Slashdot Mirror
Japan Refused To Help NSA Tap Asia's Internet
An anonymous reader writes "The NSA sought the Japanese government's cooperation to wiretap fiber-optic cables carrying phone and data across the Asia-Pacific region but the request was rejected. The NSA wanted to intercept personal information including Internet activity and phone calls passing through Japan from Asia including China. The Japanese government refused because it was illegal and would need to involve a massive number of private sector workers. Article 35 of the Japanese Constitution protects against illegal search and seizure."
A country that gives a shit about its constitution? Surely some mistake...
I'm glad Japan still seems to have some honour left.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Follow the money. The US governmnet is corporation owned.
Japanese "realpolitik" is complicated and a lot happens "below the surface". While I'd like to hope the request was refused on the grounds of honoring their constitution, a skeptic in me suggests that the true reason must be more pragmatic. Perhaps they did not want US to gain access to their own trade or political secrets (wise choice, given what we now know about wiretapping European leaders). There is a lot of shady stuff going on between Japanese government and businesses (where does it not? I don't mean to single them out, though theirs is not a very transparent society).
So, while it's great to know that at least one rich country can say "no" to US, I wouldn't go moving my colocated mail services to Japan quite yet.
The U.S system is very broken and the constitution has been trampled on by fearmongers telling stories about bogeymen.
Protection from terrorism and Freedom at all costs has been the plan past 10 years.
When the plan goes sour and all constitutional freedoms have been eroded, keeping up the appearances at all costs becomes the new goal.
Unfortunately, our police, our elected representatives, our president, and our unelected courts all have conspired to diminish our 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Notably this was the result of the failed "war on drugs" but lately due to the "war on terrorism".
The sad part is, both major parties are responsible for this. There are few elected Democratic or Republican lawmakers who seem to care.
Yup, the rest of the world had a big WTF when they realize the US legalized bribes by calling it "lobbying".
I mean wtf is with all the pretending, just cut the BS and call it what it is.
...refused because it was illegal and would need to involve a massive number of private sector workers.
So being illegal isn't enough, it also has to be expensive and inconvenient?
There is a difference between "Japan didn't help the NSA tap the Asian internet" and "the NSA didn't tap the Asian internet"
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I'd give you points if I had any. You are correct. We have Senator's and Congressmen who get paid insane money for being a "consultant" to some corporation. $50k and up. They NEVER go to the company. The never submit any info to the company. They just get a check every month. Of course the fact they helped vote on bills that substantially helped this company has nothing to do with it right? wink wink, nod nod, nudge nudge. The open corruption in our country is so out of control it's insane. Hell even kids know it. When corruption reaches the level even children are aware of it, wow. Sad.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
And I'd give you points too if I had any. I don't because of the favoritism on ./ I make a valid comment, get nothing. A make a thread, get nothing. BUT all the people who make comments below or even above it get points. Sometimes for stupid stuff. That's OK. I'm still going to continue making comments, giving valid points, pointing out facts. Because it's the right thing to do. Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing. Sorry I don't have any points because your comment is valid. I personally thank you for it.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
No - its that the American government does not care. The way the govenernment is set up, the American people can do nothing to prevent it. Congress is guarenteed a salery for life. Why do what people want - get in, be there long enough to get your salery for life, pass whatever laws you want - you are exempt, and accept all the bribes you want. People don't like you? Who cares, you are set for life - who cares if you win reelection.
Oh, someone is actually going to try to make a difference and run under a third party ticket? Good luck with that happening - even if you get in (which does happen from time to time) you got 400 or so other Congressmen and 99 other Senetors and a corrupt President who wants to be the dictator of a Socialist government.
The American system is broke.
Japanese culture has a long history of having a strong code of honor. Bushido is an example. If we practiced Seppuku, I think the director of the NSA might have had second thoughts about lying to Congress.
Have gnu, will travel.
Oh, someone is actually going to try to make a difference and run under a third party ticket? Good luck with that happening - even if you get in (which does happen from time to time) you got 400 or so other Congressmen and 99 other Senetors and a corrupt President who wants to be the dictator of a Socialist government.
that's actually exactly the "good people who do nothing" at work right there. how could nothing change if good people do nothing to change it. you've given up and that's the "good people who nothing".
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
- Japan has schools that primarily educate. The US has schools that primarily write payroll checks to union members.
- Japan has a free and independent press. The US press licks government boots. If you don't lick government boots, it's because you're a racist.
- In Japan, they have a thing that, in English, might be called shame. In the US "everybody does it".
- Japan has a culture. Anyone in the US who talks about culture is mocked. We have Lady Gaga and the Paris Hilton.
- Japanese media personalities and civic leaders like Japan. US media personalities and civic leaders hate America.
- Japan has a constitution. The US has a "living, breathing document" -- it only means something as long as it's convenient to "the right people".
- Japan is a civilized society. The US is a post-civilized society.
The real irony is who wrote their constitution...
Nice tactic of the feds, give us too much to hate at once and we have to divide our forces.
I envy the Japanese for their constitutional protections.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Makes me wonder why Europe agreed to hand USA data on all financial transactions happening inside EU (terrorist finance tracking program). Anybody with two brain cells to rub together would see that it is great industrial and economic espionage tool.
Actually the USA is not particularly corrupt. According to transparency international, only a few countries (Canada, some small northern European countries and Australia) are less corrupt than the US. Your story about Congressmen being paid to work for a company while passing legislation to help that company would be a severe breach of ethics and they would be ripped to pieces by their opponents., not to mention investigated by the ethics committee. I'm sure they get away with bad behavior, especially those with guaranteed seats (Corrine Brown, Charles Rangel etc) but that behavior is known and they still get elected so it's their constituents fault.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I am just, right now, reading a book called "History of a German". It is the story of how a well-educated, clever young man ( Sebastian Haffner ) lived through the rise of the Nazi regime. The feelings he describes having had in 1933, when the Nazis had just come to power - he writes in 1939 - are similar to yours.
I am feeling something similar, though not an American citizen. I am, so to say, a child of the cold war, born in 1967. The US were the epitome of what was good and desirable, in the Western Europe of the 70s and 80s. Then and there, my political ideas and outlook upon the world where formed. Now, after the Soviet Union lost the cold war, after Afghanistan, after Iraq, after the NSA scandal, after having seen documentary films about the ridiculous "War on Drugs", I know what you know: that the US regime is not obviously or visibly better than Nazi Germany, or North Korea.
My world view is being turned upside down, right now, in these months. Yes, I am lucky: I leave in a very peaceful place, one of the smaller European countries, with a high standard of living. I would say: it would do you good to leave the US. There is not absolute freedom here, either - but the air is fresher here. The same sun that has set over the America we once believed may soon be rising here.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
That's the tactic of all the Powers that Be: divide and conquer, bread and circuses. They keep us divided with "wedge issues" like gay marriage and abortion, so we're distracted from the really important issues like the disappearance of the middle class and the destruction of the economy.