Boing Boing on Snowdens testimony to the EU: Snowden turns out to be an extremely talented writer who beautifully lays out his arguments, managing the trick of being dispassionate while simultaneously conveying the import of his subject matter. Snowden makes the point that his testimony doesnt disclose anything that the press hasnt already published, but theres been so much that its worth reviewing some of it. He directs our attention to something Id missed: the NSAs Foreign Affairs Division (FAD) spends an extraordinary amount of time lobbying EU nations (and other countries) to change their laws so that the NSA can legally spy on everyone in the country. Whats more, they cook these deals -- for example, theyll get German permission to listen in on everything by non-Germans and get a Danish deal that covers all the non-Danes, but since the Internet backbones traverse both countries, they can spy on Germans in Denmark and Danes in Germany. As Snowden says, The surest way for any nation to become subject to unnecessary surveillance is to allow its spies to dictate its policy. Snowden also reveals that before he blew the whistle on the NSA, he reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:02:18 +0000
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