08.27.13

The Latest NSA Scandals: Espionage in Germany, the United Nations, and Untold Blackmail to Trap the Messengers

Posted in Law at 4:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Radar

Summary: Some of the latest self-explanatory stories about NSA abuses which are gradually embraced by politicians, corporations, and even state police; attempts to change the law to criminalise the acts of revealing these abuses

THE NSA‘S criminal activities are a phenomenon that keeps giving. Stories about it have been told for months and there’s no stopping it. Clever mechanisms like effective encryption inside chat and insurance files show just why the government hates encryption so much (not fake encryption which gives the mere illusion of privacy).

Some of the latest assorted story (below, not grouped by type) help reinforce the argument that terrorism — however one defines it –is not what the NSA fights against. The NSA is shown time after time to have engaged in strategic espionage, sometimes even inside the United States (where different rules apply).

This happens to coincide with media propaganda which tries to sell a war on Syria to the public (the war inside Syria has already been shown to be at least partly fuelled by the CIA). The UN is doing what it did 11 years ago in Iraq, trying to identify if there are weapons of mass destruction which merit invasion by other nations and now we know that the UN was among the victims of espionage (by the NSA). Moreover, recall US attempts to ban encryption in Syria (desperate and futile measures targeting FOSS repositories). This helps show the massive power of the NSA, which can also start wars. Jacob Appelbaum was right about it. In the wake of site shutdowns it is said in relation to Groklaw that:

Internet surveillance must be stopped or rendered ineffective with encryption

Yes, but laws are being passed to criminalise some anonymisation tactics. Other laws are now being proposed in the UK for criminalising reports about the NSA. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

NSA bugged UN headquarters in New York City, claim new documents released by Ed Snowden
Latest NSA abuse allegation: Spying on the United Nations
NSA accused of hacking into UN internal video conferences for a year

America’s National Security Agency has been hit by fresh allegations of spying after Germany’s Der Spiegel accused it of illegally spying on the UN in New York for a year.
NSA Bugged UN Headquarters In New York

Agents succeeded in getting into the UN video conferencing system and cracking its coding, according to leaked secret documents.
NSA row: Merkel rival threatens to suspend EU-US trade talks

Peer Steinbrück says he will delay negotiations until US comes clean on bugging of German government offices
NSA and GCHQ: the flawed psychology of government mass surveillance

Research shows that indiscriminate monitoring fosters distrust, conformity and mediocrity
Is the NYPD Worse Than the NSA?

New details about innocent Americans targeted for surveillance by undercover officers.
European leaders show no interest in shielding EU from NSA

EU could make solid data protection regulations, but in the midst of debates it is becoming obvious that European political leaders aren’t willing to take serious steps in this direction, an MEP from the Swedish Pirate Party, Amelia Andersdotter, told RT.
NSA leaks: David Cameron’s response is intimidation, says world press body

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers tells the UK government its actions could threaten press freedom
NSA bugged UN’s New York headquarters: German weekly

The US National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged the United Nations’ New York headquarters, Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly said on Sunday in a report on US spying that could further strain relations between Washington and its allies.

Citing secret US documents obtained by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said the files showed how the United States systematically spied on other states and institutions.
Tech firms’ responses to latest NSA disclosures cloud the truth, experts say

The NSA paid millions to compensate companies’ surveillance costs, new documents claim
US threatened Cuba not to let NSA leaker Snowden in – report

US fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden stayed in Moscow in late June and did not fly to Cuba because Cuban authorities would have denied him landing under US pressure, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports.
‘Does the NSA have a listening post in Vienna?’

Acting in collaboration with the CIA, the daily claims that a “Special Collection Service-Team” makes use of equipment installed on the roof of the Vienna embassy to intercept communications, and in particular communications from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Neither the IAEA, or the Austrian Ministry of the Interior were willing to confirm this information…
NSA Surveillance Threatens US Relations With Germany

Most of the focus on NSA surveillance has been the domestic fallout from the Obama Administration spying on ordinary Americans and then lying repeatedly about it. The international fallout is significant, however, with key US allies like Germany and Brazil taking the revelation of systematically being targeted poorly.
NSA Spying Has Turned Silicon Valley Into a Political Machine

Public outrage over the federal government’s surveillance programs reached a fever pitch last week, with revelations that the National Security Administration illegally collected tens of thousands of non-terrorism-related emails from U.S. citizens, in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution. With no end to the NSA bombshells in sight, at least some members of Congress appear to have grudgingly accepted that they are going to have to do something about the government’s expansive spying programs.
My Dinner With NSA Director Keith Alexander

On July 30, 2013, I had the pleasure of having dinner with General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency. Just a few weeks earlier, NYU Law Professor Christopher Sprigman and I had called the NSA’s activities “criminal” in the digital pages of the New York Times, so I thought it was particularly gracious of him to sit with me.

[...]

Liberty and security are the hard-won results of democratic process and limited government power. A system of mass surveillance puts innocent people at risk, and is, in itself, an abuse of liberty. Inevitably, it leads to further abuses. When the justification is counter-terrorism, and that’s your only concern, there is no countervailing interest that justifies slowing you down or stopping you. We are only beginning to learn all the ways in which good men are nevertheless failing to withstand the corrupting force of vast spying abilities. Indeed, the FISA court noted in that 2011 opinion that the government’s collection of tens of thousands of purely domestic communications, hidden from the court for years, could be a crime. (Footnote 15) The good people at NSA have literally pulverized the Fourth Amendment, government accountability, freedom of expression, rule of law, and so many other equally critical components of the American system.
Snowden: UK government now leaking documents about itself

The NSA whistleblower says: ‘I have never spoken with, worked with, or provided any journalistic materials to the Independent’
David Miranda row: New law ‘needed to protect secrets’

Anti-terror laws should be strengthened to prevent leaks of official secrets, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Blair has told the BBC.
NSA used decryption technology to spy on the United Nations

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported over the weekend that documents supplied by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden prove the NSA spied on internal communications at the United Nations headquarters in New York City during the summer of 2012. The NSA has also targeted the European Union and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to Der Spiegel .