Just over two weeks ago, Obama made a promise to the world. "The main thing I want to emphasize is that I don't have an interest and the people at the NSA don't have an interest in doing anything other than making sure that (...) we can prevent a terrorist attack," Obama said...We do not have an interest in doing anything other than that."
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Obama's public appearance was aimed at reassuring his critics. At the same time, he made a commitment. He gave assurances that the NSA is a clean agency that isn't involved in any dirty work. Obama has given his word on this matter. The only problem is that, if internal NSA documents are to be believed, it isn't true.
-Der Spiegel.
Trust, that is the crux of the matter. When the United Nations built its headquarters in New York City, it was because the world trusted America. Now America is bugging the UN.
It is no exaggeration to say that the worldwide web is headquartered in America, also. The world trusted America with the nerve center of the internet. To the American National Security Agency that was a fortuitous gift, it was a dancing oasis. As the early PRISM documents showed NSA used this hub to spy on foreign governments: not to surveil, to bug embassies-sovereign territory-of other nations and for purposes having nothing to do with preventing terrorism.
There is another news article today, it's on Germany's shaken trust in America since the first Spiegel report a month or so ago. The article appears in The New York Times. It was the Times that I looked to for confirmation that shattering Sunday. It was the Times a few days later who pooh-poohed European shock with a catty editorial breezily concluding that a trans-Atlantic trade "deal" was still in Europe's interests. I have not read today's article on Germany. I don't trust The New York Times now. I don't trust Barack Obama. I don't trust the United States of America.
