Prism

[Slayer]

But that they spy the EU also shows that they fear to lose their leading position in the world. They either don't trust the EU or want to gain an advantage of information over other countries.

But of course, any country which considers itself leading, is afraid to lose it's position.

But where is the US' trustworthyness? How can you believe them after this? How much is the word of the president worth?

It's not like those issues weren't existing before this came out. This is simply yet another event where people can question the US with good grounds.

[RonidLanis]

Personally, I don't care that much about espionage of myself. I don't like it, but I am a lot more worried of the political part of the surveillance. That they do it on the EU, which should be considered somewhat Allied. It brings up questions of what the USA plans to be in future. I don't mind too much that they are paranoid of terrorism. But political espionage... On Russia, on China, the Middle East, would not be surprising and they are probably on it too. But that they spy the EU also shows that they fear to lose their leading position in the world. They either don't trust the EU or want to gain an advantage of information over other countries.

Exactly! They want to know more about us, Euros, than we know about them, so that in the right time they will use it against us. America has its Manifest Destiny, and although they don't expand as much as in the 19th and 20th centuries through conquest, they want to expand economically. They know that it's not easy in Europes since we have pretty much closed market and they need to find a place to sell they stuff asap, as Chinese are way ahead of them. So, they will use it against the EU and it's not about trust, but rather about "survival".

[Dukat]

It looks to me like this will affect the political relations between the American Alliance (USA + Commonwealth) and the rest of europe. America is asking for a cold war with europe. And currently I see no reason why America should not get what they ask for.

[Dukat]

http://www.inquisitr.com/855289/jimmy-carter-defends-edward-snowden-says-america-has-no-functioning-democracy

Thanks a lot, Jimmy.

[Surfbird]

Good statement. Snowden is far from being a criminal to me and it was about the time some person with influence comments on this.

Other than that it looks like the Bundesnachrichtendienst (the German secret service) has been cooperating with the NSA and known about a lot of this if not everything. At least it looks like they got information from them, they were unable to gather for themselves. Not that cooperation with the US secret services is something unusual, but interesting nevertheless.

[Dukat]

Calculation of the drawbacks of prism for the american cloud computing industry:

As a result the Foundation estimates that US cloud service providers stand to lose somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent of the foreign market to European or Asian competitors in the next few years,...

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9f02b396-fdf0-11e2-a5b1-00144feabdc0.html

[sn00x]

"When asked whether the United States' controversial surveillance programs have helped provide intelligence that led to the terror alarm, Obama responded that the programs are necessary to combat terrorism. But he added that more must be done to assure that Americans themselves are not being spied on."

I didnt care untill now, that son of a bitch actually says its ok to spy on whoever they want, as long as its not americans. I allways loved the US, more than my own country.. Well this is about to change.

[Dukat]

On a presentation former NSA chief Michael Hayden talked about what if Edward Snowden gets caught by the USA:

"If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?" [...] referring to "nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years. [...] Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for al-Qaida."

After foreign/sovereign countries and terrorists, these people are being considered the latest enemys of the USA. Are you a twentysomethings-who-haven't-talked-to-the-opposite-sex-in-five-or-six-years? Then consider yourself suspicious and a potential enemy of the state.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/06/nsa-director-cyber-terrorism-snowden

[Zoologic]

Then why they criticize Iran or People's Republic of China for monitoring their citizen's internet activity?

What a load of hypocrisy.

They are so afraid with the terrorist that they resorted to fear mongering tactics. Wait, Indonesia has been bombed more than 5 times, and we have yet to change dramatically. It shows how weak US mentality is.

[hslan.Corvax]

http://gizmodo.com/somebody-read-government-goons-shut-down-edward-snow-1070103469

The NSA took down Snowdens mail provider of choice, or rather, they took themselves down rather than handing out his mails. Lavabit founder now runs risk of being partner in crimes against america for not complying with the fed and also got congress papers to not lose a word about details.

for me thats clearly blackmailing, ignoring the 4th Amendment and freedom of speech.

[Dukat]

It appears that proof used in the closure of the famous filehoster 'Megaupload' has been collected using the Prism program, namely through XKEYSCORE.
Contrary to official statements that Prism is being used for anti-terror-countermeasures only, it seems now like Prism is being used to track down common criminals and crimes as well.
At best, Kim Kimble and filehosters must have been about hitting the US content industry that hard, that the filesharing industry was considered a threat to the nation, thus rendering Mr. Dotcom a terrorist.

I wonder who will be considered the next threat on national security. You, me, somebody else?


http://www.itnews.com.au/News/354407,nz-police-affidavits-show-use-of-prism-for-surveillance.aspx