Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Barack Obama, 2009; “I think that we’ve restored America’s standing in the world…”
Speigel, 2013; America’s NSA intelligence service allegedly targeted the European Union with its spying activities. According to SPIEGEL information, the US placed bugs in the EU representation in Washington and infiltrated its computer network. Cyber attacks were also perpetrated against Brussels in New York and Washington.”
Related – Europeans Wake Up With Severe ‘Hope and Change’ Hangover.
h/t Maz2
Is “Barack Obama” Swahili for “Richard Nixon”?
Rumour has it that Obambam has been greeted with the equivalent of “Yankee go home” on the continent of his birth (Har har har). It would seem that native Africans realize that Odumdum just took out the leadership of two of the most stable and prosperous countries on the continent Libya and Egypt and installed a bunch of Muslim terrorists that like their patron saint, Odumdum, have no clue how to govern effectively.
Yeah well, the Africans sympathize more with the South Sudan than the Sudan for ethnic, etc reasons….to be expected.
As a result for the reasons Joe ennumerated…..they only briefly considered Odumdum one of their’s(Africa’s) and are now convinced he is one of their’s(Islams)…….not their’s (Africa’s). OK?
This leaves Odumbo as sort of an orphan once again…..alienated to the muzzies because he hasn’t eliminated Israel, to the black Africans because he is viewed as a muzzie and a yank to boot…..and that part of tthe world hates the US on principle….and then he is not as popular in the US as advertised for being black/white/muzzie.
The popularity of their president is one thing, but whenever a disaster occurs the United States gets awfully popular because of the aid they provide. That doesn’t mean the everyone (or anyone) love ’em, though.
Much truth in this thought – Amerika’s former allies are really POed as they learn that NSA snooping has undermined the security of their nations and the privacy of their citizens – there was a very cold reception for Obumbles in Europe and at G8 this year.
I’m very weary of the sanctimonious carping by the EU. They are doing, or trying to do, the very same thing. Let’s stop pretending it’s all kumbaya among nations. National and corporate espionageis a way of life. Stop pretending we’re all buddies.
Remember, countries don’t have friends. They only have interests. When when those interests differ, things can change quickly.
David in Michigan;
Euros have no leg to stand on with their history of incompetence in governing themselves. Why wouldn’t the USA want to get a ‘heads up’ on whatever situation the Euros will want to be bailed out on next. They couldn’t even secure Libya without the USA and Canadian airforces!
As they descend into economic and ethnic kaos the call will come for help, it always has. Croatia and Bosnia were a wakeup call that went unheeded. When the same thing happens in France and Britian ‘who you gonna call’?
Who’s your … Love?
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/06/30/breaking-guess-who-else-is-in-south-africa-reggie-love/
Well its not up to the USA to dictate the optics of national security in Europe.. If things go bad who is to say American action or inaction wont get thrown into the mix as a scapegoat..
A diplomatic disaster in the making by handing foreign governments an excuse to blame the already unpopular Americans for their own incompetence..
Think of it as spying on your spouse just to make sure they are not cheating on you.. Its all good until they find out, love has wilted into mistrust and control.. The relationship is over.. The illusion is shattered because you chose to act on your fears.. Protecting yourself from the best thing thats ever happened to you..
Facebook kills relationships because of jealousy.. The NSA kills relationships because of jealousy..
where is James Bond when you need him
// Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do? //
Well, he can’t have done this —
// The story goes back to 2002, when three of the whistleblowers—Loomis, Wiebe and Binney—asked the Pentagon to investigate the NSA for wasting “millions and millions of dollars” on Trailblazer, which had been chosen as the agency’s flagship system for analyzing intercepted communications over a smaller and cheaper in-house program known as ThinThread. That program was invented by Loomis, one of the NSA’s top software engineers, and Binney, a legendary crypto-scientist, both of whom began working for the NSA during the Vietnam War. But despite ThinThread’s proven capacity to collect actionable intelligence, agency director Gen. Michael Hayden vetoed the idea of deploying the system in August 2001, just three weeks before 9/11.
Hayden’s decisions, the whistleblowers told The Nation, left the NSA without a system to analyze the trillions of bits of foreign SIGINT flowing over the Internet at warp speed, as ThinThread could do. During the summer of 2001, when “the system was blinking red” with dangerous terrorist chatter (in former CIA Director George Tenet’s famous words), they say the agency failed to detect critical phone and e-mail communications that could have tipped US intelligence to Al Qaeda’s plans to attack.
“NSA intelligence basically stopped in its tracks when they canceled ThinThread,” says Wiebe, sitting next to Binney at an Olive Garden restaurant just a stone’s throw from NSA headquarters in Columbia, Maryland. “And the people who paid for it were those who died on 9/11.” //
The NSA Four reveal how a toxic mix of cronyism and fraud blinded the agency before 9/11.
Tim Shorrock March 26, 2013
Privatization gone wild, a digital Blackwater. Note: this was written before the Snowden reveal.
You are absolutely correct, and the US just happened to get caught at it. First and second world countries need to know what is going with their friends as well as their neighbours. It isn’t right, it isn’t wrong, it is just the way it is. Singing multiple verses of kumbaya never has been and never will be a part of foreign policy, as that is just optics for the people.
This is not to defend the disgusting current administration, but just a reality of international relations.
And as well as their enemies.
Well one American at least feels that the enemy is in the White House…
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/fairfield_cty/man-flying-nazi-flag-to-protest-obama?hpt=us_bn7#.UdIPk5zNlzE
Man flying Nazi flag to protest Obama
“It’s my constitutional right and like all servicemen, I took an oath to defend the constitution,” Sincavage said.
Sincavage served four years in the Marine Corps. Neighbors apparently called the police about the flag, but the town attorney says there’s nothing illegal about it. Sincavage says he’ll keep flying the Nazi flag until President Obama changes what he says are dictatorial policies. He cites the President’s lack of answers about Bengazi, and Fast and Furious, and his policies on abortion.
Gee, I wonder what this old Marine will do for July 4?
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st St. Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”