSA going back to 1996 may point to a correlation between the government and Bitcoin, and how the current cryptocurrency frenzy might possibly be an experiment for the future of government controlled money.

Of course many Bitcoin evangelists will simply ignore this possibility, especially since they are integrally staked towards the success of this and other cryptocurrencies.  But all one has to do is look at Al Gore and his monetary ties to the pushing of man-made global warming and the desire to see money become nothing more than carbon credits to realize that to find the truth of any given matter, one must always follow the money.

So with this in mind, what possible evidence is there that Bitcoin and the concept of cryptocurrencies may be either driven by the government as a mechanism to eliminate cash, or as a platform to provide a new system altogether that replaces sovereign fiat currencies?

In 1996 the NSA (that’s right, a government agency) published a White Paper titled, HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONICCASH.  And in this white paper, analysts and researchers laid out the entire breadth and scope of replacing cash and other fiat currencies with a completely digital one, based on anonymous cryptocurrencies.

And they did this 12 years before the anonymous ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ published his/her White Paper on the very eve of the financial collapse.

What is also interesting when you do a Word Cloud of the information compiled in the 1996 NSA document, is that the words Bit and Coin(s) occur in the most frequent 300 words of the search.

Cryptocurrencies in general should be considered as public enemy number one to central banks and sovereign governments, but so far there has been only a modicum of resistance to their creation and implementation.  And in instances like Japan, they are readily becoming accepted into their economies and monetary systems.  Yet make no mistake, if something threatens the sovereignty of a nation’s money, history shows that governments have been quick to destroy it before it has the potential to compete or threaten their own controlled legal tender.

Liberty Dollar:

Only time will tell if the Satoshi White Paper and the advent of Bitcoin in October of 2008 was simply a coincidence and perfect timing when the world was on the brink of monetary collapse, or if this anonymous publication and creation was meant to be engineered all along by the very entities that cryptocurrencies seek to overthrow.  Because this would also mean that the resignation by J.P. Morgan’s Blythe Masters in 2014 to create a new startup for blockchain technology was also a coincidence, as is the cryptocurrency engineered by the Federal Reserve to one day soon function in the capacity of global bank settlement.

Of course I will be attacked for publishing this piece and I’m okay with that. What concerns me is the number of people that have recently jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and have been singing the praises of this digital nightmare. If you think the banksters, government and military have control now, just wait until your entire family history – I mean entire family history – is uploaded and tied to your financial and economic account on the blockchain. We should all be extremely concerned and questioning the entire lay of the land in this “brave new world” instead of jumping for joy because bitcoin “hit a new all time high”.

UPDATE 08/07/17

Right on cue:

This is an email that I received earlier today – along with my reply. The name of the person is not included to protect their identity.

Message Body:
Yes, of course, the blockchain is the future and yes it’s a gov plan and yes the banks are onboard as are more and more countries. Did you think you were going to get away with something? Did you think you were not going to pay taxes on your gains? Do you believe in free lunches as well?

As I recall you are associated with Kranzler who runs a gold fund. I managed to read his column one day in which he inserted the following remark in his comments section: “I just took a dump and wiped my ass with the American flag.” Whenever I see his name now I am reminded of that image. So good luck with getting real information there.

I would encourage you to do some further research into the sheer amount of gold extant. There is a massive supply of off the books gold which stands ready to be used at any time to control the market. This appears to be an unimportant fact to gold promoters but might matter to investors. In addition, precious metals will not be mined in the future but easily made. As a result, many of us who previously bought precious metals are moving to the blockchain because, controlled as it may be, there is money to be made on the ground floor.

These childish and superficial podcasts and articles are not helping people but I guess they keep you guys in business…for a little while longer.

My reply:

I will address the comment made by Kranzler you mention below. I’m not one for those types of remarks either and have been disassociating my work and my life from that type of nonsense.

Never have I once said or eluded to “getting away” with anything. Everything I have, I earned and simply want to keep it. I have never once ask the government for anything – never have, never will. The only thing I want from the government – addressing your “free lunch” question – is what they have stolen from me and my family. Social Security and taxes are income that I have earned, legally, and reported as the law requires. Will the government give me what I am owed? Yeah, right – I’ll hold my breath on that one.

blockchain and bitcoin in particular – if you use bitcoin for everyday transactions, great, then you use it as a currency, if not, then it is nothing more than a speculative bet. I have been against bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as this will be the tool used to further enslave humanity. If you think making a profit off enslavement is a positive for society that is your belief, not mine. Personally, I don’t see it as being any different than being involved in the heroin trade – yes, you can make a lot of profits off other peoples misery – no thanks. 401k’s, IRA and pension plans everywhere are used to as the drug money laundering mechanism for the heroin trade, which is one of the reasons I am not involved with any of those type of investment vehicles either and have discussed them endlessly at The Daily Coin.

If you see what I am doing as childish that is your filter – it is, fortunately, not shared by very many people. I take the work I do very seriously and do the best I can with the information presented. Now that you know that bitcoin and blockchain technology are part of a larger picture of enslavement what will you do with that information? Will you make investment decisions based on this new information or will you continue to play along and assist in the enslavement?

At the end of the day we all have to make decisions based on our individual needs and circumstances. I am not offering investment advice, never have, never will, as I am not an investment advisor. I only report what is available and can be verified. The investment decisions I make for me and my family are based on what I have learned over the past 9 years and based on our needs. We have stopped supporting any of the too big to jail banks, we shop local as much as possible – which is about 90% of all our goods and services – we make investment decisions based on what will be best for us and our community. If everyone else took this same approach there would be no need for a NSA developed bitcoin that gathers your entire life history and ties it to your financials. But, people want their profits at any cost, just ask the banksters.

Once again I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and hope that you find the work I do to be of value to your and your family.

Regards,
Rory

Where Snowden Failed, THIS Won't

By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at

When in 2013 Ed Snowden revealed to Joe Sixpack that his data was indeed being hacked and intercepted, not by crazy vodka swilling Ivan in Novgorod but by team America, there was the sort of surprise and outrage that comes with finding your 5-year old just wiped snot across your brand new leather sofa. A lot of yelling and screaming, limbs flailing, and a decent level of embarrassment for Johnny Snotnose, who in this instance was the NSA.

Less than 12 months later, all was forgotten. In the end nobody gave an isht.

In the ghettos of social media the Kardashians were calling and "Hey look, did you know there are pornos on the Internet with woman and farm animals?"

Joe Sixpack doesn"t care about the fact that his photos are accessible, even the naughty ones. Indeed almost every app downloaded today requests permission to breach that gap. Joe doesn"t care about his contacts list being breached. He clicks the "Sure, rape me" "Accept Permissions" button with glee, eager to get the download finished so that he can start sharing photos of what"s on his dinner plate with the whole world because... well, actually I have no idea.

It"s insane to me. Sadly the hoi-polloi spend more time looking at Joe"s dinner choice than reading the fine print on the permissions they"ve just granted to the apps downloaded.

You"d be forgiven for thinking that a goldfish-like memory could be to blame. I certainly thought people would care but obviously I was wrong because ever since then we"ve had more reasons to be outraged over real problems of this nature than you could shake a stick at.

Since Snowden, Wikileaks have provided an absolute deluge of additional fodder in this space. What"s happened?

Nothing! Nobody cares.

Just yesterday we were alerted to "Dumbo" a CIA project.

Try finding anything on the MSM about it and it"s like searching for a Texan cattle farmer at a vegan food festival.

Sure, we know the MSM are a complete joke but the masses still gather around the MSM drinking fountain for their daily dose of intellectual junk food. What did they have to say on the topic?

Instead of outrage and public humiliation showered on the perpetrators, we"re treated to snowflakes, daffodils, and bubble bath enthusiasts fighting the injustices perpetrated on Joey, who goes by the name Sheila due to his desire to don a frock and spend all his money rearranging his bits at the cosmetic surgeon.

There is, however, one thing that"s going to change it all...

Money.

Data security is like a seatbelt. It only matters when you park the beemer into a gum tree at speed.

People only protect data when that data is attached to economic value.

Ask anyone who"s bought, sold, and transacted in bitcoin what computer they use and not one will say a Windows machine.

The reasons for this are quite simple. That"d be like driving blindfolded at speed without a seatbelt, after chugging back a half a bottle of Glenfiddich.

This is just a first step in data security, and I use bitcoin as an example because typically the folks who have spent any time figuring it out know a thing or two about data security and cryptography.

Back to the masses, though.

Clearly when the wet-lipped psychopaths at some three letter agency are looking at Joe"s Facebook content or the naughty video he made last night with his girlfriend, Joe doesn"t much care. But when Joe begins storing real value and assets on his computer or smartphone and they get stolen, then, and only then, will Joe very quickly attach value to his data security. The learning curve promises to be steep.

That world is coming super fast as I mentioned previously.

Adoption of safety measures will come faster than Brangelina were picking up new ethnic babies from Nambabwia or wherever a few years back. When people realise that their livelihood is directly attached to their data security, then, and only then, will the begin to care.

I posted this chart previously in an article on the rise of cyber security:

Mark Andreessen famously stated that software is eating the world and by George, he was right. With all that software though comes a different set of problems. One of those problems, one even larger than John Prescott, is cyber security.

Now once again, I suspect Joe Sixpack won"t give an isht if someone can see that he"s turning on his heating system from his smartphone while on the way home. But when it gets disrupted and hacked and his phone automatically pays for a weekend at the Marriott in Bali without his knowledge, Joe will search for solutions in a blind panic.

When Joe begins getting paid via smart contracts and in value tokens attached to his workplace and it"s all done on a network, Joe will care a lot.

Economic incentives, both fear and greed, never change. What"s changing is our financial architecture and how we"re going to have to deal with that.

Fortunes will be made on the back of what promises to be an explosion in data security. Watch!

- Chris

"The great fear that I have is that nothing will change." — Edward Snowden

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Liked this article? Then you"ll probably like my other missives on

this topic as well. Go here to access them (free, of course).

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How Trump Can Avoid Impeachment: Order NSA to Declassify All Intel On Democratic Email Leaks

Donald Trump Jr’s. emails regarding an apparent overture regarding Russian information on Hillary Clinton have created an absolute firestorm.

Whether or not the emails are a “smoking gun”, horrible optics, or a frame job, momentum towards impeachment has just taken a big leap forward (the Dems and MSM have had their knives out and sharpened looking under every rock for an excuse to impeach).

This is largely true because four U.S. intelligence agencies state as fact that Russia hacked the Democrats and released that information to WikiLeaks in order to sway the election in Trump’s favor.

But a number of people with direct knowledge or an informed opinion have stated that the Democratic emails were leaked by American insiders unhappy with the DNC … not hacked by Russia.

Since the intelligence agencies have not publicly shared any credible and verifiable evidence one way or the other about Russian hacking of the Democratic email, is Trump doomed?

No …

Trump could – if he’s innocent – nip this in the bud in an instant.

How?

The President has the power to order any information declassified … and to share it with whoever he wants.

So Trump can order the declassification of all information which the NSA has on the Democratic party (I.e. DNC and Podesta) emails.

The man who created the NSA’s global electronic data-gathering system told Washington’s Blog that – if the DNC and Podesta were hacked – the NSA would already have the data in their files proving who did it. And see this.

So if Trump is innocent, his best shot at avoiding impeachment is order the NSA to declassify its data on the “hacking” of the DNC’s servers and Podesta emails.

Rachel Maddow Caught In Latest Fake News Scandal; Proof Her "Forged NSA Document" Segment Was A Hoax

She thought she had it.  The smoking gun that would prove someone in Trump"s campaign colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election.  But, when a forged NSA document sent to Rachel Maddow turned out to be just more bad information from more anonymous sources, it left the crusading MSNBC host feeling a bit "triggered."  As such, she opened her show last night with the following segment:

“Somebody, for some reason, appears to be shopping a fairly convincing fake NSA document that purports to directly implicate somebody from the Trump campaign in working with the Russians in their attack in the election."

“This is news, because: why is someone shopping a forged document of this kind to news organizations covering the Trump-Russia affair?”

Not surprisingly, Maddow uses the discovery to imply that someone within the Trump administration is intentionally planting fake information in an attempt to discredit her show.  She goes on to imply that similar efforts may have caused the recent firing of 3 "journalists" at CNN who simply couldn"t be bothered with verifying the anonymous tip they received.

Here are more details of Maddow"s show from the Daily Caller:

On June 7, an unidentified person sent documents to an online tip line for Maddow’s show, she said.

That was two days after The Intercept published legitimate NSA documents that were stolen by Reality Winner, a contractor for the agency.

And that"s where Maddow"s faux-outrage breaks down. 

You see, if it"s clear that Maddow received her forgery after the intercept published their documents then there"s really no "there" there.  Pretty much anyone with an internet connection could have simply taken the Reality Winner documents from The Intercept website and used them create a forgery to send to Maddow. 

Of course, Maddow knew that her whole story was bullshit unless she could convince her viewers that the forgery she received was created before The Intercept published it for the world to see.  If she could prove that, then she could insist the forged document must have come from someone on the "inside."

So, she decided to get "technical" and take a look at the "metadata" on the document she received.  As it turns out, the "creation date" on the document she received was roughly 3.5 hours before The Intercept published their Reality Winner story.  See, it"s all laid out right here on this lovely timeline graphic.  Checkmate, Mr. Trump!

Except, not.  Ironically, by stretching the truth in an attempt to prove that her story was in any way relevant, Maddow unwittingly proved exactly the opposite. 

As The Intercept has subsequently pointed out, the "creation date" on the document received by Maddow (see the timeline above) perfectly matches, to the exact second, the "creation date" on The Intercept"s Reality Winner document. 

Why?  Because that is the exact time in which The Intercept created their document and published it to their cloud server. 

All of which simply proves that Maddow"s source didn"t have a sneak peak at the Reality Winner documents...they actually used The Intercept document as their source for creating their forgery. 

Now, we could be wrong here...but, if the Trump administration wanted to dupe Rachel Maddow we suspect they could have gotten their hands on clean copies of the Reality Winner docs without having to lift them from The Intercept"s website.

So, what seems more likely to have happened here is that Maddow"s staff could easily tell the "NSA document" was a forgery from the start and simply ignored it at first. Afterall, she received the document on June 7th and is just now deciding to talk about it a month later?  Unlikely. 

But, when 3 journalists from CNN lost their jobs for publishing fake news, Maddow saw an opportunity to launch a whole new narrative attacking the Trump administration by alleging that they"re planting fake intelligence reports with the media.  Never let a good crisis go to waste...as they say.

Edward Snowden summarized the situation the best in a series of tweets:

Maddow"s lawyerly defense of why her implication was wrong is disappointing. Such caution should come prior to raising alarm on national TV.

When the media"s credibility is under attack, rushing stories out before checking facts and contacting the subject is hard to comprehend.

That said, journalism is hard and mistakes happen. When they do, as in this Maddow case, apologies should be frank and unequivocal.

When we start getting economical with facts, we lose. This important story was mangled by needlessly injected an unsupportable conspiracy.

Each time the media gets a prominent story wrong right now, I wince. More than egg on a famous face, it risks a generation"s trust in news.

If our most famous journalists are so proud they can"t admit to what is now an obvious error, how can they hope to hold the public trust?

Most folks can"t read three different papers every day. If we don"t set the highest standard, many give up and say the truth is unknowable.

That is the twilight of an age.

When the media"s credibility is under attack, rushing stories out before checking facts and contacting the subject is hard to comprehend.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 7, 2017

When we start getting economical with facts, we lose. This important story was mangled by needlessly injected an unsupportable conspiracy.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 7, 2017

If our most famous journalists are so proud they can"t admit to what is now an obvious error, how can they hope to hold the public trust?

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 7, 2017

That is the twilight of an age.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 7, 2017

Still, we do feel badly for the liberal "journalists" of the world...all the embarrassing fake news stories of late means that they may have to actually start doing their jobs rather than just blindly running stories from "anonymous sources."

Eric Holder Sends Ominous Late Night Tweet To "Career DOJ/FBI" Employees

Eric Holder, Obama"s former Attorney General and a man who recently hinted at an interest in pursuing a 2020 bid for the White House, issued a rather ominous warning to the "career men & women" of the DOJ/FBI last night saying that their "actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned" before calling upon them to "be prepared, be strong."

"To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country."

To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country.

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) June 30, 2017

Of course, with the many scandals that plagued Obama"s Justice Department, it"s impossible to know exactly which one sparked Holder"s warning. 

Could it be the outrageous unmasking of Trump officials in the waning days of Obama"s administration, an obvious attempt to exploit the collection of foreign intelligence and use it as a political weapon of mass destruction, and subsequent illegal leaking of that information to the media?  Certainly, this would seem to be a concern for Susan Rice who has been asked to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.

Or, is it a simple message directed at FBI Director McCabe who we recently pointed out is coming under increasing scrutiny for not recusing himself from the investigation of Michael Flynn, a man against whom he very clearly harbored a personal vendetta.

Or, perhaps its that whole James Comey revelation that Eric Holder"s replacement, Loretta Lynch, colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the FBI to quash the investigation of Hillary"s email scandal.

Or, perhaps it"s just a general warning after the FISA court recently revealed the the Obama administration conducted illegal queries targeting American citizens "with much greater frequency than had previously been disclosed to the Court"...an issue which it described as a "very serious Fourth Amendment issue."

"Since 2011, NSA"s minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collection under Section 702.  The October 26, 2016 Notice informed the Court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had previously been disclosed to the Court."

"At the October 26, 2016 hearing, the Court ascribed the government"s failure to disclose those IG and OCO reviews at the October 4, 2016 hearing to an institutional "lack of candor" on NSA"s part and emphasized that "this is a very serious Fourth Amendment issue.""

Or, perhaps its something else entirely.  Just imagine the possibilities...

Oliver Stone Tells Ron Paul: Edward Snowden Is The "Most American Of Patriots"

Director Oliver Stone, who’s recently released series “The Putin Interviews” stirred up controversy among liberals who accused him of being a Russian propagandist, appeared on the Liberty Report with former Texas Congressman Ron Paul to discuss the documentary, his views about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and why the US’s aggressive approach to containing the purported threat posed by Russia has led to a breakdown in relations between the two powers.

Stone said he’s been “interested” in Russia since being raised as a conservative in New York City, claiming that his father instilled a “fear” of Communism and Russians in him at a young age. In the early 1980s, Stone visited the country for the first time as a screenwriter with the idea of interviewing several dissidents. He has returned several times since. In particular, Stone has become interested in the case of Snowden, whom he praised as “the most American of patriots.”

“I was interested in Russia – I went back into the 2000s. The Snowden story occupied me. And of course, it’s so ironic that he the most American of patriots is living in Moscow because he has to. It’s the only country in the world that would give him asylum -  in other words it’s the only country in the word that can deny the US what it wants which is Snowden.”

“[Putin] explained to me that Russians wanted an extradition treaty with the US for years, but nothing doing, because there are a lot of Russian criminals in America who stole money from Russia. He did nothing wrong in Russian terms so they gave him asylum - now its 3 years 5 years whatever its going to be. I wish Ed well I really do.”

Stone tried explaining Putin’s point of view regarding the breakdown in relations between the US and Russia that has occurred since the end of the George W Bush presidency, saying the US’s decision to install new ABM defenses have greatly unsettled Russians, who see their installation as an encroachment.

“We come around now to this period in 2017…for some reason an improving US-Russia relationship deteriorated completely. Mr. Putin in his interview goes into the ABM treaty, he goes into the expansion of NATO and the American support of terrorism in the caucuses while the Russians were helping them in Afghanistan.”

“That’s an important issue for them. Many American lives were saved. I think you talked about those three issues NATO, ABM, the support of terrorism.”

The ABM installations, in particular, are threatening a policy of “nuclear parity” that has existed since the Soviet Union, Stone said, adding that the notion that Russia is a threat to the US is “insanity,” given Russia"s weaker economy and less powerful military.

“ABM destroys the nuclear parity that existed. When Mr. Bush tore that up in 2001, that was a signal that the US wanted nuclear superiority, or a first strike option.”

Stone also shared a story about watching the movie “Dr. Strangelove” with Putin, who he said was greatly moved.

“I showed him the movie Dr. Strangelove…and he watched it very serious about it. He said this movie was very accurate of that time and it’s still accurate today.”

Circling back to the issue of nuclear deterrents, Stone said he’s worried that rising tensions around the world could trigger a “nuclear confrontation.”

“I’m saying I have reached that age when I am not really concerned about what happens to me but… it’s not just about the US, but about the whole planet and I feel a nuclear confrontation, an accident, could happen tomorrow. But you put ABMs in Poland and Romania - that’s a gigantic mistake.”

“An ABM can be converted overnight from a defensive missile to an offensive missile. They’re surrounded from the North the East and the West by US missiles and we don’t seem to realize it.”

Stone says he’s “scared for America,” explaining that many US citizens prefer to blindly accept media spin that’s favorable to the US establishment, without questioning it, or trying to understand Russia’s point of view.

“It’s a good thing I went through JFK when I was younger…there’s been a lot of controversy around my movies. I’m scared not for myself because I’m at that age, they can’t destroy me anymore, but I’m scared for America, I’m afraid they’ve lost their sense. I’m afraid there’s a lack of foresight and leadership.”

Stone denied allegations that he provided questions to Putin ahead of time, and said the four-part documentary is a great opportunity for Americans to learn more about Russia’s enigmatic leader.

“Over four hours you can listen to a man who’s been there 16 years talk about the balance of power. We live in this spin cycle like a laundry every day it’s a crisis and I think that’s the way we like it, it creates more money but this is not a view of the world.”

NSA-Linked Hackers Raise Price Of Monthly Subscription to $61,000 After Tuesday's Cyberattack

In the wake of Tuesday’s massive global ransomware attack, the hacker group called the Shadow Brokers is again trying to capitalize on its reputation as a source of leaked NSA hacking exploits, saying it will up the price of a subscription service launched earlier this month, while also introducing a new “premium” feature.

The group introduced a monthly subscription service following last month’s WannaCry attack, after initially trying to sell its entire cache of NSA-funded cyberweapons for a staggering one million bitcoin (worth $2.5 billion at current prices). Both WannaCry and Tuesday’s attack, which has been blamed on the “Goldeneye” strain of the “Petya” ransomware, were aided by exploits that the Shadowbrokers allegedly stole from an NSA special-ops crew called “the Equation Group.”

????? ????????? ????????? ????? ?? ???????? ?????, ?????, ??????? https://t.co/MjUifB6HYB pic.twitter.com/QdsW9Iw57h

— ?????????? ?????? (@ukrpravda_news) June 27, 2017

Now, the Shadowbrokers are marketing their wares not only at hackers, but at corporations who’d like to buy insurance against being hacked.

Here’s the Shadowbrokers, in their characteristic broken English, as reported by The Hill.

"Another global cyber attack is fitting end for first month of theshadowbrokers dump service. There is much theshadowbrokers can be saying about this but what is point and having not already being said? So to business! Time is still being left to make subscribe and getting June dump. Don’t be let company fall victim to next cyber attack, maybe losing big bonus or maybe price on stock options be going down after attack. June dump service is being great success for theshadowbrokers, many many subscribers, so in July theshadowbrokers is raising price," the ShadowBrokers wrote in an online message released early Wednesday.”

The Shadowbrokers launched its monthly subscription document leaks service this month at a price of $27,000 a month in digital currency. Their new release more than doubles the price to $61,000.  The group also announced a new premium service allowing customers to make requests for assistance or specific document releases.

The group has been active since August 2016, when it began leaking hacking tools that were allegedly developed by the NSA. It has also leaked documents appearing to show the NSA hacked a Middle Eastern banking services company to try and get at the company’s clients, according to the Hill.

One of the exploits released by the group back in April, known as EternalBlue, was instrumental in aiding last month’s WannaCry cyberattack. Both WannaCry and another NSA exploit were allegedly intrumental in Tuesday"s attack.

The group also publicly released a password to what Edward Snowden called the NSA’s “top-secret arsenal of digital weapons.” Back in April, the group released passwords to hacking tool binaries developed by the NSA in 2013 as a “protest” against President Donald Trump, whom they accused of betraying his base by launching a missile strike against a Syrian government airfield and for backing away from his commitment to combating globalism.  

The first reports of organizations being hit by Tuesday’s attack were from Russia and Ukraine, but the impact quickly spread westwards to computers in Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Britain. Companies affected included German pharmaceutical company Merck, Russia"s Rosneft and metals giant Evraz, Danish shipper Maersk, UK ad company WPP, and both the Ukrainian and Russian central banks.

Already, Ukrainian government officials are blaming the attack on a Russian entity – likely government-sponsored – claiming that the virus’s code was written in Russian, ignoring the fact that Russian firms were also attacked, and mirroring the laughable conclusion that the North Korean government was somehow responsible for the original WannaCry attack.

With two global attacks unfolding in the span of two months, it’s incredible that the public – not to mention investors – aren’t more worried. How long until these attacks become a weekly, or even daily, occurrence. And more importantly, how long until they begin to seriously disrupt the functioning of private infrastructure.

At least one former NSA employee chimed in with his two cents about the agency’s role in making these attacks possible.

How many times does @NSAGov"s development of digital weapons have to result in harm to civil infrastructure before there is accountability? https://t.co/VOu28Ce9ee

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 27, 2017

Nobody has been able to say for certain who or what the Shadowbrokers are. But at least one famed NSA whistleblower has a theory:

William Binney - who exposed the NSA"s pervasive surveillance of Americans long before Snowden confirmed it - said he and his colleagues are fairly certain the Shadowbrokers aren"t really a group of rogue actors, but rather an insider employee at NSA.