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France, Up In Arms Over NSA Spying, Passes New Surveillance Law
An anonymous reader writes: French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting with top security officials to respond to WikiLeaks documents that say the NSA eavesdropped on French presidents. The documents published in Liberation and investigative website Mediapart include material that appeared to capture current president, François Hollande; the prime minister in 2012, Jean-Marc Ayrault; and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, talking candidly about Greece's economy and relations with Germany. The Intercept reports: "Yet also today, the lower house of France's legislature, the National Assembly, passed a sweeping surveillance law. The law provides a new framework for the country's intelligence agencies to expand their surveillance activities. Opponents of the law were quick to mock the government for vigorously protesting being surveilled by one of the country's closest allies while passing a law that gives its own intelligence services vast powers with what its opponents regard as little oversight. But for those who support the new law, the new revelations of NSA spying showed the urgent need to update the tools available to France's spies."
The NSA are getting mighty pissed by now.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
we could use some sweeping surveillance powers here on slashdot. hurry up or we'll miss the party!
They don't. [born & raised frog here]
What's the use in crying terrorism to pass these kinds of laws when you can just blame it on the US? Seems like an easy way to gather all the data you want if you ask me. Makes perfect sense
... with the exception of President Barrack Hussein Obama and ... Cold Fjord
And why would the Frogs know the meaning of the word liberty?
Some 39% of them speak english so presumably 39% of them do understand the word. Change the spelling to liberté and pronounce it properly and that percentage goes up to 100%. If you are trying to insinuate that the french are not familiar with the concept of liberty you are falling into a pitfall common among residents of the anglo-saxon cultural bubble of assuming that only US or UK residents truly understand the concept of liberty because you think you invented it..
"Opponents of the law were quick to mock the government for vigorously protesting being surveilled by one of the country's closest allies while passing a law that gives its own intelligence services vast powers with what its opponents regard as little oversight." that is because in the spy game, everybody spy as much the other as they can. there is with almost certainty french spy right at this moment trying to intercept Obama's conversation. But getting caught, be it red handed or by a leak is a no-no - the biggest sin - as the government HAVE to pretend they are angry , etc... It is all theater for the plebe, while the spy and counter intelligence on both side sigh and go on as usual , maybe tightening their protocol. The bottom line is : this will change nothing in US - France relationship, it will just force US politician to be a bit contrite for a few days (maybe - if even), French politician to be angry for a few week, and then wait that the media move onto the next story and forget it all. And the shadow game then continue.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
This is "wikileaks drama" - I prefer "world peace", but let's not pretend that the Yankees are the only "bad guys" when in reality everyone does it... they just are more capable from (most) of the rest of us.
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
You're doing it wrong.
Of course the French intelligence agency does the same thing to the US, just as the German intelligence agency did and etc. And no side is actually going to stop. But you've gotta make a big fuss about it because it's in the news.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the US.
It's nice to know that *some* good actually came from all this NSA spying. We didn't really catch any terrorists, but we were able to expose hypocrisy in the French government. Mission Accomplished.
France is so outraged they are going to introduce more laws to allow greater snooping powers on their own citizens? I'm surprised they didn't also introduce pay rises for themselves, ya know, coz of the outrage.
I'm pretty sure there was a big sarcastic WOOSH there somewhere.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
I have nothing but utmost respect for those who shed their blood for freedom, unfortunately human history is such that those who died for the cause almost always died in vain
Not because they didn't win the battle - they did
But because whatever victory they have achieved would, one way or another, be completely eroded by politicians
No matter which culture - no matter which era
No matter if the battle took place 2000 years ago or 2000 years in the future, politicians will always be the ultimate victor
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You remember when they were extremely pissed off about PRISM, one of the NSA's phone-data collection programs? And how within a day it came out they were worse?
This was at least better then that time when their response to the Rwandan genocide was to prevent anything useful; from happening at the UN until everyone was already dead, and then sending in their troops to protect the murderers from rebels in a "safe zone". See the rebels were mostly English-speakers who'd grown up in Uganda, whereas the government were French-speakers who'd gone to the same schools as the French Elite, so clearly the best interests of the French state were served by supporting the government.
I am really not surprised the French State is shocked and saddened by other state's surveillance on it, and thinks the only possible solution is to authorize it's surveillance of everyone else. It's kinda an MO. The only thing I can say in their defense is the American government would probably be just as bad. Altho we'd do it with less style.
going to pass a law making it illegal for the French Intelligence services to blow up ships in New Zealand ports? Or is murder more acceptable to the French than spying?
Best Slashdot Co
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the US.
Has anyone swept it for bugs?!?!
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
I'm French and I feel sick.
When I worked at NASA, we had a special phone line through the embassy in France to the US because our representative found that calling the US on a French phone would have the French folks bringing it up at the next round of negotiations.
Obama said the US no longer spies on France, what he means is, Australia or the UK does it for them by proxy.
Just a play on words.
I have a hard time believing that the heads of state aren't already very aware of the surveillance other countries perform on them. If Merkel and Hollande really thought they weren't being spied on by their allies they're clueless gits.
So once it becomes public what do they do, express feigned outrage and use it to pass some new law that doesn't address the issue but does give them some nifty new powers.
stop using iphones you idiots...
A gentleman doesn't ask that of a lady.
I do that in my dreams, frequently.
Think every government does this to each other, it just seems the US is better at it. Nations don't have friends they have interests and spying on friends is the norm I think. Didn't an Israeli network go down in the US a while ago? Add that tot he fact that the US and France run counter on a lot of issues and this is not surprising. DeGaulle legacy continues since he was pissed at his treatment during WW2 by the allies
The armpit of Europe
Even more shocking than the recently revealed fact that the NSA spied on French officials, were other revelations. For example, one stated that the Pope, the leader of the Catholic faith worldwide who resides in the Vatican, in Rome, Italy, and at least one, if not indeed SEVERAL of his cardinals...
Simply shocking!
This the US we're talking about, what gentleman are you refering to? Better yet, she's lucky to still be holding that torch.
Isn't that obvious...