Nowadays, whenever you hear something in response from our government with regard to the public outcry over our unbridled surveillance state, it may be technically true, but in reality--more likely than not--it's absolutely meaningless.
From Reuters, a little over 24 hours ago...
U.S. now bugging German ministers in place of Merkel – report
Reuters
BERLIN Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:11pm GMT
(Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday...
As most reading this already know, and as Reuters reminded us:
"Revelations last year about mass U.S. surveillance in Germany, in particular of Merkel's mobile phone, shocked Germans and sparked the most serious dispute between the transatlantic allies in a decade."
...Bild am Sonntag said its information stemmed from a high-ranking NSA employee in Germany and that those being spied on included Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel.
"We have had the order not to miss out on any information now that we are no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communication directly," it quoted the NSA employee as saying…
…
…Bild am Sonntag quoted a security adviser to Obama, Caitlin Hayden, as saying: "The United States has made clear it gathers intelligence in exactly the same way as any other states."
The mass-circulation paper said the NSA was monitoring 320 people in Germany - mostly politicians but also business leaders. Hayden said Washington did not spy on corporations in order to help U.S. firms gain competitive advantage.
(Bold type is diarist's emphasis.)
Emboldened by the document disclosures of Edward Snowden, nine months ago, many close to the former NSA contractor have noted that we're about to see a new wave of NSA whistleblowers speaking out on the behavior of our surveillance state.
And, you thought Whack-a-Mole was a game for kids?
# # #