News you may have missed #843 (analysis on Snowden leak)
July 3, 2013 5 Comments
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►Countries approached by Snowden for asylum and their responses. According to a statement from WikiLeaks, former CIA/NSA employee Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in a total of 21 countries, but with little success so far. Here is a list of the countries he approached and their responses –or lack thereof– so far. Bolivia and Venezuela appear somewhat positive, but Ecuador and Russia have denied any possibility of giving Snowden political asylum. Other countries, including Cuba and China, have yet to issue a response to Snowden’s request.
►►US ODNI admits giving ‘erroneous’ answer during Senate testimony. James Clapper, America’s most senior intelligence official, who heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has told a Senate oversight panel that he “simply didn’t think” of the National Security Agency’s efforts to collect the phone records of millions of Americans when he testified in March that it did “not wittingly” snoop on their communications. He had told during his testimony that NSA did “not wittingly” collect “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans”. But that was before Snowden spilled the beans….
►►Are the Europeans being hypocrites over spying? If you buy the latest reporting out of Europe, France is outraged, simply outraged, at news that the National Security Agency has been eavesdropping on the European Union through its mission in New York and embassy in Washington. All of which is pretty hilarious, given France’s penchant for stealing American defense technology, bugging American business executives and generally annoying US counterintelligence officials. And it’s not just France, either.
intelNews.org 
James Clapper should consider his position now that his integrity has been impugned. The only valid rational for the use of SIGINT (COMINT, ELINT etc) measures against Partners or Allies is for the Defence of the State and the preservation of its Sovereignty of the State. The argument that seeking intelligence about the position of states in Trade and Economic matters is a valid activity for Nation States has no merit. When evidence exists of such activities, the offending State should pay significant reparation. (S)he who is caught with hand in cookie jar should pay the price.
@Ian
Thanks particularly for “Are the Europeans being hypocrites over spying?” Whenever politicians describe themselves as “surprised, shocked or disgusted” their reactions are for public effect – our politicians, Europeans, even Russians and Chinese.
Though it is true that Snowden has been careful to select money-making exclusives that embarrass the US and force European politicians to take a stand. That European stand is pitched sit well with European public expectations.
European politicians would be reluctant to tell their publics that their own countries put the public under surveillance as a standard and age-old form of policing. Human surveillance has been European national or royal policy for centuries. But it is the electronic surveillance that is relatively new. This latter surveillance is more democratic as it does not exclude the powerful or elites from equitable scrutiny.
Regards
Pete
One correction to the Guardian story, Iceland has responded to the request for asylum in icelandic media and said that Snowden will have to be on Icelandic soil to apply (actually I think Iceland started that trend) and if he does he will have to go to the back of the line. I have some knowledge of asylum seekers in Iceland and they have been made to wait for up to 3 years or more, maybe that would not be a bad deal for Snowden.
Iceland’s high reliance on the US for its economic prosperity and past freedom (eg. lack of German occupation during World War Two) suggests that no (Snowden would need to go through the steps) means no.
Also as a NATO member Iceland is within the inner circle of US allies.
True, USA is responsible for reviving (at least) two ancient states, Iceland and (the much older) Israel, first to speak at the U.N. in favor of sovereign Israel was icelandic.