Brazil Admits To Spying On US Diplomats After Blasting NSA Surveillance 239
cold fjord writes with this excerpt from The Verge: "Brazil this week admitted to spying on diplomats from countries including the US, Russia, and Iran as part of a domestic program launched 10 years ago ... The program was first revealed in a Monday report from the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, which obtained documents from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, commonly known as ABIN. The revelations come at a sensitive time for current Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, who has been among the most outspoken critics of the widespread surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA). According to Folha, Brazilian intelligence spied on rooms rented out by the US embassy in Brasilia from 2003 to 2004. ... The report also claims that ABIN targeted Russian and Iranian officials, tracking their movements within the country ... Rousseff's office acknowledged Monday that the spying took place, but stressed that the operations were carried out within the law. The administration added that publishing classified documents is a crime in Brazil, and that those responsible 'will be prosecuted according to the law.' ....the revelations may put Rousseff in an awkward position. The Brazilian president cancelled a state dinner with Barack Obama earlier this year ... and lashed out against US spying in an impassioned speech to the UN in September."
sensational headline (Score:4, Insightful)
the article details some very basic surveillance of foreign personnel in the country. if brazil's intelligence service *wasn't* doing this, it would be a scandal.
Re:Brazil spies on us? (Score:3, Insightful)
Huh?
How is spying on foreign diplomats the same as mass surveillance of the ordinary citizens of your own country?
Not quite the same... (Score:5, Insightful)
Comparing routine counter-intelligence operations with direct tapping of communications from a Head of State is, at the very least, an exaggeration.
Holy smokes ... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's almost as if governments, in general, are not to be trusted. Wow! Who would have ever imagined that their own government would do something like that? I mean, it is not as if every single government since the beginning of time as eventually gotten out of control or anything like that. Oh, wait....
Weak Sauce (Score:5, Insightful)
This story reeks of the NSA trying to do damage control and doing a piss-poor job of it.
As best as I can tell it boils down to brazil having tailed some foreign diplomats while they were in country. OMG! So that makes them even with the NSA breaking into anything and everything on the internet. It's totally the same!
Everyone Spies on Everyone (Score:4, Insightful)
Hardly the same thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Following agents of a foreign country inside the territory of your own country is not the same as spying on the entire conencted population of the world. One is targeted and low key, aimed at the potentially nefarious activities of foreign nationals potentially connected to foregin security services, on your own territory, the other is a gross and global invasion of privacy. a total abuse of privileged position, a collosal breach of trust that undermines the safe usage of all forms of modern communication. No modern system that contains American or British electronics or communicates with systems or over connections held on the territory of those nations or their allies, is beyond suspicion. No router, no computer, no modem, no chip, no mobile. In fact those very devices should be considered as compromised and unfit for use.
Re:Brazil spies on us? (Score:4, Insightful)
Beautiful switch you did there, substituting "mass surveillance" for "spying on diplomats." I wonder how many people will notice?
By the way, how do you know that Brazil both doesn't do it, and isn't heading in that direction if they aren't?
I'm shocked! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm shocked that there's spying in this casino!
They're all scum (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty sure that no country on earth is "clean" at this point.
Keep this fully in mind when some country is spouting off on their outrage, or thinking about offering services because of their "strong privacy laws".
None of these bastards, nor their successors, will hesitate for a fraction of a nanosecond if they think they'll gain something by violation of your rights.
And if you think they will, because of something written down on a piece of paper someplace, you're fucking deluded.
Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that the US makes such a big deal about being free, that irony continues to gush uncontrollably from the whole NSA scandal, the PATRIOT act, the TSA bullshit, the constant invasions of other countries, the attempts at blocking healthcare for poorer citizens, etc, etc...
Re:sensational headline (Score:4, Insightful)
the article details some very basic surveillance of foreign personnel in the country. if brazil's intelligence service *wasn't* doing this, it would be a scandal.
I agree, but the article is apropos due to the fact that Brazil feigned shock and horror at the US spying on them recently. Pot, meet kettle.
Re:Weak Sauce (Score:5, Insightful)
You missed something.
Brazilian intelligence spied on rooms rented out by the US embassy in Brasilia from 2003 to 2004.
I'm pretty sure they weren't tailing foreign diplomats in a room.
Unfortunately we don't have well over 60,000 documents on Brazilian intelligence operations to sort through to know more about what was going on.
I'll sum this up as: Brazil caught spying, Slashdot commentator condemns US. Film at 11.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Kindergarden politics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:sensational headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Two wrongs don't make it right (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear NSA,
The fact that another country spies on the US doesn't make what you did any more legal, acceptable or less egregious.
Sincerely,
Most of the US population
Re:Brazil spies on us? (Score:5, Insightful)
The main difference is that this is happening on Brazilian soil.
Actually I think the main difference is technical superiority. If the <insert country upset about the NSA that also has their own spying programs> had the same capabilities as the US, does anyone in the real world really believe that they wouldn't be doing the same damn thing? In espionage you don't say "well we could tap the phones of the leader of the target country/organization, but that wouldn't be nice so we'll just tap the low level people instead". The whole point of what any of these agencies do is to get as deep into their target as possible.
I'm not excusing some of the things the NSA has done. I'm just pointing out that there is no large scale government out there that doesn't have a spying program and those spying programs are equally as greedy as those in the US (even if they aren't as capable).
Fine, I won't change the subject. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong and right don't enter into it. (Score:4, Insightful)
The next time you say, "how the fuck did they not see that coming," remember that you were the one who told them to keep their eyes closed and their ears covered.
Re:Brazil spies on us? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes actually.
Countries like France and Germany have larger economies than the UK so could trivially be doing the same kind of blanket spying GCHQ has been doing but they don't.
So yes I genuinely believe there are countries who don't do what the NSA and GCHQ does, not because they can't, not even because they can't afford to, but because they either realise it's morally unacceptable, or that spying on your average citizen is just going to land you with more data than you can possibly do anything useful with which is why the Boston bombings still happened and why a soldier was still brutally murdered on British streets despite the people who committed those acts being known to the security services in both cases.
Staff at the NSA and GCHQ were probably just too busy giggling to themselves about some intercepted teenagers cybersex session that they stumbled across randomly to spot the guys that the Russian and South African security services had explicitly warned them about before it was too late.
There are both moral and logical reasons for not doing broad blanket surveillance of everyone you can as opposed to classic focussed intelligence work and the NSA and GCHQ are the only ones who don't seem to get that which is why despite their "technical superiority" coupled with no shortage of old school warnings about specific individuals by allies and enemies alike the US and UK are still both the most prominent targets of and arguably the largest victims to terrorism in the West.
Pretending "they're just jealous that they can't do this" which is what you're basically implying just gives them an excuse that is not valid and that they do not deserve.
Re:Everyone Spies on Everyone (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it's scale, scope and above all where the spying is done. They are not equivalent, and nobody expects the NSA/CIA to not spy on diplomats inside the US borders, or even ones in countries with with which the US does not have good diplomatic relations. They are however expected to not spy on US citizens without very good cause, or foreign citizens in friendly countries without similar justifications. Above all, the "gather it all, let hadoop sort it out" mindset is disturbing, unjustified, and of great concern. The brazil incident is nowhere near the same, period.
Re:sensational headline (Score:2, Insightful)
Also notably, they admitted it - it didn't have to be leaked, in contrast to the shit we've been pulling in the US.
Re:Brazil spies on us? (Score:5, Insightful)
Trusting fool. How do you know the don't? Because they say so?
France in particular has a long history of spying on _everyone_. Their national intelligence agencies even work for private companies, just to help them make sales.
reread - Brazil says they'll prosecute the leakers (Score:5, Insightful)
TFA says:
The administration added that publishing classified documents is a crime in Brazil,
and that those responsible "will be prosecuted according to the law."
Re:sensational headline (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a matter of capability. They spy to the level they can manage. Lacking global corporations like the US has they make do with what they have.
Re: sensational headline (Score:4, Insightful)
Its not about spying, I would be surprised if there was a country that didn't spy. It is about scale, when you start spying on everyone, indiscriminately it is a problem.
The government should put under surveillance people that they have reason to suspect of a crime, or has some important information, not just anyone.
It surprises me when there is outrage when spying happens diplomatic figures like Angela Merkel, but not when it is done on everyone. They are people in positions of power who's decisions may have serious implications, what do you expect? It goes to show the politicians think that privacy is important, but just their own.
But when you start spying on everyone, no matter who they are, no matter what they have done, then you are now granting the spies far too much unnecessary power.