Former CIA and NSA employee source of intelligence leaks

[Syt]

The picture below shows the IZD Tower in Vienna. It has many tenants, including the U.S. delegation to the international organizations in Vienna.

You may notice the small tool shed on the roof, on the right hand side? It's cordoned off completely from the rest of the roof with a steel fence.

Local journalists now claim that it contains U.S. equipment to intercept radio signals ("IMSI Catchers"?) from the United Nations (buildings bottom right).

The U.S. ambassador has rejected such claims said, "We have nothing to say on this."

[CountDeMoney]

It's probably a control room for the HVAC system.  You paranoid fucks.

[grumbler]

It's probably a control room for the HVAC system.  You paranoid fucks.

Why would the local journalists speculate that it is a spying machine if it is the control room for the HVAC system?  Wouldn't such baseless speculation be completely against the principals of journalism?

[CountDeMoney]

Then again, this is Austria.  Maybe it's one of those new smokeless Jew-B-Qs.

[derspiess]

It's probably a control room for the HVAC system.  You paranoid fucks.

Dunno, man.  I kind of believe them.  And looking at the picture, other buildings have those structures on top.  Austria has been: totally compromised.

[KRonn]

It's probably a control room for the HVAC system.  You paranoid fucks.

Why would the local journalists speculate that it is a spying machine if it is the control room for the HVAC system?  Wouldn't such baseless speculation be completely against the principals of journalism?

[Syt]

Meanwhile, the parliamentary investigation tries to ascertain some kind of feeling what level of cooperation there is between German and American intelligence services. Besides tens of thousands of blackened pages and statements of "Can't say"/"Don't know" from government and members of the services not much has happened.

I get that intelligence services need to do what they do to a point. It would just be nice if there was some more visible oversight over them that goes beyond government and the agencies saying, "Trust us."

[CountDeMoney]

Lulz.  Too funny.  Maybe its better for the Germans not to know the intel agencies are thick as thieves.

[11B4V]

Damn, the Krauts are such whinny bitches nowadays.

[Sheilbh]

Now seems as good a time as any to remember that Ed Snowden initially fled to Hong Kong due to its 'commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent'

[CountDeMoney]

Meh, HK is just the West Berlin of the Far East. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany.

[The Minsky Moment]

Now seems as good a time as any to remember that Ed Snowden initially fled to Hong Kong due to its 'commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent'

And then to Russia.
So perhaps not the most reliable national character witness.

[Tonitrus]

Meh, HK is just the West Berlin of the Far East. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany.

That analogy only works if the West had agreed to give up West Berlin to the Soviets so long as they allowed it to retain some vague "special capitalist status". 

[The Minsky Moment]

For those interested, the oral argument to the Second Circuit (federal appeals court) in the ACLU challenge was televised by CSPAN: http://www.c-span.org/video/?321163-1/aclu-v-clapper-oral-argument-phone-record-surveillance

Judge Gerald Lynch was on the panel - he is very sharp and was quite active asking questions of the litigants.

[Syt]

Oops.

http://www.thelocal.de/20150423/nsa-had-german-spies-target-euro-allies

NSA had German spies target Euro allies

German spies targeted politicians in friendly European nations and inside Germany for surveillance on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA), a media report revealed on Thursday.

Der Spiegel reported that the US spy agency sent Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrictendienst (BND), huge numbers of "selectors" – computer addresses, mobile phone numbers and other identifying information – which are used to target people's digital communications.

Die Zeit reported that the NSA asked for a total of 800,000 people to be targeted for surveillance.

The BND simply plugged the personal details into their own systems and carried out the intimate surveillance on behalf of their American allies.

BND officers had noticed several times since 2008 that some of the selectors directly contradicted the rules on how the agency is supposed to work, and its co-operation agreement for the "War on Terror" Germany signed with the USA in 2002. 

The Americans reportedly asked for information on arms manufacturer EADS, the Eurocopter helicopter company and the French government.

But this was not seen by their superiors as a reason to regularly check the lists of selectors for irregularities.

It was only after leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden began in summer 2013, revealing the extent of the surveillance by the American spies against the entire world's communications, that the BND began checking in detail.

By October 2013, they had discovered that around 2,000 of the selectors were definitely targeted at western Europe and even Germany.

Politicians were among the people picked out for the illegal spying.

But the true extent of the scandal wasn't revealed until the Bundestag's (German parliament) NSA Inquiry Committee submitted a request for evidence to the BND.

A fresh check of the selectors supplied by the NSA showed that 40,000 of them identified western European and German targets.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, to which the BND is directly responsible, was not informed about the spying on friendly targets until after that parliamentary question was asked, in March 2015.

Chancellery Minister Peter Altmaier informed the members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee, which is supposed to keep a leash on the intelligence services, on Wednesday evening, as well as the members of the NSA Inquiry Committee.

BND director Gerhard Schindler was excluded from the meeting and may be asked to retire.

So it took 7 years from the BND noticing that some of their activities are not covered by their mandate and then informing the government about it. The German articles say that BND was possibly afraid to get cut off from NSA intel if they didn't follow through on requests.