<nettime> NSA-spying-on-Europe outrage somewhat disingenuous

[Armin Medosch <armin@easynet.co.uk>]

Hi,

it seems to me that the kind of outrage purportedly shown by German 
politicians and EU officials and parliamentarians about NSA leaks on 
spying is highly disingenuous, if not outright deceptive.
It has long been in the public domain that the USA were spying on their 
allies, and that a primary motivation for that was to gain commercial 
advantage.
I am not just pointing at the Echelon and Enfopol affairs in general but 
on specific work I have done with Duncan Campbell during my last year at 
Telepolis on US wirertapping for commercial reasons, so called COMINT.
The English investigative journalist Duncan Campbell was commissioned by 
the temporary committee of the European Parliament to write four 
reports. His summary, as well as the background papers, have been 
published on TP, when I was still editor of that magazine 
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/7/7753/1.html
What was interesting was that while initial relevations aboput Echelon 
in 1999-2000 had created quite a stir, those relevations just a year 
later were passed over relatively quietly.
Maybe an indication that shows that Germans and EU officials were not 
that keen on taking that story further. About the reasons for that one 
can only speculate.
But to pretend now that all that gets revealed by Snowden comes highly 
surprising, that is really strange. It can only mean that a lot of 
covering up has to be done ... or anyone any other ideas
best
Armin





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