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Singapore & South Korea Help NSA Tap Undersea Cables
An anonymous reader writes "Singapore and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia, according to top secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Indonesia and Malaysia have been key targets for Australian and Singaporean intelligence collaboration since much of Indonesia's telecommunications and Internet traffic is routed through Singapore. The NSA has a stranglehold on trans-Pacific communications channels with interception facilities on the West coast of the United States and at Hawaii and Guam, tapping all cable traffic across the Pacific Ocean as well as links between Australia and Japan. Japan had refused to take part."
It's ok, please start typing in comments at this time. Thank you.
So I guess everybody is helping the US out with spying and such, but what is their motivation?
1) They think it's the right thing to do?
2) There is some (in)direct monetary gain?
3) They also get spy data?
4) They think the US is awesome?
5) All of the above?
6) Other?
I feel like i just wrote a poll, but I'm geniunly interested for some insight.
Is everyone in on this? I can't help but to feel this is the biggest conspiracy ever.
You're not important enough for anyone to care about your private communications.
All countries spy.
I, for one, think it's hot that the NSA sees my sexts.
If the NSA didn't do this, we'd already be dead.
Everybody already knew the NSA does this, so it doesn't matter.
It's not espionage if it's the data wasn't encrypted.
The constitution is a ball of twine to be picked at until nothing remains.
Burma shave.
This fucking bullshit dispensed with, you are now free to have a meaningful conversation.
Maybe "Dropping Anchor" is code for wire tapping without permission. The old "a boat dropped anchor on the cable" so the internet is a trickle in Australia for 3 days trick.
"I'm just going to go drop an anchor on this call"
"We were dropped anchor off the coast of China last week"
As more and more of the leaks have been revealed, more and more countries are being linked to the Global NSA Franchise.
Those countries don't do stuffs for nothing - and the fact that so many countries have helped doing all the dirty works for NSA means that, in return, USA did something else for them.
But what can the government of the United States do to return the favor ?
Money ?
Nope. USA is bankrupt.
Fame ?
Nope. Everybody knows how popular it would be to be included in the "Uncle Sam Lapdog" list.
Power ? Longevity ?
Nope and Nope.
But there is one thing that Uncle Sam can do for them - Uncle Sam let them to live for another day.
One thing that everybody has witnessed and knew is this --- when and if Uncle Sam wants you to die, you will.
Look at what happened to Saddam Hussein.
Look at what happened to Qaddafi.
Even when Uncle Sam does not kill you, you will still end up in a very terrible place --- go ask Manuel Noriega how he felt, after being Uncle Sam's lapdog for ages, Uncle Sam turned against him.
There are, of course, _some_ lucky souls who managed to stay alive, no matter how many times Uncle Sam wants to do them in.
Cuba's Fidel Castro, for example.
But Fidel is an exception, rather than the rule.
I will not be surprised with the threats leveled by Uncle Sam against Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or to whoever was in charge of the South Korean government - and again, both of those countries are themselves in _ VERY PRECARIOUS _ situation.
South Korea has to face with the fruitcakes from the North.
Singapore ? It's but " A tiny red island in the vast green sea ", as had uttered by one of Indonesia's former leader.
USA does not even need to threaten them much to get them to carry out all the dirty deeds --- all USA needed to do is to tell them that, if you don't do this for me, when you're in trouble, I won't help you.
That is all to get both South Korea and Singapore to get going.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Anybody know what the current reputation of The Netherlands is?
Awful. The prime minister even refuses to say anything bad about the unlawful interceptions, because "it could harm our interests as well". Clearly "our interests" do not include the interests of the citizens. And our domestic affairs minister wants to give the police unwarranted tapping powers with the possibility to install spyware, only controlled by their own organisation.
Disclaimer: I live there.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
The culture within these organizations must change. Promoting and accepting criminal behavior, ignoring laws is totally unacceptable.
Given that we're asking this question on a US forum we can take it as granted that 60% of the readers couldn't find either country on a map and that 90% have zero knowledge of their political and historical position. So about 90% will be ill-equipped to understand where Singapore's and South-Korea's self-interests might lie. But now that the question is asked, we can remedy that.
South Korea, needs the US to help defend themselves against neighbours who would be prepared to wage a full-scale war against them (North Korea). The US are pretty much the only ally of note and value they have, and they know it.
Singapore is surrounded by neighbours that completely dwarf them (Malaysia, Indonesia) only 50 years ago encompassed them (Malaysia), have an Islamic majority (Malaysia) or a virulent Islamic minority (Indonesia) and are debating whether to become a fully Islamic state (Malaysia).
Both countries have brought about an economic boom and depend on security (i.e. the absence of shooting wars), good trade relations with the West, open sea lanes and suchlike.
In both cases a critical part of their national security is having accurate information on what their neighbours are really up to. And in both cases the only serious partner is the US. As a stabilizing factor, a main ally, or a party with whom to trade information that they themselves cannot collect (like e.g. satellite coverage, ocean reconnaissance, comprehensive traffic monitoring etc. etc.).
For countries like that, helping the US eavesdrop on message traffic makes an uncommon lot of sense and is a small price to pay.
Whilst Snowden's relevations may have a beneficial effect on US *domestic* intelligence oversight, having such data-collection arrangements splattered on the front page are detrimental to the collective national security of the US, Singapore, and Korea.
Turn it any way you want, knowing what people are up to gives you a head start in dealing with them, and the US have been a stabilizing factor in Asia for 60 years or so. Eroding this data-collection capability is the price we pay for openness. I'm not certain if the price is too steep, all I'm saying is that it's a very real price we pay. Even if not everybody realises it or wants to hear about it.
Singapore government are spineless ass lickers but since money is their god, they will have charged NSA dearly for this!
that makes me ponder, were these cuts accidental or red herrings?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-web-access
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4267160
http://tribune.com.pk/story/527148/undersea-internet-cable-cut-effects-50-of-pakistans-traffic/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/28/damaged-undersea-cable-internet-disruption
i'm aware you can tap fiber without disrupting it but it's underwater which seems difficult to start with and it doesn't mean all the cuts were by the NSA. (since apparently everyone is spy happy)
everything is suspicious now :((((
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"Money ? Nope. USA is bankrupt."
When you're a country, being bankrupt doesn't mean you don't have a money. You can always "print" more. Or maybe the US should start paying their snoops in Bitcoins?
too lazy to find links. but a handful of undersea cables were 'mistakenly' cut by various excuses. I'm sure many people knew it was b.s. and that the gov was splicing them.
Politicians don't act in their *COUNTRIES* interests they act in their *OWN* interests.
It isn't BRITAIN (the country) that decided to tap the internet traffic, Snoopers Charter could not be made law because nobody wanted it. It's a FEW PEOPLE in power who gain from this. They gain INTEL, maybe even against their competing politicians and in turn they agree to do the surveillance. It's pure self interest.
It's NSA scratches my back and I'll scratch theirs.
In Singapore it will be a few politicians that made that choice, and the simple fact it was kept secret shows it doesn't have widespread agreement within Singapore.
The claim to need SECRET surveillance is bogus, the spooks wanted Snoopers Charter, but if it had been made law, then it would be known and NO LONGER A SECRET. So how can it be necessary to keep this secret?! Likewise New Zealand passed a law making the surveillance legal. John Keys passed it. Making what was secret illegal surveillance into non-secret legal surveillance. Yet it's not secret now, so it can't work, because it's no secret, thus why make the law if it can't work because its no longer secret!???
In each case there are a few people who do this. In the USA, it's Dianne Feinstein and Mike Rogers that are determined to do this, no matter how much evidence they need to hide, or how many lies they need to tell.
Says the kingpin.
You know...up until a few years ago, I use to think that the USA was above board, but, more and more, I'm starting to wake up to the fact that the government of the USA does not have it's citizens best interest in mind. Sad, but the only difference between spying from China, Russia, Iran, USA is the language they speak, and the flag they fly.
http://captiongenerator.com/9908/Hitler-not-pleased-with-Bitcoin
1. High-tech culture
2. Anime
3. Hentai
4. No NSA
Time to move to Japan!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
And Japan? Need we remind them what happened the last time they opposed the Good ol' USA? It would be best for everybody if 'all the ships sailed in the same direction'.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Having so much NSA associated countries could be a hint of a new world order appearing, no more first/second/third world but the ones with the USA in this and the rest attacked ( puttng backdoors in their networks for future action, causing unrest in population using social networks, and of course, stripping all their populations from a basic human right) by them sometimes without noticing that. So far the confirmed list of the NSA associated countries include UK, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, South Korea and Singapore, but that list could include other close to US countries like Chile, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Spain and France, maybe with different grades in that organization.
The rest of the countries could try to join to protect themselves from this (in South America and Europe several seem to be going in that direction) or try to resist by themselves in a way or another. Considering all that was disclosed since June, and all that is going from there this decade probably will bring a lot of changes to the world.
Syria syria syria
uncle sam wanted to but no one let them
which means your trying to cause fear uncertainty and doubt in freedom and peace of the world
YOU SIR ARE THE PROBLEM
YOU SIR DONT GET IT , BUT YOU AND YOUR FEAR MONGERS WILL
WE WILL GIVE YOU THE FEAR OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND BEING POOR
Until you are. Then you're fucked, even if it's a bullshit reason, like making anti-NSA political statements on the Internet, while also being an OS developer and having knowledge of unpatched OS exploit vectors, and developing your own cryptographic ciphers. Then you may find your router firmware mysteriously bricked by an exploit gone wrong -- You see, upon suspicion of odd things going on in my network (like 350 MB uploads in the middle of the night when no one was using the net to IP addresses owned by the US government) I cleansed my systems and replaced my router and its firmware, but caused it to still be fingerprinted as stock. That's called a canary, and my canary is dead.
The NSA prefers routers, it seems. I wish there were more focus on security in this area, but its 'fast wireless gaming multimedia' that gets all the attention these days. One consolation is that having a secure OS and network stack can greatly reduce the impact of a compromised router.