Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

WikiLeaks: NSA Eavesdropped On the Last Three French Presidents

Posted by Soulskill on from the enjoy-this-can-of-worms dept.

Earthquake Retrofit writes: The NY Times is reporting that WikiLeaks has released "material which appeared to capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece's economy, relations with Germany — and, ironically, American espionage." The information was leaked "a day before the French Parliament is expected to definitively pass a controversial security bill legalizing broad surveillance, particularly of terrorism suspects."

13 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Just doing their job. by EzInKy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The job of the NSA is to spy and if they don't spy on everything spyable they aren't doing their job. Can't even figure out why this would worthy of a ./ headline.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    1. Re:Just doing their job. by Nyder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The job of the NSA is to spy and if they don't spy on everything spyable they aren't doing their job. Can't even figure out why this would worthy of a ./ headline.

      Maybe it is. But I'm pretty sure if the USA found out that the French had our Presidents office/phone bugged, we'd (the USA) would have a shit about it.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    2. Re:Just doing their job. by Gaygirlie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Something being someone's job doesn't make it legal or acceptable.

    3. Re:Just doing their job. by antiperimetaparalogo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The job of the NSA is to spy and if they don't spy on everything spyable they aren't doing their job. Can't even figure out why this would worthy of a ./ headline.

      I don't disagree with you, both about the NSA and "/.", even while i am a Greek (from the summary: "capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece's economy"). We Greeks spy on the French, they spy on us, we both spy on USA, USA spy on both of us...

      Few years ago we had a Greek spy captured by our friends the USA while spying them, we Greeks waited for a while until we captured a fine spy gentleman from USA spying us Greeks, and as friends and allies we solved this "little issue" like gentlemen do: we exchanged our spies and continued our fine relation (and spying on each-other)... no wikileaks shit, no drama... you send your diplomats to drink some Ouzo in Athens, we send ours for some bourbon, the thing was solved with mutual understanding that "shit happens"!

      What exactly most Slashdoters expect from NSA, to sing songs about world peace? They are spies, they spy!

      --
      Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
    4. Re:Just doing their job. by antiperimetaparalogo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just want to mod you down for being a deadbeat Greek.

      I respect that Sir (especially since you do NOT post as an "anonymous coward")! Unfortunately i think that, even if you had mod points, you can't mod me down since you already made a comment on this story... sorry about that.

      Your country owes money, your country needs to pay money.

      I agree.

      Your poor and destitute can go suck ass as us freemarketer's are concerned.

      Greece is still among the most rich countries of the world (keep in mind that it is our state which is in trouble, no so much the citizens).

      --
      Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
    5. Re:Just doing their job. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's wrong with being a socialist?

    6. Re:Just doing their job. by someone1234 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That wouldn't stop the spying, only legalize it.

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
    7. Re:Just doing their job. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Times have changed. The EU was set up to prevent another war, and it worked. By being friends who trust each other and can work together. and who treat each other with the respect not to spy on each other's leaders, we have made wars unthinkable.

      The EU averts war through cooperation and trust. The US averts it through violence and economic might. The thing is, the EU is bigger than the US now, and China will be eventually too. The US should be looking to improve its relations with other nations, especially Europe where it has a lot of history.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Just doing their job. by N1AK · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Spying between nations is a good thing, because it means everyone knows more about each others intentions and motivations.

      Bollocks. There's been plenty of spying since pretty much the moment secrets have existed; it hasn't stopped war, and the idea that if that spying had simply been 'better' everything would be different is completely lacking a compelling case.

      If we didn't have any spying then we'd have had no one claiming they had found evidence Saddam had WMD to justify the Iraq war; so explain exactly how the billions of dollars spent on spying helped us there.

      Even if you could find theoretical examples to try and demonstrate spying stopping wars it'd be worth nothing. The existence of spying will always be accompanied by counter-measures and misinformation which inherently limits the quality of spying.

  2. FOI Request ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... for candid pics of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Likely going on both sides by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we snooped them, they probably snooped us. Somewhere there may be a recording of the moment the ill-fated invasion of Iraq was decided:

    Dick: Now that the Taliban are gone, lets smash Saddam!

    Colin: What if something goes wrong? Iraq is far more populated than Afghanistan.

    W: Don't worry, Colie, we whacked the Taliban real good.

    Colin: Actually, we don't know where the Taliban went. Intel didn't find enough bodies to account for most. They may be hiding in caves and hills.

    Dick: You worry too much. They are gone for now; let the next prez worry about them coming back out.

    Colin: I don't want to foul my legacy with a war gone wrong.

    W: Don't worry, Colie, Dickie is an expert on blaming it on the Dems in the off case shit comes back later. Look, I almost choked on a pretzel the other day; life is short; go for the ball now!

    Dick: Amen! My mechanical heart could clack up any day, and you eat a lot of fries yourself, Tubbie.

    Colin: Alright, I did have a bad feeling about this, but maybe it's just those damned fries, eh?

    Dick, W, & Colin: "Onward Christian Soldiers!..."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  4. Re:Fear of the past by Earthquake+Retrofit · · Score: 4, Funny

    And it would be much better to worry about the real problems, - the global pollution, mass unemployment, the life extinction on the planet, etc. But not the ridiculous ghosts of the past.

    I beg to differ. We must prevent the French from transferring top secret guillotine technology to ISIS.

    --
    Fifty years of Yippie! 1968-2018
  5. Super Important by JimSadler · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wiki Leaks is so important in correcting social and political issues that it may well be something the history books must feature as a very prominent turning point in history. The more that people around the world are able to see and understand the better our laws and social policies will become. In a way it is simply nothing more than social and political government in the sunshine and we all should demand the kind of access that wiki has created for us. Every utterance of public officials should be public 24/7/365. Corruption could cease to exist.