Snowden Docs: U.S. Spied on Negotiators At 2009 Climate Summit
Source: Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The document, with portions marked "top secret," indicates that the NSA was monitoring the communications of other countries ahead of the conference, and intended to continue doing so throughout the meeting. Posted on an internal NSA website on Dec. 7, 2009, the first day of the Copenhagen summit, it states that "analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries' preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies."
"Second Party partners" refers to the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with which the U.S. has an intelligence-sharing relationship. "While the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference remains uncertain, signals intelligence will undoubtedly play a significant role in keeping our negotiators as well informed as possible throughout the 2-week event," the document says.
The Huffington Post published the documents Wednesday night in coordination with the Danish daily newspaper Information, which worked with American journalist Laura Poitras.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-nsa-surveillance-_n_4681362.html
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/unclimatechangeconference.pdf
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)What is the point ?
Oscarmonster13
(209 posts)Considering that summit was a failure, it goes to show that the US was hedging its bets the whole time. which is NOT what our President said he would do upon entering office, right?
I am glad for these revelations, but I wish they would cause more of a backlash or a rectification of policies...all it is really doing is making me hate my government more and feel helpless to shift a goddamn thing. not to mention the horror show that will happen when these powers eventually fall into a republican president's hand.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely it would seem.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Titonwan
(785 posts)belltower
(74 posts)guess he's leaving this problem for the next guy/gal.
gawd help us, because our prez sure aint.
Cha
(298,354 posts)to help with Climate Change.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/01/fact-sheet-executive-order-climate-preparedness
It really doesn't help when you don't know what you're talking about but spread misinformation on a Democratic board.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)Do you agree?
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)But most of the speech was really good in my opinion.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)iamthebandfanman
(8,127 posts)the fracking industry has embedded itself into the party elites like crazy...
you should go look up how many former democratic policitians now work for fracking companies or the people lobbying for them... a lot of former Clinton administration folks involved in it.. not to mention folks like ed Rendell who gets to come on MSNBC for a democratic point of view on subjects al lthe time :p
fracking is a terrible practice.. but I am glad he hasn't let up on the coal industry.. even if it is replacing one polluter with a 'slightly less' polluting polluter. id imagine its the only alternative any republicans would ever buy into.
belltower
(74 posts)A focus on climate change is a program to REDUCE co2 & methane by 80% in the next 6 years. Kinda missed that part. Thanks for the link to mitigation task force, which is about what that is.
asjr
(10,479 posts)feel safer on a right wing blog. I will bid you a bon voyage.
A focus on climate change is a program to REDUCE co2 & methane by 80% in the next 6 years. Kinda missed that part. Thanks for the dismissal, clown.
Cha
(298,354 posts)By Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.
snip//
"Whistleblower, traitor, hero, villain, Snowden may be many things at once but his apologies for the brutal record of Putin and the Russian state are inexcusable."
snip//
"My reaction is not only due to Snowdens first statement from Russia, while he was still in legal limbo at the Sheremetyevo airport, in which he included Putins Russiaa police state and patron of despotism worldwideon his list of nations that stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. Putins many political prisoners would disagree quite strongly, and Snowden could have been more respectful of the many injured and dead among journalists and his fellow whistleblowers in Russia."
end snip//
"Outside the stadiums, Sochi will be defined by how well the Olympics shine a spotlight on the corruption and repression of Putin and all who willingly overlook his crimes."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/29/snowden-s-revelations-shouldn-t-distract-from-putin-s-brutal-rule.html
DonViejo http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251351177#post7
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)jaysunb
(11,856 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Let's just pardon him, and bring him home. And then start holding trials for the bastards and traitors that he's risked his life to expose on our behalf. When he could have just stayed silent like most everyone else would have done.
- Right?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,459 posts)...
That could be why U.S. negotiators took the positions they did going into the conference, a Danish official told Information. "They simply sat back, just as we had feared they would if they knew about our document," the official said. "They made no constructive statements. Obviously, if they had known about our plans since the fall of 2009, it was in their interest to simply wait for our draft proposal to be brought to the table at the summit."
...
The three-page document set a goal of keeping the average rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius, but allowed countries to write their own plans for cutting emissions -- leaving out any legally binding targets or even a path to a formal treaty. Obama called the accord "an unprecedented breakthrough" in a press conference, then took off for home on Air Force One. But other countries balked, pointing out that the accord was merely a political agreement, drafted outside the U.N. process and of uncertain influence for future negotiations.
The climate summits since then have advanced at a glacial pace; a legally binding treaty isn't currently expected until 2015. And the U.S. Congress, despite assurances made in Copenhagen, never passed new laws cutting planet-warming emissions. (The Environmental Protection Agency is, however, moving forward with regulations on emissions from power plants, but a new law to addressing the issue had been widely considered as preferable.)
Interests of established national players (eg energy companies) were still coming first. I can see why you say you've had it with Obama, if you thought he was purely concerned about climate change.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)quadrature
(2,049 posts)c'mon
everybody listens to cell-phone chatter
edit, add some stuff.
remember when the meeting of 4 South American
presidents was crashed by Obama?
(do you think he was looking for the rest room. no)
cell phones are constantly transmitting their position.
Obama (or the NSA) knew where the cell phones were.
edit again.
Davos. NSA heaven for spies.
open mike every night
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)JEB
(4,748 posts)and ding their short term profits. Unleash the NSA hounds.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,262 posts)- Doesn't the rest of the world realize yet that we're the ones who know what's best for them?!?!? That we're only doing all this for their sakes!?!?! That we only want to keep them safe!?!?!? Don't they know that the BOOGIE MAN is out there and he'll get them if they don't watch out!!!
RandiFan1290
(6,265 posts)In one notable incident, the US and other Western countries were found to be spying on the UN in March 2003, in the run-up to the Iraq War, and actual bugging devices were found inside the UN
Titonwan
(785 posts)to find out if they had any skeletons in their closet. Apparently they do, but decide to sit on the dirty details so when they* want something done they can show what they got on them.
I'm beginning to feel like Jimmy Carter was the last president not being blackmailed by the secret inner government. Hard to get dirt on a peanut farmer
*The NSA, CIA et al
Thank you, Edward, Glenn, Barton and Laura. You're making the wrong people very angry. And I love that!
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show how the US National Security Agency (NSA) monitored communication between key countries before and during the conference to give their negotiators advance information about other positions at the high-profile meeting where world leaders including Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel failed to agree to a strong deal on climate change.
snip
Civil society groups from around the world condemned the US. "The UN climate talks are supposed to be about building trust that's been under threat for years because of the US backward position on climate action these revelations will only crack that trust further," said Meena Raman, negotiations expert from the Malaysian-based Third World Network.
"Fighting climate change is a global struggle, and these revelations clearly show that the US government is more interested in crassly protecting a few vested interests," said Brandon Wu, senior policy analyst with development organisation ActionAid in the United States.
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