Der Spiegel: NSA Bugged UN Headquarters and the IAEA in Vienna

[cali]

And sorry, but if you're still defending the NSA and saying there really isn't a problem or it's minor, you damned well are an apologist.

The U.S. National Security Agency has bugged the United Nations' New York headquarters, Germany's Der Spiegel weekly said on Sunday in the latest in a series of reports on U.S. spying that has strained relations between Washington and its allies.

Citing secret U.S. files that the magazine has seen stemming from fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said the revelations proved how systematically the United States spied on other states and institutions.

Der Spiegel said the documents showed that U.S. intelligence agents bugged both other states and institutions including the European Union and the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).


In the summer of 2012, NSA experts succeeded in getting into the U.N. video conferencing system and cracking its coding system, according one of the documents cited by Der Spiegel.


<snip>

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSBRE97O08120130825

[cali]

1. More:

Internal files also show the NSA spied on the EU legation in New York after it moved to new rooms in autumn 2012. Among the documents copied by Snowden from NSA computers are plans of the EU mission, its IT infrastructure and servers.

According to the documents, the NSA runs a bugging program in more than 80 embassies and consulates worldwide called "Special Collection Service". "The surveillance is intensive and well organized and has little or nothing to do with warding off terrorists," wrote Der Spiegel.

[KoKo]

4. "...and his little or nothing to do with wardng off terrorists,"

That's the key phrase. So...why are we doing this?

[cali]

6. I suppose the only answer that makes sense to me is

because we can. That doesn't really answer that question, but beyond that, it's hard to figure.

[mick063]

9. Simple answer

The NSA isn't about finding terrorists.

It is about providing data, to gain a competitive edge, for the wealthy moguls that have purchased our pseudo representative Democracy.

Economic summits would be a nice source of insider information.

Our government doesn't work for you or me anymore. It works for them. We just pay for it.



Connect the dots people. Look at the makeup of the cabinet.

Tear down the Utah facility.

[newfie11]

7. Thank you Snowden

For bringing this out.
If we do this to friends and allies what the hell won't we do!
Who the hell is running this country?
Secret courts rule over the Supreme Court and congress apparently.
I am very disgusted with what my country has become.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. K&R nt

[cpwm17]

3. The NSA is nothing but a criminal enterprise

and the politicians that support it are drunk with power.

[valerief]

17. You mean the wealthy who own those pols. nt

[cpwm17]

20. And them too. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. The perps will be arrested, tortured, tried, and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment.

[newfie11]

8. Did hell freeze over

[valerief]

18. ^^^THIS^^^

[War Horse]

10. Reminds me of what Hans Blix said about the Iraq war, for some reason

He wasn't too upset about being bugged, he said, "but if only they'd actually listened!".

[GeorgeGist]

11. And the hits just keep coming.

How long before Obama jumps on the bandwagon?

[Arctic Dave]

12. K&R

[limpyhobbler]

13. Why would Snowden have access to information like this.

That makes no sense to me.

I completely agree it's wrong, and should stop, the NSA is out of control.

But I', starting to question the whole narrative about Snowden being a low level analyst, but yet having access to so much and such a wide variety of classified information.

Even the first leak, the verizon FISA warrant, why would he have access to something like that? Something fishy.

[cali]

15. I dimly recall reading something explaining that. I'll try and find it

[mick063]

16. I would suggest the following:

This isn't about Snowden having access to information required to perform his professional duties.

This is about the NSA's inept system of keeping information secure. It is an unfortunate byproduct, for the NSA, of maintaining a system easily accessed and abused by private enterprise.

[Roselma]

14. To some (mostly younger) people, NSA exists

mostly to track terrorist communications. Historically, NSA has existed for decades to spy on other countries. They still spy on other countries. I am not surprised in the least that they continue to do what they've been doing for decades. Remember that the terrorist spying started decades AFTER the NSA came into existence.

[valerief]

19. NSA are the terrorists. They keep the very wealthy safe, which endangers EVERYONE else. nt

[cali]

22. how do they keep the wealthy safe?

I wouldn't label the NSA as terrorists in any case but as an oppressive arm of the government.

[Roselma]

24. Good question, but

I'm not entirely sure that they are actually oppressing US citizens. They are snooping communications, though the target isn't US citizens unless the US person has a communication with terrorists inside/outside the US.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. I hope Merkel loses next month. There's no doubt in my mind that

she's been complicit in all of this. The American people will be better off if our allies start opposing some of the shit our government does.

[WillyT]

23. K & R !!!

[99th_Monkey]

25. Some in Germany say US is using NSA intel to manipulate financial markets

and they are pissed.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023523658

[LittleBlue]

26. Inexcusable

The government has turned criminal. Time for a purge.