Is The US Using Prism To Engage In Commercial Espionage Against Germany And Others?
from the well,-that-would-be-different dept
As we noted last week, one of the key claims following the revelations about the Prism program was that it was aimed at those outside the US, and that US citizens were caught up in it only incidentally. A further leak concerned the Boundless Informant analysis tool, one of whose maps showed which regions of the world were subject to most surveillance. Along with obvious hotspots like Iran and Pakistan, Germany too was among those of particular interest, as was the US (whoops.) A story on reason.com offers a clue as to why that might be.
The blog post focuses on an incident from the time when the whistleblower Edward Snowden worked for the CIA, rather than the NSA. Here's the original text in the Guardian:
By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.
In that quotation, there's the nugget of information that the CIA was not targeting terrorists on this occasion, at least not directly, but "attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information". That raises an interesting possibility for the heightened interest in Germany, as revealed by Boundless Informant.
That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.
He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.
Given that the NSA is gathering information on a large scale -- even though we don't know exactly how large -- it's inevitable that some of that data will include sensitive information about business activities in foreign countries. That could be very handy for US companies seeking to gain a competitive advantage, and it's not hard to imagine the NSA passing it on in a suitably discreet way.
Germany is known as the industrial and economic powerhouse of Europe, so it would make sense to keep a particularly close eye on what people are doing there -- especially if those people happen to work in companies that compete with US firms. In other words, just as as the CIA was looking to obtain "secret banking information" in Switzerland, it seems quite likely that the NSA also comes into the possession of similarly sensitive commercial data during its German trawls.
If that were confirmed, it would certainly change the debate somewhat. The standard justification that massive surveillance is indispensable in the fight against terrorism if lives are to be saved, would be replaced by the rather weaker one that it's rather handy being able to spy on Germany since its industrial secrets can be pilfered. It will be interesting to see whether any future revelations about the NSA's activities shed more light on this area.
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Filed Under: commercial espionage, economic espionage, europe, germany, international relations, nsa, prism, surveillance, switzerland
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If it can they will
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Error
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Either that, or start spying on us...
If they were smart, they start by shredding all those treaties they signed with us...
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The government prolly not.
The companies that CIA, NSA and other government agencies farm intel collection and interpretation out to, might.
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Hacky
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Blackmail
I think the spying might have an element of blackmail to it. I have always wondered why EU and my own (German) governments are so strongly and successfully influenced by US demands like expanding copyright, reducing privacy rights, sharing banking customer data and so on. A few little calls here and there to the effect of "your wife really wouldn't like it if she heard of this extramarital affair, don't you think?" might do wonders to achieve US foreign policy goals.
That and the fact that there are several career politicians, journalists and lobbyists who have spent years working in American think tanks before...
By the way, at least for the Germans i can say that a lot of the anti-americanism stems from the feeling that the US have a lot of influence around the world that can not be explained by ordinary diplomacy. It would be good if the American public realized that not everybody who has come to dislike US foreign policy is irrational, socialist, anti freedom or pro political islam.
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Re: Blackmail
One of the best ways to turn someone in to a traitor is blackmail. Few people turn traitor for political reasons so your good fill-the-blank citizen who can be blackmailed is often the best access to the information.
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Read far more informed speculation by Jon Rappoport
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/06/did-someone-help-ed-snowden-punch-hole.html
Did someone help Ed Snowden punch a hole in the NSA?
Rappoport goes a little awry in the middle, and long, but it's worth reading.
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In a related story...
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Re: In a related story...
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They can get electronic market intelligence without a swiss banker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/may/10/bloomberg-goldman-sachs-spying-terminals
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May be a slight rationalization for it
Of course, once the information is gathered, might as well make the most of it. It would certainly be handy as leverage against Germany or as an incentive to gain favors or contributions domestically.
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Re: May be a slight rationalization for it
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I suspect that most people who hate the USA have no problem or beef with any of its normal citizens.
As for the USA having a problem with German companies having traded with Iraq in Saddam's time, history shows that there was no reason not to. Since the murder of Saddam and destruction of Iraq was only to the benefit of the USA and the oil companies.
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Quid pro quo
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Who needs Prism
All the key players in the cloud market have significant US operations and are susceptible to US government pressure and/or disclosure orders from their courts. Given the number of special interest lobbyists in American politics it's hard to imagine that anything with major commercial impact wouldn't be discreetly leaked. So if I was involved in an international business with competitors in the US, I wouldn't touch the cloud with a barge pole.
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