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Posted on 10/29/2013 8:42:40 AM PDT by mojito
The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping.
Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies.
The resistance emerged as the White House said it would curtail foreign intelligence collection in some cases and two senior U.S. senators called for investigations of the practice.
France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Sweden have all publicly complained about the NSA surveillance operations, which reportedly captured private cellphone conversations by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among other foreign leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The LA Times, dumping on Obama! Now that’s news.
I wonder if Snowden is still getting information from some friends.
I suppose that this will justify spying by allies on the US.
I will not say his name, but the initials JP come to mind. Make of it what you will.
When he said he did not know, he did not mislead, he was just being nuanced.
“I would like to know if 0 has the NSA spy on the middle eastern countries that hate us. He loves them, and doesn’t want them mad at him.
He hates European countries, and doesn’t care if he gets them mad.”
He also hates americans. The 4th ammendment is dead. No doubt they’ll keep on spying every one on this planet. In other words: “The Terrorists have won”. They hated our liberty and freedom. We gave up all our liberties and freedom on this “war on terror”. That’s like committing suicide to prevent murder. The entire western (formerly known as the free) world turned into something like the USSR and it’s satellite states. Now i know what the misterious “change” meant. The outrage in europe makes me remeber the prague spring and the polish crisis. Welcome to the USSA.
He hates America’s allies because he hates America.
He buddies up with America’s enemies because he is one of them.
And the media that got him elected twice is just now finding this out?
Well, Shazzayum!
Must be democrat genetics,remember Nazi Pelosi never knew about water boarding either she said. When in fact others said she asked if that was all they could do.
Because he's black.
I agree with you that Snowden has caused terrorists to shut down or restrict electronic and phone communications.
I don’t think Obama or ValJar would do it on purpose though because they would never deliberately make the little jerk look bad, not to mention that they supported al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Egypt and Libya...
The Big Bus:
Who in hell actually signed off on spying on the Pope?
I talked to a friend tonight who worked in Naval Intelligence. He said that Snowden didn’t disclose one thing that was suprising to him and probably not much that was suprising to foreign intelligence agencies. But he also didn’t think it was likely that this was an elaberate ruse to disrupt terrorist communications.
Spying on our allies has been done for at least a century.
Diplomats say one thing in public and their real intentions are hidden in crypto intel. By monitoring them, we know what their reality is.
One of my longest friends joined the Navy about a year before the end of WWII. The Navy Security Group grabbed him and sent him to Monterey to study foreign languages.
Did he study Japanese? No
Did he study German? No
Did he study Italian? No
He became proficient in Mandarin. At that time China was an ally.
He was not discharged when WWII was over, he went to a listening post on an island in the Pacific to use his new skills.
When his discharge came about 2 years after WWII was over. He and his supervisor/Co went to work for the farm, and both served until their retirement about 30 years later.
Birds of a feather....
Sure, they do it to us, too. But when we catch them we put them in jail, like Johnathon Pollard who got 30 years after spying for Israel against us.
But I don't care about non-U.S. citizens or foreign governments and others like that. I do care about having the US populace surveilled. I do care about putting black boxes inside all cars built or sold in the USA after 2014! Someday, I'm certain my paycheck will be in rubles and I'll have to toddle off to work every morning for my shift in the salt mines.
It’s from a movie, “The Big Bus” (1976).
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