The highly encrypted email service reportedly used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has gone offline - and its administrator claims the company is legally barred from explaining why.
On Thursday, the homepage of Lavabit.com was changed to a letter from the company’s owner announcing that the site’s operations have ceased following a six-week long ordeal that has prompted the company to take legal action in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now in the midst of an escalating fight from the federal government aimed at cracking down on encrypted communications, one of the last free and secure services has thrown in the towel under mysterious circumstances.
“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations,” owner and operator Ladar Levison of Dallas, Texas wrote in the statement. “I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.”
“I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the First Amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise,” wrote Levison. “As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.”
Levison’s statement comes two months after Snowden - a former analyst at intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton - revealed himself to be the source of leaked NSA documents disclosing vast surveillance programs operated by the United States government. A month later, the Global Post published an article in which a Lavabit.com email address thought to be registered to Snowden was revealed.
http://rt.com/usa/lavabit-email-snowden-statement-247/
Snowden's victim
Snowden's victim
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Snowden's victim
Good for him....I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations,”
Rather than become complicit in the crimes of The Traitor and Russian Defector Snowden, he has decided to act as a patriotic American and refuse to facilitate traitorous acts against the United States and it's people...
For this he is to be commended...
Hopefully this will be the start of a trend...
Re: Snowden's victim
The crime he does not want to be complicit in are the demands by U.S. authorities for unfettered access to snoop into the private and constitutionally protected communications of his customers. So sorry, but your attempt at spin doesn't wash this time.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
-- Author unknown
-- Author unknown
Re: Snowden's victim
Oh yeah pissed off about free speech and running an encryption shop, there's an oxymoron in there somewhere...“I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the First Amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise,” wrote Levison. “As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.”
Sometimes it seems as though one has to cross the line just to figger out where it is
Re: Snowden's victim
How so? Since when does the right to free speech also imply the right to have everyone eavesdropping on one's private conversations?
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
-- Author unknown
-- Author unknown
Re: Snowden's victim
Snowden is a whistle blower but the investigators are eavesdroppers.Levison’s statement comes two months after Snowden - a former analyst at intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton - revealed himself to be the source of leaked NSA documents disclosing vast surveillance programs operated by the United States government. A month later, the Global Post published an article in which a Lavabit.com email address thought to be registered to Snowden was revealed.
I have all my "stuff" encrypted too...
Sometimes it seems as though one has to cross the line just to figger out where it is
Re: Snowden's victim
I have everything I actually care about encrypted. (If someone wants my notes on Panzer General or my Dungeons and Dragons notes they're welcome to them.)
Re: Snowden's victim
Ahh, so we're not talking about real, violation of the law type crimes...(You know, like stealing sensitive classified information and taking it to Moscow..the types of real crimes that there are actual laws against.)The crime he does not want to be complicit in are the demands by U.S. authorities for unfettered access to snoop into the private and constitutionally protected communications of his customers.
We're talking about imaginary, theoretical "crimes" where the individual decides to become a law unto himself and determine on his own what is and is not a crime, and then sticks the label on it where he sees fit...
Basically the same thing as when Dave (or others) declare some policy or program to be unCostitutional because it doesn't conform to their view of what the Constitution requires...
Got it.
Re: Snowden's victim
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to Washington next month in a row over allegations of US espionage.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused of intercepting emails and messages from Ms Rousseff, her aides and state oil company, Petrobras.
The allegations were based on documents leaked by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
President Barack Obama had promised to investigate the incident.
The White House said he had telephoned Ms Rousseff on Monday to discuss the matter.
The allegations of widespread espionage against Brazilian citizens were first published in July by Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the British Guardian newspaper.
Mr Greenwald alleged that the NSA accessed all internet content that Ms Rousseff had visited online.
The documents, according to the report, were part of an NSA case study showing how data could be intelligently filtered.Analysis
Wyre Davies BBC News, Rio de Janeiro
The Brazilian president was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Her decision to cancel (or officially, to postpone) the Washington visit will be seized upon by some as an act of petty nationalism.
Some Brazilian business leaders, worried by the precarious economic climate, will question the wisdom of antagonising such an important business ally as the US.
But the political pressure was greater still. There was fury in Brazil, not only at the revelation that the president's own conversations and communications may have been spied upon by the NSA but that US interests were allegedly involved in blatant economic espionage against major Brazilian interests, including Petrobras.
Dilma Rousseff will have been wary of feelings of ordinary Brazilians had her Washington trip gone ahead. The perception here in Brazil is that the Obama administration has yet to give an adequate response or an apology.
Earlier this month, another report by Mr Greenwald on Globo Television alleged that the NSA had illegally accessed data from Petrobras.
The company is due next month to carry out an important auction for exploration rights of an oil field off the Rio de Janeiro state coast.
Ms Rousseff has said that if the accusations are proven it means the NSA was involved in "industrial espionage".
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Snowden's victim
Jim, have your blood pressure pills to hand...
A top NSA official has raised the possibility of an amnesty for fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking documents.
The man in charge of assessing the leaks' damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open to an amnesty deal.
Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA's spying activity.
But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea.
Mr Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal: "So my personal view is, yes it's worth having a conversation about.
"I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part."
A US judge has ruled the National Security Agency's mass collection of telephone data unconstitutional.
Federal District Judge Richard Leon said the electronic spy agency's practice was an "arbitrary invasion".
The agency's collection of "metadata" including telephone numbers and times and dates of calls was brought to light by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The White House dismissed the suggestion Mr Snowden receive amnesty if he stopped leaking documents.
In his ruling in a Washington DC federal court on Monday, Mr Leon called the NSA's surveillance program "indiscriminate" and an "almost Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Snowden's victim
Read about this earlier Strop, no medication needed...
This decision is meaningless; on an issue of this magnitude, nothing matters until The Supremes rule.
This decision is meaningless; on an issue of this magnitude, nothing matters until The Supremes rule.
Re: Snowden's victim
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Snowden's victim
You have much to learn about our judicial system... 
Last edited by Lord Jim on Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Snowden's victim
A US judge has ruled the National Security Agency's mass collection of telephone data unconstitutional.
Federal District Judge Richard Leon said the electronic spy agency's practice was an "arbitrary invasion".
The agency's collection of "metadata" including telephone numbers and times and dates of calls was brought to light by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
...
In his ruling in a Washington DC federal court on Monday, Mr Leon called the NSA's surveillance program "indiscriminate" and an "almost Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States
The judge's decision certainly can be interpreted to mean that a 'reasonable person' might believe as Snowden did; which could be a very effective defense.
yrs,
rubato
Re: Snowden's victim
You have much to learn about our judicial system...The judge's decision certainly can be interpreted to mean that a 'reasonable person' might believe as Snowden did; which could be a very effective defense.
Re: Snowden's victim
Could I please have a show of hands of all the folks who expect the Supreme Court to rule the entire NSA meta data program Unconstitutional, and prohibit the federal government from engaging in it?
Now, please don't raise your hand if you think the SC "should" make that ruling, or because you would "like" for them to make that ruling....
I only want to see the hands of those who believe they "will" make that ruling...
Now, please don't raise your hand if you think the SC "should" make that ruling, or because you would "like" for them to make that ruling....
I only want to see the hands of those who believe they "will" make that ruling...
Re: Snowden's victim
CertainlyLord Jim wrote:Could I please have a show of hands of all the folks who expect the Supreme Court to rule the entire NSA meta data program Unconstitutional, and prohibit the federal government from engaging in it?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Snowden's victim
Well, I can guarantee you that The Supremes aren't going to tell the NSA to stop in the name of love....
-
Grim Reaper
- Posts: 944
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Re: Snowden's victim
Maybe not undo the whole thing, but they do need to be reined in quite a bit.Lord Jim wrote: Could I please have a show of hands of all the folks who expect the Supreme Court to rule the entire NSA meta data program Unconstitutional, and prohibit the federal government from engaging in it?
Re: Snowden's victim
With regard to Snowden's prosecution it may not matter if the SC rules the whole thing unconstitutional or not. If Snowden can show that his beliefs and actions were those of a 'reasonable person' that may be all the defense he needs.
But there is a good chance that they will find some of it unconstitutional; the amount of data being collected is huge and the opportunity for abuse is vast.
yrs,
rubato
But there is a good chance that they will find some of it unconstitutional; the amount of data being collected is huge and the opportunity for abuse is vast.
yrs,
rubato