Submitted by Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency’s vast capability for spying on Americans’ electronic communications prompted a number of tech executives whose firms cooperated with the government to insist they had done so only when compelled by a court of law.
But Al Jazeera has obtained two sets of email communications dating from a year before Snowden became a household name that suggest not all cooperation was under pressure.
I’m so surprised.
Maybe I’m missing something, but what’s wrong with Google execs attending a meeting on security of mobile devices? The article seems to implicitly accuse them of agreeing to participate in the NSA surveillance program, but the actual emails have none of that.
Edited 2014-05-11 00:20 UTC
There is absolutely nothing damning in the article to either the NSA or Google, and it’s a shame that Al Jazeera has dilapidated in quality reporting so quickly after launching their American branch that they can’t resist doing click bait like this.
And there is nothing wrong with their reporting. The news agency is just pointing out that the statements from the tech industry don’t quite line up with these emails. Google and others acted like they were dragged kicking and screaming into this mess. Now we see that they participated at least somewhat willingly.
Also note that even if this is true, we have no idea where the line between being a patriot and being a creepy overlord spy actually lies for any of these corporations. Maybe at that time Google thought it was doing the right thing. The picture is still far from complete.
Participated in what exactly? There’s no evidence in the article that they participated in the surveillance program.
Every US based service is a data collector for the US government. I would even go so far as to suggest Google, Facebook and Twitter are little more than public fronts for the US intelligence services.
Edited 2014-05-11 01:06 UTC
I wouldn’t go that far, not that I trust any of the above. But that mistrust is because they are corporations who don’t see people as people, they see them as mines full of valuable information. If in the course of mining those people, the government manages to look over their shoulder, well they just make some noise about how terrible the government is for doing so, and then go on mining as usual.
In short, they aren’t working with the government, so much as working beside them.
Big Brotha watches U.
How on earth did Al Jazeera come to any conclusions whatsoever based on the two e-mails that they present in that article? The e-mails literally consist of “sorry, can’t make it” or “sure, i’ll cya there” responses to Gen. Alexander’s invites.
A shameful article given Al Jazeera’s generally high standards.
The NSA is a lot more than what most people think. Most people have no idea what exactly the NSA stands for. Information gathering is just a small part of a very vast array of activities that fall under them. There are lots of incredibly bright minds in their cryptography divisions, some would even argue a few of the best minds on this planet doing extraordinary things that most of us wouldn’t even know where to begin.
So show a little more respect to this organization and its personnel. You may not agree with the Government’s policies, but that’s another matter entirely, and for those issues you’re barking up the wrong tree anyway. Separate the privacy issues from the actual work that they’re doing and the thankless work that goes into protecting the National Security, which we all depend on.
Yes we know. That is why they found the heartbleed bug and use it to spy on us.
We should forget the bad things NSA does and try to remember the good things they do in secret. Respect the NSA and MIB because they save the world on an almost daily basis but nobody can ever know.
Yes, it is kinda petty of us, isn’t it? Complaining about data collection and privacy when these guys are out there, every day, putting their life on the line protection us from gigantic alien cockroaches.
You ungrateful bastard! The NSA has saved us from thousands of attacks by alien cockroaches!
Laugh all you want, unless you have something to hide, there is nothing to fear.
Okay, 1c3d0g, if that is your real name.
You know, just because I don’t have anything to it doesn’t mean I want the government in my house checking everything I do. If I did I’d just move to North Korea.
I wasn’t aware they were walking around in your house. You should buy a lock for your doors, if that’s the case.
With all this is going on they might as well be.
Except then the government would a) have a master key and b) consider me a terrorist for valuing my privacy.
Because, really, why would I be concerned if I have nothing to hide?
Your analogy doesn’t make any sense. If you’ve done nothing, nobody can call you a “terrorist”. As far as I’m aware, we still live in an “innocent until proven guilty” society.
Because that has NEVER happened. Among the many examples that comes to mind I’ll just pick one:
the treatment of American citizens of Japanese heritage during WW2. Or all the innocents that was held at Gitmo.
One could ask what fantasy world *you* live in….
Not really.
It sucks that you are (probably) living in the U.S. Over here in the Caribbean, we don’t have to deal with discrimination like that. Everybody gets accepted the way they are, if anybody makes fun of people they don’t like, they get punched straight in their fucking face.
I’ll just leave a link to just one example of “extraordinary rendition” (nice newspeak BTW):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Pit#Khalid_El-Masri
Are you sure your name is dissimilar enough? Gitmo is quite close to you…
“all”? Sorry but not everyone is a US citizen.
Neither am I. Still, when shit hits the fan, I’m sure you’ll be the first to thank them for assistance.
The US has started half a dozen unprovoked wars in the last 15 years. They were bombed by their close allies the Saudis in 2001 so they decided to declare war on innocent Iraq and Afghanistan citizens.
As we speak the US is trying to install a puppet government in Ukraine and restart the Cold War. Obama has just taken sides with Japan against China.
The US is financially and morally bankrupt.
That’s…a little far-fetched. I fully agree the Iraq war was extremely unnecessary and pointless. But Afghanistan? I sure as hell am glad those f–kers don’t have a huge country’s government backing them up! Plus now that Osama
is dead, it’s time to wind down the military operations.
As for Ukraine, damn right! The U.S. should keep their noses FAR away from that mess. Whatever the Ukrainian people decide is best for their country, should happen, without any outside influence.
Edited 2014-05-13 04:51 UTC
Saudi Arabia is far worse than Afghanistan. There is a considerable body of evidence that the 9/11 was supported and funded by very high ranking Saudi officials (members of the royal family).
Osama and the Taliban were originally a creation of the US intelligence services. Killing Osama (Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said he probably died in 2002. There are also no photos or independent witnesses to his death) won’t make an iota of difference.
Well…I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, unless there’s a smoking gun somewhere. Having said that, it would be nearly impossible to keep such a huge undertaking secret for very long. I guess time will tell.
Edited 2014-05-13 13:26 UTC
Now, the previous puppet gov of Russia was generally probably worse for the people of Ukraine* – and it’s not like Russia didn’t do any questionable moves in the region, in the last few months.
*one can call your government and mine (Poland) to be puppets of US, too – still, wouldn’t you rather live under US puppet than under Russian or Chinese? :p Then there’s the also EU involvement in Ukraine…
Unless you have oil, good luck with the assistance.
Well Ukraine doesn’t have any.
Poland (my place) likewise…
I suppose ethnicities of people living in a given place matter too… :/
I’m not an American. I certainly don’t feel that the NSA is protecting me.
Electronic surveillance is basically useless for preventing terror attacks because there is no effective way of determining which information is going to be useful. I’m pretty sure potential terrorists and foreign powers spend a lot of time and effort disseminating phony information to counter intelligence gathering.
I’m going to do a Godwin here. You could have said exactly the same think about Nazi Germany. They employed some of the most brilliant scientists in the world. I’m sure most of these scientists genuinely believed they were protecting the German people from evil foreigners.
Edited 2014-05-11 07:49 UTC
Way to go. Comparing Nazi’s to N.S.A. personnel. Pretty low, if you ask me.
If that’s how much the privacy advocates have brainwashed you, then I’m afraid there’s no sense in continuing any sort of dialogue with you.
Bullshit. I compared NSA personnel with scientists working for the Nazi state. Both groups believed they were working for the greater good.
You should read Eisenhower’s speech on how the Military industrial Complex creates phoney threats to extract money from a fearful public. Yet the 3-letter agencies all ignored highly specific warnings about 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombers.
I’ma just gonna pretend you’re either really bad at sarcasm or just decided to troll on a lazy Sunday. As I find the possibility you may actually be serious frightening.
Edited 2014-05-11 17:48 UTC
I’m not sure if you’re trying to be funny or not. Either way it’s not working out for you.
… but enough about yourself.
What exactly is it that is surprising you? The incredibly lack of quality in the article or the fact that there is absolutely nothing in those emails that in any way links Google to NSA in a nefarious way?
I interpreted his comment was:
I’m not surprised that the NSA and Google are buddies.
Just some random cruft to create work for the NSA:
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If company should bust to find National Operations Center from the child.
A way scammed, “There’s Montag! The government shoots used!”
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“That’s all very well, but how can I work it now, I bust for it. We’ve locked to recover.
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Is there some generator? :p
Snowden did not disclose anything. He was a facilitator but it was Greenwald through the media outlets he chose that disclosed the information after consulting with the NSA and got the green light to publish. The narrative is to make it look like Snowden disclosed the info so that the government can take him to court for treason charges among other things.