DoJ to Snowden: Hope your 15 minutes were worth it, pal

[Admiral Yi]

He's Jewish.  Jews typically aren't juice heads.

[Razgovory]

Dguller seems to be able to hold his liquor.  Unlike Siege where half a light beer and he's posting pictures of girls from the Disney channel.

[Syt]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/us-military-and-german-police-respond-to-facebook-post-about-nsa-walk-a-911451.html

NSA Joke: US Military Intervene over Facebook Event

As a joke, a German man recently invited some friends for a walk around a top secret NSA facility. But the Facebook invitation soon had German federal police knocking at his door. They had been alerted by the American authorities.

Normally, Daniel Bangert's Facebook posts tend to be of the serious variety. The 28-year-old includes news items and other bits of interest he encounters throughout the day. "I rarely post funny pictures," he says.

Recently, though, he decided to liven up his page with something a bit more amusing -- and decided to focus on the scandal surrounding the vast Internet surveillance perpetrated by the US intelligence service NSA. He invited his friends on an excursion to the top secret US facility known as the Dagger Complex in Griesheim, where Bangert is from.
He described the outing as though it were a nature walk. He wrote on Facebook that its purpose was to undertake "joint research into the threatened habitat of NSA spies." He added: "If we are really lucky, we might actually see a real NSA spy with our own eyes." He suggested that those interested in coming should bring along their cameras and "flowers of all kinds to improve the appearance of the NSA spies' habitat."

Perhaps not surprisingly, not many of his friends showed much interest in the venture. But the authorities did. Just four days after he posted the invitation, his mobile phone rang at 7:17 a.m. It was the police calling to talk about his Facebook post.

'I Couldn't Believe It'

Bangert's doorbell rang at almost the exact same time. The police on the telephone told him to talk with the officers outside of his door. Bangert quickly put on a T-shirt -- which had a picture of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on it along with the words "Team Edward" -- and answered the door. His neighbor was outside too so as not to miss the fun.

The police wanted to know more about what exactly Bangert had in mind. "I couldn't believe it. I thought: What? They are coming for such nonsense?"

Bangert says he answered all of the questions truthfully, saying that, yes, his intention was that of heading out to watch the spies. "The officers did smirk a bit," he notes.

How, though, did the police get wind of Bangert's planned "nature" walk? A spokeswoman for the police in nearby Darmstadt told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the US Military Police had found the Facebook post and passed it along to German officials. The Military Police are responsible for security within the Dagger Complex, but outside the fence, it is the Germans who are in charge.

Not long later, Bangert got another call asking him to report to Central Commissariat 10 of the German federal police. They too then sent an officer to his home. "The wanted to know if I had connections with (anarchist groups) or other violent people," Bangert says. He told the officers that he didn't, repeating over and over that he "just wanted to go for a walk."

Ignoring the Police

The officers, says Bangert, were unimpressed and called him a "smart aleck," before hinting strongly that he should obtain a demonstration permit before he embarked on his outing. They then told Bangert not to post anything about their visit on the web.

Bangert took their first piece of advice, registering his "demonstration" even though, as he says, "it wasn't supposed to be one." But he ignored the police's second suggestion and reported on their visit on his Facebook page. "How much more proof do you need," he wrote. "Everyone says that they aren't affected. But then I invite people for a walk and write obvious nonsense in the invitation and suddenly the federal police show up at my home."

The police spokeswoman sought to play down the incident. The officers from Central Commissariat 10 are responsible for public demonstrations, she said. And the fact that the American Military Police reported the Facebook post isn't surprising either, she said. The police, she noted, usually only learn of publicly announced Facebook parties when they are notified by those affected.

More Walks in the Future?

Nevertheless, news of the incident spread rapidly via Twitter and blogs, and the local media reported on it as well. "My grandma was angry with me," Bangert says. "She said: 'You have to be careful or you'll get sent to jail.'"
He wasn't sent to jail, of course. But the added interest in his invitation meant that some 70 people gathered on Saturday for the NSA safari in Griesheim -- along with two police cars, one in front and one behind. "Some members of the group tried to get the NSA spies to come out of their building," Bangert wrote on Facebook afterwards. Unfortunately, they didn't see "any real NSA spies." But they had a good time nonetheless -- to the point that many suggested another walk just like it.

So is he planning a repeat? "I didn't say that and I didn't write it anywhere," Bangert replies. The smart aleck.

[Savonarola]

US, China trade barbs about Snowden case

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. and China wrapped up two days of high-level talks on security and economy in upbeat fashion Thursday, but not before trading barbs about NSA leaker Edward Snowden and human rights.

The two sides announced more cooperation on combating climate change and their plans to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty.

But Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said the U.S. was very disappointed how authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong handled Snowden's case by refusing to extradite him before he flew to Russia.

"China's handling of this case was not consistent with the spirit of Sunnylands and the new type of relationship that we both seek to build," Burns said, referring to the summit a month ago between President Barack Obama and China's new president, Xi Jinping, at a California resort.

Obama also expressed disappointment about the Snowden case when he met Thursday in the Oval Office with the two leaders of the Chinese delegation, a White House statement said.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who was sitting on the same dais as Burns as they closed the talks, retorted in his remarks that the handling of the case by authorities in semi-autonomous Hong Kong was "beyond reproach."

Yang also rejected U.S. criticism of China's rights record in the ethnic minority areas of Tibet and Xinjiang, saying people there are "enjoying happier lives and they enjoy unprecedented freedom and human rights."

He added: "We hope the U.S. will improve its own human rights situation."

About 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2011 to protest Chinese policies in Tibet and call for the return of the Dalai Lama, their exiled spiritual leader. In the far western region of Xinjiang, minority Muslims are also agitating against Beijing and clashes in recent months have killed at least 56 people.


The stark differences of opinion on those issues did not prevent kind words on both sides too.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew hailed the "personal approach" of China's new generation of leaders under Xi, who ascended to China's presidency in March in a once-in-a-decade power transition.

China's Vice Premier Wang Yang, whom U.S. officials say has demonstrated a keen sense of humor in this week's talks, quipped that Lew is smarter than he is and they've become good friends.

It's a sign of the importance the Obama administration puts on its relationship with China leaders that the president received the visiting officials and did so in the Oval Office, where more typically heads of government and state are hosted.

Obama welcomed China's commitment to open its economy to U.S. investment in the bilateral investment treaty - a pact that Washington has been urging Beijing to negotiate in earnest on for years. The Chinese also agreed with him on the importance of cooperating to get North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.

But Obama added that the United States would continue to speak out in support of international norms such as the protection of universal human rights, the White House statement said.

[Berkut]

Some day i hope that the US can learn from China about human rights.

You have to recognize the audacity of the Chinese though.

[Kleves]

But Obama added that the United States would continue to speak out in support of international norms such as the protection of universal human rights, the White House statement said.

That'll learn 'em.

[CountDeMoney]

Some day i hope that the US can learn from China about human rights.

You have to recognize the audacity of the Chinese though.

Everybody's getting their giggles in these days.

[dps]

He's Russian, therefore he's an alcoholic and a communist.
He fantasizes about Obama, therefore he's a homosexual and a communist.

He may not actually be a socially awkward geek, though. 

He posts here, d'uh.