Snowden to The Guardian, NSA and British Secretly Intercepted World Leaders Communications at 2009 Conference

美國總--事館前----議 Protest outside US Consulate General in Hong Kong / 香港聲援--諾登遊行 Hong Kong Rally to Support Snowden / SML.20130615.6D.15838
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Protest outside American Consulate in Hong Cong in support of Edward Snowden

The latest in the treasure trove of NSA secret surveillance activities passed on by whistleblower Edward Snowden to The Guardian newspaper has the British intelligence network known as Government Communications Headquarters (GSHQ) also working directly with NSA to eavesdrop "on world leaders at conferences in London in 2009". [1] The two spy agencies secretly tapped into the communications of the diplomats "the night before a Group of 8 industrial nations was to open in Northern Ireland", [2] as well as secretly intercepting the communications of former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, now prime minister, prior to the London conferences. [3]

Now it's nothing new that countries spy on one another. In war it's a necessary component to get an edge up on the enemy. Knowing the tactics and troop movements of an imminent attack before it happens contribute to defeating an enemy.

But in the instances mentioned above neither the U.S. nor Britain were at war with any of these Group of 8 nations in 2009, (though both countries were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time, the NSA and British eavesdropping had nothing to do with either of these two countries).

And most significantly this eavesdropping was approved by the FISA Court and "shared with Congress." [4]

Just look at the implications of this eavesdropping:

• Why would ANY country, not just the countries that were targeted in London, ever trust the U.S. or Britain in ANY diplomatic setting, meeting or negotiation without believing legitimately their communication were secretly being tapped into by the NSA and its British counterpart?
• What possibly could be the basis of mutual respect in any future negotiation when your leader's communications have been secretly eavesdropped by the U.S. and the British? How would they know this clandestine snooping had ended? How about U.S. and British government assurances? Please!
• This eavesdropping by the U.S. and Britain borders on official paranoia. It's reminiscent of the tactics used by the USSR and the U.S. during the cold war, (to say nothing of the torture tactics we have adopted since 9/11 that were thought by most Americans as only used by some of the most ruthless and horrific regimes of the 20 ^th century i.e. Imperial Japan in the 30's and during W.W.II, Nazi Germany, China under Mao and the USSR under Stalin). Now it seems we've joined those regimes using the same despicable tactics.

Meanwhile the Congress is complicit in all the secret snooping operations of the NSA and private intelligence contractors which Congress funds and approves.

We've heard some members of Congress after they've been briefed in private by NSA representatives say they had no idea of the extent of the NSA's operations and were taken aback.

Well if those in Congress believe they've been kept in the dark and caught unaware by the whistleblowing revelations by Snowden's leak then they should demand a thorough investigation of all NSA secret surveillance activities.

For sure the NSA's previously secret clandestine activities are finally being brought into the sunlight. Hopefully "No Such Agency" will be thoroughly scrutinized and brought to account and held with public hearings in a public forum.  

That public scrutiny would reveal to the American people their government sees the country at war all over the world.

Is that what the American people want?