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Australia Spied On Indonesian President
mask.of.sanity writes "Australia tracked calls by Indonesia's president, documents leaked by defence contractor Edward Snowden reveal. The nation's top spy agency the Australian Signals Directorate tracked phone calls made and received on the mobile phone of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for 15 days in August 2009, and also tracked his wife and inner political circle. Indonesia was Australia's nearest and most important regional neighbour."
I sent a very well written, less wordy version of Snowden's release to major news outlets but none of them ran with that version for some reason. It said:
Everyone spied on everyone all the time.
Dear America,
Why, with the biggest arsenal in the world, with terrorists shitting bricks in Guantanamo, with several dictators sabre rattling and then sitting down and suddenly behaving when three aircraft carriers and a full entourage show up off their coast, can we not manage to deal with this one, simple, irritation? Just give him what he wants -- he wants to be a martyr. He leaks, and he leaks, and at this point he's probably inventing new documents to leak. Snowden might as well be a brand name; it's got household recognition. So please tell me... what's the hold up on pulling the trigger?
This is an honest question; I simply do not understand why we're holding out on this one guy, when we've sent in Seal Team Six to give people who have done less in economic damage severe and sudden lead poisoning and then dumped their body uncermoniously in the ocean where it'll never be found. I'm not asking for arguments for/against Snowden or what he's doing. I honestly don't care at this point. Maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe he's lying through his teeth. Maybe he's right and maybe he's wrong... but American policy since pre-WWI has been pretty straightforward regarding spies and espionage: We execute them, as a matter of public policy. So why the change now?
And again, no pro or anti-snowden here. The facts are the facts; he's a threat to national security, right or wrong. And we've dealt with those types of threats pretty consistently from a policy standpoint. Until now. What about making him a martyr is so unappealing that we're reversing on nearly 100 years of public policy on this issue? Really, truly, I'd like to know what the reasoning is here; And yet again -- this isn't a moral judgement on whether he's right or wrong. It is, in the final analysis, immaterial. When a hungry bear takes a run at you, you don't ask whether or not he was treated well, or if he was previously in captivity, or whether he's defending his cubs or not. It's you, or the bear. End of story.
I honestly cannot fathom why they don't just end Snowden. We do worse to people who peddle drugs in this country; he's done more damage economically than they have. Soooo... where's the hailstorm of bullets I've come to expect from America? Right or wrong, it's what we're known for. So, why aren't we doing our signature move on this guy?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
GCHQ work for the NSA. They follow the surveillance commands of the NSA, hand data on their own citizens to the NSA, and keep those acts secret from Parliament and the Cabinet.
All the 5 eyes countries are in the same shape. New Zealand PM even had to pass a law legalizing surveillance, right in the middle of the PRISM scandal FFS, he's so under CIA control!
Do you think US is in control or NSA? Because that's a coin toss right now, but the others, they're firmly under CIA/NSA control.
"the US isn't the sole bastion of conniving and trickery in the world, because that might ruin your righteous indignation and hatred of all things American"
Try the jingoism all you like, the US democracy didn't do this spying, it's a faction of the military that did this surveillance. "All things American" means nothing when 80% of Americans think the NSA is out of control and the elected leaders are covering for them.
Anyone surprised? That's what intelligence agencies do.
When the Menzies government went looking for a new bomber aircraft in 1963 it was with the requirement that the bomber should have sufficient range to drop a nuclear weapon on Jakarta. So, no, it does not surprise me that the Australians spied on the Indonesian president and it would surprise me even less if later turns out that the Indonesians reciprocated by spying on his Australian counterpart. In fact the only thing that will surprise me is if it later turns out that spying on each others presidents is all these two countries did.