From the “don’t trust but verify” department comes the revelation that the Obama administration went into COP15 negotiation with spy help.
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The document, with portions marked “top secret,” indicates that the NSA was monitoring the communications of other countries ahead of the conference, and intended to continue doing so throughout the meeting. Posted on an internal NSA website on Dec. 7, 2009, the first day of the Copenhagen summit, it states that
“Analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries’ preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies.”
“Second Party partners” refers to the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with which the U.S. has an intelligence-sharing relationship. “While the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference remains uncertain, signals intelligence will undoubtedly play a significant role in keeping our negotiators as well informed as possible throughout the 2-week event,” the document says.
The Huffington Post published the documents Wednesday night in coordination with the Danish daily newspaper Information, which worked with American journalist Laura Poitras.
Read the full document here.(PDF)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-nsa-surveillance-_n_4681362.html
h/t to WUWT reader MichaelWiseGuy
So alot of failure in this post.
First off where in the PDF does it say the NSA spied on the event. The NSA produced reports likely based on as little information as watching CNN or MSNBC… This is common practice and nothing really to do with spying so much as “commenting” on events from their perspective. Now thats not to say that this was not the perfect place for spies to hang out… I’m sure it was. These type of events are some spies wet dreams because its fully taxpayer funded orgy. These orgies tend to loosen lips about alot of subjects. So yes little doubt that a few spies were hanging around. Zero proof in this PDF though.
” Jarmo says:
January 29, 2014 at 10:35 pm
Germans got upset when they learnt that NSA has been spying on Cancellor Merkel by listening her mobile phone for a decade through devices in US Embassy in Berlin. That’s why Snowden is regarded as a hero in Europe.”
This is a pretty big myth as far as i’ve seen. The EU heavily spies on its own people. 99% of the info I’ve seen that is the “NSA spying on europe” is really the NSA asking all the euro government for the records they keep on EU citizens. The EU like all socialist countries believe that they own and should control the means of production. They are terrified of revolt among other things and they spy heavily on the locals. The NSA simply requests thing like video from the millions upon millions of public cameras setup to spy on the locals. That among other things.
“Apparently US embassies all over the world are used as phone intercept stations.”
Almost all embassies for all countries exist almost strictly for the sole purpose of spying nowadays. With almost everything embassies used to do now down in seconds via phones or the internet they really have no need to exist outside of hiding and shuffling in spies, weapons, etc both in and out through diplomatic packets.
Most of snowdens info much like wikileaks info is public knowledge at least as far as foreign operations go. Anyone who has taken the time to read about the history of “spies” and such would tell you nothing breath taking in the foreign actions.
richardscourtney says:
January 29, 2014 at 11:24 pm
================
Good point.
They also envisioned your response to it all, in fact, counted on it.
I don’t recall giving my government or my government employees consent to use my tax dollars in the manner they are doing so. I want my money back. First order of business, cut off the money. Looks like a complete and total economic collapse will take care of the problem for me, if nothing else.
Maybe they just wanted to join in on the cultist pagan religion the UN promotes.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_lucytrust04.
Since Ian Wishart’s book Totalitaria was published, the UN has removed all references to the Lucis Trust. Damage control is it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucis_Trust
These meatheads are setting out to destroy us all!
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
I guess the only thing the NSA can’t get are Obama’s school transcripts.
This is a real black eye for obama and the NSA and a feather in his cap for Eddie.
Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?
Murdoch media in UK hacked two-bit, media-made celebrities? non-stop, never-ending outrage, worldwide.
NSA is hacking the entire world’s private communications? so what, some say.
once upon a time, americans would fight for their right to privacy. the National Security apparatus (which is more properly called industrial sabotage) needs to be massively curtailed everywhere.
those who shrug their shoulders obviously aren’t working on patents for new inventions, or preparing papers on scientific discoveries, or planning to run for public office.
somehow, what the Snowden revelations are telling us – which includes the fact nearly all the tech giants/telecommunication companies have sold out our private communications to the NSA – is not sinking into people’s heads. oh well.
Walter, it’s called educating the masses. Editors are under directives not to publish this stuff.
Until Carol Burnett’s 1981 suit for libel with the National Enquirer in 1981, the CIA and other intel groups used the National Enquirer to publish the truth, which they are legally required to do (in case you didn’t know). So they publish, and continue to publish, in the tabloids. The theory is that lies go into the MSM, and the truth into quack venues. If someone asks, “Where did you hear that?” and the person answers, “The National Enquirer, the person and the information will be discredited in the questioner’s mind. The National Enquirer not longer does it. Even though the word was that Burnett’s initial award of $1.3 million (punitive) and $300,000 (general damages) was drastically reduced two years later, I know for a fact that the National Enquirer paid her a fortune, and cleaned up their act because of subsequent piggyback suits that were killing them. I also know that today National Enquirer reporters have to file three proven sources for every controversial statement, and that those are kept in a huge wall vault that only the legal department can access.
So who has the distinction today for that job? ‘World of the Week’ or ‘Week of the World’. I can never remember the name. It’s the black and white one on the supermarket shelf by the cashier. Usually has a photo of Bigfoot in a cab delivering a screaming woman’s Siamese twins. Guaranteed to make an educated person never be seen dead with one; however, every A-list reporter in Manhattan made sure to pick up a copy every week and save them; the older ones are probably still doing it. After Clinton’s personal lawyer left the White House, he became head of ‘Week of the World’s’ parent company in Boca Raton. Another political tidbit: Lee Atwater, working for Reagan’s team, used the National Enquirer to undercut southern support for Jimmy Carter in the late 70s with phony stories (before the Burnett suit).
So pick up your copy of Week of the World or Worldly Week today! 😉 I do intermittently.
pat says:
January 29, 2014 at 11:43 pm
“NSA is hacking the entire world’s private communications? so what, some say.”
=====================
Pandora is out of the box, pretending it isn’t won’t put it back in.
Cyber security is the new game.
Get with it.
NSA – the only federal agency that listens to you.
P.S. Walter,
I don’t think they use The Star, although they did at one time. The initial readership for the tabloids they do use are three-to-four times the viewership for Fox News–in the tens of millions–then there is the ancillary readership from having the things lie around in barbershops, beauty salons, and car washes for months.
If it were cyber security, NSA would have caught the Target and other departments store credit card massive thefts. It’s more like industrial espionage for the transnational owners and American elites for a fee. I was in the room 18 years ago when someone paid $25Gs to a NSA go-between for hard proof for a legal case.
Copenhagen could have had significant impacts on the freedom of the US (and other countries) to set their own industrial policy.
You would have had no fracking revolution if the deal had been done. US manufacturing would still be fleeing to China.
Getting an edge in these negotiations was the duty of every political leader.
Intelligence agencies want to defend their country from outside interference.
If anyone is surprised at that then could they explain what they think intelligence agencies are for?
Policycritic says:
January 30, 2014 at 12:10 am
u.k.(us) says:
January 29, 2014 at 11:58 pm
Cyber security is the new game.
Get with it.
If it were cyber security, NSA would have caught the Target and other departments store credit card massive thefts. It’s more like industrial espionage for the transnational owners and American elites for a fee. I was in the room 18 years ago when someone paid $25Gs to a NSA go-between for hard proof for a legal case.
=====================
What I’m saying is individuals/corporations need to secure their data.
The NSA is not there to catch hackers, their job is to hack everything they can.
Here is a line of products whose understanding lets you realise the potential or actual scope for eavesdropping, both private and public.
http://www.epicos.com/EPCompanyProfileWeb/Products.aspx?id=738
Read the specs. If you wish to conceal some information, don’t write on the Net or talk by phone.
It’s no secret.
January 30, 2014 at 12:15 am
“Copenhagen could have had significant impacts on the freedom of the US (and other countries) to set their own industrial policy.
You would have had no fracking revolution if the deal had been done.”
How do you know?
Gas/oil contains less carbon per usable energy unit than coal, so a Kyoto style deal would have favored fracking over coal.
Doug says:
January 29, 2014 at 10:42 pm
“To me the real question is, why couldn’t the Germans, with all their technical expertise even provide their head of state with a secure phone? Would you buy a car from those people?”
Doug; Germany is a colony of the USA. The SHAEF laws from 1945 are partially still in force. One of them says that Germany pays for “all costs of the occupation”; notice the word occupation. Meaning, we pay for all NSA bases in Germany, we know where they are, German police protects them. When the US says Frog, we jump.
Does that clear things up for you.
DirkH says January 30, 2014 at 12:56 am… true. Counter-factuals are always uncertain.
But gas / oil is replacing coal because of a variety of factors that need to be assessed by investors. it is hard to see how increasing the cost of all CO2 would improve confidence in the investments required for the fracking revolution.
Fracking is already a “gateway” technology, according to your President. I argue – without certainty, admittedly – that the “gateway” time would be reduced if the US was committted to Kyoto.
u.k.(us):
I fail to understand your arcane post at January 29, 2014 at 11:31 pm which says in total
What?
Why on Earth do you think they would have given any “consideration” to my possible response?
And why would they have “counted on it”? I am a nobody.
Some people posting here seem to think Security Agencies do not or should not obtain information useful to government. What do they think Security Agencies are for? Espionage to monitor communications has been an activity of Security Agencies since the time people first began to trade in the Stone Age. And does anybody think their liberties would exist if that espionage had not been conducted at times of war and at times of peace?
It would be news if the NSA, GCHQ, et al. had not been seeking information concerning negotiations at Copenhagen. Indeed, the peoples of the USA, UK, etc. should be up in arms if that were true.
The real ‘story’ is that the NSA, GCHQ, etc. conducted inadequate espionage pertaining to the Copenhagen CoP. Western Heads of State went there with great fanfare to achieve a new Treaty and crawled back with nothing. This embarrassment would have been avoided if the espionage had been adequate.
Richard
Paul Pierett says:
January 29, 2014 at 11:03 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gotta watch out for those “Others”- they’re sneaky buggers.
So if we can’t get the Hockey Stick data and code from Mann should we try the NSA, instead?
graphicconception:
At January 30, 2014 at 1:28 am you ask
Of course it would be very difficult to obtain any information from a Security Agency.
However, the ‘Hockey Stick’ was a matter of sufficient concern that it involved US Government hearings and investigations. So, the NSA would have been failing in its duty if it had not attempted to obtain, collate and file all pertinent information. And I have no reason to doubt the competence of the NSA to do that, do you?
Richard
richardscourtney says: January 29, 2014 at 11:24 pm
Security agencies of several countries tried to give their countries an ‘edge’ in international negotiations by obtaining as much information as possible from as many sources as possible. That is a main part of their job. And they were probably also attempting to mislead security agencies of other countries by planting false information because that, too, is part of their job.
What next, an article to report that Speed Police booked speeders?
There ya go. Many of us now regard it as a completely normal situation, and therefore quite acceptable.
I guess that means ‘Big Brother’ is winning.
Richard
aargh … sorry about the leftover “Richard” in the post above….
Pls read as “markx”.
@ur momisugly pat says: January 29, 2014 at 11:43 pm
“Murdoch media in UK hacked two-bit, media-made celebrities? non-stop, never-ending outrage, worldwide.”
Compared to that bastion of left wing views the Daily Mirror, cue Piers Morgan, the Murdoch media hacking was fairly trivial…