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Snowden: NSA Spying On EU Diplomats and Administrators

Posted by timothy on from the open-line-sunday dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to a report dated 2010 recently provided by [former NSA contractor Edward] Snowden to the German news magazine 'Der Spiegel', the NSA has systematically been spying on institutions of the EU in Washington DC, New York, and Brussels. Methods of spying include bugging, phone taps, and network intrusions and surveillance according to the documents." All part of a grand tradition.

10 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. For the sake of saving time, by centipedes.in.my.vag · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Could we just get the list of who the NSA isn't spying on? It seems to be much shorter.

    --
    Only on /. can I lose karma with 2x "5, Funny" posts.
    1. Re:For the sake of saving time, by SJHiIlman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If we don't spy on everyone, the terrorists will get us (and maybe the communists, but they're not the big bad bogeymen they once were)! Grope everyone at airports! Have secret courts rubberstamp warrants that allow for the collection of random people's information even though there's no probable cause! Spy on allies! Spy on every single person in existence!

      Somehow it seems as if our own politicians hate our freedom more than the terrorists supposedly do...

    2. Re:For the sake of saving time, by stox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Offices of Congress. If it ever came out that the Congress was being monitored in its offices, the fecal matter would hit the rotating device at supersonic speeds.

      --
      "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    3. Re:For the sake of saving time, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      honestly every westernized nation does this, and in terms of the US/UK/Canada/Australia/New Zealand they all help each other to make it possible, even to each other.

      should see some of the stuff the Canadian CSE sets up for allied embassies, sigint at its best except maybe for norwegian installations.

    4. Re:For the sake of saving time, by ae1294 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They have to spy on everybody, because anybody could be, or become, a terrorist, either willingly or unwillingly.

      The only people that can be trusted are obviously only a small group of people close to the President, and a handful of Congressmen and Senators.

      Yes I think there are around 400 to 500 of them which collectively own and control our system. They can be trusted because of their mass wealth and the fact that any thing they want whether legal or not will be given to them. They have no reason to get involved with messy religious martyrdom products practiced by poor ignorant brown people. I mean after all they select few have no souls to begin with so why bother with anything other than money an power. If they gamble their money away the government will always cover the lost since they are to-big-to-fail and it was really the consumers fault somehow anyway,

      Welcome to our brave new world, It only gets worse from here on out. Start stashing water and food some place safe for when the riots start. There is no way to know when but I'd say with-in the next 10 years the US will be coming apart at its seams... People are perfectly happy to watch TV and ignore everything until they are starving from lack of affordable food and massive inflation in each and every sector of our economy. When people start going hungry (I think congress just failed to pass the farm bill for the first time in 40 years). That's the food stamps program among other thing.. Yeah people get really pissed off really fast when they can't have their Mt Dew and Cheeto's. Doesn't mater if the SNAP program is right or wrong when you are being mugged at knife point so someone can by some Raymons,,, These poor people might be leaching of the rest of us but putting them in jail costs more and they aren't going to suffer like some here would love to see. No they will attack and it will be random and bloody. Think about that the next time you are talking with your friends about cutting mental health and food/medical assistance from the poor. You are being short sighted and you and your family with pay, one way or another...

    5. Re:For the sake of saving time, by Coeurderoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Can't you imagine that maybe he actually loves his country and would like it to stop being on a slippery slope ?

      You might disagree with his opinions, and believe that his revelations on reveal "normal things", but he does not seems to be doing these for any personal gain, nor out of spite.

      Of course if "right or wrong my country" is your motto, then you are in a dangerous place, "following orders" is not an ethical choice, and just put you in the wast camp of the "banal evil".

      Of course maybe you where trying to be "funy", but impersonating a moron does not always work

  2. The US is nobody's friend by 0111+1110 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our government is a bit like a sociopath. We are nobody's friend. Everyone is merely a potential enemy. We spy on everyone. No exceptions. I'm sure we even spy on the UK and Canada as utterly pointless as that may be. If we ever ended up at war with either Canada or the UK then we'd almost certainly be better off losing anyway.

    Of course, from Washington's POV the problem is not so much that we spy even on our friends, but that someone blabbed about it. They won't think about changing their behavior toward our allies. About acting honorably at least toward our allies. Rather they will think more about how badly they can punish the leaker. I can only imagine how badly they are itching to get Snowden's ass to gitmo and torture him to death in very creative ways.

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    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    1. Re:The US is nobody's friend by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's another option. Accept the fact that you will never be truly safe, and live with the possibility that any moment could be your last from a terrible accident or crime. While you are alive, however, live your life as freely as possible, harming and infringing on the rights of others as little as you can while still participating in a modern, thriving, society.

      I'd rather a 9/11 size attack happen every generation than suffer through the insults to my dignity and liberty required to prevent it--and in reality you'll never be able to prevent them all anyway. Might as well be free and unsafe, than enslaved and still unsafe.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  3. Re:somebody's got some splaining to do... by White+Flame · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, countries likely have a mutual spying agreement. USA spies on $COUNTRY, $COUNTRY spies on USA, and they share information. Both never technically spy on their own citizens and therefore obey their own constraints, yet they effectively have full unchecked information invasion on their own people.

  4. Re: Progressive Disclosure by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The IRA ands its connections to unique supplies from the US east coast should have been a warning to the UK/EU

    Which reminds me that one of the Senators calling for Snowdon's blood used to finance the IRA. Puts it in perspective doesn't it? A leak versus giving money to terrorists, who bought their explosives from Libya. Explosives manufactured in Eastern Europe in the depths of the cold war. I know which one looks a lot more like treason to me.