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New leak shows US, UK spying on heads of state, international orgs

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TheDemSocialist

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Newspaper reports say the latest documents leaked by National Security Agency (NSA) contractor turned whistle-blower Edward Snowden show that British and American intelligence agencies monitored the communications of an Israeli prime minister and European officials, among hundreds of other targets in some 60 countries.Reports from The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel broke the new revelations Friday, documenting the surveillance of more than 1,000 targets from 2008 to 2011.
Speaking at a press conference Friday, President Barack Obama answered questions about the NSA leaks and spying program, and implicitly addressed the newest revelations without going into specifics or suggesting if changes might be down the line.
"We've had less legal constraint in terms of what we're doing internationally (than domestically)," Obama said. "Just because we can do something doesn't mean we necessarily should."
The newest leaks show how the NSA and Britain's General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spied on the communications of foreign leaders, including targeting an email address belonging to Israel's then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The vice president of the European Commission, Joaquin Almunia of Spain, who has authority over antitrust issues, also appears on a list of surveillance targets, according to the reports.
Almunia has clashed with the U.S. tech giant Google over how it operates its search engine, and when contacted by The New York Times, he said he was "strongly upset" by the revelations of eavesdropping.
The NSA did not confirm or deny the reports but insisted it does not spy to assist American corporations.
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Read more @: New leak shows US, UK spying on heads of state, international orgs | Al Jazeera America

We are literally the STASI of the world.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: New leak shows US, UK spying on heads of state, international orgs | Al Jazeera America

We are literally the STASI of the world. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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Of course I do not know what your experience with the Stasi was. But from what I saw, they were less capable and more brutal.
But concerning the UK and USA monitoring heads of state and international organizations? I would certainly hope they did so. Not doing so would be unforgivable. Not only are the agencies paid to do so, it would be dangerous to neglect that responsibility.:peace
 
It's funny how the argument has gone from "is this right?" to "every country does it."

Seems our politicians aren't the only ones with pliable standards.
 
DVSentinel said:
No **** Sherlock. Every country that is a world power spies on other countries and their heads of state. Did it actually take a report from Snowden for you to know that?
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I would ask for proof of this statement...
 
j-mac said:
Snowden should be taken out! Traitor.
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He only brought to light something everyone should already have known. Anyone who thought what is electronically transmitted was not monitored is a bit clueless...
 
j-mac said:
Snowden should be taken out! Traitor.
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Calling out a government that is spying on it's own people is a traitor? Well I guess if you think the government never does anything wrong or nefarious...

By the way, I don't know why it's news. We already knew all this stuff any who. Bigger news is that I thought he wasn't allowed to leak any more information.
 
AlabamaPaul said:
He only brought to light something everyone should already have known. Anyone who thought what is electronically transmitted was not monitored is a bit clueless...
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I don't totally disagree, however, he is now gone beyond just revealing things included in that scope, and is damaging US credibility in the world between us and our allies....
 
Hamster Buddha said:
Calling out a government that is spying on it's own people is a traitor? Well I guess if you think the government never does anything wrong or nefarious...

By the way, I don't know why it's news. We already knew all this stuff any who. Bigger news is that I thought he wasn't allowed to leak any more information.
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Nope, government must be vigilantly watched all the time, but he has gone beyond just what the NSA was doing here in the US. When he started that, he became a traitor.
 
j-mac said:
I don't totally disagree, however, he is now gone beyond just revealing things included in that scope, and is damaging US credibility in the world between us and our allies....
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Its ok, that "credibility" has been suffering for some time before the world heard of Edward Snowden.
 
j-mac said:
Nope, government must be vigilantly watched all the time, but he has gone beyond just what the NSA was doing here in the US. When he started that, he became a traitor.
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He was being called a traitor from the beginning. One can only imagine the economic disadvantage ALL other countries are at with the US being able to monitor ALL phone calls. And that's only one disadvantage! I have no problem understanding the anger generated by this.
 
StringBean said:
It's wrong and very few (if any) countries can directly hack President Obama's cell phone.
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Your criteria is bogus. Every state spies on the leaders of other states. Europe just complains about the US because they're not as good at it.
 
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