Despite US efforts to placate Angela Merkel – including a phonecall made by the US president, Barack Obama, on Wednesday – she has refused to conceal her anger over the issue. "We need trust among allies and partners," Merkel told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. "Such trust now has to be built anew... It's become clear that for the future, something must change – and significantly."...
The latest confidential memo provided by [Edward] Snowden reveals... that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.
After Merkel's allegations became public, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, issued a statement that said the US "is not monitoring and will not monitor" the German chancellor's communications. But that failed to quell the row, as officials in Berlin quickly pointed out that the US did not deny monitoring her phone in the past.
October 25, 2013
"Germany and France demand talks with US over NSA spying revelations."
"The revelations are threatening to create a major rift between the US and its European allies," says the Guardian.
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16 comments:
They've noticed that Obama is a moron and aren't taking it any longer.
As Glenn Reynolds would say, "another rube self-identifies."
The Europeans all drooled over Obama, now they are reaping the benefits. I find it hard to give a crap.
I'm pretty sure this will turn out as a comedy. Hubris loses control.
queue:
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault:
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
-------------------
NSA is an F'ing Spy agency. Spying is their job.
You want to spy on the people with secrets. National leaders have secrets.
queue:
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault:
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
-------------------
NSA is an F'ing Spy agency. Spying is their job.
You want to spy on the people with secrets. National leaders have secrets.
There's an old saying in the Intelligence Community: "In God we trust. All others, we monitor."
Back in 1978, the Air Force tried to make a Hebrew linguist out of me. They sent me to Fort Meade, Maryland (home of the NSA) although my actual training took place at the Fanex (Friendship Annex near Baltimore Washington International). It was a doomed effort. After several months and a near ulcer, I went on to other work in Germany. Still, it isn't hard to guess who I was being trained to monitor.
The bad part is not that we spy on Merkel, but that we got caught spying on Merkel in public and she has to pretend outrage. Our allies talk to people who are not our friends. We need to know what our enemies are saying.
The Stasi was created to prevent comedy from taking over.
That itself may turn out as comedy here.
The grifter doubles down.
In the run up to WWII, Stimson was the Sec State for Hoover. At that point, he famously said:
Gentlemen do not read other gentlemen's mail
He had changed his tune by a few years later when he was Roosevelt's Sec War and we had broken the Japanese Purple Diplomatic code.
A bit earlier, all the crypies were at State, reading other peoples mail of course. :)
Anyway, apparently there was a mini-mutiny for a bit when the crypies were order to break Jesuit codes.
Till the crypies broke the codes and found out all the great intel that the Jesuits were moving around. The mutiny stopped...
Larry J said...
Back in 1978, the Air Force tried to make a Hebrew linguist out of me
That's a problem with some languages. The only folks that speak it well, may be security risks when employed to translate it, so you are forced to train your own team.
Of course the NSA monitors Merkels converstations when they can. And every other world leader they can manage to access....which I would guess to be a large percentage, as cell phones are NOT SECURE. As Merkel and every other world leader with half a brain knows.
Just like other countries monitor us.
When you get caught, you make apologetic noises and make promises you don't intend to keep about not doing it anymore.
It's easy enough to make the talks between the three countries happen. Just have Merkel call Hollande.
At least Obama didn't try to give her a shoulder massage.
It's the web cam that they installed in the shower that really ticked her off.
A certain lack of supervision and control at the executive level seems to be an earmark of this administration.
Really a shame Hillary isn't SecState anymore. They need her to trot around with that "Reset" button. In retrospect, that was the high point of foreign policy since 2009.
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