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>"He resisted questioning about his private life, but he allowed that he missed small things from home. Milkshakes, for one. Why not make your own? Snowden refu

>"He resisted questioning about his private life, but he allowed that he missed small things from home. Milkshakes, for one. Why not make your own? Snowden refused to confirm or deny possession of a blender. Like all appliances, blenders have an electrical signature when switched on. He believed that the U.S. government was trying to discover where he lived. He did not wish to offer clues, electromagnetic or otherwise. U.S. intelligence agencies had closely studied electrical emissions when scouting Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan." This reminds me of one of the discussion threads that was happening here last week [0] where people were speculating about the next generation of spy satellites. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23151301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23151301

barbegal 6y ago
Has anyone got a citation for "U.S. intelligence agencies had closely studied electrical emissions when scouting Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan" Being very liberal with the truth, using a radio scanner could be classed as "closely studying electrical emissions". Firstly, to get a blender's electrical signature you'd need to be pretty close to the blender, even along the transmission line. And I think it would be tough to tell one person's blender motor from any other cheap motor powering kitchen gadgetry in the local area.
- polytely 6y ago
  A cursory duckduckgo reveals: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-hunt-osama-bin-laden-satellites-watched-over-abbottabad-pakistan-and-navy-seals/2013/08/29/8d32c1d6-10d5-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-hu... which in turn links to: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-flew-stealth-drones-into-pakistan-to-monitor-bin-laden-house/2011/05/13/AF5dW55G_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-f... Which talks specifically about the RQ-170 Sentinel monitoring electronic transmissions in the area, so it might be conflating the two? The information about the Sentinel comes out of this leaked black budget: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-details-us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and-objectives/2013/08/29/7e57bb78-10ab-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black... If I recall correctly Bin Laden mostly used couriers to transmit information and didn't use much tech because they were well aware that it would be a huge security risk. This Intercept article based on leaked internal NSA newsletters has a lot of juicy details: https://theintercept.com/2015/05/18/snowden-osama-bin-laden-raid/ https://theintercept.com/2015/05/18/snowden-osama-bin-laden-...
ben_w 6y ago
That reminds me: I recently finished listening to Cryptonomicon. I was surprised to find out that Van Eck phreaking was a real thing and not just a fictional tech Stephenson made up for the novel. Does anyone here know if it works on modern displays, specifically phone/tablets?
fouc 6y ago
Going to be quite interesting to see how Starlink will be co-opted as well
mc32 6y ago
First they’d have to know he has a weakness for milkshakes in the first place. Second, he could have friends make them, third you could use an old fashioned hand blender/whisk/mixer[1]... you know the kinds with a mechanical crank... like the old hand drills. So he’s in the least embellishing for the interviewer. Oh, fourth, he could use a pneumatic blender... [1]https://www.pinterest.com/repk/vintage-hand-mixers/ https://www.pinterest.com/repk/vintage-hand-mixers/

barbegal 6y ago

Has anyone got a citation for "U.S. intelligence agencies had closely studied electrical emissions when scouting Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan" Being very liberal with the truth, using a radio scanner could be classed as "closely studying electrical emissions". Firstly, to get a blender's electrical signature you'd need to be pretty close to the blender, even along the transmission line. And I think it would be tough to tell one person's blender motor from any other cheap motor powering kitchen gadgetry in the local area.

polytely 6y ago
A cursory duckduckgo reveals: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-hunt-osama-bin-laden-satellites-watched-over-abbottabad-pakistan-and-navy-seals/2013/08/29/8d32c1d6-10d5-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-hu... which in turn links to: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-flew-stealth-drones-into-pakistan-to-monitor-bin-laden-house/2011/05/13/AF5dW55G_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-f... Which talks specifically about the RQ-170 Sentinel monitoring electronic transmissions in the area, so it might be conflating the two? The information about the Sentinel comes out of this leaked black budget: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-details-us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and-objectives/2013/08/29/7e57bb78-10ab-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black... If I recall correctly Bin Laden mostly used couriers to transmit information and didn't use much tech because they were well aware that it would be a huge security risk. This Intercept article based on leaked internal NSA newsletters has a lot of juicy details: https://theintercept.com/2015/05/18/snowden-osama-bin-laden-raid/ https://theintercept.com/2015/05/18/snowden-osama-bin-laden-...

ben_w 6y ago

That reminds me: I recently finished listening to Cryptonomicon. I was surprised to find out that Van Eck phreaking was a real thing and not just a fictional tech Stephenson made up for the novel. Does anyone here know if it works on modern displays, specifically phone/tablets?

fouc 6y ago

Going to be quite interesting to see how Starlink will be co-opted as well

mc32 6y ago

First they’d have to know he has a weakness for milkshakes in the first place. Second, he could have friends make them, third you could use an old fashioned hand blender/whisk/mixer[1]... you know the kinds with a mechanical crank... like the old hand drills. So he’s in the least embellishing for the interviewer. Oh, fourth, he could use a pneumatic blender... [1]https://www.pinterest.com/repk/vintage-hand-mixers/ https://www.pinterest.com/repk/vintage-hand-mixers/