U.S. seeks to calm European outrage over alleged spying

Has this article been altered from it’s original publish?
Am i mistaken or did the original article state that it was the Secret Service that was tapping a half billion phone calls and messages per month?

I might have misread that, although it did manage to leave an impression since the idea of the secret service joining this fray seemed alarming.

Can’t wait to see how the U.S. government is going to explain this one away.

@Laster: German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger referred to “American Secret Service” in this quote from the piece above:
“If it is true that EU representations in Brussels and Washington were indeed tapped by the American Secret Service, it can hardly be explained with the argument of fighting terrorism,” she said in a statement.”

We can assume she was referring to the NSA.

I have learned a lot from the Snowden Saga.

I have always thought without a shred of doubt that “Anglo-Saxon” includes peoples like English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and German. Whereas “Latin” includes French, Portuguese and Spanish. Until the report by Der Spiegel this weekend.

So the German peoples’ “sin” — or “mistake” — has been because they are not “English speaking”. But Jamaicans are English-speaking. And many Indians and Singaporeans use English as if it were their native tongue. So “English-speaking” is a code phrase for “Anglo Saxon”? Very likely it seems.

Then, there is this “Alliance of Five Eyes”. So if German people switched to using English, would it become the “Alliance of Six Eyes”? Of course, the requirement would be that the German people sunset the language called “German”.

For some reasons I have this image of a beast with five (or six) eyes! If one pokes an eye, the whole body will attack you. Not a lovely image.

Some says “Alliance of Five Pillars”. As in: The Village Earth (very tiny when viewed from the space) can only be peaceful if it is propped up by five (or six) sturdy pillars. Much better image.

I wonder what’s the US up to?
They must have a pretty computer to do all this hacking and stuff…

Let’s do the math… financial crisis and wars any correlation from the history? For sure almost all followed this pattern, from greek / rome to american civil war, french revolution, ww1 n 2, etc…
So I think it’s time to make marvelous profits hehe

Yes, we can assume the Germans are not aware of the large number of secret “police” agencies the USA has. Surely she meant the NSA, but then who can be sure of anything about how the Government operates these days? Seems like the only “rules” the public knows about, especially the Constitution, no longer apply.

All countries spy on each other and always have and always will so
nothing new about this. All countries have a spy policy of keeping
your enemies on a short leash and friends on an even shorter leash.

It is apparently only undemocratic if you spy on your allies. Illegally spying on your own citizens is perfectly inline with democratic principles.

So this tiger tamer, bare-chest thumper, scuba diving “historian” and wife deserter Putin decided to shear the pig at last, knowing full well — as he himself had declared while visiting Finland — that he ain’t gonna get much wool out of that pig.

* * * * *

I suspect the leak to Der Spiegel came from (Putin’s) Moscow and not from Snowden himself.

The rest of the world is finally finding out Obama is really a wannabe dictator.

Obama at his press conference in South Africa couple of days ago replied to the question if he personally contacted Putin to release Snowden in his custody. He said that he doesn’t get involved with a 29 year old hacker and let’s his advisers and staff handle it. The hacker doesn’t warrant a standdown by military aircraft as Snowden is not that important in the scheme of things. But the President may have to get involved sooner or later with the EU by direct communications with his colleagues there. The EU is equally mad about NSA as we are here. Murphy’s Law just seems to continue on and on and on.

As a U.S. Citizen, I’m glad that other countries are voicing their concern about U.S. war, intelligence, and other crimes being committed by criminal factions in the federal government under the pretense of U.S. Citizen approval. I’ve worried that the citizenry would pay for the transgressions that the successive string of organized criminal presidents have perpetrated using the power of our country for the benefit of the scum they represent. Few U.S. Citizens believe in this type of behavior but will end up paying for it nonetheless if the current trends aren’t halted. I’m tired of watching thieves pulling everyones cookies out of our community jar and then telling us that it’s for a good purpose that must be kept secret. Bullshot!

Lets just confirm OBAMAS agenda and reasoning here:
The terrorists are nearly entirely from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Yemen and Iran.
Obamas idea: Spy on all Americans, Canadians, Japanese, Australians and our brothers in the UK. Also, quickly try to override the 2nd Amendment and try to seize all guns the the State determines you shouldn’t have (which is anything that goes pow are Might prove to be a threat to THEM!). Finally spy on all judges and reporters and ANYONE speaking out or Might speak out against the state is brought up on charges and the IRS used to target specific groups or individuals, so that their assets are stolen by the gov!
damn you people, Wake the hell up

The Europeans heard Snowden. The American public awakened briefly when it heard Snowden’s pronouncements then rolled over and continues to sleep comfortably while the nation’s life blood of individual civil liberties is being drained by the power hungry fifth column surveillance establishment. Thanks to the twenty six senators that signed the letter demanding explanation of the extent of NSA ‘s surveillance.

The only drawback Snowden cited that he had was that American public would not raise its voice. A voice was raised – largely that he is a traitor or scoundrel. I sincerely regret he took flight. He would have raised more support for himself and his concerns that one way or another he has given his life for.

Well all of you right wing nuts just like blaming Obama for this, but was going on way before he became President. This little snot nose that is leaking this information is only working for the right wing conservatives to make the president look bad, but they just did not expect this traditor to give all this information to our enemeries. You know the republicans and Fox News will do anything to make the president look bad.

The US has only one viable option now: Come clean, and halt all spying activities on its allies. If the US decides that it can continue as if nothing has happened, it will soon be isolated in the world, to huge detriment to its own national security.

The first country revealed spying by NSA in its foreighn affairs was Greece in 2008 due to the russian influence in Greece.
Next country was Italy due to the russian influence in Greece.
one common factor in both cases.

- Summon US and UK ambassadors.
- Tell the UK that they will be soon kicked out of Europe because Europe doesn’t need anymore those treasonous backstabbers and an US trojan/poodle in our midst.
- Expel the US military remaining on European soil -Germany, etc-
- Retaliate and prepare for war, because Europe will be at war with the US falling empire and bloated military during this century, mark my words.

@ RonB
Last time i checked that was the soviets who took berlin, loosing 20 times more soldiers than their american counterpart in the process, so it is maybe time to update that revisionist “history” and propagandist Hollywood bravado pushed down your ignorant throat.

terribly sorry i have totally forgotten …GOOD MORNING NSA

People throughout the US were outraged by Edward Snowden’s revelations.
Now it is the turn of the EU to be “shocked and awed”.

Those who were/are not outraged clearly do not understand the clear and present dangers of what can happen when people are tempted to believe that straying “just a little” from the iron clad intentions codified in the United States Constitution, is acceptable “under certain circumstances”.

That type of thinking might be compared to a Father expressing the idea to his unmarried teen-aged daughter that it is OK for her to get “a little pregnant” as long as she doesn’t let it go too far.

As the rate of progress in high-tech Scientific pursuits, covert spying and intelligence gathering in particular, escalates at the rate of an inverse geometric proportion, it becomes more and more difficult, if not impossible, to tell the people involved in such work:
“It is OK what you are doing, as long as you do not get “too pregnant”. But alas- one can never be just “a little pregnant”.

People in the world-wide “game” of intelligence gathering have one goal and one goal only. And that is to gather as much intelligence about as many people and situations as they can, just as efficiently and quickly as they can. The more the better, the faster the better.
“Shocked- simply shocked” that anyone would do these things ?

Didn’t some wise man once say, back in the day:
“If you get kicked by a Mule, consider the source.”

The purported shock within the EU that they have also fallen under the information gathering “umbrella” and far reaching nets of the US intelligence community, should really come as no shock to them or anyone.

Just to put things in perspective, when the US was working on the “Manhattan Project” during WW II, to develop the Atomic Bomb, which was supposed to be the most closely guarded secret in history, a US Colonel at an airbase in Alaska, insisted in breaking open the suitcases of a Russian diplomat and discovered huge detailed maps of the entire facilities, buildings, labs, roads, etc. at Los Alamos.

Read about the thousands of layers of protection that had been painstakingly instituted to prevent even a particle of information from escaping from Los Alamos. But nothing is ever perfect in this world.

Now fast forward to the present and consider that WW II era “information gathering”, as amazingly impressive as it was, and still is, would be like comparing a horse and buggy from 1890 to a modern Ferrari.

Those who are entrusted with the task of gathering information will always strive to go the limit, without feeling any external or internal pressure, Legal or not, Constitutional or not, to do otherwise.

To believe it can be otherwise would be like placing a group of children in the toy department of Macy’s dept. store during Christmas week and expecting them not to touch and/or play with any of those shiny new toys.

The EU, as well as the rest of the world, is acting rather naïve to profess shock, or at least pretending to express shock, at the never ending series of revelations which seem to be bombarding us every single day.

And, unfortunately, many people do not realize the full range of negative effects, limitless spying introduces into not only high stakes political and military espionage but even such ordinary, mundane, everyday events as buying a house or one company trying to outmaneuver another company when one or the other literally knows everything their business opponent is doing and thinking.

The ultimate irony here is that as the last vestiges of “Privacy”, whether on the personal, business, political or military level, vanish from the globe, the world may just be forced to revert back to the methods of the Pony Express, Wild West, days, when correspondence had to be set down on paper, sealed with a wax stamp and carried in a leather saddle bag on the side of a fast horse.

Of course just as airports now have sophisticated body scanners that can see right through your clothes, no doubt there will be invented scanners that can read what is inside envelopes.

Thus the only 100 % safe and secure method of transporting information will perhaps be by employing a personal live courier in whom one has full trust- assuming anyone can still trust anyone in this world, to hand deliver their communications.

So perhaps maybe, just maybe, the Founding Fathers were able to gaze into their mental Crystal Balls and see the future. They could clearly see a good deal of the problems that were out there waiting in the distant future, a few centuries down the road.

And so they put a great deal of effort into crafting the United States Constitution and later the Bill of Rights to protect the “Individual” as much as possible from potential government abuse. I do believe they did their very best.

Assume the worst, expect whatever you say on your phone or send to others via laptops over the Internet etc. is “an open book” and/or “a letter to the world”.

I do not see Edward Snowden as a traitor at all. What did he expose that any sane, intelligent person should have been able to surmise and/or figure out on his or her own, and quite some time ago, for that matter.

Mr. Snowden merely tried to remind the world that such things as “common courtesy” and “respect for privacy” were fast becoming rare commodities on this planet. Mr. Snowden wanted to remind us all that we violate the US Constitution at our peril.

And “The Founding Fathers”, perhaps not a few Mothers also, must surely be staring down from Heaven, asking:
“We specifically designed and carefully crafted the Constitution to prevent all this bad behavior from happening but what do you do when so many people believe that they are “Above the Law” and that the US Constitution does not apply to them ?”

Therein lies a Cosmic Riddle and one Hell of a challenge for “we the living”, to ponder- and try to solve.

Spybama

The European nations should directly fund WikiLeaks, the only organization fighting the rise of the US police state.

To the leaders of Europe: DUH!!! They are spying on you like there is not tomorrow. They consider the citizens of the U.S.A. to be enemies why in the world would they not consider YOU and your citizens the enemy also? You are being taken for a ride, it will cost you big time in the end. DO NOT TRUST THE GOVERNMENT OF THE U.S.A. WE THE CITIZENS DON’T !!!

justinoinroma @he is not spybama.He has turn america to a latin america country and american gonverments to look like as regime than democratic country so i would call him banana-rama.

The US government and their secret police once again prove their true intentions. The US is a global danger. I have seen this coming for a long time.

Secret government who needs whistleblowers to reveal information that should be publicly available. A government for the people and by the people is not suppose to be run in secret.

Now the US persecute people that release information about what the US government is doing. Peoples rights at home are taken away, everyone is treated as a criminal and surveillanced. Normal rights do no more apply in the US. The jutice system is political and corrupt, the politicians are the worst of the worst. Manipulators, liars and scum of the earth.

People get stopped by police for trying to protest. US is worse than Russian in cracking down on unpopular protests. Only protests that are acceptable to the secret government in Washington DC is allowed.

@Freon The world and anyone who cares about integrity and accountability should help fund WikiLeaks. Governments are accountable to the constituents they represent. Not the corporations who dine and date them.

Most of the spying is to aid business. Bindia say wants some passenger planes and gets prices from Scarebus and Boing. NSA gets all the details on the Scarebus and Bindia offer and gives the information to Boing. Boing can then undercut the other offer, or bribe or blackmail the right people. It’s called capitalism in the US.

Lets see, we got Iraq in a mess, turned Libya, Egypt and Tunisia over to Islamic extremists, upset Israel by aligning with the Palestinians, Afghanistan upset for aligning with the Taliban, and now the EU allies find out they’ve been treated like cold-war enemies.

How about another ‘Peace Prize’?

The South Koreans have seen the report, but Kerry does not know the details. Right. I have never been as disappointed in people I voted for – the Obama administration has been caught red-handed and the best they can do is say, “Everybody else does it!” I know what we tell children when they try to use that lame excuse. Something about following people over the edge of a cliff.

It’s time for Obama and Kerry to stop this game – every time a new revelation appears, their recent lies and excuses look even worse. They need to quit deepening the hole they have dug for themselves.

I fail to see why the Democrats want Snowden so badly. I thought they were supposed to shut down this NSA spying bussiness that the Republicans started. It is shameful that they now want to prosecute Snowden to cover their own backs. I am glad I voted for Jill Stein instead of Obama, change I couldnt believe in. Let the European liberals who thought Obama was on their side relish the fact that they are merely America’s underdogs, whose privacy is respected as much as a teenager’s by a parent.

mwbiii wrote:

You know the republicans and Fox News will do anything to make the president look bad.

Maybe, but I don’t think the President needs any help looking bad and making the US look like an impotent troll guarding his bridge. It must really be disappointng for those who railed against Bush and supported Obama. Only to find out there wasn’t any difference.

That countries spy on one another is nothing new…even alleged “allies”. What is disturbing is that this little Sh_t was allowed access to the amount and extent of access he was given. There is some indication now that it was his intent to do this from day one of his employment and there no safeguards in place to limit his access. This “internet generation” does not seem to understand the world remains a dangerous place.

so Europe forgot about “Echelon”, another US-UK intercept operation.

/and right now Germany is backtracking because they also collect info on allies. As does France, Italy, etc.

I get a kick out of those speaking for Edward Snowden..lmao. Have any of you thought about approaching the Vatican for Sainthood yet? Probably ought to check and see if the robes are allowed as acceptable prison attire. Anyone who believes that the SCOTUS is going to view STEALING top secret government documents of a legal NSA program and giving them to foreign news agencies and foreign governments as protected under 1st Amendment rights…is delusional. This guy is a criminal…just couldn’t be any simpler.

Funny, when China spies, it’s not acceptable and we get all upset. When we spy, it’s just pat of doing our patriotic duty to ensure our safety.

Now some of you probably get better understanding why China prohibited use of Google, Facebook etc. (and developed own clones of them) and is busy working on Chinese version of PC software, mainly operating systems like Windows. It is just a matter of national security and ensures that only China is spying on Chinese.
For UE it really doesn’t matter. 28 countries and 28 point of views, for external parties it means no real political and economic power. Big one’s like US, China or Russia talk only with Germany, France and UK.
And military security outsourced to Uncle Sam and this single point in my opinion justifies spying by US. Just like you can have a filter installed or have master password to ensure web security of your children.

@reuters1945
Couldn’t stop laughing, and salute to your way of thinking, Bravo!

Hey, all you good Socialist Europeans -

Throw us out, pay for your own defense. Until you put up, shut up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/world/europe/europes-shrinking-military-spending-under-scrutiny.html?pagewanted=all

More evidence that the US logic now seems to be “It’s OK to secretly spy on you if I’m doing it to protect you”… and it seems to apply to it’s government allies as well as it’s citizens. It is a FLAWED and very dangerous logic. I STRONGLY REJECT IT.

Obama is beginning to make Nixon look like a saint.

I guess Obama thinks it’s OK to spy on your friends and allies, but an impeachable sin to spy on your rival political party?

@Reuters1945, well put and funny too.

For all those blaming Obama … really? You think all this started in 2008?

I am, however, very dissapointed in our 4th grade reply to the world on this one. All I can think is that these guys are our best & brightest (supposedly) and their reply is “well other kids do it too!!!”. The shame is multiplying with each passing day.

Remember the cold war? The soviets always told their people that they were the honest hard working and justice loving ones. Of course we know that’s not true. Our government tells us we are the hard working and justice loving ones. I don’t think that’s true.

The bottom line is that you can only prop up a failed system for so long before the inevitable failure happens. It happened to soviets, and it will happen here. Without true opportunity and justice, you demotivate people and they become more criminal. And why shouldn’t they. If all the winners are cruel and unjust then why be honest? Oh, yes, that right, the men in dresses tell us that God will punish the criminals and we only need be concerned with our immortal souls. That is really convenient for the criminals/politicians/CEOs.

I guess the idea that the USA is seen in a much better light under Obama just went out the window.

Dazzle em with BS Barry

you did great with the lemmings over here.

The EU in general and the UK, France, and Germany in particular have espionage services that actively spy on allies and adversaries alike. Silicon Vally, to name one American site, is full of industrial spies from around the world, not to mention the online incursions.
Reuters, you’re being intentionally naive to suit your anti-American narrative. It’s most childish and unworthy of an organization that purports to report news.

The EU in general and the UK, France, and Germany in particular have espionage services that actively spy on allies and adversaries alike. Silicon Vally, to name one American site, is full of industrial spies from around the world, not to mention the online incursions.
Reuters, you’re being intentionally naive to suit your anti-American narrative. It’s most childish and unworthy of an organization that purports to report news.

The Obama Administration seems to have finally dug themselves into an awkward position. It has finally caught up with this inexperienced, unqualified, no morals, no character, very corrupt, non American, Muslim Domestic Terrorist, the President Obama! If Congress doesn’t proceed with impeachment, then we need to vote ALL new politicians in to replace all the incompetent ones presently in office. There is NO reason why Obama should not have charges of illegal wire tapping, ease dropping on American citizens without approval. Murder charges on killing American citizens and foreign civilians as well. Supporting the Muslim Brotherhood which is a TERRORIST Organization. Illegally circumvent the Constitution and abusing Presidential Authority without Congress approval. The list goes on. Obama has been the worst president in American history and the ONLY one not to uphold the office of the President and assume the Responsibility as such. May the Congress stop pussy footing around because Obama is half white and half dark skin because they are afraid the American blacks will riot and carry out their typical ranting, looting and attacking people. Bring the military out in full force to combat any person not conducting themselves properly. Stop being afraid of what these people may do for no reason but to get their way. Enough is enough with this minority antics having their way any longer. What is right is right! The MAJORITY does have a say so.

And besides that it was Bush that started it and we have been trying to phase it out. We prefer to spy on our own people. If you remember I promised transparency but the IRS,NSA,FBI and the Secret Service didn’t.

President Obama, “To our friends around the world. You’ll be treated just as my serfs here in the USA are. Your privacy will be respected just as theirs is.”

I hope my country would be more careful in the future about it, by using open source operating system instead of closed American operating system as windows or Mac os X, to prevent spying tentation in our sensitive administration. Even if we knew that American government spied on us, putting bug on je parlement is grave and penalties must be applied against American interests. I hope that Europe will give refuge status to Mr Snowden a great hero of truth.

I hope my country would be more careful in the future about it, by using open source operating system instead of closed American operating system as windows or Mac os X, to prevent spying tentation in our sensitive administration. Even if we knew that American government spied on us, putting bug on je parlement is grave and penalties must be applied against American interests. I hope that Europe will give refuge status to Mr Snowden a great hero of truth.

firenfish ——— Hahahahahahahahahahah…..Bush did it right? What a freekin joke.

Obama is as transparent as a brick wall. And why is it that liberals always blame someone else, even though Obama has been a figure head of a president for the last 4 1/2 years? Why do liberals always PASS the buck instead of it going to the president Obama, as it has for all the past presidents that were RESPONSIBLE for their administrations actions? Do the liberals always have to be so IRRESPONSIBLE with Obama’s actions as they are with their own actions? Obama amounts to no more than an ignorant ghetto liberal!

The US Government has created alot of enemies. I now would not feel safe traveling to EU or any country we have spied on. Thanks to our Great Government we are now a hated Country. I would not be surprised if they kicked out our Military bases around the world. We dictate to other to do this or do that or now money. The Taxpayers here should with-hold there Taxes until we stop sending it overseas. We are so far in dept but we still keep shoveling money a broad when we can’t afford to and are weakening this Country financially.

firenfish wrote: “”"And besides that it was Bush that started it and we have been trying to phase it out.”"”" Please tell us where you got this information. This should be good.

Watch out Europe! The investigation is scheduled just after the Fort Hood investigation (never made public) and the Benghazi disaster (never even done) and the IRS scandal (people taking the 5th) and the NSA scandal here (ends justify the means) and another dozen smaller screw-ups that President Marxist has promised to investigate just to let slide as the public loses interest. Ya ain’t getting anything from this joker!

Besides, you clowns were oh so happy with the Marxist winning election twice. He’s a “One-Worlder” that believes he’s the next messiah and nothing he does is wrong. You liked him when his socialism was targeted to the US, but now you don’t like Big Brother govt snooping in on YOU. Tough sheet! Suck it up.

Watch out Europe! The investigation is scheduled just after the Fort Hood investigation (never made public) and the Benghazi disaster (never even done) and the IRS scandal (people taking the 5th) and the NSA scandal here (ends justify the means) and another dozen smaller screw-ups that President Marxist has promised to investigate just to let slide as the public loses interest. Ya ain’t getting anything from this joker!

Besides, you clowns were oh so happy with the Marxist winning election twice. He’s a “One-Worlder” that believes he’s the next messiah and nothing he does is wrong. You liked him when his socialism was targeted to the US, but now you don’t like Big Brother govt snooping in on YOU. Tough sheet! Suck it up.

Likely future. One week from today. Obama to Francois Hollande: “OK. We stopped.”

geot2 ——– Now that is FUNNY!

Really? Are you people so dim as to suspect that no other nation on earth has a ‘security’ apparatus?
Australia has the ASIO, ASIS, DIGO among others, Germany has the BND, France the DCRI (don’t let the word ‘intérieur’ fool you) Switzerland has the FIS and even Norway has NIS.
The only thing that is really different is that the US got caught.
You people as so easily fooled because you WANT to be. You want your comforts and as long as you don’t have to face the knowledge are perfectly willing to have any number of things occur as long as you can pretend you ‘knew nothing’.

Spying is FASHIONABLE, all the best countries are doing it and it is not limited to government functions.
Google ‘The Dark Side of Power: German Corporate Spying Scandal Widens’
Deutsche Telekom wasn’t the only German company to use private investigators to spy on employees and journalists. At national railway Deutsche Bahn, national flag carrier airline Lufthansa and Deutsche Post, paranoid executives also stand accused of stepping over the line into spying.

Let Hypocrasy reign! France and Germany shout and scream in outrage that the US is spying on them. Yea right. Like they didn’t know this, and they aren’t spying on us too? And if you believe that I have got about 50 kilos of diamonds for sale. Trust me, they aren’t stolen, and they are not glass! Trust me, I’m a government.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive”. – Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)

Couldn’t have said it better…

Wait, didn’t this start out ‘we only do this a little, and only to terrorists’? Wonder if terrorism covers what Carla Bruni was going to wear to dinner so Michele didn’t get upstaged…

Oh yes Mr. President, the ties with the Europeans are strong nad as allies the US treats them so well! I mean spying on them is no big deal is it? Of course learning their respective positions on a trade treaty wouldn’t give the US a very big heads up on them would it? The US wouldn’t play unfairly would it? What a joke!