The Snowden Affair

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HK lawmakers say China should decide on Snowden

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong legislators said Saturday that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should be extradited to the United States now that the Justice Department has charged him with espionage and theft of government property.

Snowden, believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, has admitted providing information to the news media about two highly classified NSA surveillance programs.

It is not known if the U.S. government has made a formal extradition request to Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong government had no immediate reaction to the charges against Snowden. Police Commissioner, Andy Tsang, when was asked about the development, told reporters only that the case would be dealt with according to the law.

When China regained control of Hong Kong in 1997, the former British colony was granted a high degree of autonomy and granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland china. However, under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system. Leung also urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."

Another legislator, Cyd Ho, vice-chairwoman of the pro-democracy Labour Party, said China "should now make its stance clear to the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) government" before the case goes before a court.

China has urged Washington to provide explanations following the disclosures of National Security Agency programs which collect millions of telephone records and track foreign Internet activity on U.S. networks, but it has not commented on Snowden's status in Hong Kong.

His whereabouts have not been publicly known since he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on June 10. He said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that he hoped to stay in the autonomous region of China because he has faith in "the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

He and his supporters have also spoken of his seeking asylum from Iceland.

A prominent former politician in Hong Kong, Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, said he doubted whether Beijing would intervene at this stage.

"Beijing would only intervene according to my understanding at the last stage. If the magistrate said there is enough to extradite, then Mr. Snowden can then appeal," he said.

Lee said Beijing could then decide at the end of the appeal process if it wanted Snowden extradited or not.

A one-page criminal complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, said Snowden engaged in unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information. Both are charges under the Espionage Act. Snowden also is charged with theft of government property. All three crimes carry a maximum 10-year prison penalty.

The complaint will be an integral part of the U.S. government's effort to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong, a process that could become a prolonged legal battle. Snowden could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution.

Hong Kong lawyer Mark Sutherland said that the filing of a refugee, torture or inhuman punishment claim acts as an automatic bar on any extradition proceedings until those claims can be assessed.

"Some asylum seekers came to Hong Kong 10 years ago and still haven't had their protection claims assessed," Sutherland said.

Organizers of a public protest in support of Snowden last week said Saturday there were no plans for similar demonstrations this weekend.

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British spy agency taps cables, shares with U.S. NSA - Guardian

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's spy agency GCHQ has tapped fibre-optic cables that carry international phone and internet traffic and is sharing vast quantities of personal information with the U.S. National Security Agency, the Guardian newspaper said on Friday.

The paper, which has in recent weeks been publishing details of top-secret surveillance programs exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said on its website that Snowden had shown it documents about a project codenamed "Tempora."

Tempora has been running for about 18 months and allows GCHQ, which stands for Government Communications Headquarters, to tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days, the paper said.

The Guardian said Snowden had provided it with access to documents about GCHQ's alleged cable-tapping operation as part of his effort to expose "the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history."

For decades, the NSA and GCHQ have worked as close partners, sharing intelligence under an arrangement known as the UKUSA agreement. They also collaborate with eavesdropping agencies in Canada, Australia and New Zealand under an arrangement known as the "Five Eyes" alliance.

The latest Guardian story will likely put more pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron's government to reassure the public about how data about them is collected and used.

Earlier this month, in response to questions about the secret U.S. data-monitoring program Prism, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament that GCHQ always adhered to British law when processing data gained from eavesdropping.

He would not confirm or deny any details of UK-U.S. intelligence sharing, saying that to do so could help Britain's enemies.

"In line with long-standing practice we do not comment on intelligence matters," a GCHQ spokesman said on Friday.

NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel rejected any suggestion the U.S. agency used the British to do things the NSA cannot do legally. Under U.S. law, the NSA must get authorization from a secret federal court to collect information either in bulk or on specific people.

"Any allegation that NSA relies on its foreign partners to circumvent U.S. law is absolutely false. NSA does not ask its foreign partners to undertake any intelligence activity that the U.S. government would be legally prohibited from undertaking itself," Emmel said.

INTERCEPT PROBES

The Tempora operation involves attaching intercept probes to transatlantic cables where they land on British shores from North America, the Guardian said.

That was done with the agreement of unnamed companies, which were forbidden from revealing warrants that compelled them to allow GCHQ access, it added.

Snowden made world headlines earlier this month when he provided details of NSA surveillance programs to the Guardian and the Washington Post.

In Washington, Snowden's disclosures have ignited a political storm over the balance between privacy rights and national security, but the NSA has defended the programs, saying they have disrupted possible attacks.

In the wake of Snowden's revelations, U.S. officials acknowledged that the NSA, with cooperation from internet and telephone companies, collected email on foreign intelligence suspects, including counterterrorism targets, as well as masses of raw data on calls made within the United States and overseas by subscribers to major telephone companies.

The content of messages of people in the United States - including U.S. citizens - sometimes are intercepted "incidentally," officials have said, but rules require such intercepts to be purged unless U.S. authorities get court authorization.

(Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Michael Holden in London and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)

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Exclusive: Spyware claims emerge in row over Chinese dissident at NYU

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States in May last year he was given a fellowship at New York University, use of a Greenwich Village apartment, and a pile of gifts from supporters, including smartphones and an iPad.

But at least two of the gadgets presented to Chen as gifts may not have been quite what they seemed: They included software intended to spy on the blind dissident, according to Jerome Cohen, an NYU professor who has been Chen's mentor, and another source familiar with the episode.

Like nearly everything surrounding Chen these days, the existence of the spyware is in dispute, and only adds to the public recriminations there have been between NYU and Chen's supporters over events surrounding the end of his fellowship.

Last weekend, Chen accused NYU of bowing to pressure from China by ending the fellowship, and his supporters have suggested that the university is wary of displeasing the Chinese authorities because of its plans for a campus in Shanghai. The allegations are vigorously denied by NYU, which says the fellowship was only ever planned to last a year.

At issue in the latest escalation in the argument are an iPad and at least one of the smartphones that were given to Chen days after he fled China and arrived in Manhattan. The devices were found by NYU technicians to have been loaded with software that made it possible to track the dissident's movements and communications, according to Cohen and the second source, who was not authorized to speak on the matter.

The episode suggests that from almost the day that he arrived at the university there was an uneasy atmosphere between Chen, his supporters, and NYU

Among the first visitors in May 2012 to the New York apartment Chen had moved into with his family after a dramatic escape from house arrest in China was Heidi Cai, the wife of activist Bob Fu. She brought an iPad and iPhone as gifts.

The devices were screened by NYU technicians within a few days and were found to have been loaded with hidden spying software, said Cohen, who arranged the fellowship for Chen at NYU Law School, helping defuse a diplomatic crisis between the United States and China after Chen took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

"These people supposedly were out to help him and they give him a kind of Trojan horse that would have enabled them to monitor his communications secretly," said Cohen.

The iPad was eventually cleaned up and returned to Chen at his request, the second source said.

The spyware issue was not publicized at the time and has only surfaced because of the recent scrutiny of NYU's arrangement with Chen. Cohen said he was surprised when he heard that Reuters knew about the episode.

"007 THING"

Asked about the gadgets, Fu told Reuters that his wife had given two Apple devices to Chen shortly after the dissident had settled in New York. Fu runs a Christian group called ChinaAid that supports underground churches in China and victims of forced abortions.

"This is the first time I've heard of spyware," said Fu, who was in southeast Asia when his wife delivered the devices. He called the allegations "ridiculous" and "like a 007 thing."

"We knew that the first thing after they arrived, they'd want to call their family members, so we wanted to provide communication devices, iPhone and iPad," Fu said by telephone from Texas.

Although Cohen and the second source say they were left with no doubt the devices were deliberately installed with spyware, it could not be established whether there might be a more innocent explanation for what technicians believed they had found. The technicians could not be reached for comment.

In examining the iPad and the iPhone, they found software that allowed a third party to secretly connect to an inbuilt global positioning system, essentially turning a device into a tracking device, said the second source. The technicians also found hidden, password-protected software that backed up the contents to a remote server, the source added.

"It's perfectly consistent with their desire to manipulate and control the situation and know whatever confidential advice he is getting," Cohen said.

SUSPICIOUS SOFTWARE

At least three other electronic devices, given to Chen and his wife during their first few days in New York by people other than Fu, also included suspicious software, the second source said.

Fu said he consulted ChinaAid's computer technician on Thursday and "my staffer is 100 percent sure that the only thing he added on the iPad was a Skype account."

His technician did only routine things like "the activation of the iPad and iPhone, basic installment, iCloud... there was nothing else there. They have to provide evidence," said Fu.

"Everything was transparent. There was nothing hidden," he added.

John Beckman, a spokesman for NYU, declined to discuss specifics about the episode. "I do remember hearing about it, I was never really aware of the details, and so I'm not going to comment on it," he said.

Several of Chen's supporters allege that NYU staff has controlled and withheld access to the activist. NYU rejects these claims and some figures connected with the university, including Cohen, say that some of Chen's supporters may be trying to manipulate the self-trained lawyer who speaks little English to serve their own political ends.

Chen could not be reached for comment.

But Mark Corallo, a media consultant who has been working with Chen, said that the gifts from Fu were taken away by NYU before the dissident received them.

"The devices were brand-new when ChinaAid gave them to NYU to give to Chen, so there was no need or reason to perform any check," he said in an email. "And none of these functions was on any of the devices provided to him by ChinaAid."

He added that: "At least to Chen's knowledge, none of these devices was ever found to have any tracking or listening mechanisms."

Cohen and the second source maintain, however, that Chen was told within days of his arrival in an unfamiliar country that people he believed to be his supporters were very likely spying on him. Chen was "furious" and "very upset" when told, the second source recalled.

Even so, Cohen said Chen still continued to interact with the Fu family. "That's his right," Cohen said.

(With reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Martin Howell)

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AssassinsMace said:

Early on I mentioned this would be a test of what Hong Kong believed. Though not final but it's a step in the direction of failure. The decision where they relieve themselves of responsibility so they don't ruffle the feathers of the US... and they take it. Let's have Beijing decide so it doesn't ruin our relationship with the US. If they decided to protect him, it will undoubtedly turn the US against them just like how easy Hong Kong is lumped in with communist China in the character assassination of Snowden. If Hong Kong decided to hand him over to the US, it would show Hong Kong's supposed values in human rights and democracy are not as important as advertised and "maintaining good relations" with the US overrides them. Now if they're going to hide behind having Beijing decide in order to maintain the illusion in believing in human rights and democracy and also not face the ire of the US, they failed completely because it was a coward's move not someone standing on convictions.

The smart move for Beijing is to let Hong Kong decide and make sure they own it repercussions and all. Either way it will serve China's interests and no one in Hong Kong can complain about it.




I seem to recall a couple years back something was happening and the alarm bells were ringing that China would be able to do the very thing this article mentions the British doing here. They were worried it was going to happen not like how it's been happening.







The anti-China factions were spying on him. I find the story suspicious because why would you give touch-pad devices to a blind man?

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airsuperiority said:

Actually, I beg to disagree a bit on this issue. As of today while I was watching the news while having lunch with my dad, the news broadcasted public statements released by the HKPF and HKSAR. The HKPF stated they will ensure Snowden's safety in HK, while Regina Ip mentioned Snowden always has the right to apply for refugee status or personal protection or something. Thus Myrumum mentioned (however his name is spelled), this is a diplomatic case and thus is beyond the CE's paygrade, so it's actually only proper for the CE to thrust the final decisions to Beijing. On the other hand, as Regina Ip had explicitly stated or hinted to Snowden during the press conference,HK has the right and jurisdictions to protect all people within its border from harm regardless of political stature, especially if Snowden applied for personal protection or refugee status. Also enjoying from HK's its own political neutrality, HK can much easily just abide or apply UN's established statures in HK to treat Snowden's case permitted he applied for refugee status. And be minded, UNHCR also has a base in HK, so UN does have a certain presence in HK as well.
As for the HKPF's press release, it is to state that HKPF will still continue to fulfill to the full extent of its responsibilities in law enforcements in HK and protect people within HK. That said, it will continue to fulfill its job free from interference from any foreign forces and only be solely answering to the government and their job's established statures, but also themselves the same time not involved any of the political aspects of the case. Of course if a decision has been ruled, the HKPF will conduct its role as dictated in their mission.

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That project was the start of a long collaboration. As the Cold War set in, intensified, thawed, and was supplanted by global terrorism in the minds of national security strategists, the firm, now called Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), focused more and more on government work. In 2008 it split off its less lucrative commercial consulting arm—under the name Booz & Co.—and became a pure government contractor, publicly traded and majority-owned by private equity firm Carlyle Group (CG). In the fiscal year ended in March 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton reported $5.76 billion in revenue, 99 percent of which came from government contracts, and $219 million in net income. Almost a quarter of its revenue—$1.3 billion—was from major U.S. intelligence agencies. Along with competitors such as Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), CACI, and BAE Systems (BAESY), the McLean (Va.)-based firm is a prime beneficiary of an explosion in government spending on intelligence contractors over the past decade. About 70 percent of the 2013 U.S. intelligence budget is contracted out, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis; the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says almost a fifth of intelligence personnel work in the private sector.

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The firm has long kept a low profile—with the federal government as practically its sole client, there’s no need for publicity. It does little, if any, lobbying. Its ability to win contracts is ensured by the roster of intelligence community heavyweights who work there. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper—President Obama’s top intelligence adviser—is a former Booz Allen executive. The firm’s vice chairman, Mike McConnell, was President George W. Bush’s director of national intelligence and, before that, director of the NSA. Of Booz Allen’s 25,000 employees, 76 percent have classified clearances, and almost half have top-secret clearances. In a 2003 speech, Joan Dempsey, a former CIA deputy director, referred to Booz Allen as the “shadow IC” (for intelligence community) because of the profusion of “former secretaries of this and directors of that,” according to a 2008 book, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. Today Dempsey works for Booz Allen.

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AssassinsMace said:

When this story first came out that he was in Hong Kong, there was all this talk about how the US and Hong Kong setup an extradition treaty before the handover to circumvent Beijing's authority. If China had the final say, Hong Kong can spin it any way they want without their "reputation" being tarnished and preserve its relations with the US at the same time. The best move by China is to have it all fall on the people of Hong Kong to decide.

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delft said:

This case is part of a series of reports on large scale invasion by the US in the privacy of all non-Americans. The US has access to all transactions of SWIFT, the Belgium based money transfer system. The US demands, and receives, excessive information on passengers of airlines, despite objections by the European parliament. The US president claims that the US only try to intercept all communications by non-Americans. And now it appears that surveillance of its citizens by the US government exceeded the practise of the late STASI.

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US to Hong Kong: Don't delay Snowden extradition
Associated PressBy PETE YOST and JULIE PACE | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Saturday sharply warned Hong Kong against slow-walking the extradition of Edward Snowden, reflecting concerns over a prolonged legal battle before the government contractor ever appears in a U.S. courtroom to answer espionage charges for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs.

A formal extradition request to bring Snowden to the United States from Hong Kong could drag through appeal courts for years and would pit Beijing against Washington at a time China tries to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations.

The U.S. has contacted authorities in Hong Kong to seek Snowden's extradition, the National Security Council said Saturday in a statement. The NSC advises the president on national security.

"Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case," White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said in an interview with CBS News. He said the U.S. presented Hong Kong with a "good case for extradition."

However, a senior administration official issued a pointed warning that if Hong Kong doesn't act soon, "it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law." The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and insisted on anonymity.

Hong Kong's government had no immediate reaction to the charges against Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who admitted providing information to the news media about the programs. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang told reporters only that the case would be dealt with according to the law. A police statement said it was "inappropriate" for the police to comment on the case.

A one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., part of the Eastern District of Virginia where his former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered, in McLean. He is charged with unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified communications intelligence information and theft of government property. The first two are under the Espionage Act and each of the three crimes carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on conviction.

The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the person who had leaked to the news media that the NSA, in two highly classified surveillance programs, gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post in an interview published Saturday on its website that he hoped to stay in the autonomous region of China because he has faith in "the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

A prominent former politician in Hong Kong, Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, said he doubted whether Beijing would intervene yet.

"Beijing would only intervene according to my understanding at the last stage. If the magistrate said there is enough to extradite, then Mr. Snowden can then appeal," he said.

Lee said Beijing could then decide at the end of the appeal process if it wanted Snowden extradited or not.

Snowden could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution.

Hong Kong lawyer Mark Sutherland said that the filing of a refugee, torture or inhuman punishment claim acts as an automatic bar on any extradition proceedings until those claims can be assessed.

"Some asylum seekers came to Hong Kong 10 years ago and still haven't had their protection claims assessed," Sutherland said.

Hong Kong lawmakers said that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system.

Leung urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."

The Obama administration has now used the Espionage Act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is underway.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden.

"I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."

But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws.

"He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.

Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."

"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," di Pretoro said.

The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.

Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board and as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.

The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.

One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major Internet service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.

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