EU rage at US over US spying

If through all of this saga with the US and Snowden there was a point that something blew up in the face of the US, this likely is it. Spying, snooping, the fuckin lot, caught right completely out by documents released from Snowden showing all of this being done on a massive scale to Europe. Yes Europe, where such things in the past bring back terrible memories when democracy was lost. Not to enemies of the US, but it's doing it to it's so called friends. Such a thing I'd suggest, given Europe's painful past, must be unthinkable to many Europeans. But to have it done by a friend? 

Yes, the US is laid bare before the world, caught out in it's own lies and deceit. Again, not lies and deceit to it's enemies, but to it's friends.

Perhaps this will turn into a watershed moment? Perhaps allies like us will be more thoughtful and balanced before rushing headlong into their next stupid war. Edward Snowden is a fuckin hero.

Reading through this out of the Sydney Morning herald, I found my jaw constantly dropping. This shit is huge:

According to the Der Spiegel reports, The US National Security Agency has bugged the EU offices in Washington and its mission to the United Nations in New York and has hacked into the EU’s computer network, directing a flood of EU correspondence, documentation and high-level meeting conversations to analysts in the US.

Also revealed is a huge eavesdropping operation in Brussels, seemingly conducted from a building at the headquarters of NATO, of which 20 or more European countries are members, against on the telecommunications system at the EU headquarters in the same city. According to the reports, every EU member state has rooms at the building, with telephone and internet connections, which are used by EU ministers.

Singled out for the greatest US attention, in what appeared to be an operation that goes beyond that focused on the EU, is Germany with as many as 500 million communications, by phone and internet, being monitored each month, according to the documents.

“We can attack the signals of most foreign and third-class partners, and we do it too,” the German magazine quotes from one of the NSA documents.Read more

No wonder the EU is enraged. Already the so called close relationship the US has with the EU is showing large cracks. Along with the reactions from various countries, there is also suggestions of postponing hugely important trade talks over this.

The first target of European anger at the revelations could be ambitious negotiations for a trans-Atlantic trade pact worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The first substantive talks on the deal are scheduled to get underway this week.

But amid angry comparisons of US spying with the work of the hated Stasi in post-WWII East Germany and claims that Washington has reverted to the worst conduct of the Cold War, there were calls for the talks to be postponed, pending Washington explaining itself. Read more

And probably the most scathing comment of many in the story:  

Elmar Brok, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the European Parliament: “The spying has reached dimensions that I didn’t think were possible in a democratic country. Such behavior among allies is intolerable. They have completely lost balance – George Orwell is nothing by comparison.” Read more