Furor grows in Europe over NSA spy network revelations

July 1, 2013 – EUROPE - The saga of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden took several more twists over the weekend as new revelations about US electronic snooping emerged. Susan Rice says Snowden leaks have no significant diplomatic consequences but Europeans are outraged at the US allegations of espionage. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that the NSA had bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks where it was able to read documents and emails. United Nations offices were similarly targeted, reports Der Spiegel based on information provided by Mr. Snowden. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said that if the report was correct, it would have a “severe impact” on relations between the EU and the United States, reports Reuters. “On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations,” he said in an emailed statement. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Der Spiegel: “If these reports are true, it’s disgusting. The United States would be better off monitoring its secret services rather than its allies. We must get a guarantee from the very highest level now that this stops immediately.”

Snowden himself remains in what amounts to protective custody at the airport in Moscow – unable to leave a transit hotel because he doesn’t have a Russian visa, unwilling at this point to return to the United States to face espionage charges, stuck there because no third country has yet to offer him asylum. As of Sunday, Snowden had been at the airport in Moscow for a week – a sort of “man without a country” (or at least without a proper US passport, since his has been invalidated). For a while, it seemed, Snowden was headed to Ecuador (by way of Cuba), the country that has provided refuge to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London. But Ecuador appears to be having second thoughts about that; at least it seems to have created a Catch-22 situation by announcing that it can’t consider asylum for Snowden until he presents himself in the country. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden has kept up official US pressure – urging Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in a telephone conversation Friday to reject any application for political asylum from Snowden. “As in all of our communications with foreign governments regarding Edward Snowden, we have advised the government of Ecuador of the felony charges against Mr. Snowden and urged that he should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States,” a US official told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. –CSM

Rise of the police state: Surveillance of our society is everywhere and will become increasingly more so with time. As prison populations continue to swell, sky-rocketing rates of crime and lawlessness ravage cities, and as terrorism goes high-tech; the emphasis of combating crime will undoubtedly shift more to the arena of prevention and monitoring. Cameras, eavesdropping, digital message intercepts and flying overhead drones, blimps, and satellites will saturate the planet- all furiously and meticulously searching the trail left by your digital information fingerprint. –The Extinction Protocol, pp 460, 461

For most Americans, the Fourth of July means barbecue and fireworks. But this year, a coalition of activists rallying to the cry of “Restore the Fourth” is hoping to use the day, both online and offline, to highlight what it calls serious violations of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The activists are targeting government surveillance programs, in particular PRISM, a project of the National Security Agency (NSA) recently revealed by a former contractor, Edward Snowden, now on the run. It gives the government broad access to Internet traffic and other electronic communications, including records of phone calls made and received by millions of Americans.

“The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights clearly protects all citizens’ assets, both digital and physical, against searches and seizures without warrant,” the groups say on the website restorethefourth.net, addiing that they aim to assert those rights.

Among their demands, that “the proper channels of government work to ensure that all policy complies with the supreme laws of the United States of America in their entirety.”

How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0106/How-much-do-you-know-about-the-US-Constitution-A-quiz/How-much-do-you-know-about-the-US-Constitution-A-quiz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought to allay concerns from German Chancellor Angela Merkel about reported U.S. spying on European allies on Wednesday, and they agreed to hold a high-level meeting on the subject in coming days. The European Union has demanded the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington was spying on its European allies, calling such surveillance shocking if true.

The reports came to light amid the imbroglio over former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details of surveillance activities by Washington. He is currently in limbo in a transit area of Moscow's airport as the United States pressures Moscow to expel him home. A White House statement said Obama and Merkel spoke by phone, a conversation that took place two weeks after they held face-to-face talks in Berlin.

"The president assured the chancellor that the United States takes seriously the concerns of our European allies and partners," the White House said, noting U.S. and EU officials would discuss intelligence and privacy issues as early as July 8.

If I may comment..

What my monkey eyes see about the NSA fallout at this current moment on the MSM is ... NOTHING from
BBC or Sky news (both gvt mouthpieces).
Euronews - another mouthpiece
RT.. Few buried stories that get wrapped up in Snowdens asylum rejections or the Egypt crisis.
I didnt check the papers, but most peeps here I see either do not or cannot read and don't give a .....blank.....
The furor is non existent so it appears.. many sheeple here know a little but the rest (the good stuff) is not fed into the sheeple diet.

Nothing to see or think here, move on...

It's pretty obvious that the media is controlled and too many Americans are drugged up along with being fed disinformation to protest.

Carol wrote:It's pretty obvious that the media is controlled and too many Americans are drugged up along with being fed disinformation to protest.

In Amerukka - for sure, we've known for a long time and yes, very obvious..
However, I was rather talking of Europe, which is what I believe the subject in the topic was about - "Furore in Europe".  

I grew up assuming that God (or at least the Angels) watched me (and listened to me) 24/7. I assumed that everything was recorded -- in preparation for the Final Judgment. I assume that multiple agencies know more about me than I know about myself. I assume that I'm going to deeply regret what I've said on the internet and on the telephone over the past five years. I presently have NO idea what God, the Angels, and the PTB want out of me. I get the feeling that whatever I say and do is WRONG -- so I'm almost to the point of not giving a rat's @ss. This world seems to reverence Looking-Good, Winning-Big, and Making-Money -- and perhaps the Gods and PTB reverence these things as well. Damned if I know. The truth be damned -- right???? Do we really think that the technological and surveillance genies are going to be put back in the bottle, at this late date??? I keep thinking that even if ALL of the bad guys and gals got demoted -- and ALL of the good guys and gals got promoted -- that we'd still be dealing with a lot of the same old BS. I really feel like not using the internet or the telephone at all -- just reading and using snail-mail. Perhaps I should move to the mountains, and completely withdraw from society. I think I'm half-way there already. I think I've had quite enough of the way things are.