

US admits: French surveillance revelations raise 'legitimate questions' - stfu
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/21/us-french-surveillance-legitimate-questions

======
kamjam
How exactly does the US have access to French phone records, to the extent
they can record conversations, and full content of SMS messages?

I would presume all those systems would reside in France, or the EU at the
very least? So who is providing them this information, or given them
unfettered access to them? And why has nobody noticed until now?

------
jstalin
Ok, so how exactly could the US do this without French government access to
circuits? Of course this was probably done with the French government's
permission. And no one is asking to what extent the French government itself
is engaged in this kind of activity.

------
aspensmonster
EDIT: Aaaaaaaand this article is already well on its way to the third page.

>The two presidents agreed that we should continue to discuss these issues in
diplomatic channels.

Because those channels are safe
([http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/21/mexico-
condemns...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/21/mexico-condemns-us-
nsa-hacking-presidents-emails)).

>According to the paper, the documents show that the NSA was allegedly
targeting not only terrorist suspects but also politicians, businesspeople and
members of the administration under a programme codenamed US-985D. The paper
said "French interests" were "targeted on a daily basis".

>Le Monde said the unpublished Snowden documents it had seen showed
"intrusion, on a vast scale, both into the private space of French citizens as
well as into the secrets of major national firms".

I'd like to see one of the members of the EU institute an embargo with the USA
for a few weeks, just for kicks.

~~~
mh-
_one of the members of the EU institute an embargo with the USA for a few
weeks_

I don't think that would affect the US materially; can the same be said for
the would-be embargoer?

~~~
aspensmonster
On the European side, I'd like to see some of our allies show some backbone
and at least pretend that they're genuinely outraged. Sever some treaties,
kill off some contracts with US businesses, something, _anything_ to
demonstrate that they take their own sovereignty and culture seriously. Of
course, they're all in on the game too. For all their indignation it's really
just showmanship.

On the other hand, if Mexico were serious about an embargo, that would have
significant impacts. More so on Mexico, but it would still affect the USA
materially.

I suppose over the past couple months, this whole debacle has cemented my
opinion that everyone that matters --in terms of their supposed indignation
and objection to all that has been revealed-- is already the USA's bitch. The
only groups with balls enough to snub the USA are the ones that already have
little to lose.

