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Keyword: espionage

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  • Marco Rubio on Edward Snowden: A 'Traitor' Who Sparked 'Conspiracy Theories'

    11/27/2013 10:24:35 AM PST · by kobald · 142 replies
    The Atlantic ^ | November 22, 2013 | Conor Friedersdorf
    This week in Washington, Senator Marco Rubio accused a fellow American of treason. Edward Snowden drew the Republican's ire by informing hundreds of millions of innocent people that the NSA is spying on them... Anyone familiar with the Snowden story will understand why Rubio's comments are misleading. Americans are concerned about their civil liberties because of the accurate information the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor leaked. He isn't responsible for any conspiracy theories, except in the sense that a conspiracy is "an agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act," and he exposed NSA and GCHQ cooperation on...
  • Microsoft, suspecting NSA spying, to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet traffic

    11/27/2013 6:01:24 AM PST · by expat_panama · 18 replies
    Washington Post ^ | Nov. 27, 2013 | Craig Timberg
    Microsoft is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic amid fears that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications links, said people familiar with the emerging plans. Suspicions at Microsoft, while building for several months, sharpened in October when it was reported that the NSA was intercepting traffic inside the private networks of Google and Yahoo, two industry rivals with similar global infrastructures, said people with direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations. They said top Microsoft executives are meeting this week to decide what encryption initiatives to deploy and how quickly.
  • Spies worry over "doomsday" cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden

    11/25/2013 7:04:32 PM PST · by LucyT · 33 replies
    Reuters News Services: US Edition ^ | Mon Nov 25, 2013 | Mark Hosenball
    British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. . . . . (A lot of information in the article. Check out comments, too.) .........................................................................................................
  • US officials to come to Europe on ‘goodwill’ trip

    11/23/2013 11:11:46 AM PST · by Olog-hai · 7 replies
    TheLocal.de ^ | 22 Nov 2013 08:11 GMT+01:00 | (AFP)
    US lawmakers will launch a “goodwill” mission to Europe next week to smooth ties frayed by spying revelations including allegedly on Chancellor Angela Merkel. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and two members of the House of Representatives will visit Berlin on Monday and Brussels Tuesday to address the transatlantic partnership as well as concerns about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance activities. …
  • Mavis Batey, Bletchley Park code breaker in World War II, dies at 92

    11/23/2013 7:29:30 AM PST · by NYer · 28 replies
    Washington Post ^ | November 19, 2013 | Emily Langer
    Mavis Batey was a British student of 19, midway through her university course in German Romanticism, when she was recruited for a top-secret assignment during World War II.“This is going to be an interesting job, Mata Hari, seducing Prussian officers,” she recalled thinking years later. “But I don’t think either my legs or my German were good enough because they sent me to the Government Code and Cipher School.”In May 1940, Mrs. Batey — then the unmarried Mavis Lever — joined the team of code breakers at Bletchley Park, the British cryptography headquarters. Trained in the enemy’s language and endowed...
  • Rights groups urge UN to back privacy protection

    11/21/2013 5:25:18 PM PST · by Olog-hai
    Associated Press ^ | Nov 21, 2013 6:53 PM EST | Edith M. Lederer
    Human rights groups urged the U.N. General Assembly Thursday to approve a resolution to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance in the digital age and criticized the U.S. and its key allies for trying to weaken it. Brazil and Germany, whose leaders have allegedly been targeted by U.S. eavesdropping, circulated a revised draft late Wednesday after intense negotiations. The rights organizations said Thursday the text was “relatively undamaged,” despite lobbying by the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which comprise the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group. The key compromise dropped the contention that the domestic and international interception...
  • A day that should live in infamy

    11/15/2013 12:03:35 PM PST · by Idaho_Cowboy · 20 replies
    Jewish ^ | November 15, 2013 | Diana West
    On Saturday, Nov. 16, the United States marks a milestone: the 80th anniversary of when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union and "normalized" U.S.-USSR relations. It is a day that should live in infamy. But it's a day that hardly anyone has ever heard of. I certainly hadn't before researching my book, "American Betrayal." As I studied the event, however, it became clear that it was on this day 80 years ago that what I call "American betrayal" began. It is the date on which the U.S. government institutionally learned to lie. After the Bolsheviks seized dictatorial powers...
  • Death of British spy found in locked gym bag ruled 'accident'

    11/13/2013 5:10:15 PM PST · by Bratch · 42 replies
    The Los Angeles Times ^ | November 13, 2013 | Carol J. Williams
    Scotland Yard on Wednesday reversed a coroner's finding of foul play in the 2010 death of British spy Gareth Williams, concluding that an accident was likely responsible for the death of the code-breaker whose naked, decomposing body was found stuffed inside a zipped and padlocked gym bag. London Metropolitan Police investigators had undertaken a review of evidence in the case 16 months ago, after initial restrictions on homicide detectives' access to details of Williams' intelligence work were lifted by the British secret service, MI6. Deputy Asst. Commissioner Martin Hewitt told journalists in London that investigators only had access to Williams'...
  • NSA Scandal Warning: Are US Facilities in Germany at Greater Risk?

    11/11/2013 12:20:33 PM PST · by Olog-hai · 6 replies
    Der Spiegel ^ | November 11, 2013 – 01:44 PM
    Following recent revelations about NSA spying, Spiegel has learned that Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution recently issued a security warning to authorities in the country’s 16 states. The domestic intelligence agency warned in an Oct. 30 letter that “an emotional response from certain segments of the population cannot be ruled out” and recommended that “security measures aimed at protecting US facilities in Germany should be increased.” The agency said the background behind the “potential threat” was ongoing discussions about the “collection of Germans’ data by the United States.” …
  • Paradise Lost: Paranoia Has Undermined US Democracy

    11/10/2013 1:41:46 AM PST · by Olog-hai · 12 replies
    Der Spiegel ^ | November 08, 2013 – 04:54 PM | Dirk Kirbjuweit
    Agent Carrie Mathison is a topical figure. The main character in the American TV series “Homeland,” played by the wonderful Claire Danes, shows her true relevance in the first few episodes, in which Mathison is nervously sitting at home, observing and listening in on the life of a terror suspect on a large screen. His apartment is bugged and Mathison is determined to find out as much as she can about him. She is hysterical, bipolar, paranoid and sick—all advantageous traits for her job. The real-life intelligence services of the United States take things much further than agent Carrie Mathison....
  • The CIA’s Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren’t Even Human

    11/08/2013 3:45:56 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 18 replies
    Smithsonian Magazine ^ | October 2013 | Tom Vanderbiltil
    As a former trainer reveals, the U.S. government deployed nonhuman operatives—ravens, pigeons, even cats—to spy on cold war adversariesThere would be a rustle of oily black feathers as a raven settled on the window ledge of a once-grand apartment building in some Eastern European capital. The bird would pace across the ledge a few times but quickly depart. In an apartment on the other side of the window, no one would shift his attention from the briefing papers or the chilled vodka set out on a table. Nor would anything seem amiss in the jagged piece of gray slate resting...
  • Kerry: it’s tense with Germany but we can fix it

    11/07/2013 11:43:52 PM PST · by Olog-hai · 14 replies
    TheLocal.de ^ | 07 Nov 2013 11:44 GMT+01:00 | (AFP)
    US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged in a German newspaper on Thursday that “tensions” had arisen between the US and Germany over revelations of US espionage, but said relations would remain strong. The German government is studying the possibility of questioning US fugitive leaker Edward Snowden in Russia after admitting he could be in danger of extradition if he were to come to Germany. … Asked what needed to be done to repair US-German ties, Kerry said that Washington was talking with its German partners “about how we better coordinate our secret service efforts and, in doing so, can...
  • Germany asks British ambassador to explain spying report

    11/06/2013 12:12:00 PM PST · by Olog-hai · 5 replies
    Reuters ^ | Tue Nov 5, 2013 5:30pm EST | (Berlin bureau)
    Germany on Tuesday asked the British ambassador to come to the foreign ministry to discuss a newspaper report that a covert spying station was operating in Berlin with hi-tech equipment mounted on the embassy roof. Documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden show that Britain’s surveillance agency is operating a network of “electronic spy posts” from within a stone’s throw of the Bundestag and German chancellor’s office, the Independent reported. …
  • Reding says EU should create own spy agency (EU Justice Commissioner)

    11/04/2013 1:09:40 PM PST · by Olog-hai · 2 replies
    EU Observer ^ | 11.04.13 @ 18:16 | Andrew Rettman
    EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said the Union should create its own intelligence service by 2020. Speaking on Monday (4 November) to Greek daily Naftemporiki on the US snooping scandal, she said: “What we need is to strengthen Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners.” She added: “I would therefore wish to use this occasion to negotiate an agreement on stronger secret service co-operation among the EU member states—so that we can speak with a strong common voice to the US. The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-term proposal would therefore...
  • Stasi, KGB were child’s play compared to today

    11/03/2013 8:56:57 PM PST · by Olog-hai · 24 replies
    Deutsche Welle ^ | 11.01.2013 | Andreas Illmer
    It seems that every day brings new claims and counter-claims about who’s spying on whom. Governments are trying to limit the damage, but that damage is not limited to governments, expert Jeremie Zimmermann told DW.… It’s something of historical amplitude and we still need to take some distance to be able to understand what is exactly going on. What we see is the unraveling of the very infrastructure for a total surveillance society that we are realizing, day by day, is already deployed all around the world under our feet. The infrastructure for surveilling everything about everybody all the time....
  • ‘Snowden testimony would be a disaster’

    11/02/2013 10:38:58 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 213 replies
    Deutsche Welle ^ | 11/02/2013 | Gero Schließ
    “It would be a disaster for American-German relations if Snowden came to Germany and publicly testified before the Bundestag.” What Green MP Christian Ströbele ultimately is hoping for after his surprise visit with Edward Snowden in Moscow would be a nightmare for Stephen Szabo of the German Marshall Fund, as well for the Obama administration. The relationship between the two countries is headed towards “a deep, downward spiral,” says Szabo. This must be stopped. If Snowden were to come to Germany with official blessing, the situation would escalate further, warns the long-time Germany expert and vice-president of the German Marshall...
  • "American Betrayal" Goes to the 36th Annual Pumpkin Papers Irregulars Dinner

    11/02/2013 2:09:45 PM PDT · by Fiji Hill · 3 replies
    Diana West ^ | November 1, 2013 | Diana West
    I am very happy to reveal that at this year's gathering of the Pumpkins Papers Irregulars, a deluxe dinner held in Washington by intelligence experts and interested observers to honor the memory of Whittaker Chambers and his triumph over the traitor Alger Hiss, I was given the annual honor of lighting the pumpkin and later addressing the assembly about American Betrayal. Highlights of the evening included warm tributes to fallen Cold Warriors: M. Stanton Evans on the late Herbert Romerstein (1931-2013), and Paul Kengor on the late Judge William P. Clark (1931-2013). This year's "coveted" Victor Navasky Award, presented by...
  • Kerry: Some NSA surveillance reached “too far”

    11/01/2013 7:28:31 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 10 replies
    Associated Press ^ | Nov 1, 2013 6:11 PM EDT | Deb Riechmann
    Secretary of State John Kerry’s remark that some National Security Agency surveillance “reached too far” was the first time a high-ranking Obama administration official acknowledged that U.S. snooping abroad might be seen as overzealous. After launching into a vigorous defense of surveillance as an effective counterterror tool, Kerry acknowledged to a video conference on open government in London that “in some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the president, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future.” …
  • US 'spied on future Pope Francis during Vatican conclave'

    10/30/2013 8:11:42 PM PDT · by NYer · 30 replies
    The Telegraph ^ | October 30, 2013 | Nick Squires
    The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday. The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13. The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the...
  • EU delegation to probe whether EU helped NSA

    10/30/2013 1:58:46 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 1 replies
    Associated Press ^ | Oct 30, 2013 2:29 PM EDT
    Members of a delegation from the European Union Parliament say they will look into a claim by the director of the National Security Agency that European countries helped it collect phone records in Europe. NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander told Congress the U.S. was given data by NATO partners as part of a program to protect military interests. …