New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies

[Catherina]

Source: The Guardian

Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers reveal 38 targets including EU, France and Italy

Ewen MacAskill in Rio de Janeiro and Julian Borger
The Guardian, Sunday 30 June 2013 19.33 BST


One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed Dropmire, which according to a 2007 document is 'implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC'. Photograph: Guardian

...

One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of "targets" includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states.

One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed 'Dropmire', which according to a 2007 document is "implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC" – an apparent reference to a bug placed in a commercially available encrypted fax machine used at the mission. The NSA documents notes the machine is used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals.

...

The US intelligence service codename for the bugging operation targeting the EU mission at the United Nations is 'Perdido'. Among the documents leaked by Snowden is a floor plan of the mission in mid-town Manhattan. The methods used against the mission include the collection of data transmitted by implants, or bugs, placed inside electronic devices, and another covert operation that appears to provide a copy of everything on a targeted computer's hard drive.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/30/nsa-leaks-us-bugging-european-allies

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"a copy of everything on a targeted computer's hard drive" Well, well, well.

[frontier00]

1. Snowden

Snowden won't last the week

this kid is dead, People Snowden has moved from whistle blower to Leaker,
Now he is a spy by revealing this

can we call what he's doing treason

[Catherina]

2. No we can not call it that. If you want to, knock yourself out n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. I'll check back with you in 7 days then.

[Catherina]

23. Maduro is flying to Moscow for a 2-day summit

on his Airbus A319CJ Presidential jet which has an air range of 6300 nautical miles, unless they modified it to have more. The air distance from Caracas to Moscow is 5367 nautical miles.
Speculation has already begun.

[dipsydoodle]

24. In actual fact

all that is needed to get him out of the airport is a diplomatic car. It has been reported elsewhere that he actually left the airport the day he landed.

I also have feeling that one of our new members is plant and I don't mean a daisy.

[Catherina]

25. I know lol! I've sat slack jawed at reports of how miserable he must be stuck in an airport capsule

[PSPS]

7. Yes, our surveillance police state is A-OK because, now, Snowden is "a treasonous spy." Whatever.

I guess your post falls into #13 on the apologists' hit parade.

1. This is nothing new
2. I have nothing to hide
3. What are you, a freeper?
4. But Obama is better than Christie/Romney/Bush/Hitler
5. Greenwald/Flaherty/Gillum/Apuzzo/Braun is a hack
6. We have red light cameras, so this is no big deal
7. Corporations have my data anyway
8. At least Obama is trying
9. This is just the media trying to take Obama down
10. It's a misunderstanding/you are confused
11. You're a racist
12. Nobody cares about this anyway / "unfounded fears"
13. I don't like Snowden, therefore we must disregard all of this

[nashville_brook]

18. love the list -- !

[Catherina]

21. Thank you n/t

[newfie11]

27. +1

Love the list also

[sikofit3]

34. Perfect!

I think anyone who states anything from that list should get no responses from anyone at all....

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. This is whistle-blowing

It shows the USA spying on its allies. The US people, and the allies, deserve to know this happens.

No, you can't call it 'treason'. Only an authoritarian nationalist would call it that.

[Galraedia]

3. LIES LIES LIES! THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CANNOT BE TRUSTED!!!

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CANNOT BE TRUSTED!!! Conspiracy!!! They're coming for the LOLcat photos you e-mailed your family and friends. Run for the hills!

[villager]

5. Only trust the NSA and Military Industrial Complex!

[Galraedia]

8. Only trust the Almighty Snowden and his sidekick Glenn "The Lyin Libertarian" Greedwald...

...so I'm still waiting for proof of Snowden's claim that he could "wiretap anyone from a federal judge to the president". But I guess asking for proof is blasphemy in the name of the Almighty and Powerful Snowden.

[villager]

13. Glad your daily "Two Minutes Hate" is in full force! And never, ever question those who are

...spying on you!

that's a good boy!

[Galraedia]

16. So I'm still waiting for proof of Snowden's claim that he could....

"wiretap anyone from a federal judge to the president".

[temmer]

17. why are you so obsessed with Snowden and Greenwald?

what's more newsworthy: a bragging system analyst or a government spying on its own people?

[Galraedia]

19. I'm still waiting for proof of Snowden's claim that he could...

"wiretap anyone from a federal judge to the president".

[villager]

22. So he can avoid any discussion whatsoever of what the Executive Branch, and spy agencies

... are actually up to.

[frontier00]

6. Spying

Spying on your own citizens is wrong, but Snowden crossed a line by revealing our foreign intel methods

[Galraedia]

9. I highly doubt any foreigners and libertarians on this board are going to care.

He's Snowden so he gets a free pass. I'm sure he's making the anti-government libertarians really proud by stirring up anti-American sentiment.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Of course I care

The USA is spying on my representatives, while calling us 'allies'. I object to such hypocrisy.

On edit: I care that the US spies on my representatives. I am glad Snowden has exposed this.

[villager]

14. Believing in the 4th Amendment: You must be a "foreigner or libertarian!" Point of order...

...Mr. Chairman!

[think]

26. "foreigners and libertarians"

[dipsydoodle]

12. Foreign intel on its allies.

Whats good about this is that it ends Europe's and others misplaced trust in the US. Hopefully it will end the anachronism known as NATO too.

[Maedhros]

31. I think all of these spying revelations are, in the end, good for us.

Anything that helps strip the shiny veneer from the corrupted core of our oligarchy is good for democracy. Citizens must know what the government is doing, and a healthy informed electorate is far more important than burying our heads in the sand to shore up our imperial foreign policy machinations.

[fujiyama]

32. The desire by the US and the EU for "stability"

has made Europe pretty much subservient to the US, especially regarding military affairs. All we have got from this bizarre relationship is war after war, pursuing what appears to be neo-imperialism, all in the name of liberation or whatever other bullshit line we get from Washington.

I hope the revelations by Snowden do actually change the way the US does conduct foreign policy. Every time anyone around the world watches the US practice "diplomacy", the impression is that of a drunk and arrogant bully beating others up so its corporate interests are served. And before anyone starts, China and Russia are even more nasty and cynical in their behavior on the world's stage, but at the same time no one expects anything better from countries that have authoritarian thugs in power, and have lost millions in wars and revolutions over the past century. And we don't usually hear them lecturing anyone on human rights, censorship, and due process anyways.

It's the rank hypocrisy that pisses most people off. Obviously this is a very US-centric board, and that's fine. But those ranting about Snowden and his "treason" really don't get it at all. Snowden may be a punk ass 30 year old seeking fame and may have bit off more than he can chew. That's irrelevant. The reality is though that his revelations expose a surveillance state much worse than anyone expected. We're a country of people that has no trust in its government - with a government that trusts no one either at home or abroad. That trust is deteriorating daily. Rather than blaming the messenger for telling you your spouse is cheating on you, maybe you should be pissed at your spouse for cheating. Snowden isn't the cause of this mistrust. It's our fucking government.

[JDPriestly]

33. Spy -- definition

spy (sp)
n. pl. spies (spz)
1. An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies.
2. One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about its competitors.
3. One who secretly keeps watch on another or others.
4. An act of spying.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spy

Let's try them on Snowden.

1) What state employed him to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies?

THE US. Employ can mean simply using or paying someone to do something. So far as the evidence available at this time shows, the only country that paid or used Snowden to spy for it is the US by hiring his employer to spy for the government. The evidence now suggests that if other countries obtained the information that he had, it is not because they intentionally employed him or in any way directed his activities so as to "use" him.

2) The evidence available now indicates that the only company that hired Snowden to obtain confidential information was a contractor of the US obtaining the information for the US.

3) Snowden kept secret watch on people for the US. Even now, his revelations about the secrets of our government were provided to US citizens. But he kept secret watch as an employee of a contractor of the US.

4) An act of spying. Again, it appears that Snowden spied for the US government and one of its contractors and then on the US government for the people of the US.

Snowden revealed secrets, but he spied only on Americans and then, maybe on the NSA for the benefit of Americans.

Although he may have provided, perhaps inadvertently, classified information to our enemies (China, Germany, Russia, Italy, Belgium???? which enemies), there is no evidence that he was spying for them.

[temmer]

15. EU politicians: Asylum for Snowden in Europe!

Yesterday I was joking that Germany could grant asylum to him - but today's news is: the Greens in the European Parliament want to recommend him for the Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought. Chinese, Cuban and Iranian regime opponents have received this prize in the past.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/00f3dd2249/Sakharov-Prize-for-Freedom-of-Thought.html;jsessionid=1FB61B022CF12BAABEE14C03A75D1525.node2

The Sakharov Prize is intended to honour exceptional individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression. Like Andrei Sakharov himself, all the winners of the prize have shown how much courage it takes to defend human rights and freedom of expression.

[Catherina]

20. I hope he gets that prize. Thank you Germany! n/t

[temmer]

28. you're welcome

[frontier00]

29. Snowden is lost

[Catherina]

30. Try flipping the mirror around n/t