Telegraph: Us Spied On Future Pope During Conclave

[Nihil Obstat]

https://www.torproject.org/

[arfink]

Tor is worthless now, NSA controls or has taps on most of the endpoints.

[Aloysius]

meh, I guess I'm just referencing the name of it--'national security agency'... sure I'd expect generally the CIA to just be about collecting all intelligence for all sorts of purposes, but with the NSA based on its name and all that, I'd have thought it'd be more directly about security.  I do understand the point about all nations spying on each other, of course, and I am much more concerned about the indiscriminant spying on ordinary citizens around the world than I am about inter-nation spying... but I think the case is far overstated when people suggest that these countries are only expressing outrage to placate their citizens but really they understand and are just jealous that we're better at it than they are... from conference rooms at the United Nations to Angela Merkel's phone to the Papal Conclave, it's rather clear that the NSA has been crossing the boundaries of the kind and level of spying allies actually expect of each other.

 

of course, I'm no expert, perhaps Merkel's really got Obama's phone tapped and every nation has bugs all around the UN building and in everyone else's embassies and chips embedded in every other countries' leaders' skulls or something, I don't know... but actions like when the Germans flew that helicopter over the US embassy in Germany lead me to believe that they're not just putting on a show for their public, but that they are genuinely shocked at the levels of spying we've been engaging with among allies.  but who knows, of course it's possible that this is all just political theater... though with all the spying we do on them you'd think that if they kept embarrassing us so bad we'd turn the tables and reveal what we know of the levels to which they've been spying on us, right?

 

[attachment=3217:nsaspying.png]

[Nihil Obstat]

Tor is worthless now, NSA controls or has taps on most of the endpoints.

I thought it was not possible to connect an endpoint with a person. Just their activity.

[CatherineM]

Maybe they wanted to put money down on the papal election. Good way to get insider information.

[Semper Catholic]

So what ?
What's the big deal

he said...the month before they took him.

[r2Dtoo]

Spying never keeps people safe. Except possibly the government. Spying can keep the government safe, because it's secret and in their own interest. But not really in anybody else's interest.

 

The revelation that they have compromised Google's cloud platform to strip traffic of encryption is, in itself, extremely bad for the American people.

 

This blanket statement in regards to spying is a symptom of paranoia once directed towards terrorists now being directed against the government. It's predictable, and typical.  But it does make you look cool and edgy.  Poor me, I guess I'm just too school for cool.

Edited October 31, 2013 by r2Dtoo

[r2Dtoo]

meh, I guess I'm just referencing the name of it--'national security agency'... sure I'd expect generally the CIA to just be about collecting all intelligence for all sorts of purposes, but with the NSA based on its name and all that, I'd have thought it'd be more directly about security.  I do understand the point about all nations spying on each other, of course, and I am much more concerned about the indiscriminant spying on ordinary citizens around the world than I am about inter-nation spying... but I think the case is far overstated when people suggest that these countries are only expressing outrage to placate their citizens but really they understand and are just jealous that we're better at it than they are... from conference rooms at the United Nations to Angela Merkel's phone to the Papal Conclave, it's rather clear that the NSA has been crossing the boundaries of the kind and level of spying allies actually expect of each other.

 

of course, I'm no expert, perhaps Merkel's really got Obama's phone tapped and every nation has bugs all around the UN building and in everyone else's embassies and chips embedded in every other countries' leaders' skulls or something, I don't know... but actions like when the Germans flew that helicopter over the US embassy in Germany lead me to believe that they're not just putting on a show for their public, but that they are genuinely shocked at the levels of spying we've been engaging with among allies.  but who knows, of course it's possible that this is all just political theater... though with all the spying we do on them you'd think that if they kept embarrassing us so bad we'd turn the tables and reveal what we know of the levels to which they've been spying on us, right?

 

nsaspying.png

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/james-clapper-us-allies_n_4175638.html

[BG45]

Funny enough, the Russians apparently put spyware on the flash drives they gave at the last big economics conference.  No one with half a brain would plug such a drive into a classified computer.  We can't say much though, given everything.

 

So what ?
What's the big deal

 

Just finding it disturbing that our government feels the need to even tap the Vatican now.  

[r2Dtoo]

Funny enough, the Russians apparently put spyware on the flash drives they gave at the last big economics conference.  No one with half a brain would plug such a drive into a classified computer.  We can't say much though, given everything.

 

 

[b]Just finding it disturbing that our government feels the need to even tap the Vatican now.[/b]  

 

It's actually more of a compliment that we are even bothering to tap the Vatican.  It says, "We think you have enough influence on world affairs that we want to know ahead of time what you're doing and why to see if we can't manipulate it for our gain or at least react accordingly if we can't."

 

Notice how in the article the Vatican said it was not worried about US spying.  It's not, and if our allies didn't have a public they had to answer to they would say that too.