U.S. plays down reports of spying on EU, other allies

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Nearly all national governments, not just the United States, use "lots of activities" to safeguard their interests and security, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday, responding for the first time to allegations that Washington spied on the European Union and other allies.

The EU has strongly demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, saying that, if true, the alleged surveillance was "shocking".

The Guardian newspaper said in an article late on Sunday that the United States had also targeted non-European allies including Japan, South Korea and India for spying - an awkward development for Kerry as he arrived for an Asian security conference in Brunei on Monday.

Kerry confirmed that EU High Representative Catherine Ashton had raised the issue with him in a meeting with him in Brunei but gave no further details of their exchange. He said he had yet to see details of the newspaper allegations.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/01/uk-usa-eu-spying-idUKBRE95S0B720130701

---

Obviously learned a lesson or two from Pinocchio.

[Kolesar]

1. Japanese prime minister objects to our spying

Hideki Tojo

[bemildred]

30. Japan seeks confirmation of Snowden revelations on tapping embassies

TOKYO, July 1 (RAPSI) - The Japanese government has requested official confirmation from the US authorities that the Japanese embassy was among the 38 diplomatic missions tapped by the National Security Agency, the Kyodo News agency reported Monday.

As reported by The Guardian, the document, dated September 2010, lists 38 embassies and diplomatic missions designated as NSA "targets". The list includes not only countries which have tense relations with the United States, but Washington's allies as well. The special service has reportedly spied on the missions of the European Union, France, Italy, Greece, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. However, the document does not mention other Western European countries such as the UK or Germany.

"We have requested confirmation of this information through diplomatic channels," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, commenting on The Guardian's information.

The NSA was reportedly intercepting communications from the EU mission in Washington and New York, and hacked into their computer networks, the German magazine Spiegel wrote last Saturday, also citing Snowden's revelations. EU governments have expressed concerns over the news and demanded explanations form Washington. The United States has expressed readiness to discuss the outrageous revelations through diplomatic channels.

http://rapsinews.com/news/20130701/267968887.html

[Downwinder]

2. Spying on the Government is one thing, spying on the citizens

is another. Aren't we implying that Germans like Occupy are a terrorist group?

[Pholus]

3. Yes, surveillance is a booming business now.

We should be so proud...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-transparent-state-enemy-western-surveillance-technology-in-the-hands-of-despots-a-802317.html

[bemildred]

4. US spied on France, Italy, Greece: Snowden's Report

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/international/article4869326.ece

[bemildred]

5. Belarusian Party "The Greens" asks Lukashenko to grant asylum to Snowden

http://rapsinews.com/news/20130701/267971371.html

[bemildred]

6. John Kampfner: Post-Snowden, our civil rights lectures will fall on deaf ears

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/john-kampfner-postsnowden-our-civil-rights-lectures-will-fall-on-deaf-ears-8681671.html

[bemildred]

7. Prism Should Make Businesses Think Twice About Cloud Computing

Businesses worldwide need to re-think their use of cloud computing, in light of recent revelations around the PRISM and Tempora surveillance programmes, according to independent privacy advocate Caspar Bowden.

http://www.cio.com/article/735750/Prism_Should_Make_Businesses_Think_Twice_About_Cloud_Computing

[bemildred]

8. ‘New leaks show how US is bugging its European allies’

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/3927691-new-leaks-show-how-us-bugging-its-european-allies

[bemildred]

33. Snowden Spying Claims: US 'Bugged EU Offices'

The European Union has "confronted" the US over fresh spying allegations that its offices in Brussels and the US were bugged by Washington.

German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported the new claims by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, who is on the run from US authorities seeking his extradition over intelligence leaks.

The reports are likely to strain America's relations with its European partners, with one top German official already accusing the US of using "Cold War" methods against its allies.

The newspaper said its report was based on confidential documents, some of which it had been able to consult via Snowden.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/snowden-spying-claims-us-bugged-eu-offices-093723857.html#3V51CxE

[bemildred]

9. The NSA is watching. So are Google and Facebook

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-consumer-tracking-20130701,0,3719521.story

[bemildred]

11. George Bush Defends the NSA, Claims Snowden Damaged Security

http://news.softpedia.com/news/George-Bush-Defends-the-NSA-Claims-Snowden-Damaged-Security-364618.shtml

[Catherina]

12. Well there you go! If Bush said so, it must be true

From your link:

“I put the program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil liberties were guaranteed,” Bush said.

Furthermore, Bush said that he was certain president Obama was going to take care of the situation.

[bemildred]

13. And Cheney too! You can't get any better than that. nt

[dipsydoodle]

16. Thanks for all the above links.

There's an old James Mason film in which he plays a Latin teacher. There is a line in that film which comes to mind "trust like the soul once departed never returns"

The US has fucked up bigtime on this.

[bemildred]

18. There is a lot of stuff going on, want to share. nt

[Catherina]

39. You sure can't! And a blast from the grave

Hugo Chavez, RIP

[Downwinder]

14. Will we next be invading our allies airspace with surveillance drones?

[bemildred]

20. Why assume we are not? Do you think we wouldn't? nt

[Downwinder]

23. I think if we did that, the troops stationed there would start

looking like an occupying force.

[bemildred]

24. Only if it was public. (like now.)

And it seems clear these clowns in the spook agencies have long since parted with good judgement or restraint.

[Franker65]

15. This is really hurting the Obama administration overseas

I don't think Kerry gets just how angry the people are. This is really going to cause serious problems for the United States.

[dipsydoodle]

17. He could've put a stop to it

but chose not to do so.

[bemildred]

19. Yup, this comes of being too political. nt

[Downwinder]

21. I'm not so sure he could.

From what I've seen the last 10 years or so, the spooks are in control.

[bemildred]

25. That's true too. It's risky to speak up. nt

[Catherina]

22. Spiegel Cover Story today: How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe

Spiegel Cover Story: How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe

Thomas Drake ?@Thomas_Drake1 1m

NSA w/ "approval from the White House, is spying on the Germans -- possibly right up to the level of the chancellor" http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-documents-nsa-targeted-germany-and-eu-buildings-a-908609-2.html

https://twitter.com/Thomas_Drake1/status/351681094615187456

(Alone against America)

Cover Story: How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe

By Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Fidelius Schmid, Holger Stark and Jonathan Stock
July 01, 2013 – 11:11 AM

Part 2: Spying on the European Union




An NSA table (see graphic), published for the first time here by SPIEGEL, documents the massive amount of information captured from the monitored data traffic. According to the graph, on an average day last December, the agency gathered metadata from some 15 million telephone connections and 10 million Internet datasets. On Dec. 24, it collected data on around 13 million phone calls and about half as many Internet connections.

On the busiest days, such as Jan. 7 of this year, the information gathered spiked to nearly 60 million communications processes under surveillance. The Americans are collecting metadata from up to half a billion communications a month in Germany -- making the country one of the biggest sources of streams of information flowing into the agency's gigantic sea of data.

...

... The NSA listening station at Bad Aibling was at the center of the German debate over America's controversial Echelon program and alleged industrial espionage during the 1990s.

...

Details in a further, previously unpublished document reveal exactly what takes place there. It describes how the NSA received access to an entire bundle of fiber-optic cables, which have a data-transfer capacity of several gigabytes per second. It is one of the Internet's larger superhighways. The paper indicates that access to the cables is a relatively recent development and includes Internet backbone circuits, "including several that service the Russian market." Technicians in Fort Meade are able to access "thousands of trunk groups connected worldwide," according to the document. In a further operation, the intelligence organization is able to monitor a cable that collects data flows from the Middle East, Europe, South America and Asia (see graphic).

...

According to the documents seen by SPIEGEL, a particularly valuable partner is a company which is active in the US and has access to information that crisscrosses America. At the same time, this company, by virtue of its contacts, offers "unique access to other telecoms and (Internet service providers)." The company is "aggressively involved in shaping traffic to run signals of interest past our monitors," according to a secret NSA document. The cooperation has existed since 1985, the documents say.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-documents-nsa-targeted-germany-and-eu-buildings-a-908609-2.html

[bemildred]

32. Obama vows to 'listen' to European critics on Internet snooping

Berlin - "Welcome among friends," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told US President Barack Obama in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday (19 June), where a few thousand people defied the scorching sun.

Just a few hours earlier, in a joint press conference, she said she had held "lengthy, in-depth talks" with the US leader on the so-called Prism programme, a secret online surveillance scheme targeting Americans and EU citizens alike in the pursuit of alleged terrorists and criminals.

"For the German people it is important and necessary to debate these issues. People have concerns that there may some kind of a blanket, across-the-board gathering of information. And there are questions that have not yet been answered sufficiently, so the dialogue will continue," Merkel said.

http://euobserver.com/foreign/120552

[bemildred]

26. Is Your Organisation Edward Snowden Proof?

http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/is-your-organisation-edward-snowden-proof/

[Downwinder]

34. With Manning and Snowden a pattern of lax security

is manifesting itself.

[bemildred]

35. Adolescent clowns in the basement spying on the neighbors.

It's insulting, it's disrespectful, and it's rude. You don't treat you friends that way ever, and you better be damn careful about your enemies too.

[Downwinder]

36. Reminds me of ENRON.

[bemildred]

37. In what way?

It reminds me of backward teenagers with no clue at all.

[Downwinder]

40. A bunch of yuppies running wild with no supervision

and almost unlimited power. Could also apply to Wall Street and Bond Street traders.

[bemildred]

44. Yep. Our beloved class system - ignorant, entitled, and unaccountable - in all it's glory.

And projecting like mad the whole time.

[Downwinder]

45. Porter Goss on steroids.

[bemildred]

38. I mean I don't disagree about the laxness.

If that is what you are on about, I used to work in defense, so I knew it was largely bullshit used to control the proles.

[bemildred]

27. PRISM: The European Union Finally Reacts

http://news.softpedia.com/news/PRISM-The-European-Union-Finally-Reacts-364545.shtml

The biggest news of these past few days in the PRISM/NSA scandal seems to be the fact that the American intelligence agencies have been spying on European Union officials.

[bemildred]

28. Prism threatens 'sovereignty' of all EU data

The article by MEP Sarah Ludfordof 20 June contains serious misconceptions and gaps. She entirely omitted the major revelation of the Prism leaks, that, since 2007, US authorities had unilateral access to any content data from the best-known internet brands, as opposed to the metadata - who is contacting whom - which she mentioned. A secret US court rubber-stamps "procedures" (not particular warrants) for this, and, since the power cannot be used on Americans, it was held to be constitutional under judgements classified as NOFORN (no foreign eyes).

However, in 2008, the US deployed in secret what can be likened to a nuclear bomb compared to the conventional weaponry of "lawful interception" of data-in-transit. In an unnoticed change, the now notorious foreign intelligence surveillance act (FISA), section 702, reached directly inside the cathedrals of processing power of cloud computing companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Its scope included any information which merely "relates" to the foreign affairs of the US, even ordinary lawful democratic activities of Europeans in their own countries, in flagrant violation of EU fundamental rights.

The effects of this law were concealed by extraordinarily complex drafting and a diversionary lobbying campaign which were analysed in a reportI co-authored for the parliament's justice and civil liberties committee in 2012. The conclusions were presented to the parliament in a hearing on 20 February this year. Ludford did not reply to an offer of a private briefing in January, and she left the parliament chamber just as our presentation began. She cancelled without notice a subsequent briefing call (arranged by her request), didn't respond to several attempts to reschedule, and showed no privacy interest in the "third country" aspects of the draft regulation.

http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/prism-threatens-sovereignty-of-all-eu-data/

[bemildred]

29. Weekend news round-up: More PRISM revelations shake world; RIP Google Reader

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/33272-weekend-news-round-up-more

Encryption humbugs wiretaps for first time ever

On an interesting but related side note, Wired reported encryption is thwarting government surveillance efforts through court-approved wiretaps for the first time.

Quoting a report from the US Administrative Office of the Courts, Wired reported: “Encryption was reported for 15 wiretaps in 2012 and for seven wiretaps conducted during previous years. In four of these wiretaps, officials were unable to decipher the plain text of the messages. This is the first time that jurisdictions have reported that encryption prevented officials from obtaining the plain text of the communications since the AO began collecting encryption data in 2001.”

[bemildred]

31. Amateurs beat Hollywood to make first Edward Snowden movie

Hong Kong (CNN) -- While it's not a stretch to imagine the Edward Snowden saga would spawn books and movies, a group of amateur filmmakers in Hong Kong have already beaten Hollywood to the punch with a short thriller dramatizing the events that unfolded in the city last month.

On June 9, Snowden identified himself as the source of leaked classified documents exposing mass surveillance programs purportedly operated by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The American computer technician also revealed he had been hiding out in Hong Kong for three weeks, sparking widespread speculation about his exact whereabouts and whether he would find safe refuge in the territory -- a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China.

Two days later, freelance videographer Edwin Lee contacted a few friends about shooting a short film about the maelstrom swirling around Snowden in the city.

"We were so intrigued as to why Snowden came to Hong Kong," Lee said, an Irish expatriate. "All of us love Hong Kong to death; we all call Hong Kong home."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/01/world/asia/first-movie-about-edward-snowden/index.html

[Catherina]

41. "of unspeakable hostility" "How can u negotiate when ur negotiating position has been intercepted?"

Germany's federal prosecutor's office has also opened inquiries into the NSA debacle, with a view to establishing whether German laws have been breached.

"The prosecutor's office is carefully assessing the media reports with reference to its legal mandate," a spokeswoman said. It would examine the available information on the Prism, Tempora, and Boundless Informant programmes and seek to establish whether the NSA's interception of telephone and internet communication was violating German laws, she added.

...

Elmar Brok, the veteran MEP who chairs the European parliament's foreign affairs committee and is from Merkel's Christian Democratic party, said the opening of the trade talks next week had been jeopardised. "How can you negotiate when you have got to fear that your own negotiating position has been intercepted in advance?" he asked.

....

Austria's Hannes Swoboda, head of the social democrats in the European parliament, said: "We demand full disclosure on the alleged bugging and wire-tapping of EU representatives by the US authorities, including the potential involvement of EU member states' intelligence services. The EU and US have to see eye to eye in this world and share relevant information. Spying is certainly not the right way to reinforce co-operation.

...

France's justice minister, Christiane Taubira, said, if confirmed, the US behaviour was of unspeakable hostility.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/nsa-spying-allegations-germany-us-france

[dipsydoodle]

43. Hollande: Bugging allegations threaten EU-US trade pact

French President Francois Hollande has said allegations that the US bugged European embassies could threaten a huge planned trade deal.

Negotiations over the EU-US pact, the biggest bilateral deal ever negotiated, are due to start on 8 July.

Mr Hollande said there could be no negotiations without guarantees that spying would stop "immediately".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23125451

I have a feeling "are due to start on 8 July" might be changed to "were due to start on 8 July"

[Duckwraps]

42. Too late. The djinn is "out of the bottle."