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NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Guardian reports that the NSA monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another U.S. government department. According to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA encourages senior officials in its 'customer' departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their 'Rolodexes' so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems. The NSA memo dated October 2006 that was obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other U.S. officials to do so. However, the memo acknowledges that eavesdropping on the numbers had produced 'little reportable intelligence.' At the daily briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney again refused to answer repeated questions about whether the U.S. had spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calls in the past."
Makes you wonder which country is the real threat in this world.
Summation 2
Guess what, the U.S. has spy agencies and their job is to spy. It just confirms they're doing an effective job, which is rare in government.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me... fool me for decades on end - WTF are we boiling frogs here!!??
Bullshit. China, russia, and france have all recently been busted spying on the U.S.
That is their job after all. If this surprises you, you're a moron.
They aren't supposed to spy on their OWN citizens, but the very definition of their job is to spy on important people in other countries.
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This is the NSA fufilling its role.. full stop. If you're not a US citizen and you're doing something of interests to our intelligence services you should be targeted.
If you're a citizen of an Echelon country, you have no room to talk because your nation is a partner. (To be honest, I thought Echelon was Anglosphere only, but there's the Netherlands in the fray.. wow. )
And do not for a second act as though other nations don't do this. You can start with Frenchelon. And to those who bleat about economic and industrial espionage, the French have been known for this since the seventies.
Everybody knows the U.S. intelligence community is paranoid as hell, and always listening. If not the NSA, then maybe the CIA, FBI, or any of the dozens of other intelligence agencies in the U.S.
None of these world leaders are shocked or surprised.
No, this is pretty much normal spying. If you had a spy agency and didn't monitor other nations for strategic advantage, you'd wonder what the hell they were doing. I'm not saying it's unreasonable to be opposed, because moral objections are best objections, just that pretending it's bad spycraft is silly.
The NSA is suppose to spy on other countries.
I'd prefer it if they spied on countries that are actively hostile towards us, if they're going to spy at all. No, spying to collect evidence is not okay (or else spying on citizens would also be okay).
This apologist nonsense is not surprising, but it is an absolute eyesore.
Ignorance is a choice
Here in the US countries like France are heavily restricted from operating and managing US entities that have ties to US security and law enforcement operations. (Bio-metrics, AFIS, Facial Recognition, Crypto, Official Identity and Credential Solutions, etc.) Because they are foreign? No. Because they have been caught spying on the US.
The only different here is the US isn't flopping over and whining like a European Soccer player about a little spying.
He did it all to himself.
"The NSA memo dated October 2006"
Seems to me it is just another case of Obama getting blamed for the actions of the Bush Administration.
Where are their spies? Its as if they just let their top political leaders stumble around the world stage as bait for the NSA. Congrats on the election win, here our tested 'safe' phone, fax machine. Use it a lot.
A vast pile of documents are then sent.
In some safe house an inner group of political leaders meet as another group of political suits 'act' on the world stage with their leaky phones.
Giving the NSA and US just what it wants/expects to hear?
All the same countries faced the same intercept threats from communists, fascism, their own press and political rivals yet show zero skill when using the US global telco networks?
Are all the signals intelligence staff of 35 nations really more loyal to the USA than their own leadership?
Or are we seeing 35 nations playing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Quicksilver_(WWII) with a US gov so entranced with its own intercept skills? With little to no human spies left for "reality" what is the US really gathering other than what 35 govs select to talk about on phones they know are junk.....
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You never know when a world leader goes Al Qaeda suicide bomber all of a sudden, unless you listen it her calls. I'm sure Angela Merkel wears a Burqa secretly when alone at home.
The NSA gets huge volumes of data from the EU free of charge ... companies get a carte blanche to share data with the NSA by the EU. They are jeopardizing all of that by getting caught like this ...
Sure there was. It has embarrased the Obama administration, and destroyed his credibility with American allies.
No, no, no, no and no.
This is all just a bunch of political bullshit people. There are a wide variety of world leaders being monitored by a wide variety of governments, and the politicians and world leaders are all perfectly aware of this fact.
All these stories are, is various politicians jumping on various iterations of the NSA story for their own political purposes. They are playing off anti-US sentiment among their populaces to further their own agendas. Which is fine, that's how politics works, but stop acting like this is something unique to the US because it's not.
Other people might be easily manipulated, overly emotional idiots, that doesn't mean you have to be one as well.
Did Obama do anything to stop the spying after taking office?
Well, then isn't Obama just as guilty as Bush on this issue?
Can you please spy on my government and tell me what the hell they're up to these days? I have no clue, and they're certainly not telling.
Thanks,
An American
It has embarrased the Obama administration, and destroyed his credibility with American allies.
I am afraid that much more had been destroyed than Obama's personal reputation.
I am afraid that the reputation of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA had been severely destroyed because of what Obama administration has done.
First, it was Brazil. Then, France. Followed by Mexico, and then Germany.
And when Angela Merkel angrily called up Obama regarding matter, you know what Obama did ?
THAT GUY DENIED EVERYTHING !!
Obama was caught with his hands in the cookie jar and yet he acted just like a little kid telling bold face lies.
As an American, I rather my president comes clean, admitting his faults, remedy the mistakes, than telling seriously inane bold face lies.
Obama seemed to forget that he is THE POTUS - and as the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, his category denial has shamed the nation of the United States of America.
I am sure, by now, no government in the world would ever trust the President of the United States, nor the nation of the United States of America.
In other words, Obama has shamed all of us, the Americans !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Why did he EVER take a job with the NSA if he thought all forms of electronic intelligence were bad and worthy of spilling the details about to the whole world?
Because the CIA fired him for those very reasons. He's not a hero, he's just an attention whore like Assange. Both do things in the name of the moral high ground ... yet utterly ignore the fact they do shit to harm all sorts of people.
I'd bet the only reason we heard about domestic spying FIRST from Snowden is because some newspaper reporter looking at the documents found them and wanted to run with it first, not because Snowden pointed it out. He's just another Bradley Manning, all pissed off he wasn't getting his way and determined to stick it to the man.
He is by definition a traitor and is just trying to use someone else's crimes (domestic spying by NSA and its ilk) to divert attention from his own treason.
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No, he quite distinctly had 2 points.
1. Hypocrisy
2. Free-slinging of nukes as a foreign policy.
#2 is hyperbole, but there's nothing wrong with identifying hyperbole and asking for a more restrained perspective.
It depends on if he knew about it. If he did then he's obviosly responsible. If he didn't then that's of course also bad. Either way is not good for him.
http://www.france24.com/en/20131024-nsa-france-spying-squarcini-dcri-hollande-ayrault-merkel-usa-obama
And the french DSGE has been doing Economic INtelligence (Industrial secrets) for decades. For example in 1991 they were caught bugging all the seats in Air France jets.
Mon Du, Gambling at Ricks!
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I agree with you that mass media is hugely to blame but it is catch-22/chicken and the egg problem - if the politicians we voted for are willing to relax media laws, allow entertainment to be marketed as news, and worst of all not allow independent journalists to interview political candidates outside of marketing scripted election "rallies" - then we get what we voted for. Media just helps solidify power into the same old hands, only voting differently can ever hope to change that (discounting any type of revolution, obviously).
... should you eat shit as well ?
This is all just a bunch of political bullshit people. There are a wide variety of world leaders being monitored by a wide variety of governments
I am getting VERY FUCKING TIRED of listening to this asinine excuse !
Just because the whole world is eating shit, would you eat shit too ?
The world's government may be tapping each others, but they are NOT caught in the action.
America, on the other hand, did.
Why can't Obama just admit what happened, and then proceed with action to remedy the problem, instead of issuing a CATEGORY DENIAL to everything ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Well technically that is what the CIA is for. NSA is just supposed to keep our military secret's secret.
The REAL douchebag is Obama, definitely not Snowden.
We ought to be grateful to Edward Snowden in allowing us, the Americans, a chance to redeem ourselves.
The NSA, the PRISM PROGRAM, the TAPPING of foreign leaders, are way out of bound.
If not for Edward Snowden, more despicable schemes might commence, with even worse consequences to the Americans and the rest of the world.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
From http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/10/us-denies-tapping-merkel-mobile-phone-20131023185133142198.html ---
US President Barack Obama had assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the US is not monitoring her communications, according to the White House spokesman.
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24647268
The White House said President Obama had told Chancellor Merkel the US was not snooping on her communications.
"The United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday.
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/merkel-phone-tapped_n_4150812.html
For its part, the White House denied that the U.S. is listening in on Merkel's phone calls now.
"The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "The United States greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges."
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I'd say that Germany wanting their own internet now, joining the BRICS countries to do so is something of value.
It's time that the world realizes that internet is incompatible with having a bully with power over it.
It depends on if he knew about it. If he did then he's obviosly responsible. If he didn't then that's of course also bad. Either way is not good for him.
If he knew, he's responsible. If he didn't, he's incompetent. Which do you prefer ?
Do you understand what broken trust is? ... means?
Do you understand that you will be the outcast bully because all you do is fling shit at your former friends and allies.
Do you understand that nobody wants to play with you any more because you turned into a arrogant paranoid dick?
Do you understand what do undo others
You lost all your morals and with it any claims to be of any value to the world.
Stop excusing your paranoid behavior and rediscover your former values. It will be long way of humility to rebuild any of the completely burned bridges.
Whom am I kidding? You never had any humility.
You just like a scared dog in a corner.
The sad part is you all brought it unto yourself.
Do you think Mitt Romney or John McCain would have stopped these programs? If so you I would say you are confused. Otherwise, what is your point?
I liked George Bush. Both irresponsible and incompetent. But he had some personality.
Really? So if your company SysAdmin is secretly spying on your email, it's the CEO's fault? Even though the SysAdmin is the one with the technical knowledge to both implement and hide the spying?
Not saying that Obama is innocent, but not knowing doesn't make him incompetent. It might just mean that the NSA are good at covering up.
If you want to fault him for something, fault him stepping on those who blow the whistle on these sort of activities, instead of commending them like he should.
I agree with most of the above except for one:
A President is not a commoner.
Yes. Yes, he is. He is a common citizen just like the rest of us, who has been temporarily granted the authority to help lead this country. He is, in the end, nothing more than the chief bureaucrat of this nation.
To presume anything else is a mistake. He is not a king. He is not a lord. When he leaves office, the country continues without him very well. He is a peon. That We-The-People have allowed this jumped-up-clerk (and that's the President in general, not Obama specifically) to increasing take on the trappings of a monarchy is a mistake that needs to be reversed. He's been given a mansion, a praetorian guard, secret police, walled him from the people he supposedly represenents and treated the officeholder as if he is some great prophet appointed by heaven to lead us to the holy land.
The president is none of that (or at least, should be none of that). He's just some chump we've saddled with the unpleasant duty of running the nation and I don't see why he should be afforded any more (or less) respect than the head of my local post office.