Stephen Lendman: What a Surprise: NSA Spies on Europe!

NSA spies globally. Enormous amounts of meta data are collected. It has been ongoing for decades. Post 9/11, it intensified. It is out of control today. It is lawless and menacing, but it persists. Spying domestically is not for national security, nor is monitoring allies. It is about control and for economic advantage. It is to be one up on foreign competitors. It is for economic advantage, and to be one up on foreign competitors. It is for information used advantageously in trade, political, and military relations. On June 30, London's Guardian headlined New NSA leaks show hoe US is bugging ite European allies. Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers reveal 38 targets including EU, France, Italy. Berlin accuses Washington of cold war tactics. One document includes 38 embassies and missions, calling them targets. Extraordinary spying methods are used. Bugs are planted in electronic communications gear. They monitor cable transmissions, doing so with specialized antennae. Targets include EU nations, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. China, Russia, Iran, and numerous other countries are spied on intensively. One bugging method is codenamed Dropmire. According to a 2007 document it is implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC. It refers to a bug placed in a commercially available encrypted fax machine used at the mission. It is used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals. NSA spying disclosures long predate Snowden's revelations. He connected important dots. He provided additional information. He made millions aware globally, previously they did not know. America's allies and enemies do. Perhaps they now know more, perhaps they criticized privately, but probably they were silent, they do the same things. Germany's Justice Minister Sabine Leuthheusser Schnarrenberger wants an explanation. Perhaps she already has one, but she did not say. If confirmed, she said, Washington's behavior reflects Cold War tactics. It is beyond imagination that our friends in the US view Europeans as the enemy, she stressed. The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius added: These acts, if confirmed, would be completely unacceptable. We expect the American authorities to answer the legitimate concerns raised by these press revelations as quickly as possible. German and French officials are too sophisticated not to know this. Going public perhaps hides prior knowledge. An old maxim says Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Machiavelli is believed to have said it. In the Godfather trilogy, Michael Coreleone said Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will always be victorious.