Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Wikileaks has published a disturbing claim, that the US NSA have been monitoring Japanese government internal deliberations on Climate Change.
According to Wikileaks;
Target Tokyo
PRESS RELEASE
Today, Friday 31 July 2015, 9am CEST, WikiLeaks publishes “Target Tokyo”, 35 Top Secret NSA targets in Japan including the Japanese cabinet and Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi, together with intercepts relating to US-Japan relations, trade negotiations and sensitive climate change strategy.
The list indicates that NSA spying on Japanese conglomerates, government officials, ministries and senior advisers extends back at least as far as the first administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which lasted from September 2006 until September 2007. The telephone interception target list includes the switchboard for the Japanese Cabinet Office; the executive secretary to the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga; a line described as “Government VIP Line”; numerous officials within the Japanese Central Bank, including Governor Haruhiko Kuroda; the home phone number of at least one Central Bank official; numerous numbers within the Japanese Finance Ministry; the Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa; the Natural Gas Division of Mitsubishi; and the Petroleum Division of Mitsui.
Today’s publication also contains NSA reports from intercepts of senior Japanese government officials. Four of the reports are classified TOP SECRET. One of the reports is marked “REL TO USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL”, meaning it has been formally authorised to be released to the United States’ “Five Eyes” intelligence partners: Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand.
The reports demonstrate the depth of US surveillance of the Japanese government, indicating that intelligence was gathered and processed from numerous Japanese government ministries and offices. The documents demonstrate intimate knowledge of internal Japanese deliberations on such issues as: agricultural imports and trade disputes; negotiating positions in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization; Japanese technical development plans, climate change policy, nuclear and energy policy and carbon emissions schemes; correspondence with international bodies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA); strategy planning and draft talking points memoranda concerning the management of diplomatic relations with the United States and the European Union; and the content of a confidential Prime Ministerial briefing that took place at Shinzo Abe’s official residence.
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief, said: “In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private about how much or how little to tell the United States, in order to prevent undermining of its climate change proposal or its diplomatic relationship. And yet we now know that the United States heard everything and read everything, and was passing around the deliberations of Japanese leadership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The lesson for Japan is this: do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honour or respect. There is only one rule: there are no rules.”
WikiLeaks Investigations Editor Sarah Harrison said: “Today’s publication shows us that the US government targeted sensitive Japanese industry and climate change policy. Would the effectiveness of Japan’s industry and climate change proposals be different today if its communications had been protected?”
Japan has been a close historical ally of the United States since the end of World War II. During a recent Presidential visit to Japan, US President Barack Obama described the East Asian country as “one of America’s closest allies in the world”. Today’s publication adds to previous WikiLeaks publications showing systematic mass spying conducted by US intelligence against the US-allied governments of Brazil “Bugging Brazil“, France “Espionnage Élysée” and Germany “The Euro Intercepts”; “All the Chancellor’s Men”.
Read the full list of NSA high priority targets for Japan published today here.
WikiLeaks’ journalism is entirely supported by the general public. If you would like to support more work like this, please visit https://wikileaks.org/donate.
Source: https://wikileaks.org/nsa-japan/
A word of caution – in my opinion Wikileaks is not an entirely credible source. WUWT has documented at least one occasion where Mr. Assange bent the truth.
However, if the Wikileaks claim is true, it paints a disturbing picture of a US administration utterly obsessed with climate change, to the point that US covert assets are apparently being diverted from trying to catch terrorists, so the President has detailed inside information about what Japan thinks about Climate Change.
The Wikileaks press release also suggests Japan is less than enthusiastic about CO2 reductions. But given China, one of Japan’s main economic rivals, has been given a free pass to emit CO2 and grow their economy until 2030, Japan’s lack of enthusiasm for CO2 cutbacks should not be a surprise – though the Japanese also appear to be worried about offending the USA.
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Other than a different subject, nothing is new now. Our government was spying on the Japanese government in the sixties. Don’t ask me how I know.
Chad, how do you know ? C’mon tell me.
Godzilla was really a covert operative and Rodan and Mothra flew the gathered info accross the Pacific.
Almost forgot Gamera, the original Mutant Ninja Turtle was the Yakuza muscle sent to try and end the espionage by driving out Godzilla in 1965
Bryan A — you have nailed it! — Eugene WR GAllun
Bryan A, I hate to tell you this but it really wasn’t Gamera, it was Hamado Yoshi who became Splinter, the humanoid rat (yes, there’s more than just the one who occupies the WH) who was behind the Mutant Ninja Turtle. He was the turtle’s sensei.
Chad Jessup; The United States Government was spying on the Japanese Government in the late 1930s and early 1940s before WW-2. Don’t ask me how I know.
michael
Mike the Morlock July 31, 2015 at 10:00 pm: “…the late 1930s and early 1940s before WW-2.”
You mean before Pearl Harbor, not before WW-2. World War 2 started in September 1939 and was in full blast by 1940. And it did not start with a German attack on Poland as is written in history books. It started with a joint German-Russian attack on Poland pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939. With this pact Hitler and Stalin divided up Eastern Europe between themselves. The dividing line went through the middle of Poland. What actually happened was that the Red Army was not ready by the agreed-upon start date of September 1st and did not get going in Poland until two weeks later. This gave the Germans a head start. In that time they grabbed their share of Poland and a big chunk,of what had been allotted to Russia as well. Stalin protested about that to Hitler. Hitler said that he really wanted that chunk of Poland but was willing to give Stalin Lithuania instead. According to their pact it was originally supposed to go to Germany. Stalin agreed. But Hermann Göring, Hitler’s Luftwaffe chief, objected to this because he had a huge estate on the German-Lithuanian border. What he wanted was a chunk of land from Lithuania to add to his estate as a hunting ground. And so it was that Russia got all of Lithuania except for the Suwalki strip that went to Germany and became a part of the Göring estate. Finland resisted the Russian advance which led to the Finnish Winter War. She lost some territory to Russia but retained her independence. Among other things, the Finns discovered that throwing gasoline bottles at Russian tanks neatly disabled them. This became known as the Molotov cocktail and was later used by Russians against German tanks. The Baltics did not resist, were occupied by Russia and incorporated into the Soviet Union in less than a year.And then a funny thing happened with Lithuania. The new communist regime, just installed by Stalin, did not like having lost the Suwalki strip to Hitler’s henchman Göring. They complained directly to Moscow and what do you know – Moscow was willing to deal with Hitler about it. Germany would not give it back to the Soviets for nothing but was willing to sell it. A deal was struck in January 1941 whereby the Soviet Union bought the Suwalki strip back from Germany for five million gold US dollars! At the time, everything still seemed normal between the signatories of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and no one would have guessed that in six months they would be at war with one another.
Arno Arrak . Yes ww-2 started for some of the world earlier,July 1937 Peking bridge for the Chinese.
Now the nonaggression pack., see “NOMONHAN, 1939”
Lots and lots of events going on at the time, For the Pacific it the Marco Polo Bridge, For Europe its Poland September 1939.
Oh and take note of the name of the Soviet Commander at Nomonhan and his tactics. Both were seen again later in the war.
But you are correct as a Yankee I tend to see WW-2 as Dec 7 1941, And its not ever called that, by everyone, Russia -The Great Patriotic War, Japan- The Pacific War.
michael
Please Chad, don’t leave us hanging.
Yes, lens us a hand here.
+2,600 palm beach votes
Do the enviro-warmists disciples need any more proof this entire CAGW movement is 100% political?
100% politically corrupt and bereft of any morals whatsoever.
We live in a sad time in US history. Mr Obama will go down as the worst US President since President Buchanan. Buchanan did nothing to avert the US Civil War during his tenure (1857-1861). Mr Obama still has 17 months and 19 days to eclipse Mr Buchanan as Worst Ever. I fear the worst is yet to come.
Here’s hoping for plenty of congressional resistance.
At least Buchanan didn’t try to instigate a civil war.
You need to take into account Obama’s disregard for the law. Buchanan tried to work through the legal system at least. Dred Scott was decided by the Supreme Court.
Buchanan may have caused the destruction of the union but the Union’s foundation still existed. Obama is presiding over the destruction of the Constitution. Without that foundation America falls.
Eugene WR Gallun
How right you are. The United States was the grand creation of the Age of Enlightenment. These people are actually quite primitive and barbaric.
Thomas Judd
So true. Enlightened democracy is not what we have today. The same trends are appearing here in Canada. Our PM has bottlenecked our democracy through his office, partisan government paid adds and PACs for campaigns are becoming a thing. Sadly none of the other major parties appear to be particularly competent either, and pander heavily to the CAGW crowd.
President Hillary will eclipse them all. Here’s a quote from Dec 2014:
““The science of climate change is unforgiving, no matter what the deniers may say. Sea levels are rising; ice caps are melting; storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc. … If we act decisively now we can still head off the most catastrophic consequences.””
I imagine the Clintons and Gores are pretty close.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVSIcDTvZyQ
http://grist.org/climate-energy/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-hillary-clinton-and-climate-change/
I’m amused by her wobbling on the Pipeline and the half a billion solar boondoggles she’d like to ornament the nation with.
And highly amused by the New Republic’s picture of her wringing her hands at a podium.
But I’m most amused by the fact that Bill Clinton once called carbon dioxide ‘plant food’, but only once. I think he couldn’t resist the dig at Al Gore, but I suspect he’s still hurting where the smackdown was planted. At least you don’t hear him whimpering about it.
==================
Somebody ought to tell her we only have one Santa Claus to electrocute on a rooftop solar installation. You can dress up firemen in funny suits and throw them into the fray, but it just won’t be the same.
===================
Think of the reindeer. It would be like dropping Bambi into a nest of Great White Hunters. All lines smoulder.
========================
Santa is currently is being held at [redacted] by the [redacted] for violating airspace over a cetrain building in DC carrying a load of coal.
It is considered bad form here at WUWT to just post links. Here we like an explanation of the point of the link, what it shows, and why it is relevant to the current topic. Even better is to make the points yourself, and just use the information in the links as supporting information.
So now you have your chance to make your point.
If NSA reads all of our email, why can’t the court order them to produce Hillary’s emails from her server?
It would appear that my original post has passed moderation. I am surprised that my original post was not visible, but a sub post was. Admittedly I am relatively new to the site.
tonyl, the title of the article in the link gives a pretty good clue regarding what it is about.
This will be titled “conspiracy theory” if it is even released to the masses. The MSM supports the Progressive meme and AGW is part of it.
Well, it’s nice to know that the Obama administration is more concerned about Japanese communiques with the IEA than it is with Iranean side deals with the more profound IAEA.
Apparently this bizarre concern is based on greater apprehension about increases in atmospheric temperatures of 1/2 to 1 degree than it is about increases in atmospheric temperatures of 4,000 degrees.
The IEA matter is here. It was in 2008; GW Bush was president.
However, if the Wikileaks claim is true, it paints a disturbing picture of a US administration utterly obsessed with climate change
I wouldn’t read it that way. What recent history shows is that the US is obsessed with spying on everybody about everything. This is just the most recent in a list of cases where they’ve been caught. The number of incidents of spying on allies versus enemies however is most disturbing. This administration seems to have trouble differentiating between the two.
“However, if the Wikileaks claim is true, it paints a disturbing picture of a US administration utterly obsessed with climate change,”
Actually, if you look through the list, the items are from 2007-9. The bugging of Abe’s carbon emissions plan was in 2007, and the G8 plans in 2008, as was the later intercept. I can’t see any climate activity listed there from Obama’s time.
Nick Stokes:
There you go again, using facts to confuse us.
I can promise that it won’t work.
And these rulers have been spying on their own people, the men and women who elected them into office. Most probable that they haven’t ceased doing so.
Have the Stars and Stripes become just varnish for a secret dictatorship, like North Corea, underneath? Worst manners in the land of the free.
The three-hop analysis is proof enough of what you say about “spying on their own people”:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/edward-snowden-nsa-wiretap-snoops-millions-2013-7?op=1
1 to 2.5 million in 4 easy steps.
Indeed. On the other hand, it is the obsession of many other countries as well, including, but not limited to, North Korea, China and Russia. So USA is in a good company.
By the way, many European countries serve NSA by spying everybody, both Americans and Europeans, as well as citizens of third countries. So we Europeans are in good company.
Just give me your emails and browse history, you have nothing to hide, have you?
The allies of today can become the enemies of tomorrow. A nation must plan for all contingencies many years in advance.
One should however beware of creating a self fulfilling prophecy.
Spying on a friend can be a very fast way of turning them into an enemy.
Well as long as you can blow them off the face of the Earth, and they know that, it really doesn’t matter now does it?.
“Well as long as you can blow them off the face of the Earth, and they know that, it really doesn’t matter now does it?.”
Another one that learned all the wrong lessons from WWII. Lesson #1 – No matter how powerful a country thinks it is, if it pisses off the rest of the world, it won’t end well for that country.
Mr. Assange bent the truth.
I’m shocked, shocked to find Mr Assange bent the truth. Meanwhile, the IPCC and the global warming bigots and politicians have not only stretched the truth, they have extended it waypast the elastic limit and beyond the yield point – totally devoid of any truth.
Yes shocked indeed.
If I was paranoid, I would be suspicious of the timing of this “release” given where the parties are on the TPP. On the other hand, everyone spies on everyone else. Has no one ever read Spy vs Spy in Mad Magazine?
http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2013/10/30/spy-vs-spy-covers-the-new-york-post
WE need to ask the Russians for Hillary’s e-mails. They are sure to have them. Or China. Or Israel. Or England. Or just about anybody.
Eugene WR Gallun
I wonder if they have my photos I lost the other day in a hard drive crash.
Irrelevant now Lewis…the Pope has got us cancelling all orders for air conditioners.
He will need one where he is going.
Don’t know that any amount of spying by every body against every body especially on technological and policy issues isn’t to be expected. MI 5 and 6 are sure to be in the thick of it as are all the cold war players. Maybe folks wish it could be some other way, but it’s not.
the interpretation doesn’t fit the release.
31 July: Foreign Policy: Climate and Cherry Disputes in WikiLeaks Documents Show U.S.-Japan Relations Can Be the Pits
by Lara Jakes & Keith Johnson
(at bottom of article) Pentagon correspondent Paul McLeary contributed to this report.
Two years earlier, in 2007, Japanese officials preparing for a summit with officials of the administration of then-President George W. Bush, debated how much to play up their goals for tackling climate change. The Japanese Foreign Ministry thought about not telling Washington of its ambitious plans to curb emissions, “because the ministry did not expect Washington to approve of such a goal, based on the U.S. reaction to climate change issues so far,” according to the WikiLeaks document.
In the end, Japanese officials decided that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would “clearly state” the climate goal. “Japan anticipates no major harm to the Japanese-U.S. relationship as a result,” the summary reads…
And in 2008, U.S. spies again eavesdropped on Japanese officials as they prepared for a big meeting of the Group of 8 countries (G-8). At issue: Japan’s continued advocacy of an approach to fighting climate change that had run afoul of some energy experts and European governments. The NSA summary notes that, despite international criticism, Japanese officials planned to forge ahead with their so-called “sectoral approach” to slashing emissions, which they in fact did later that year at a large, global climate conference in Bali, Indonesia.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/31/climate-and-cherry-disputes-in-wikileaks-documents-show-u-s-japan-relations-can-be-the-pits/
pdf. 2 pages: Wikileaks: US Intercepts Abe’s Secret Plan on Carbon Emissions
WikiLeaks release: July 31, 2015
2007….READ ON
https://wikileaks.org/nsa-japan/intercepts/WikiLeaks_NSA_Spy_Abe_Carbon_Emissions.pdf
What is the time-frame of the NSA spying. The only two years listed are 2006 & 2007. Obama became president in 2009.
The only dates this article mentions are in the sentence stating that the spying “extends back at least as far as the first administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which lasted from September 2006 until September 2007.” But on wikileaks.org there are additional dates listed that include spying events in 2008, and 2009, which would include part of the Obama administration. You can see those here:
https://wikileaks.org/nsa-japan/intercepts/
“please visit https://wikileaks.org/donate.” with the donation itself of course being monitored by the NSA.
“Central Australia’s Pine Gap spy base has taken on a new electronic surveillance role, making it a “multi-purpose mega-intelligence centre,” as Australia and our allies massively increase interception of global satellite communications, a new report by leading espionage experts has revealed.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/pine-gaps-new-spy-role-revealed-20150531-ghdefc.html#ixzz3hXermaHh
“Central Australia’s Pine Gap spy base has taken on a new electronic surveillance role, making it a “multi-purpose mega-intelligence centre,” as Australia and our allies massively increase interception of global satellite communications, a new report by leading espionage experts has revealed.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/pine-gaps-new-spy-role-revealed-20150531-ghdefc.html#ixzz3hXfhe4zw
Lewis , you think these have anything in common .
Pine Gap Australia , Link is above
Sea-based X-Band radar ,http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/news/defence-news/year-2013-news/april-2013-navy-world-naval-forces-maritime-industry-technology-news/972-us-deploys-sea-based-x-band-radar-sbx-to-detect-potential-north-korean-missile-launch.html
TEP, http://www.ips.gov.au/Educational/5/2/3 Are they atmospheric hot spots I see created by this 24/7 process .
“…US covert assets are apparently being diverted from trying to catch terrorists…”
That’s because Pres. Obama considers climate change to be one of his top priorities. In fact, the affects of climate change “rank among the most potent threats to U.S. national security, alongside violent extremism, cyberattacks and Russian aggression,” according to a national security strategy released by the Obama administration in Feb. 2015. If you believe that climate change is going to kill millions, why worry about terrorism that has only killed thousands? From my point of view, if climate change kills anyone in the near future, it will only be because it is a major distraction for government officials and has caused them to neglect the real threats to our security.
obama doesn’t care whether MM global warming is real; the pursuit of climate change policy harms America, therefore obama pursues climate change policy – just as terrorism harms America, therefore obama aids Iran’s islamic bomb programme.
Surely,then, climate change must pose a big threat to violent extremism, Russian aggression…..
Because the POTUS can’t do anything about terrorism, that he can strut infront of the media & shout & waive his hands around about, whereas he can pass a few laws about CO2 & gain mass adulation!
Everyone spies on everybody. Remember Climategate?
You should be glad that your country has the power to monitor major players in international treaty negotiations.
And I doubt Japan is so naïve as to be surprised.
It’s not just all the spying. This is symptomatic of “if we can we will” or “they are doing it therefore we must to keep up” attitudes much like what existed in the late 1800’s with American industry child labor and safety abuses (since the other guy does it for profit then I must also). Once going down this road then all morals and ethics are off the table. Re US overthrow of legitimate South American governments, the extensive studies of human mind manipulation via MK Ultra, experimentation on civilian and military personnel with germ and chemicals developed for warfare and this only a partial list. But one thing is certain, these attitudes will only worsen because if they can’t be adequately defended, as in the Snowden releases, they then go underground. Within the evidence provided by Western “democratic” history (which few pay any real attention to) any imagined requirement for national survival is justifiable up to and including a rigged towers disaster.
A rigged towers disaster? Since I wish to maintain some pretense of politeness on this site I’ll suppress any comments concerning that statement. Plus, I don’t wish to dignify it with a comment.
They can treat paranoia these days.
“They can treat paranoia these days.”
I have no personal theories on the subject, but I do pay attention to other professionals that have no grant dime like climastrologists do. That puts me in good company, and I’m not talking Jones/Infowars, but pilots, NYPD, fire fighters, architects and engineers and other similar (try Google). Just not one to auto accept what ever big brother tells me.
BFL:
‘I have no personal theories on the subject, but I do pay attention to other professionals that have no grant dime like climastrologists do. That puts me in good company, …’
You mean like the company of Van Jones who was brought in at the start of the Obama administration as Obama’s green jobs czar? That is, until it became public knowledge that Van Jones entertained the same absurd suspicion you do. No sir, that does not put you in good company.
Might I recommend you read up on Ramzi Yousef and his involvement in the 1993 WTC bombing. Then read up on Hakim Murad (who possessed a commercial pilot’s license from the UAE) and Khalid Sheik Muhammed, both of whom shared an apartment with Yousef in Manila in 1995. Then read up on the Bojinka plot and Murad’s interrogation by the Philippine authorities in 1995. Then let’s get realistic and recognize real scandals rather than entertaining vile fantasies.
Thomas Judd
Why bother to write the absurdity if you won’t try to defend the absurdity? If you believe it, stand up for it. If you don’t believe it, don’t say it.
If you haven’t read the real reports, written by real engineers, about how and why the towers fell you’re an idiot and deserve to wallow in ignorance. The ignorance that shows pictures of excavators working in “the hole” and claiming that days later the hole was filled with molten steel. The ignorance that ignores photographs of floor beams that are distorted by heat and dislodged by impact. The ignorance that doesn’t bother to find out that each floor of the World Trade Center weighed nearly one million pounds! The ignorance that never stopped to think that one million pounds moving one inch and accelerating will not be stopped until everything is on the ground.
So…here’s your chance. Buy the report. Read the report. Stop looking at photographs with specious captions attached by the ignorant and unscrupulous. You might learn that radical islam hates America and will do anything to bring us down. And with the further reports of spying on everyone, some of that hatred just might be justified.
pbh
“If you haven’t read the real reports, written by real engineers, ”
I know, we should fully trust government hired specialists who only take their own position (perhaps as directed) as important and ignore any and all accounts of those actually seeing results. Why are you then even at this web site as obviously the government paid climatologists are the real experts that wouldn’t dare obfuscate reality or falsify data and this site is just amateur entertainment much like those “others”. You should stop visiting this site immediately.
Perhaps the US is becoming worried people are working out that the Kyoto Protocol’s few percent of 1990 level emissions reduction commitment has already stopped global warming in its tracks for 18 years? … i.e. prior even to its ratification? 😀
Pine gap spy base Australia play’s it’s part. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/pine-gaps-new-spy-role-revealed-20150531-ghdefc.html
I wouldn’t read anything special into it. All governments spy on one another, the bigger and more successful governments will have greater resources available to them for spying. The US being the world’s superpower (albeit it is now on the wane) spies on everyone and gets its hands on everything it can. This story is just an example.
I think that it is safe to assume that every piece of digital information that passes over the airways 9through the net) is intercepted and monitored, and most high powered phone lines are tapped.
Fishermen use nets for trawling, the government the internet. The problem with this wholesale data trawling is that too much information is collected since it is more difficult to find a needle (the needle you are after) in a pile of needles than it is to find a needle in a haystack!
They did the same to Germany. Any repercussions apart from some words? Not that I have heard of.
They each bought a BlackBerry! Good for Waterloo…
They did the same to Germany. Any repercussions apart from some words? Not that I have heard of.
You need to dig a little deeper. There was considerable coverage in the German press.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/bnd-intelligence-scandal-puts-merkel-in-tight-place-a-1031944.html
However its all been forgotten now. Just a lingering bad taste and two more notches up the anti-american ratchet.
Now they can stop worrying. After this revelation Japanese surveillance is free to act in the US as it wishes, and will surely succeed in gathering as much intelligence as deemed necessary.
They will also secure internal channels of communication, so the NSA sources will dry up swiftly.
However, I am not sure the Japanese were not aware of these operations, not feeding BS to US intelligence all along. That’s what a close alliance calls for, does not it?
I see many comments saying that all governments spy on each other. I agree; given they have the size and power to do so. There are a few that most likely don’t have any real coordinated spying program other than listing to their people when they come back from a foreign visit or something like that. (again, a few)
However, if you have been keeping up then you know that technology and the scope of the US empire has reached a point to where the US is spying on the whole world. They are recording most every electronic interaction of even the American people and doing that in real time. This is the stuff of dystopian novels. Love him or not, Edward Snowden’s release of secrets confirmed what many of us had been saying for a long, long time. We had a far lesser level of proof than the Snowden documents provided. Mr. Assange has become a small fish compared to Snowden’s releases.
Note: the exact translation to English varies slightly
The words of Cardinal Richelieu were well known by the time of the America Revolution and the later writing of the Constitution that replaced the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution has the 4th amendment :
We now live in a time where the US empire is searching you at all times in a score of highly intrusive and comprehensive ways. At the end of a sci-fi short story that I read decades ago where a scientist had perfected a way to see into the past by looking where the earth used to be (like the fact we see stars as they were millions of years ago); the last line was “welcome to the fish bowl”.
Do we spy on everything the Japanese do? Of course we do, don’t be a child. Why should they get off? We spy on the mother country itself. (of course the English are most suspicious anyway — what with that 60s invasion by all those singers)
Welcome to the fish bowl my friends.
markstoval says:
Read it (short story by Isaac Asimov) — a chilling story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past
As “one of the 5 eyes”, I comment that all nations must gather information, and don’t ypu worry about Japanese capabilities, they are large. It is wikileaks and Assange, (who fled to where?), that have the problems. They are traitors,
Heh, Snowden’s first hideaway was China, and his ultimate refuge is Russia. Things that make you go ‘hmmm’. Well, that and eighteen and a half minutes of missing emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server.
Double heh, heh. She thought her private server was more secure than the government ones.
Triple heh, heh, heh. It was.
======================
Snowden was en route to Ecuador via Moscow where he was going to change planes. Meanwhile, the US threatened to sanction Ecuador’s flower industry if they gave Snowden sanctuary. Ecuador of course did the right thing by their citizens, and reversed their decision to give Snowden sanctuary, thus not sacrificing the livelihood of hundreds of their own citizens for one US whistleblower. The US government on the other hand was despicable. So Snowden was stranded in Moscow. And then all the government mouthpiece media regurgitates the government talking point that Snowden fled to Russia. And all the unquestioning sheeple just suck it all up.
Traitor to whom?