I can see now how Snowden's info helped the free world in one way but also gave an advantage to Russia and China against us. Because freedom doesn't exist either place and possibly never will there. So, the info China now has on Every single Federal Employee (likely including U.S. spies) is very damaging not only to the U.S. continued existence as a nation but also to Great Britain and Europe and other countries as well. Also, if China has info on every U.S government employee including our spies you can bet Russia has it also.
Britain pulls out spies as Russia, China crack Snowden files - report
Britain
has pulled out agents from live operations in "hostile countries" after
Russia and China cracked top-secret information contained in files
leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward
Snowden, the Sunday Times reported. Security service MI6, which operates
overseas and…
Reuters
Britain pulls out spies as Russia, China crack Snowden files - report
4 hours ago
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden appears live via video during a student …
LONDON (Reuters) -
Britain has pulled out agents from live operations in "hostile
countries" after Russia and China cracked top-secret information
contained in files leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden, the Sunday Times reported.
Snowden downloaded more than 1.7 million secret files from security agencies in the United States and Britain in 2013, and leaked details about mass surveillance of phone and internet communications.
The United States wants Snowden to stand trial after he leaked classified documents, fled the country and was eventually granted asylum in Moscow in 2013.
He went to Russia via Hong Kong, and although he claimed in 2013 that the encrypted files remained secure, Britain believed both Russia and China had cracked documents which contain details that could allow British and American spies to be identified, the newspaper said, citing officials.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Snowden had done a huge amount of damage to the West's ability to protect its citizens.
"As to the specific allegations this morning, we never
comment on operational intelligence matters so I'm not going to talk
about what we have or haven't done in order to mitigate the effect of
the Snowden revelations, but nobody should be in any doubt that Edward
Snowden has caused immense damage," he told Sky News.
An official at Cameron's office was quoted, however, as
saying that there was "no evidence of anyone being harmed." A
spokeswoman at Cameron's office declined to comment when contacted by
Reuters.
A
Home Office source told the newspaper that Russian President Vladimir
Putin did not grant Snowden asylum for nothing.
"His documents were encrypted but they weren't completely
secure and we have now seen our agents and assets being targeted," the
source said.
A British intelligence source said Snowden had done "incalculable damage".
"In some cases the agencies have been forced to intervene
and lift their agents from operations to stop them being identified and
killed," the source was quoted as saying.
British security agencies declined to comment.The Russian and Chinese governments were not immediately available for comment.
TIMING
The revelations about the impact of Snowden on intelligence operations comes days after Britain's terrorism law watchdog said the rules governing the security services' abilities to spy on the public needed to be overhauled.
Conservative lawmaker and former minister Andrew Mitchell said the timing of the report was "no accident".
"There is a big debate going on," he told BBC radio. "We
are going to have legislation bought back to parliament (...) about the
way in which individual liberty and privacy is invaded in the interest
of collective national security."That's a debate we certainly need to have."
Cameron has promised a swathe of new security measures,
including more powers to monitor Briton's communications and online
activity in what critics have dubbed a "snoopers' charter".
Britain's terrorism laws reviewer David Anderson said on
Thursday the current system was "undemocratic, unnecessary and - in the
long run - intolerable".
He called for new safeguards, including judges not ministers
approving warrants for intrusive surveillance, and said there needed to
be a compelling case for any extensions of powers.
(Reporting By Costas Pitas and Paul Sandle; additional
reporting by Mark Hosenball and Polina Devitt; editing by Chizu Nomiyama
and Rosalind Russell)
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