EU a Key NSA Target

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Stephen Lendman
Activist Post

Previous articles discussed institutionalized NSA spying. It’s a rogue agency. It’s out-of-control. It operates lawlessly. It manufactures fake security threats. The only real ones are state-sponsored.

NSA subverts fundamental freedoms. It targets dissent. It wants whistleblowers silenced. It conducts espionage on allies. EU nations are prime targets.

On August 10, Der Spiegel headlined “Secret Documents: NSA listens to EU representations with bugs.” More on that below.

A previous article discussed NSA spying on Europe. It’s longstanding practice. Enormous amounts of meta-data are collected. It’s unrelated to national security.

It’s pure espionage. It’s for economic advantage. It’s to be one up on foreign competitors. It’s for information used advantageously in trade, political, and military relations.

Foreign embassies, consulates and missions are bugged. NSA calls them “targets.” Extraordinary spying methods are used. Bugs are planted in electronic communications gear.

They monitor cable transmissions. They use “specialised antennae.” Targets include EU nations, Russia, China, Iran, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey and others.

One bugging method is codenamed “Dropmire.” It’s implanted in the EU’s Washington embassy Cryptofax.

It’s a bug placed in an encrypted fax machine. It’s used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals.

NSA bugs the EU’s Brussels-based Justice Lipsius building. It hosts summit and ministerial meetings. Bugging’s handled from nearby NATO headquarters. Washington bears full responsibility.

Another covert operation copies everything on targeted computer hard drives.

Bugging the EU’s UN headquarters mission is codenamed “Perdido.” Documents Snowden revealed show a floor plan. Data collection methods include bugs inside electronic devices.

EU’s Washington’s location is bugged. Multiple operations target 90 embassy staff members. EU nations spy on each other. It’s standard practice.

Some do it better than others. NSA’s perhaps most sophisticated of all. It spies. It hacks. It does so globally. It operates extrajudicially. It’s a rogue power unto itself.

It works cooperatively with Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence agency. It funds some of its operations. It influences them.

GCHQ goes out of its way to please its paymaster partner. NSA accepts no other way. They jointly wage war on fundamental freedoms.

They work cooperatively with other Western spy agencies. They do it secretly, destructively and lawlessly. It’s longstanding practice.

It’s worse than ever now. It persists despite promises of reform. None whatever are coming. Obama spurns them. He intensified NSA spying on his watch.

He won’t roll back what he authorized. He released two unclassified white papers. He called doing a step toward transparency.

Candidate Obama promised it. In office, he spurned it straightaway. His administration’s the most secretive in US history. He exceeds the worst of George Bush.

He says one thing. He does another. He does it every time. His promises ring hollow. They lack credibility. He’s a serial liar. He can’t be trusted.

Documents he released explained little. One was a legal analysis of bulk telecommunication collections. The other was a generic explanation of NSA’s foreign surveillance activities.

It said little more than what’s already known. Neither release has much value. They’re more show than tell.

Meta-data mining violates core constitutional provisions. Checks and balances don’t exist. All three branches of government are complicit.

Congress is largely dismissive. Courts look the other way. Rule of law principles don’t matter. Right wing extremists run America. Democrats are complicit with Republicans. Obama’s worst of all. His rhetoric belies his policies.

Anything goes is policy. The worst is yet to come. Police states operate that way. America’s by far the worst.

On August 10, Der Spiegel said NSA “not only monitors the communications of European citizens, but apparently (targets) the EU building.”

This is clear from secret documents that the whistleblower Edward Snowden owns and Der Spiegel could see in parts. 

A ‘top secret’ classified NSA paper in September 2010 describes how (NSA) attacked the EU’s diplomatic representation in Washington. 

Not only bugs were installed in the building in the US capital, but also the internal computer network was infiltrated. 

In this way, the Americans not only get access to meetings at the premises of the EU, but also to e-mails and internal documents on the computers.

According to SPIEGEL-obtained documents, “EU representation has been attacked in like manner as those in Washington and at the United Nations.”

US Secret Service operatives are involved in bugging Brussels. EU security experts discovered a US-controlled NATO telecommunications system. It targets EU nations. It does so secretly.

Spies “R” us defines US policy. Everyone’s watched everywhere all the time. Freedom’s on the chopping block for elimination. War on humanity rages. It’s ongoing at home and abroad.

It persists militarily, politically, financially and repressively. It made America a pariah state. It threatens humanity’s survival.

Lawlessness is the new normal. Rule of law principles don’t matter. Democracy’s a figure of speech. It’s a convenient illusion. Tyranny approaches full-blown.

America’s no fit place to live in. Federal Register figures show expatriate numbers rose exponentially. In March through June, they increased sixfold year-over year.

They did so from 189 to 1,131. It’s nearly five times more than throughout 2008. Millions of expats want no part of returning.

It’s for good reason. Supporting what’s right is criminalized. Obama heads a repressive police state apparatus. The late Chalmers Johnson said it’s too late for scattered reforms. Tyranny’s too firmly entrenched.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected]. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays 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/