Mission Accomplished, Says Snowden: Obama Exceeds The Worst Of His Predecessors
20 December 2013
By Stephen Lendman
On December 23, he told the Washington Post:
"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the
mission's already accomplished. I already won."
"As soon as the journalists were able to work,
everything that I had been trying to do was validated.
Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I
wanted to give society a chance to determine if it
should change itself."
"All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a
say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we
left a long time ago. Right now, all we are looking at
are stretch goals."
WaPo called Snowden "an orderly thinker, with an
engineer's approach to problem-solving."
"He had come to believe that a dangerous machine of
mass surveillance was growing unchecked."
Woefully inadequate congressional oversight and
rubber-stamp FISA court rulings reflect a "graveyard
of judgment," he said.
NSA's business is "information dominance," he
stressed. He didn't know if others would share his
views.
"But when you weigh that against the alternative,
which is not to act, you realize that some analysis is
better than" none, he said.
"Because even if your analysis proves to be wrong, the
marketplace of ideas will bear that out."
"If you look at it from an engineering perspective, an
iterative perspective, it's clear that you have to try
something rather than do nothing."
He succeeded beyond anything he could have imagined.
He captured world attention. Millions consider him
heroic. There's no turning back now.
On June 22, a Justice Department criminal complaint
charged him with espionage and felony theft of
government property.
He signed NSA's Standard Form 312. He called it a
civil contract. "The oath of allegiance is not an oath
of secrecy," he said.
"This is an oath to the Constitution. That is the oath
that I kept that (NSA chief) Keith Alexander and
(Director of National Intelligence) James Clapper did
not."
He's irresponsibly accused of disloyalty. "I am not
trying to bring down the NSA," he stressed.
"I am working to improve" it. "I am still working for
the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't
realize it."
"The system failed comprehensively, and each level of
oversight, each level of responsibility that should
have addressed this, abdicated their responsibility,"
he said.
Some of his NSA colleagues feel the same way. They
were "astonished to learn we are collecting more in
the United States on Americans than we are on Russians
in Russia."
"What the government wants is something they never had
before," he stressed.
"They want total awareness. The question is, is that
something we should be allowing?" Does Washington have
the right to invade everyone's privacy?
Should NSA be permitted to eliminate private spaces
altogether? Do rule of law principles no longer
matter? Is freedom a convenient illusion?
Snowden dismisses disloyalty accusations. He didn't
pass on state secrets to Russia and China, he
stressed.
"If I defected at all," he said, "I defected from the
government to the public."
It bears repeating. Millions call him a hero. He
connected important dots. He's the gift that keeps on
giving.
On December 20, Der Spiegel reported more. It
headlined "How GCHQ Monitors Germany, Israel and the
EU," saying:
Snowden documents "show that Britain's GCHQ
(Government Communications Headquarters) signals
intelligence has targeted European, German and Israeli
politicians for surveillance."
Suspicions surfaced last summer, said Der Spiegel.
Snowden documents confirm them. They provide "concrete
evidence."
GCHQ and NSA operate jointly. They target UNICEF and
other UN organizations. Medecins du Monde is a French
organization. It sends doctors and other medical
professions to conflict zones.
It's on NSA/GCHQ's target list. So is Economic
Community of West African States' (ECOWAS) head Kadre
Desire Ouedraogo. Communications with his colleagues
are monitored.
Targeting Angela Merkel, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, and
other world leaders was disclosed earlier. New
revelations show Israeli officials are watched.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was
targeted. So was former Defense Secretary Ehud Barak
and his chief of staff, Yoni Koren. More on
surveilling Israel below.
European Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia's
name showed up on NSA/GCHQ's target list.
Last October, UK Prime Minister David Cameron endorsed
an EU statement. It condemned NSA/GCHQ spying on world
leaders.
He did so knowing it was ongoing at the time. He lied
claiming opposition. He could stop it through
parliamentary action. Legislation could declare it
illegal.
Political Britain is in bed with GCHQ the way
Washington endorses unconstitutional NSA spying.
Disclosures show both agencies are rogue operations.
They go way beyond what's lawful. They do it with
impunity.
Snowden documents provide no insight into why
organizations and individuals unrelated to national
security are targeted.
He called doing so NSA's "total awareness" obsession.
It wants privacy entirely eliminated. It wants the
ability to monitor everyone, everywhere, at all times.
It wants no one escaping its dragnet.
US law prohibits economic spying. NSA does it anyway.
Under Britain's Intelligence and Security Act, GCHQ
may work "in the interests of national security, with
particular reference to the defence and foreign
policies of Her Majesty's government; in the interests
of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom; and
in support of the prevention and the detection of
serious crime."
Critics raise serious questions. National security is
left undefined. So is protecting economic well-being
beyond helping UK companies defend themselves against
intellectual property theft or cyber-attacks.
Earlier Snowden documents showed NSA and GCHQ conduct
industrial espionage. They do so for economic
advantage. They do it illegally. They do it anyway.
They do it with impunity.
When questioned, both agencies lie. They claim they
operate lawfully. Clear evidence proves otherwise.
Documents show NSA/GCHQ spying is remarkably
comprehensive. No government or other officials of
interest are left behind. Ordinary people are mass
surveilled.
According to Der Spiegel:
"In addition to many political and 'diplomatic
targets,' (target) lists contain African leaders,
their family members, ambassadors and businesspeople."
"They also include representatives of international
organizations, such as those of United Nations
agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN
Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)."
"A noticeably large number of diplomatic missions to
the United Nations in Geneva are also listed."
"Even non-governmental organizations like Doctors of
the World (Medicins du Monde) appear on the British
intelligence agency lists, along with a representative
of the Swiss IdeasCentre and others."
"Individual companies can also be found on the list,
especially in the fields of telecommunications and
banking."
"The partly government-owned French defense contractor
Thales, along with Paris-based energy giant Total, is
also mentioned."
NSA and GCHQ constantly search for new targets. They
want nothing of potential importance escaping their
dragnet.
Netanyahu criticized NSA spying on Israel, saying:
"With regard to things published in the past few days,
I have asked for an examination of the matter."
"In the close ties between Israel and the United
States, there are certain things friends mustn't do to
each other." They're "not acceptable to us."
Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said he
assumes it's spied on by allies. He stopped short of
admitting Israel's extensive spying operation.
Israeli MK Nachman Shai lied saying:
"Israel is a friendly state to the US." (It) stopped
all espionage" on America 30 years ago.
False! Israel spies aggressively. It does so on all
allies. In 2011, former CIA counterintelligence
specialist/military intelligence officer Philip
Giraldi said Israel steals everything it gets its
hands on. It includes military and industrial secrets.
"The reality of Israeli spying is indisputable. (It)
always features prominently in annual FBI reports."
Washington's Government Accountability Office (GAO)
said Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage
operation against the United States of any US ally."
The Pentagon accused Israel of "actively engag(ing) in
military and industrial espionage in the United
States."
"An Israeli citizen working in the US who has access
to proprietary information is likely to be a target of
such espionage."
FBI whistleblower John Cole said Justice Department
officials ordered dozens of Israeli espionage cases
dropped. At issue was political pressure.
Despite longstanding ties, "US national security
officials consider Israel to be, at times, a
frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence
threat," he added.
The CIA considers Israel its main Middle East
counterintelligence threat. Its operations are highly
sophisticated.
Netanyahu claiming allies don't spy on us doesn't
wash. Israel violates fundamental rule of law
principles. It does so as egregiously as America.
Obama exceeds the worst of his predecessors. So does
Netanyahu. Both leaders threaten world peace and
security. Lawless spying reflects the tip of their
rogue governance.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is
titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on
Humanity." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen
to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests
on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive
Radio Network. It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time
and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
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