Snowden Strikes Again: NSA Mapping Social Connections of US Citizens 513
McGruber writes "The New York Times is reporting on yet another NSA revelation: for the last three years, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information. 'The agency can augment the communications data with material from public, commercial and other sources, including bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and GPS location information, as well as property records and unspecified tax data, according to the documents. They do not indicate any restrictions on the use of such "enrichment" data, and several former senior Obama administration officials said the agency drew on it for both Americans and foreigners.' In a memorandum, NSA analysts were 'told that they could trace the contacts of Americans as long as they cited a foreign intelligence justification.' 'That could include anything from ties to terrorism, weapons proliferation or international drug smuggling to spying on conversations of foreign politicians, business figures or activists. Analysts were warned to follow existing "minimization rules," which prohibit the NSA from sharing with other agencies names and other details of Americans whose communications are collected, unless they are necessary to understand foreign intelligence reports or there is evidence of a crime. The agency is required to obtain a warrant from the intelligence court to target a "U.S. person" — a citizen or legal resident — for actual eavesdropping.'"
Re:yay (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly the more that leaks the more it confirms the craziest ideas the most paranoid have had for years, even a few years ago when there was an allegation of the nsa/similar inserting a backdoor in some commonly used crypto. the debate in the media was "how credible is the guy saying this?" rather than "look at the code, it is available". but crypto is hard, its super strong math, super good coding knowledge is needed to see how much of the math is being used to obfuscate too. i have been thinking for years they know too much, but its beyond my wildest dreams. for the first wave of documents, then the rebuttals, then disproof of the rebuttals via further documents...we can all safely assume they know more than even our most paranoid believe (other than schizophrenics, who think peoples eyes are cameras).
People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately people just don't seem to care. They say "oh, that's terrible!" and that's the end of the discussion. While they may say it's terrible, they do absolutely nothing about it and just let it be and anyone that tries to do anything about it gets pushed as the enemy. The majority of American citizens voted for this behavior, and the majority of the American citizens support this behavior whether they willingly acknowledge this or not. If they don't support it then they should do something about it, even if it's just writing to their state representatives or something of the sort. Believe it or not, a lot of congress don't even believe this is going on or even know it's happening. They do whatever their advisers tell them to do and they learn about the things their advisers tell them about. Confronting them is the first step to changing the country into something better. You may not believe that congress will listen but this is politics and when people get angry they will listen.
news media has lost interest? (Score:5, Insightful)
For the last several Snowden disclosures, there was barely a mention on many of the major outlets such as CNN, whereas the earlier announcements made the primary CNN site headlines. Similar for NPR. As I write this, I don't see a single mention on cnn.com of this story.
It seems that the public and the media has moved on, and no longer cares. It's the "new normal" that we are all spied on all the time. The chance for outrage and change has passed. No one will be held accountable, no government officials who stood up in front of the entire country and lied will be held responsible. Much like a lot of other tech issues, it has degenerated into one of those things that causes some nerd-rage but the general public doesn't really care about.
Facebook 2.0 (Score:4, Insightful)
Looks like Facebook could have competition.
If only the US Govenment would put a nice web interface on the front end.
Re:So Obama lied again (Score:5, Insightful)
He said Americans were not being spied upon by the NSA.
that's because they're weasel wording with the definition of spying... in their mind spying just a little bit to know if there's dirt that's useful to spy a little more isn't actually spying.
"but it's ok since we don't share it with other agencies unless there's a crime!" is such fucking stasi bullshit.
Great! Can we have a copy? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it would be useful for the American citizenry to have a copy of this data so that we can know exactly who the NSA employees are, who they know, what they're doing, and where they are at all times. Also the heads of JP Morgan, Citibank, Halliburton, etc, and all the shadowy 1% who are implementing this police state.
Oh, it's only for informational purposes, you know. Not like we would act on any of that information.
Seriously, do these people think these tools can't be turned on them? Americans have grown pretty fat and lazy but we are still a relatively heavily armed people, and you can't exactly go around ordering F-15s to drop napalm on suburban Cleveland. That is, the troubles the US Army has had suppressing IEDs and small arms fire in Afghanistan and Iraq multiply exponentially when you're turning your artillery on the friends and families of the very people you count on to manufacture your ammo, grow your food, and ship it to your butt.
So go ahead, totalitarian fantasists, keep turning the weaponry and spying machinery on the very people you count on to make your activities possible. See how that turns out. ***Spoilers ahead*** It ends with you swinging for lampposts or torn limb from limb by angry mobs.
Snowden strikes again...or US gov strikes again? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So Obama lied again (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, to be fair, his surrogates do most of the direct lying for him, he mainly deals in platitudes and equivocations.
Re:yay (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait a minute, thanks to Google, people's eyes soon WILL be the NSA's cameras.
Re:American Exceptionalism and Moral Superiority (Score:2, Insightful)
You'll have to excuse us, didn't you see the guy we elected's smile? Didn't you hear him recite someone else's speeches. He's so likable, he can do whatever he wants.
This is what you get (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:news media has lost interest? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who says the general public doesn't care about it?
Polling shows that even back in July the US public knew the NSA was lying and disapprove of what's happening by 2:1 [yougov.com].
But what can be done? "Outrage" doesn't achieve anything. It became abundantly clear the moment senior members of the military were caught lying and nothing was done, that what the public think doesn't matter. So why should the public make a fuss? Waste of energy.
CNN and the likes are just reflecting the fact that the general story is by now well known and not news. The NSA lies and is totally out of control. It does everything the most paranoid people ever imagined, and more. OK. Got it. Next story.
But make no mistake. The right people are still paying attention. Behind the scenes there's a lot going on in a lot of places. All kinds of people who previously would not have included government agencies in their threat models are now starting to do so. Change will take years, perhaps decades, and enormous amounts of technical talent is going to be wasted fighting the US government by trying to blind it with more effective encryption. Success is by no means guaranteed. But without a doubt those members of the general public who have the ability to take part in that are still paying attention.
Re:news media has lost interest? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait until non-american companies exploit the current distrust and offer alternate services to american internet companies and the for the big boys too start loosing money... You'll see some changes then.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
modern rebellion is only done in 2 ways. 1. stop spending 2. stop working. guns would be ineffective...
Guns, lots of guns, are one of the biggest reasons behind what is currently dissuading the government from just saying "screw it", and going full martial-law/internment camp/mass graves/brutal tyranny. Civilian guns are a strong disincentive against widespread domestic use of government armed force against the population by making it a very very costly and, like occupying/pacifying Afghanistan, likely in reality to be an impossible goal to achieve or maintain for any meaningful length of time.
One significant "tell" is that all the politicians seem to be talking about lately is regulating/restricting/banning medium and long range semi-automatic rifles that history shows are used in so very few crimes it's ridiculous, not so much handguns. Handguns are not nearly as effective against a military or para-military occupation/pacification force as are rifles.
Guns, lots of guns, would be one of the biggest reasons the government would not simply immediately imprison/kill all those organizing, promoting, and/or participating in your "stop working and stop spending" plan.
Strat
Re:news media has lost interest? (Score:5, Insightful)
The media does what they're told. Do you think that the NSA has the ability to force Google ($292B), Apple ($438B) and Microsoft ($277B) but they don't have any control over turner broadcasting ($60B) or NPR who is partially funded by the government?
All they have to do is monitor a couple of CEOs internet connections and wait for them to look up something embarrassing. Tada! The NSA controls the news.
Even More Reason to... (Score:2, Insightful)
Avoid Faicebook
Avoid Twitter
Pay Cash for everything
Use a phone that does not have GPS.
Encrypt everything
Use Burner phones
No Sir I have nothing to hide apart from my privacy.
Re:Great! Can we have a copy? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think you really understand how totalitarian states come about. Having an armed citizenry has no influence AT ALL. And please don't cite the American Revolution as a counter example, because you know that revolution had nothing to do with liberty. It was merly a way for the colonists to MAINTAIN their privileges (that they had under british rule) only now without the british in the picture.
The second amendment WILL NOT PROTECT YOU either in a passive or active way against the government. The same way the constitution will not protect you. After all it is only a piece of paper. If the powers that be (Congress, the Supreme Court, the President) decide to ignore that paper you're fucked with or without your AK-47 by your side.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
As for getting angry and bitching. That hasn't worked and isn't going to work. Fire and bullets work. Just ask Thomas Jefferson...
Re:Great! Can we have a copy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Obama isn't the one who started all this - he is just the one who is refusing to stop it. There's lots of blame to go around here, no need to pile it all on one person.
Re:news media has lost interest? (Score:5, Insightful)
As I write this, I don't see a single mention on cnn.com of this story.
As if CNN is the only news outlet.
In our opinion: Make the NSA accountable [deseretnews.com]
NSA maps some Americans' social connections, says report [cnet.com]
N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens [nytimes.com]
I first heard about it on Good Morning America this morning. It was an AP story. [go.com] Getting your news from a single source isn't very smart.
Re:Been around since at least 1999 (Score:5, Insightful)
Difference in scale. The LE database tracks known criminals and those associated with a crime. The NSA database just tracks *everyone* on the grounds that they may possibly be a suspect at some point in the future.
Because they're the servants, not the masters (Score:5, Insightful)
These programs didn't start under Obama. Echelon has been going for decades. Cheney and Bush had the Total Information Awareness program. So the reason I don't blame Obama exclusively is because both Republicans and Democrats are doing it at the command of the same masters, the corporations and the .01% who run them. It's out in the open now--much of this spying that Snowden has revealed was industrial espionage. Focusing ire on the party(ies) in charge in DC is a dodge, a convenient lightening rod for the powers-that-be to draw the popular anger that has historically hung people like them from trees and beheaded them. Every once in a while you throw one of your cannon fodd...er, Congressmen and Presidents to the wolves, Joe Sixpack grunts with clueless satisfaction, cracks open another beer, and puts the game back on; and you can get back to the business of robbing his pension fund blind under the cover of law.
To stop being part of the problem and part of the solution, we all have to stop pretending that the political process makes any difference or that there's such a thing as the rule of law; they have been entirely subverted and the American people will have to get about the messy business of re-asserting popular sovereignity and bringing the criminals and sociopaths who brought this about to justice. It sucks and I don't want to have to do it either, but it's our duty to our children to not condemn them to live in slavery.
Re:yay (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't validation of crazy paranoia.
You're right. To be more precise, it's a validation that what many (most?) people thought was crazy paranoia, isn't, and wasn't. It's scary when people previously dismissed as tin foil hatters turned out to have been right. Other than the exact wording though, which I don't think matters that much since his intent was clear, the GP's point stands.
What surprises me is not that this is being done, but the massive scale on which it's being done. It's no secret that, for example, the FBI bugged the rooms and tapped the phones of MLK. It's revolting that that was done to someone who wasn't even the slightest threat to the United States (in fact I'd argue that he was, amongst other things, a true patriot for wanting to enforce the Constitution). But he was a high profile person, as were many of the others who were bugged. This is different though - it's everyone! That is a characteristic of a police state. Many people say "police state" is overused, but here it's appropriate. This is the kind of crap that the KGB and the Stasi did. During the Cold War we rightly considered the United States superior because it didn't do that. Even after the revelations by the Church Committee about the extensive bugging, it was still only a few high profile people. We didn't have an army of spooks looking up everyone's butt. Now we do, and the fact that it's in electronic form makes it worse, not better. Sometimes I miss the Cold War, because at least it gave us countries that we had to credibly claim we were better than. Now they don't give a damn.
Use this to reflect on privacy as a whole! (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep in mind that Facebook and countless other sites are already admittedly collecting the same (and more) information and behavior associations, oftentimes with as little publicly-released details, accountability, and oversight, and then using it actively and aggressively to manipulate every single person (American or otherwise) into altering their financial behaviors, public perceptions, political persuasions, social interactions, and much more.
This is obviously not the same as a government agency per se, but it is useful to reflect on the differences and (more so) the similarities between what is specifically unsettling about a government and a large corporation having this information. Throughout this series of revelations, I've found it useful to contemplate any concern that I feel regarding my government possessing this degree of intimate information in the context of the Facebooks, Googles, and LinkedIns of the world. They are (to a far wider degree) actively targeting you (and everyone you know) directly and collecting and using all of the same associations with no need for suspicion of terrorism, illegal associations, FISA courts, or any real oversight. They sell this information in troves to the highest bidder with loose terms and are willingly or unwillingly subject to their members' respective governments' information request laws. They and their associates and clients are applying that information actively to change you.
While I can't stress enough that the gravity of one's government's actions should not be grouped with likeminded corporations, I do worry that Internet corporations are collecting more information with less oversight and accountability and using it in far more objectionable ways against a far wider audience! It's a different kind of threat, but in many ways I fear them far more than the government.
I (personally) hope that the outcome of this series of revelations is a global reflection on privacy and information sharing and not just a narrow-minded focus on a particular agency's actions.
Re:Living Overseas? (Score:5, Insightful)
Mettle detector - a device for checking the ability of someone to cope in a situation.
Metal detector - a device for detecting metals.
What the TSA does is clearly dual-purpose.
Re: So Obama lied again (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure it is. At least some of that information comes from the telephone metadata which isn't for sale.
If one person did this to another person, it would be stalking and would result in restraining orders and eventually a conviction. It looks like the NSA is up for about 300 million counts of stalking now. Assuming only one week of community service for each conviction, we should be looking forward to very clean roadways for the rest of our lives.
Re:Even More Reason to... (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you been paying attention at all? It is for neither purpose. It is about power; getting it, keeping it, and using it to control the citizenry.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the reason for not going "full martial-law/internment camp/mass graves/brutal tyranny" is because it serves no point.
And for the record, America did built internment camps in the 1940's for Japanese-American US citizens, has used mass graves for Native Americans during the Trail of Tears, and just recently held an entire major US city under lock down to catch 2 suspected bombers
So much for the "lots of guns" joke.
Re:yay (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait a minute, thanks to Google, people's eyes soon WILL be the NSA's cameras.
The weakest link in any security protocol is the human being and this should not be trusted, the strongest link is devoid of human interaction and that should not be tolerated.
If you have a computer, ipod, ipad, cellphone, digital camera; you already work (without pay) for the NSA.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
And exactly what do the tens of thousands of random fire arms do for you in an attempt to foil the powers that be?
Planning on taking over the neighborhood Air Force base with a few of your friends and convincing the pilots to bomb DC? Overrun the National Guard Armory and steal some Vietnam era trucks and a few radios (oops, wrong frequency ..)
The reason that Afghanistan is so fucked up and will remain a fucked up, neo feudal society is that they are stuck in small squad infantry tactics (along with a bizarre misogynist, xenophobic religion). Yes, then can fight a asymmetric war, but clean water and power, not so much. For better or worse, the standard of living in the US and similar countries is dependent on a complicated weave of people, business and law. You can break the system, but then you've bought it. How are all the disconnected angry people with guns going to rebuild a society?
Is it really going to be better than what we have? Can you think of some, perhaps less violent ways of accomplishing something useful?
I don't think that an armed citizenry is keeping the government from doing what it wants. Remember, the powers that be don't want any drastic change - it's how they make their money. We still need to role back the intrusiveness of government in the world, but it's a slow, messy process.
Plain View Doctrine and the web... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am an old geek and one with both a long background in sec matters and a law degree (though I'm pleased to say I don't actually use the later). None of this should be surprising or, in most ways, particularly annoying. A great deal of 'this' falls under a rational extension of the Plain View Doctrine (e.g. if you place your pot plant in your front bay window facing the sidewalk, you can not reasonably expect a foot patrol cop to avert his eyes...or complain when there is a knock on your door). I and others have long said that what you do online is 'public' (unless you are using encryption and/or various various methods to make yourself anonymous)...unencrypted email, social networks, etc...all pass as data streams that can be 'seen' by any server they pass through. Unless you are encrypting your datastream, you simply can't reasonably expect people (governments, especially) to avert their eyes from the waves of data washing over them.
There are huge, important privacy/security issues in play...but getting wound around the axel in a dogmatic response of "OMG, the [insert favorite agency here] is aggregating openly flowing datastreams" is a waste of time and effort and decreases the signal to noise ratio as to the substantive issues in play.
Also and more broadly, read Brin's Transparent Society. Still the best foundational work on this subject area...
Eben Moglen warned about "a robust social graph". (Score:5, Insightful)
"I was talking to a senior government official of this government about that outcome and he said well you know we've come to realize that we need a robust social graph of the United States. That's how we're going to connect new information to old information. I said let's just talk about the constitutional implications of this for a moment. You're talking about taking us from the society we have always known, which we quaintly refer to as a free society, to a society in which the United States government keeps a list of everybody every American knows." —Eben Moglen, "Innovation Under Austerity" [softwarefreedom.org]
Eben Moglen gave a talk where he warned us about a conversation he had with an American government official who wanted a "robust social graph" [digitalcitizen.info] of Americans. And again at Moglen's re:publica talk [youtube.com] as Nicole Brydson reminds us [brooklyntheborough.com]. Of course, I'd prefer to point to a copy of this talk in a format friendly to free software, but I don't know of one.
Moglen reminds us in his talks about how right Richard Stallman (RMS) is, and how we need to do the work of sharing what RMS teaches to others. RMS was right (as per usual) we need software freedom more than ever [slashdot.org]. Social action based on an ethical grounding (not mere technical convenience or speedy development) is exactly what this situation calls for. I hope everyone will take the time to read or listen to Moglen's insightful talks and take them seriously. They're deeply engrossing and filled with interesting history, so much so that they reward repeated listening and social action.
Re:Plain View Doctrine and the web... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are huge, important privacy/security issues in play...but getting wound around the axel in a dogmatic response of "OMG, the [insert favorite agency here] is aggregating openly flowing datastreams" is a waste of time and effort and decreases the signal to noise ratio as to the substantive issues in play.
Quantitative differences matter: one person investigating another is NOT the same as an organization investigating a person, and NOT the same as Orwellian governmental agency with unlimited budget, unlimited political and legal power, and worldwide reach investigating everyone.
Re:Great! Can we have a copy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Obama isn't the one who started all this - he is just the one who is refusing to stop it. There's lots of blame to go around here, no need to pile it all on one person.
I think there's a lot of value in piling it all on the person who is currently in the best position to do something about it, but isn't. Accurate allocation of blame is a job for historians.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
As another "tell," keep in mind that California's own Diane Feinstein is both the largest pusher of gun control and the biggest cheerleader for the NSA's spying in the Senate. It's no coincidence.
California should be ashamed.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
it is hard to bluff when they can see your cards (Score:5, Insightful)
If the CEOs were really interested in reporting on this they could make their own news with a sting operation. Plan to do a few "embarrassing" searches, document them ahead of time with a few high profile lawyers then do them. When the NSA acts, you reveal it all on your news programs.
If you are under surveillance and they know everything you do, everyone you talk to, and everything you say it might be a little difficult to surprise them.
Re:yay (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the kind of crap that the KGB and the Stasi did. During the Cold War we rightly considered the United States superior because it didn't do that.
Indeed. Now, consider you fought for your country because of said superiority. Consider you took on the mantle of duty because you believed your country wasn't like the oppressive KGB and Stasi. Wouldn't it bring into question what you unquestionably fought for? Wouldn't it undermine the very honor bestowed upon you? Wouldn't it cheapen the sacrifice of any who fought "for our freedom" and were wounded or killed?
The NSA is dangerously harmful to the USA. It must be rooted out because it weakens us far more than it could ever hope to strengthen us. Trust in your neighbor and fellow man has been under attack by these intelligence agencies since the 50's, to better foist upon us their tools of oppression by way of fear-mongering. The common man is afraid to say things aloud or online, and thinks twice before exercising their "freedoms". If the threat is so great as to grant them such powers, then why isn't their message: Better arm yourselves to the teeth because your fellow man is dangerous. That isn't their message, that would be ridiculous and also empower citizens to defend themselves...
Is this surveillance state and national fear worth fighting for? Is that worth "freeing" another people so they may be subject to the same oppression after as before we have fought to free them? It takes bravery to fight against apparently overwhelming odds, and soldiers do this not because they will win, but because they believe in the ideals of our nation, core among them is freedom -- They do what they think is ultimately right and trust their government to direct them in the goal of honor; Even if the foot soldier's actions seem dishonorable they trust their government to have a clearer view of the big picture. Now we glimpse the big picture painted in secret, and what is revealed looks exactly like what we've been fighting against. This must not stand.
It is a disgusting thought to entertain, but there could be reasons such internal national conflict is desired by the elitists [youtube.com] who will most certainly escape any conflict unscathed...
If it takes only bravery to fight against such systematic oppression making our land less free then how could it ever stand in the home of the brave? We must end paranoia of our fellow citizen's actions -- For we are great enough to thwart any who threaten us on our soil. We have the upper hand, we are so many and the terrorists so few that automobiles or fast food alone harms us more in a year than than they ever have in all of history. [cdc.gov] We are so great that we need not even be armed or even paranoid against the terrorists, even foiling their plots mid-air with bare hands once they've been discovered. Those that attack our citizens are pathetically feeble against us.
What of the power of the citizen in relation to our own government? In this regard the government has the upper hand. We trust them to have awesome weapons and machines of war far greater than we the people could have ever dreamed of when those words were first penned. Thus, the paranoia and fear of our government's actions against us must be ended, not by ignorance, but by ensuring there is nothing to be paranoid about. We trust our soldiers to fight for us, not against us because they will be ultimately accountable for their actions; If they fight against us then we would not have them as soldiers. Likewise, if their actions show they are against us then we must not trust our intelligence agencies to spy for us. They have betrayed our trust, and we must hold them accountable. Otherwise our honorable fight for nothing, we have no honor to bestow, and we are servants to bullies instead.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
Expecting the majority of the population to be like you is shortsighted at best.
It's not about me. It's about using your damn brain, or at the very least, learning how. Voter complacency is the main problem. They don't want to make the hard choices. They do what they can to avoid responsibility and to blame others for the troubles they suffer. The problem is in the mirror, and until people realize that, nothing will ever change, certainly not for the better.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't seem to understand the purpose of martial law. It is a very obsolete low tech technique used to control population movements at times where the humans with guns need to take a rest and your human informers are largely not around. It is to limit the human resources needed to surveil the population. Martial law is only instituted when the positive effects are outweighing the negative effects of angering and radicalizing the society on which it is applied. For example when a suitable justification can be used to placate 95% of the people it applies to.
Now ask yourself, why would they ever again need to institute martial law, when they can perfectly track and control your movements, spending, associations, through electronic means. Martial law would have only its negative effects and serve none of the positive ones, which are now 1000% more effectively served by total information awareness programs.
Your guns are absolutely meaningless, because nobody will come at you with force. They will come during day, with arrest warrant, since there are enough laws on books for everyone to break one here or there, and enough surveilance for them to know about it. Your guns will be absolutely useless, because they pick you one by one with the direct approval of your neighbors and convict you with some randomly selected 12 non-peers of yours, who will have only carefully selected and filtered 10% of the information about you.
You naive gun guys make me laugh so hard sometimes.
Re:People don't care because they're too stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong. Average people actually fare better at resisting military authority when violence isn't a primary aspect of their approach, because it allows everyone to participate in little ways all the time, rather than just the minority that lack dependents and don't mind being killed/imprisoned. (This is assuming the people aren't in a position where they know for a fact that they're all going to die anyway, of course; if they're fucked either way, *then* it can make sense to fight back.)
For some great examples of what to do and *not* to do if you want to successfully resist heavily-armed occupying forces, check out how different places resisted while occupied during WWII [wikipedia.org]. Areas where non-violent resistance was the foundation of their efforts often achieved a great deal, like the French Resistance [wikipedia.org] and Dutch Resistance [wikipedia.org]. The places whose resistance was based on a focus upon physical violence managed to repel invaders (at an extremely heavy cost) in some cases, but otherwise only achieved temporary liberation of limited regions before being squashed, as in these examples:
"...the first organized armed uprising in then-occupied Europe which involved 32.000 people. In quick time, most of Montenegro was liberated, except major cities where Italian forces were well fortified. On 12 August—after a major Italian offensive involving 5 divisions and 30.000 armed soldiers — the uprising collapsed as units were disintegrating, poor leadership occurred as well as collaboration. Final toll of July 13 uprising in Montenegro was 735 dead, 1120 wounded and 2070 captured Italians and 72 dead and 53 wounded Montenegrins."
"Operation Anthropoid was a resistance move during World War II to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi “Protector of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” and the chief of Nazi's final solution, by the Czech resistance in Prague. Over fifteen thousand Czechs were killed in reprisals, with the most infamous incidents being the complete destruction of the towns of Lidice and Leáky."
Keep in mind, we're talking about places and a time period when the vast majority of people were extremely physically fit, had intimate knowledge of their area/countryside from living there most of their lives, and were used to physical hardship -- they had *much* better chances of success via violent uprising than we Americans would have, and their few minor successes using that method could have been (and in other places were) achieved with a primarily non-violent approach.
FWIW, I'm not remotely pacifistic in nature, I just recognize that regardless of my impulses, history shows clearly that violence rarely wins the day when one is up against trained heavily-armed buff soldiers.