Just when you thought things had finally settled down, another leak drops.
After the initial leak about the National Security Agency’s omnium gatherum scooping up of Angela Merkel’s phone calls, Barack Obama offered his assurance that it just wasn’t happening.
Then Spiegel comes out with a report that their reporters had seen documents showing Merkel had been tapped for more than a decade, and that Obama had been informed about three years ago.
Sheesh!
So the president has been nakedly exposed as a liar and lost whatever pale vestige of credibility he might have salvaged.
But one of America’s most powerful legislators, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has taken the Alfred E. Newman approach, expressing his views in a way certain to raise more hackles. From CNN:
Rep. Mike Rogers: Accusations of US spying ‘disingenuous’
Rep. Mike Rogers says foreign nations should be grateful – not angry – because America’s spying keeps them safe.
Yesterday up to 2,000 people gathered in Washington for the Stop Watching Us! Rally, a fact you wouldn’t have known from ready, say, the Washington Post. Nor could we find it in the New York Times and most other U.S. papers we perused this morning [The Christian Science Monitor being a notable exception]. But it did appear prominently on the home pages of almost every non-domestic MSM website we perused.
What does that have to say about U.S. media? We’ll leave the answer to you.
From Al Jazeera America:
US protesters call for end to spying
Thousands march on Capitol Hill in Washington to protest US government’s mass online surveillance programs
Here’s the Christian Science Monitor headline:
NSA Washington: March against surveillance and a call from Edward Snowden
NSA Washington march: Anti-secrecy activists marched in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Saturday, protesting NSA spying. US citizens and world leaders are rattled at reports of vast surveillance of phone and Internet communications.
And from the Daily Dot:
Stop Watching Us rally in D.C. was the biggest anti-NSA event yet
Thousands of privacy advocates showed up in Washington, D.C. Saturday to protest the National Security Agency and its perceived unconstitutional and unchecked surveillance of Americans and the world.
ReasonTV features this report:
What We Saw At The Anti-NSA “Stop Watching Us” Rally
Program notes
On October 26, 2013, protesters from across the political spectrum gathered in Washington, D.C. to take part in the Stop Watching Us rally, a demonstration against the National Security Agency’s domestic and international surveillance programs.
Reason TV spoke with protesters – including 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson and former Congressman Dennis Kucinich – to discuss the rally, why people should worry about the erosion of privacy, and President Barack Obama’s role in the growth of the surveillance state.
Meanwhile, Spiegel carried another exclusive today:
Embassy Espionage: The NSA’s Secret Spy Hub in Berlin
According to SPIEGEL research, United States intelligence agencies have not only targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, but they have also used the American Embassy in Berlin as a listening station. The revelations now pose a serious threat to German-American relations.
BBC News with more:
NSA: New reports in German media deepen US-Merkel spy row
Fresh reports in German media based on leaked US intelligence documents are prompting damaging new questions about the extent of US surveillance.
And the bombshell, via Yahoo! News:
Obama ‘aware of Merkel spying since 2010′
US President Barack Obama was personally informed of phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel which may have begun as early as 2002, according to media reports stoking anger over a spiralling espionage scandal.
The McClatchy Washington Bureau gives it a contextual approach:
NSA knew all about Merkel before rest of world met her
Germany’s Angela Merkel became Chancellor in 2005. But the American National Security Agency started spying on her three years earlier.
Boing Boing adds an acerbic spin:
Spooks throw Obama under the bus: He knew about Merkel spying since 2010
And the London Daily Mail hauls out the good ol’ omnium gatherum:
Obama ‘personally informed the U.S. was monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone since 2002′
Obama was personally informed the U.S. was monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German media reports
He was allegedly briefed by National Security Agency chief in 2010
Obama let the operation continue
Earlier this week, Obama said he didn’t know about phone tapping
German intelligence officials will visit Washington, Foreign Ministry spokesman says
Merkel says allegations have shattered trust in Obama administration
Top German government official to hold crunch talks with U.S. counterparts
Blowback from Deutsche Welle:
Germany demands US ‘answers’ on phone tapping
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has demanded answers from the US on its alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone and other privacy violations. German media say targeting began in 2002.
And The Guardian detects a new note in Washington:
White House under pressure on NSA monitoring of German chancellor
Administration reported to be distancing itself from agency as press in Germany questions how much Barack Obama knew
While Deutsche Welle raises an interesting question: Did a 1955 treaty provision allowing surveillance of the West German postal and telecommunications services make the NSA snooping legal:
Was US eavesdropping possibly legal?
There has been great indignation at the news that Chancellor Merkel’s phone was tapped by American intelligence services. But according to experts, the spying could actually have been legal under current laws.
China’s Global Times covers another European country:
US spy scandal puts France in tight spot
By targeting civilian communications, the US has directly challenged France’s responsibility to protect its own citizens.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers adds fuel to le Feu, via EUbusiness:
France should be ‘popping champagne’ over NSA spying: US lawmaker
US intelligence is better than in Europe, and snooping at the heart of a widening scandal helps keeps the world safe, a top US lawmaker declared Sunday amid a widening spying row.
BBC News Magazine comes to a realization:
US spies on ‘the entire globe’, experts say
People and nations spy, even on friends. But in the realm of international electronic espionage, the US wields a nuclear arsenal while the rest of the globe fights with guns.
Deutsche Welle assesses:
NSA spying: From minor to major scandal
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tapped mobile phone has brought about quite the change in the German government. Formerly appeased politicians, who earlier had accepted US excuses for NSA spying, are suddenly outraged.
More from BBC News:
German papers lay into Obama over US spying claims
German papers are increasingly turning their fire on US President Barack Obama over claims that the National Security Agency has monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone.
And the Swiss — that most private and secretive of European countries — weigh in, via Channel NewsAsia Singapore:
Spying on allies harms US: Swiss president
Swiss President Ueli Maurer said in comments broadcast on Saturday that he was outraged at revelations of sweeping US surveillance on allies, insisting the snooping would weaken rather than strengthen Washington.
Kyodo News reports a request:
U.S. sought Japan aid in tapping fiber-optic cables in 2011
The U.S. National Security Agency sounded out the Japanese government around 2011 for cooperation in wiretapping fiber-optic cables carrying phone and Internet data across the Asia-Pacific region, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
And The Hill reports a a classic example of that old legal maxim, “Justice delayed is justice denied”:
DOD considers delay in 9/11 tribunal
The military trial of the accused 9/11 co-conspirators likely will not begin until early 2015, nearly a year after the highly anticipated terrorism trial was slated to begin.
Meanwhile, a legislation pending in Japan raises doubts. From the Japan Times:
Half of public opposes secrecy protection bill: poll
A government bill aimed at toughening penalties for leaking state secrets is opposed by 50.6 percent of the public, according to the latest Kyodo News survey.
RIA Novosti reports relaxation:
Websites Critical of Uzbekistan’s Government Unblocked
A number of news websites carrying coverage critical of Uzbekistan’s government became available for viewing Sunday after years of being blocked in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.
While the China Post covers opposition:
Net giant companies opposed to Brazil datebase creation
Web giant Google and other Internet companies say they oppose creating Brazil-based databases of local customer information, proposed by a Brazilian government determined to crack down on espionage.
The Independent reports an action:
Police buy eBay data to target criminals
New snooping software is helping forces all over the country to unmask gangs selling stolen property on the internet
And The Guardian reports corporate subterfuge:
Filesharing site revealed to be anti-piracy ‘honeypot’
Operator of UploaderTalk boasts of ‘biggest swerve ever’ as he sells user data to anti-piracy company
The revelation, which had users of the forum up in arms, accompanied the purchase of the UploaderTalk (UT) site by US-based anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy.
RT notes intimidation:
‘Scary you could be jailed for running computer service’ – CryptoSeal co-founder
VPN service CryptoSeal followed Lavabit in pulling the plug, fearing running afoul of US authorities. Ryan Lackey, co-founder of the computer firm, told RT about the current climate where people can be put behind bars just for running their businesses.
The Daily Dot covers a call:
Expect them: Anonymous to descend on D.C. for ‘Million Mask March’
Evoking 1995′s Million Man March, the hacker collective Anonymous has announced the Million Mask March, which it hopes will prove to be the “largest mass protest in human history.”
The event is set to happen on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, on the National Mall in Washington, DC, but with satellite gatherings around the world.
The Independent, with more intimidation:
Tory Minister warns BBC to change or prepare for licence fee ‘cut’
Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps says recent scandals have opened up a ‘question of credibility’ around the public service broadcaster
And for our final headline, a question we frequently ponder, posed by The Atlantic:
All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines
We rely on computers to fly our planes, find our cancers, design our buildings, audit our businesses. That’s all well and good. But what happens when the computer fails?
