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Merkel most certainly knew that we were trying to spy on her calls. After all, "Spying on foreigners is the raison d'etre of the NSA, CIA, et al." She might n
by dpark 10y ago
Merkel most certainly knew that we were trying to spy on her calls. After all, "Spying on foreigners is the raison d'etre of the NSA, CIA, et al." She might not have known we were successful, but she must have assumed we were trying and had a high probability of success. The alternative is that she's incompetent and so is her security staff. China and Russia are undoubtedly also doing their best to tap Merkel's phone. If it's "criminal negligence" for Merkel to use an unencrypted phone now, it was before as well.
Dual_EC_DRGB was known to be shady and risky and any nation's security agency relying on it before Snowden's leaks is beyond incompetent. The only people legitimately compromised by this would have been private citizens, largely American citizens, the same people you say Snowden's leaks should have been restricted to.
- notpc 10y agoYou've got to be kidding me. This is quite straight forward. 1. America has figured out how to listen to Merkel's phone calls. 2. Merkel finds out we listen to her phone calls. 3. Merkel stop using her phone for communications. 4. US is no longer able to listen to Merkel's phone calls. Or: 1. US listens in on embassy. 2. Embassy finds out US is listening. 3. Embassy searches for and finds the bug. 4. US is no longer listening to the embassy. Now apply this, at large, at the same time, to everyone that Snowden revealed we were spying on.
- dpark 10y ago1. America has figured out how to listen to Merkel's phone calls. 2. Merkel finds out we listen to her phone calls. 3. Merkel stop using her phone for communications. 4. America bugs Merkel's house. Or 1. US listens in on embassy. 2. Embassy finds out US is listening. 3. Embassy searches for and finds the bug. 4. US plants a new bug. No one was shocked about the US spying except the most willfully naive. Any party capable of consistently detecting and thwarting US attempts at spying was doing so already and any party not capable of doing so is still not. It's not as if after the Snowden leaks the rest of the world suddenly realized the US engages in espionage. I'm sure that the US lost the ability to use a few bugs/taps/whatever. I'm also sure they had more and have planted more. The core thrust of your argument is that awareness of the US successfully spying is sufficient to allow those being spied on to block future spying. I don't buy it because if they had the capability, those being spied on would have already blocked the previous spying.