NSA REVEALED BY SNOWDEN – CHRIS HEDGES AT OXFORD

NSA = REVEALED AND CAN NEVER BE HIDDEN AGAIN

Noam Chomsky = Can’t trust NYT

NOW Obama plans to rein in NSA’s indiscriminate telephone records data = WEAK TWEAKS = He confirms NSA is a permanent feature of OUR SECRET GOV doing permanent intrusion into every American’s personal sovereignty.

Another batch of documents by Snowden = More truth about world in one year than our media told us in two decades.

Obama continues NSA’s mandate untouched for 3+ MONTHS

Someday NSA will not be allowed to retain telephone records but obtain any it wants from the telephone companies upon request with FISA COURT ORDER. = FISA = As invisible as NSA = “The new type of surveillance court orders envisioned by the administration would require phone companies to SWIFTLY provide records in a technologically compatible data format.” = NSA gets phone data two (NOT THREE) steps out from a telephone number associated with a terrorism suspect = , NO serious intent to halt ERA of post-constitutional law.

CONCERNS = People most vigilant of civil liberties and constitutional rights = Caving in

CONCERNS = The American Civil Liberties Union: “We agree with the administration that the NSA’s bulk collection of call records should end.” BUT PHONE COMPANIES ARE OK

CONCERNS = NYT = Obama “calibrated curbs” must avoid provoking the Surveillance State = Chilling = What are we witnessing with NYT phrase “post-constitutional law”? = Some kind of slow-mo COUP with Security/Surveillance State immune from all law and Constitution? Computers watching over us?
ON CHINA:

NSA’s cyberwar against China telecommunications Company = Huawei Technologies = NSA has been breaking into Huawei’s networks since 2009

NSA uses Egregious FALSE scare campaign claiming Huawei is close to the People’s Liberation Army and conduits for Chinese government intelligence-gathering programs. = Barred GOV from purchasing Huawei equipment = Threat to American security = US TECH GIANTS = Huawei is now a $40 Billion-a-year operation with global reach. = NSA FOUND NOTHING!

Huawei exec nails it, “The irony is that exactly what they are doing to us is what they have always charged that the Chinese are doing through us….If such espionage has been truly conducted, then it is known that the company is independent and has no unusual ties to any government, and that knowledge should be relayed publicly to put an end to an era of mis- and disinformation.” says William Plummer, a Huawei man in America.

Snowden docs SHOW = NSA wants to use the Chinese company to cyber-attack its many customers who use it to avoid running data through US-controlled systems. = Cubans + Iranians + Afghans and so on = More and more governments, companies and people are BYPASSING American servers to avoid NSA’s tentacles. NSA & USA GOV CALLS THIS THEFT FROM MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES! BUT “NSA breaks into foreign networks only for legitimate national security purposes.” – WaPo

Spiegel reports = “In the past, the network infrastructure business has been dominated by Western firms, but the Chinese are working to make American and Western firms ‘less relevant.’ That Chinese push is beginning to open up technology standards that were long determined by US companies, and China is controlling an increasing amount of the flow of information on the net.” = Huawei’s evident dynamism threatens market of Cisco Systems. = NSA’s “legitimate national security purposes.”

Huawei case = American thinking about China runs deep = Rotted remains of prejudices-obscuring-fears about the doings of the Chinese. = Chinese are dangerous aggressors = FACT: A nation struggling to feed itself + Pave its roads + Move beyond centuries of humiliation at the hands of others.

Cyberwar in progress = Shows in Snowden documents = NSA on China = Time to Negotiate an agreement with China.

SOURCE:  Patrick Smith in Salon Article – was International Herald Tribune’s bureau chief in Hong Kong and then Tokyo from 1985 to 1992. + Author of 4 previous books

Click for source Article in Salon