Snowdon is a dummy

The US ambassador to Britain, Matthew Barzun, has rejected an opportunity to criticise the Guardian newspaper for publishing leaks from the former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden, saying he wanted to focus on the importance of the debate about the trade-offs between security and privacy.
[...]
Asked if he shared the UK security services' concerns about the threat to national security from the leaks, he said he wanted to focus on the "importance of having this debate about what the trade-offs are between security and privacy, between transparency and secrecy, and to do so in a way that protects whistleblowers – which is different, by the way, from wholesale releasing of information, hundreds of thousands of documents".

Barzun said Obama had "promised to seek to balance the legitimate security concerns of not only our citizens but of our allies, and balance those with the privacy concerns shared by all people". He said the president "put in specific measures to protect whistleblowers if they see something illegal or unethical. That's an important part of the balance".

His reasonable emollience is legendary.

I dident think you were a yank. Too much bitterness toward the U S of A. But thats ok. It seems most foreigners mistake citizens for government. Yours isent without sin but I dont blame french citizens for their government screw ups.

MEXICO CITY Mexico's government said Sunday it "categorically condemns" email spying, after a German news magazine reported that documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden say the U.S. gained access to the email system of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

A report posted by Der Spiegel said the documents describe an operation dubbed "Flat liquid" that claim to have accessed Mexico's "presidencia" domain, which was also purportedly used by members of Calderon's Cabinet.

"This practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and contrary to Mexican law and international law," Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.

It said it would send a diplomatic note to the United States. "In a relationship of neighbors and partners, there is no room for the kind of activities that allegedly took place," it said.

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where Calderon is now a fellow, said it would forward a request for comment to the former president.

Earlier, a document dated June 2012 indicated the NSA had read current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's emails before he was elected last year.

Pena Nieto has said that would be an illegal act if it occurred, and his administration has demanded an investigation.

"By means of a diplomatic note, Mexico will re-emphasize the importance for our country of this investigation, which should be concluded as quickly as possible," the Foreign Relations Department said.

I don't mistake US citizens for their government. But in a democracy, people have ultimately the government they deserve.

you are too forgiving of bad behavior, any peoples who tolerate bad acts by their government become a party to those bad acts, they are partly to blame.

Mexico has criticised the United States over new allegations of spying after a German magazine reported that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had hacked Felipe Calderon's public email account while he was president.

Der Spiegel said in May 2010, an NSA division known as "Tailored Access Operations" reported it had gained access to then-president Calderon's email account, and turned his office into a "lucrative" source of information.

It said details of the alleged NSA hacking of Calderon's account were contained in a document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden's leaked information has prompted angry recriminations against Washington in Latin America, particularly Brazil.

[...]The report in Le Monde, which carries the byline of outgoing Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald – who worked with Snowden to lay bare the extent of the NSA's actions -– claims that between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013 the NSA recorded 70.3m phone calls in France.

According to the paper, the documents show that the NSA was allegedly targeting not only terrorist suspects but also politicians, businesspeople and members of the administration under a programme codenamed US-985D.

"The agency has several collection methods," says Le Monde. "When certain French phone numbers are dialled, a signal is activated that triggers the automatic recording of certain conversations. This surveillance also recovers SMS and content based on keywords."

Such methods, it added, allowed the NSA to keep a systematic record of each target's connections.

Le Monde said US authorities had declined to comment on the documents, which they regard as classified material.

Instead, they referred the paper to a statement made in June by the US director of National intelligence, in which James Clapper defended the legality of the practices.

"[They] are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorised by Congress," he said. "Their purpose is to obtain foreign intelligence information, including information necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber-attacks against the United States and its allies."

It's becoming clear that the evedropping goes way beyond security issues and is use to gain confidential diplomatic and commercial information from allies.

Is US diplomacy dead yet? Who will want to trust these guys, like EVER?

...; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.

The notion that we are seizing information for commercial reasons is silly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24607880


Snowden leaks: France summons US envoy over spying claims

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says the claims are "totally unacceptable"Continue reading the main story
US spy leaks
US revelations
Profile: Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden: Timeline
'Black budget' detailed
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has summoned the US ambassador over newspaper claims that the US spied on millions of phone calls in France.

France has labelled such activity between allies as "unacceptable".

Le Monde says the data, based on leaks from ex-intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, suggest the US NSA agency monitored businesses and officials as well as terrorism suspects.

The intercepts were apparently triggered by certain key words.

The paper says the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France in just 30 days between December 10 last year and January 8, 2013.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Christian Fraser
Christian Fraser
BBC News, Paris
This is not the first time the US has been accused of spying on the French. Last year the Elysee Palace confirmed it had discovered a "powerful worm" in the computers of the Elysee network that had the ability to collect files on a machine, take screenshots, even activate the microphone on a computer to record conversations.

The US embassy in Paris categorically denied the US had been involved in any cyber attack on the French government. Nonetheless the finger was pointed by the French media.

On Monday morning Laurent Fabius summoned the US ambassador to an urgent meeting to request an explanation of these latest allegations from Le Monde. But then, the French already know the power of these surveillance programmes - because according to Le Monde they've been running a similar surveillance programme themselves; though perhaps only focused on its own nationals.

The agency also apparently captured millions of text messages.

It was unclear whether the content of the calls and messages was stored, or just the metadata - the details of who is speaking to whom.

And the paper did not say whether the operation, codenamed US-985D, was still in progress.

Mr Fabius announced that he had summoned the US ambassador to discuss the claims "immediately".

Interior Minister Manuel Valls had earlier said the allegations were "shocking", and added: "If an allied country spies on France, this is totally unacceptable."

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the outrage is largely for public consumption, because the French government has been accused of running its own snooping operation similar to the US.

Le Monde reported in July that the French government stores vast amounts of personal data of its citizens on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service.

Connections inside France and between France and other countries were all monitored, Le Monde reported. Emails, text messages, telephone and internet browsing records are stored for years, it said.

The latest revelations follow claims in the German media that US agents hacked into the email account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Continue reading the main story
US allies on spying claims
US agencies accused of spying on leaders of Brazil and Mexico; Brazil's Dilma Rousseff cancels state visit, Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto says US has promised an inquiry
US allegedly runs bugging operations on EU mission in Washington and other European embassies; France objects, Germany cancels surveillance agreement with US and UK
Le Monde claims NSA snooped on millions of phone calls in France; US ambassador in Paris summoned to explain
Who is Edward Snowden?
Leaks timeline
Edward Snowden, a former NSA worker, went public with revelations about US spying operations in June.

The information he leaked led to claims of systematic spying by the NSA and CIA on a global scale.

Targets included rivals like China and Russia, as well as allies like the EU and Brazil.

The NSA was also forced to admit it captured email and phone data from millions of Americans.

Mr Snowden is currently in Russia, where he was granted a year-long visa after making an asylum application.

The US wants him extradited to face trial on criminal charges.

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The US embassy in Paris categorically denied the US had been involved in any cyber attack on the French government.

It's becoming clear that the evedropping goes way beyond security issues and is use to gain confidential diplomatic and commercial information from allies.

Is US diplomacy dead yet? Who will want to trust these guys, like EVER?

It is not "becoming clear" at all...and most likely is not happening. Why do you make stuff like this up?