NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders

www.theguardian.com...

Another Snowden revelation via the UK Guardian.

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.
The document notes 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.

So what is their excuse this time? This comes just a day or two after Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor personally called Obama over revelations that HER phone had been tapped.
www.dailymail.co.uk...

The excuse that they are looking for terrorists just won't cover this kind of surveillance. This has obvious political overtones. I recall a post or article I read within the past few days that Hillary Clinton had used some intel to get information regarding the UN vote on Syria, who was for and against, etc, and she was justifying the spying for that reason.

Two things of import on this matter, I think need to be discussed.

First, the article states that the NSA was going after the rolodexes of other government officials to get information, private contact information, for foreign diplomats and leaders and were being given this information. This means not only are the other branches/de[artments complicit in this behavior, it means they KNEW this surveillance was going on and approved.

Secondly, and more importantly, this is not the "Good Guys" kind of behavior. This is not the moral high ground our government preaches down from to all the other "Bad Guy" nations. You can't spy on your allies political leaders and expect them not to find out, and not to become angry. Several countries are already rethinking, if not outright cutting off, their intelligence ties to the US. And it's making the world as a whole angry and suspicious of America for doing it, and we Americans for letting it happen.

So what are we to do, considering that the few attempts to even see what the NSA is doing, let alone stop it, have been stonewalled? When the administration says the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to even hear the case to get records?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I know that this stuff in public requires a public response but, within goverments everybody knows everybody is spying on each other. Allies always spy on each other just when they get caught it is normally kept quite and the person sent back home. It happens at both goverment and corporate levels. I just find it funny how goverments have to publicly pretend to be suprised knowing that they are doing the exact same thing. In my time I knew of the UK, France, Canada, Cuba, Russia and China all getting caught at one time or another getting caught in with their nose in the cookie jar of whatever organization I was in at the time. Only one was ever made public. And you can bet it was not one of our allies.

Ok. That's it. Folks? If anyone asks, I'm Canadian. (I'll say "aboot" a lot, eh. )

America is a sad place to be right now.

*Good thing I'm Canadian, eh?*

reply to post by QuantumCypher


I bet the leaders who were left out of the list of 35 feel sighted. Like they weren't worth listening too. It's like the in-crowd in high school, and the 36th guy is left holding their coats and oogling their women, but never invited to the best parties.

So there's all this monitoring of phone calls and no juicy gossip? Is it all shopping lists and who's picking up the kids?

Everyone spies on everyone its a basic part of being a spook so really those 35 countries should kick their spooks arses as they was not counter-spooking enough to prevent it from happening.....but i'm sure theres much better stuff happening now

reply to post by beezzer

I was thinking of claiming to be Elvish or Klingon or something myself, because as far as I know there are no countries currently P.O.ed at them.
Love the quick Avatar change, BTW.
In all seriousness, how are we supposed to address this issue? We the people are going to be blamed for allowing this to happen, and we have nearly exhausted all legal and "civil" ways to deal with this problem. And our government has shown that the only problem they see with it is that we're finding out about it.

Are we really suprised?

I think we should be asking ourselves.... "What isn't the American Gooberment doing?".... No?

What good is leaking this? Nothing is going to happen. American citizens are so numb, we just don't care. It's sad, it's true...

It's like living with a buch of Zombies, the looks of discontent on there faces daily, sandwiched with a "what can I possibly do" attitude. It's disheartning...

reply to post by QuantumCypher


It just shows how duplicitous politicians are. This kind of story, no matter how often it actually happens, leaves a trail of slime where ever it goes.

Its important to notice this in the article:

The NSA memo seen by the Guardian was written halfway through George W Bush's second term, when Condoleezza Rice was secretary of state and Donald Rumsfeld was in his final months as defence secretary.

The point being the NSA's activities have nothing in particular to do with Obama specifically except that he is the nominal head of the executive branch at present.
What the NSA is doing, and has been doing, has been going on a very long time and needs to stop.

It didn't start with Obama, but it has to end with him!

reply to post by MrSpad

First of all, how would we react if say we found out that the UK had tapped Obama's, Hillary Clinton, and Harry Reid's phone's? That's not even taking into account spying on millions of normal American citizens phones? It's one thing for us to spy on Iraq or Syria, but our own nation's allies is a completely different matter. Especially if we expect them to stay allies, as the fallout from this mess is proving.
Secondly, yes, there have always been spies, always will be spies, but this is on an unprecedented level. It's one thing to keep tabs on military, tech projects, and maybe even a few diplomats, it's a different matter entirely to bug the phones of another nations leaders, and again specifically our allies. How is Britain going to react if they find out we bugged the royal families phones? By a program whose only justification is "keeping America safe from terrorists"?

opuscosmos
So there's all this monitoring of phone calls and no juicy gossip? Is it all shopping lists and who's picking up the kids?

There's still a *lot* more Snowden documents that have yet to be released.

Hope springs eternal...

reply to post by Aleister

To clarify, the article states that ONE official handed over information which led to being able spy on 35 world leaders. The article goes on to state:

The document continues by saying the new phone numbers had helped the agency discover still more new contact details to add to their monitoring: "These numbers have provided lead information to other numbers that have subsequently been tasked."

Those 35 were just from that one official. It doesn't really state how many total were being monitored, so the headline is somewhat misleading.

reply to post by QuantumCypher



One question.

Is anyone really surprised by this revelation?

reply to post by opuscosmos

In my opinion, the information gathered was probably very personal, not just shopping lists and picking up kids, but ALL the information people talk about on their phones. Who their mistress is, what their dirty business dealings are, all the scandalous information. Blackmail material. Oh, I'm sorry, the PC term is "leverage", isn't it? Which is why I brought up the Clinton thing. By knowing who was voting which way, they knew who they had to exert influence over to change their votes.

reply to post by alldaylong


Hell to the NO!!! Is anyone suprised that American's are NOT going to do anything about it!!!?

sulaw
reply to post by alldaylong

 

Hell to the NO!!! Is anyone suprised that American's are NOT going to do anything about it!!!?

Americans might not.

Rest of the world might.

Way to alienate everyone else ever though, just before the petrodollar is dumped. Is there someone deliberately trying to destroy the USA? From without and within?

It's almost comical now.

reply to post by sulaw

Those of us who have been paying attention for years, who have at least suspected this all this time, are not surprised. Okay, I was a little surprised at the scope, even I hadn't realized that they'd progressed for enough to do this ABROAD:
freebeacon.com...

The rest of the American public, on the other hand, SHOULD be surprised, if for no other reason than going "Hey, that guy at work who kept saying the government was watching everything we do wasn't nuts after all!"

The people also need to see how this is affecting our relations with other countries. And not in a good way.

reply to post by alldaylong

Nope, but I think Obama is. Dont think he has any control at all with NSA, CIA++

beezzer
Ok. That's it. Folks? If anyone asks, I'm Canadian. (I'll say "aboot" a lot, eh. )

America is a sad place to be right now.

*Good thing I'm Canadian, eh?*

Hahaha when i noticed your new avatar lol good one