[governance] NSA penetrates Brazilian telecom

Sun Jul 7 09:25:23 EDT 2013

When you use a mobile line in Brazil and come to the US, your roaming
displays VERIZON.
On Jul 7, 2013 8:09 AM, "parminder" <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

>  From the below news item;
>
>
> "As those two articles detail, all of this bulk, indiscriminate
> surveillance aimed at populations of friendly foreign nations is part of
> the NSA's "FAIRVIEW" program. Under that program, the *NSA partners with
> a large US telecommunications company, the identity of which is currently
> unknown, and that US company then partners with telecoms in the foreign
> countries (emphasis added). *Those partnerships allow the US company
> access to those countries' telecommunications systems, and that access is
> then exploited to direct traffic to the NSA's repositories."
>
> There are basically two large US telecoms AT&T and Verizon... Any such
> public private partnership for global snooping is very worrisome.
>
> parminder
>
>
>  On Sunday 07 July 2013 10:10 AM, michael gurstein wrote:
>
>  The NSA's mass and indiscriminate spying on Brazilians****
>
> As it does in many non-adversarial countries, the surveillance agency is
> bulk collecting the communications of millions of citizens of Brazil****
> ****
>
> The National Security Administration headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.
> Whistleblower Edward Snowden worked as a data miner for the NSA in Hawaii.
> Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA****
>
> I've written an article on NSA surveillance for the front page of the
> Sunday edition of O Globo<http://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/eua-espionaram-milhoes-de-mails-ligacoes-de-brasileiros-8940934>,
> the large Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro. The article is
> headlined (translated) "US spied on millions of emails and calls of
> Brazilians", and I co-wrote it with Globo reporters Roberto Kaz and Jose
> Casado. The rough translation of the article into English is here<http://translate.google.com.br/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Foglobo.globo.com%2Fmundo%2Feua-espionaram-milhoes-de-mails-ligacoes-de-brasileiros-8940934&act=url>.
> The main page of Globo's website lists related NSA<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nsa>stories:
> here <http://oglobo.globo.com/>.****
>
> As the headline suggests, the crux of the main article details how the NSA
> has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication
> network and indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored the email
> and telephone records of millions of Brazilians. The story follows an
> article in Der Spiegel last week<http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/nsa-spies-on-500-million-german-data-connections-a-908648.html>,
> written by Laura Poitras and reporters from that paper, detailing the NSA's
> mass and indiscriminate collection of the electronic communications of
> millions of Germans. There are many more populations of non-adversarial
> countries which have been subjected to the same type of mass surveillance
> net by the NSA: indeed, the list of those which haven't been are shorter
> than those which have. The claim that any other nation is engaging in
> anything remotely approaching indiscriminate worldwide surveillance of this
> sort is baseless.****
>
> As those two articles detail, all of this bulk, indiscriminate
> surveillance aimed at populations of friendly foreign nations is part of
> the NSA's "FAIRVIEW" program. Under that program, the NSA partners with a
> large US telecommunications company, the identity of which is currently
> unknown, and that US company then partners with telecoms in the foreign
> countries. Those partnerships allow the US company access to those
> countries' telecommunications systems, and that access is then exploited to
> direct traffic to the NSA's repositories. Both articles are based on top
> secret documents provided by Edward Snowden; O Globo published several of
> them.****
>
> The vast majority of the GuardianUS's revelations thus far have concerned
> NSA domestic spying: the bulk collection of telephone records<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order>,
> the PRISM program<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data>,
> Obama's presidential directive<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/obama-china-targets-cyber-overseas>that authorizes domestic use of cyber-operations, the Boundless
> Informant data<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining>detailing billions of records collected from US systems, the serial
> falsehoods publicly voiced<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/19/fisa-court-oversight-process-secrecy>by top Obama officials about the NSA's surveillance schemes, and most
> recently, the bulk collection of email and internet metadata<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-data-mining-authorised-obama>records for Americans. Future stories in the GuardianUS will largely
> continue to focus on the NSA's domestic spying.****
>
> But contrary to what some want to suggest, the privacy rights of Americans
> aren't the only ones that matter. That the US government - in complete
> secrecy - is constructing a ubiquitous spying apparatus aimed not only at
> its own citizens, but *all of the world's citizens*, has profound
> consequences. It erodes, if not eliminates, the ability to use the internet
> with any remnant of privacy or personal security. It vests the US
> government with boundless power over those to whom it has no
> accountability. It permits allies of the US - including aggressively
> oppressive ones - to benefit from indiscriminate spying on their citizens'
> communications. It radically alters the balance of power between the US and
> ordinary citizens of the world. And it sends an unmistakable signal to the
> world that while the US *very minimally *values the privacy rights of
> Americans, it assigns zero value to the privacy of everyone else on the
> planet.****
>
> This development - the construction of a worldwide, ubiquitous electronic
> surveillance apparatus - is self-evidently newsworthy, extreme, and
> dangerous. It deserves transparency. People around the world have no idea
> that all of their telephonic and internet communications are being
> collected, stored and analyzed by a distant government. But that's exactly
> what is happening, in secrecy and with virtually no accountability. And it
> is inexorably growing, all in the dark. At the very least, it merits public
> understanding and debate. That is now possible thanks solely to these
> disclosures.****
> The Guardian's reporting****
>
> One brief note on the Guardian is merited here: I've been continuously
> amazed by how intrepid, fearless and committed the Guardian's editors have
> been in reporting these NSA stories as effectively and aggressively as
> possible. They have never flinched in reporting these stories, have spared
> no expense in pursuing them, have refused to allow vague and baseless
> government assertions to suppress any of the newsworthy revelations, have
> devoted extraordinary resources to ensure accuracy and potency, and have
> generally been animated by exactly the kind of adversarial journalistic
> ethos that has been all too lacking over the last decade or so (see this
> Atlantic article<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/the-british-are-coming-and-theyve-brought-newspapers/277486/>from yesterday highlighting the role played by the Guardian US's
> editor-in-chief, Janine Gibson).****
>
> I don't need to say any of this, but do so only because it's so true and
> impressive: they deserve a lot of credit for the impact these stories have
> had. To underscore that: because we're currently working on so many
> articles involving NSA domestic spying, it would have been weeks, at least,
> before we would have been able to publish this story about indiscriminate
> NSA surveillance of Brazilians. Rather than sit on such a newsworthy story
> - especially at a time when Latin America, for several<http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-plane-incident-infuriates-latin-america-211051576.html>
> reasons<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/06/venezuela-nicaragua-offer-asylum-edward-snowden>,
> is so focused on these revelations - they were enthused about my partnering
> with O Globo, where it could produce the most impact. In other words, they
> sacrificed short-term competitive advantage for the sake of the story by
> encouraging me to write this story with O Globo. I don't think many media
> outlets would have made that choice, but that's the kind of journalistic
> virtue that has driven the paper's editors from the start of this story. *
> ***
>
> This has been a Guardian story from the start and will continue to be.
> Snowden came to us before coming to any other media outlet, and I'll
> continue to write virtually all NSA stories right in this very space. But
> the O Globo story will resonate greatly in Brazil and more broadly in Latin
> America, where most people had no idea that their electronic communications
> were being collected in bulk by this highly secretive US agency. For more
> on how the Guardian's editors have overseen the reporting of the NSA
> stories, see this informative interview on the Charlie Rose Show from last
> week with Gibson and Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger: ****
>
> ** **
>
>
>
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