heres the thing I seriously want to know more about. The white noise generator was circumvented with "a technical solution provided by the Americans themselves."
What technical solution could circumvent white noise??
Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
101–110 of 144 posts
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assange isn't American, isn't on American soil, and people in his position have been fair game for surveillance for approximately the entire existence of America. George Washington personally ran a spy ring: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolution...
It says that all men are endowed these rights by a creator, which doesn't imply that nationality has anything to do with those rights. George Washington was the worst of the Founding Fathers, and didn't write the Declaration of Independence.
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Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reflects VERY badly on the nation of Equador. It reveals that their promise of sanctuary to Assange was meaningless. Worse, it calls into question ANY claim of diplomatic privilege by Equador toward anyone and their private communications is untrustworthy and will remain so until the entire present government of Equador is dead and gone. Simply put, Equador canot be trusted. Now everyone knows. Alas, the same ca…
Wait, how it is Ecuador's fault that the Americans managed to spy on their embassy?
I guess it shows Ecuador’s counterintelligence skills aren’t up to the level of a superpower, but I’m pretty sure anyone could have guessed that one already.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#104I too am curious about the legal issues involved here. While I agree "this is what intelligence services are for", this was not inside the United States and the CIA doesn't automatically get free pass to break the laws of other countries. Surely some laws in the UK were broken? Or was all this sanctioned by the UK government? Or does the fact that it's an embassy mean that Ecuadorian law is applicable? How does this…
It seems very unlikely that one Fiveyes member was spying on another without local intelligence knowing.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
You honestly think if someone had made a comment "the US is spying on Assange directly or through intermediaries" someone would have said they were crazy and there was no evidence of that?
You would have been attacked and called a conspiracy theorist, putin troll, chinese bot, among other things by journalists, think tank workers and depending on the time - by republican supporters and democrat supporters.
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Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#106I too am curious about the legal issues involved here. While I agree "this is what intelligence services are for", this was not inside the United States and the CIA doesn't automatically get free pass to break the laws of other countries. Surely some laws in the UK were broken? Or was all this sanctioned by the UK government? Or does the fact that it's an embassy mean that Ecuadorian law is applicable? How does this…
The CIA is a highly secretive agency staffed by people who are liars in their professional and probably personal lives. The people who have a deep and profound respect for as-written law don't sign up to be professional snoops who occasionally topple governments.
Which laws in foreign countries do you expect them to be respectful of? And why? The organisation will have a high concentration of people who simply don't care what is written in the official law books and are only interested in what is physically enforced.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#107I think it's worth remembering that this nation (the US) is currently trying to get Assange extradited. Part of the decision to be made in the UK should be wether or not the US will grant him a fair trial. There are many reasons to throw that US demand out of the court, but this adds one more: they clearly have zero regard for any of his most inalienable rights. They have repeatedly violated them already, all the whi…
If the CIA collected information in Mexico on the head of a drug cartel, does that automatically mean that he would not receive a fair trial? Of course not.
Assange worked with Russian intelligence, either knowingly or as a useful idiot. The US Intelligence agencies had an obligation to determine what sensitive information he held and what he might be trying to do with it.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's where they keep all the other evidence of foreign intelligence operations - a secure classified intelligence facility. Where should they be keeping it?
Presumably they would pass some of it to the NYT and other government mouthpieces, rather than leaving them to innuendo.
I'd just elide that 'presumably' part.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#109Still no retraction from The Guardian who baselessly claimed he met with Paul Manafort multiple times in the Ecuardian embassy. They straight up lied about it and there are no consequences.
Re: Julian Assange and visitors were spied on by security firm for US intelligence
#110To the people who say "of course": > The Spanish lawyer Aitor Martinez, one of the lawyers in Julian Assange's legal team filmed by UC Global, tells Repubblica: "Over the years Mr. Assange and his defense team held legal meetings inside the embassy. Those meetings were protected by the lawyer-client relationship and the fundamental right to defense. What about this fundamental right? > However we can see those meetin…
The right to attorney-client confidentiality does not apply in the context of national security intelligence gathering. The United States was within its rights to gather intelligence about a foreign person in a foreign country. Such intelligence would be absolutely inadmissible in court. But intelligence agencies aren't interested in prosecuting people. They are tasked with national security, not prosecution.
Spying, by it very definition, is an illegal act.
It might've been legal(i doubt it) to spy on foreign person on foreign soil inside (another) foreign embassy according to US law... but that doesn't matter at all when it comes to both Ecuadorean law and UK law.
USA is not a world police, nor is ultimate force of good that all good counters bow to.