Some patriot.

Hong Kong (CNN) - U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world for years, apparently targeting fat data pipes that push immense amounts of data around the Internet, NSA leaker Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.

Among some 61,000 reported targets of the National Security Agency, Snowden said, are thousands of computers in China -- which U.S. officials have increasingly criticized as the source of thousands of attacks on U.S. military and commercial networks. China has denied such attacks.

The Morning Post said it had seen documents provided by Snowden but was unable to verify their authenticity. The English-language news agency, which operates in Hong Kong, also said it was unable to independently verify allegations of U.S. hacking of networks in Hong Kong and mainland China since 2009.

Snowden told the paper that some of the targets included the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials and students. The documents also "point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets," the newspaper reported.

The claims came just days after U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to address cyberattacks emanating from China that Obama described as "direct theft of United States property."

Snowden's allegations appear to give weight to claims by some Chinese government officials that the country has been a victim of similar hacking efforts coming from the United States.

His claims came as Gen. Keith Alexander, the National Security Agency chief, testified at a U.S. Senate hearing that the country's cyberinfrastructure, including telephones and computer networks, is somewhat vulnerable to attack.

On a scale of one to 10, "our critical infrastructure's preparedness to withstand a destructive cyberattack is about a three, based on my experience," he said.

In the Morning Post interview -- published one week after the British newspaper The Guardian revealed the first leaks attributed to Snowden -- he claimed the agency he once worked for as a contractor typically targets high-bandwidth data lines that connect Internet nodes located around the world.

"We hack network backbones -- like huge Internet routers, basically -- that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

No, not the entire American public, just 48.93% of us.

We didn't forget so much as insist on clinging to the cultural paradigm that 'it can't happen here'.

Most Americans refuse to believe that they would ever have anything to fear from their own government.

The ACLU has already filed suit over this matter. It simply happened to be on the right side of this set of issues- for the very first time ever- since its inception.


[sarcasm]











http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/aclu-files-lawsuit-challenging-nsas-patriot-act-phone 

Sounds as though this "patriot" also has an agenda against USA interests by revealing our cyber strategies against despotic regimes. Thanks, TW.

Having said that, it appears that we're back to square one. At what point do the citizens' rights of privacy trump our country's security? We've traded rights to get that "security". This Snowden snitch incident has nothing to do with it. The time for real outrage and action was decades ago at the ballot box. That ship has long sailed.

I thought we were blaming the Nips..... 😟

All these domestic spying revelations surely won't help the push for gun control and banning guns. I still have faith that Americans will trade even more rights for "security".

I heard Boston is the test market

...and it passed with flying colours!

Romney rounded down to 47%...

Unlike Obama's unconvincing, rehearsed fakery, I could sense Romney's genuine affection for his unwashed masses.

Yes, but some of us voted for Ron Paul and others. 48.93% voted for someone other then dear Leader.

I'm just afraid cornwallace will run again since he really was only elected once.

Master Dubya has decreed & given permission that his heir Jeb be elected.
Unfortunately for him, the electorate is hungering for yet another novelty candidate to elect- a slick woman with cankles.

are cankles like scrupples..?? 😕

:-k Hillary's cankles overshadowed her scruples.

cankles = (too much) scrapple?

I heard they eat scapple like sugar pops over in Arkansas..... 😟

Correction: Elected four times.