national security

While hardly coming as news to anyone who could have read the tea leaves as soon as Snowden boarded the plane from Hong Kong to Moscow, the flashing red headline that the NSA whistleblower has just applied to be Depardieu's neighbor, has just escalated the great US foreign policy snafu that started a month ago with the NSA spying revelations, and has since developed into a huge scandal involving Europe, Russia, China, Hong Kong, and virtually every other country (not to mention US citizens) that the US government is spying on.

• SNOWDEN ASKS FOR RUSSIAN POLITICAL ASYLUM: IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL
• SNOWDEN ASYLUM APPLICATION RECEIVED YESTERDAY: RUSSIAN OFFICIAL

And with Putin saying there is no chance he will return Snowden to the US, in response to Obama's demands, suddenly the balance of power shifts to Russia's favor (which by now it is almost certain, knows everything that Snowden does). Ball is now in Putin's court. Just where he likes it.

While the situation for Edward Snowden remains uncertain, Russian officials report that he has handed them an appeal to 15 nations for political asylum. As the LA Times reports, an official noted, "Snowden reiterated once again that he is not a traitor and explained his actions only by a desire to open the world's eyes on the flagrant violations by US special services." This somewhat desperate act follows what Russian officials describe as "Ecuador disavowing [Snowden's] political protection credentials," though we have seen nothing confirmed by Ecuador (yet) especially in light of last week's strong anti-US rhetoric. Russia's President Putin just proclaimed that "Snowden isn't, has never been a Russian agent," and added that Russia doesn't plan to extradite anyone.

The Egyptian Military just made a publc statement on Egyptian TV and it appears the country is close to another military coup:

• *EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS WON'T BE PART OF POLITICS
• *EGYPT MILITARY SAYS NATIONAL SECURITY SUBJECTED TO GRAVE DANGER
• *EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS PROTESTS 'UNPRECEDENTED'
• *EGYPTIAN MILITARY SAYS HOMELAND FACING DIRE SITUATION
• *EGYPT'S MILITARY SAYS WILL NOT BE PARTY TO POLITICS OR POWER
• *EGYPT MILITARY SAYS CALLS FOR MEETING THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE
• *EGYPT MILITARY MAY HAVE TO OFFER ROADMAP AFTER 48 HOURS

In other words, do as the people want, calm this down now, or we will step in within 48 hours.

#BREAKING France's Hollande tells US to 'immediately stop' spying

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) July 1, 2013

The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices" made in a report published Sunday by Der Spiegel. The latest round of NSA 'transparency' suggests U.S. intelligence agents bugged EU offices on both sides of the Atlantic, leaving some EU lawmakers calling for concrete sanctions against Washington - calling for an immediate investigation into the claims and suggesting that recently launched negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade treaty should be put on hold. "If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," notes one German minister, adding that, "it is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies." Schulz concludes, "It would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations."

The key dynamic here is once the low-hanging fruit have all been plucked, it becomes much more difficult to achieve high growth rates. That cycle is speeding up, it seems; western nations took 100 years to rapidly industrialize and then slip into failed models of stagnation; Japan took only 40 years to cycle through to stagnation, and now China has picked the low-hanging fruit and reverted to financialization, diminishing returns and rapidly rising debt after a mere 30 years of rapid growth.... there is another dangerous dynamic in any systemic reform: the very attempt to reform an unstable, diminishing-return system often precipitates its collapse. The leadership recognizes the need for systemic reform, but changing anything causes the house of cards to collapse in a heap. This seems to describe the endgame in the USSR, where Gorbachev's relatively modest reforms unraveled the entire empire.

Having appeared to confirm no 'actual' American emails were intercepted in previous statements, it seems President Obama has some more questions to answer after the Guardian reveals that in fact, the Obama administration permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and Internet usage of Americans for more than two years. “The internet metadata of the sort NSA collected for at least a decade details the accounts to which Americans sent emails and from which they received emails,” the Guardian's Greenwald wrote. “It also details the Internet protocol addresses (IP) used by people inside the United States when sending emails – information which can reflect their physical location. It did not include the content of emails." Is it any wonder that Obama said he was "concerned" about firther leaks today.

The Federal Reserve has had $1.2 million swiped from a flight somewhere between Switzerland, the land of secret banking, and New York City. Now, in the ranking of thefts that have taken place in history, this one seems like it is rather untimely! Has anybody seen Ben Bernanke lately?

72% of Likely U.S. Voters Know the NSA Has Monitored the Private Communications of Congress, Military Leaders and Judges

Following Putin's colorful description of the no-man's-land that Edward Snowden seems to reside in, Wikileaks has confirmed this morning that "Mr. Snowden is not being 'debriefed' by the FSB. He is well." As Rianovosti notes, there has been widespread skepticism that the presence of the Snowden at a Moscow airport would not have prompted any interest from Russian intelligence officials. Snowden’s ultimate destination is unknown, but Ecuador – which has given refuge to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London – has now demanded that, as The South China Morning Post reports, the US must “submit its position” regarding Snowden to the Ecuadorian government in writing as it considers his request for asylum. Ecuador's foreign minister added, "his government could take months to decide whether to grant asylum."

You know it’s bad for the establishment when Nancy Pelosi gets booed and heckled by her own supporters at a progressive gathering in her home state of California.  It seems the actions of the criminals in control of these United States finally have become so absurd that the apathetic citizenry is being shaken from its long slumber.

On March 10, 1975, a group of US diplomatic and national security officials gathered at the office of the Turkish foreign minister’s office in Ankara. Henry Kissinger was among them. The discussion turned to foreign aid and supply of parts for military equipment, at which point Kissinger (Secretary of State at the time) suggested something that violated the law. William Macomber, the US Ambassador to Turkey, said, “That is illegal.” Kissinger didn’t miss a beat, replying, "Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, 'The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.'" Then, in an almost cartoon-like reaction, the room filled with laughter. You can practically see the rising cigar smoke and fatcats slapping each other on the back as they stick it to the little guy. But that one quote, probably more than anything else, sums up the US government’s attitude: they will do whatever they want, legal or not, Constitutional or not.

• Stocks Fall With China in Bear Market as Bonds Decline (BBG)
• Russia defiant as U.S. raises pressure over Snowden (Reuters) ...
• and sure enough: Kerry Warns Hong Kong and Russia on Snowden  (WSJ)
• Slow-Motion U.S. Recovery Searches for Second Gear (WSJ)
• PBOC Sees ‘Reasonable’ Liquidity in China’s Financial System (BBG)
• Italy's Berlusconi faces verdict in underage sex trial (Reuters)
• Fed Monetary Course Difficult for a Bernanke Successor to Alter (BBG)
• Another China central bank worry; companies push into lending (Reuters)
• Gold Miner Writedowns at $17 Billion After Newcrest Fallout (BBG)
• Snowden Faces Often-Posed U.S. Fugitive Question: Where to Run? (BBG)

In keeping with its firm Christian values, after Hong Kong slapped the US on one cheek yesterday when it allowed a passportless Snowden to leave the country for Moscow, the US has now turned the other cheek. And RUssia's Vladimir Putin was happy to oblige with a perfectly placed uppercut. As the WSJ reports, the Kremlin said Monday that it won't intervene in the case of former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden and that Russia had no advance knowledge of his arrival from Hong Kong on Sunday. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a decision about holding Mr. Snowden and sending him back to the U.S. to face charges wasn't a matter for the Kremlin."Snowden did nothing illegal in Russia. There are also no orders for his arrest through Interpol to Russian law enforcement agencies," an unnamed security official told the RIA-Novosti news agency." Of course, the NSA which is actively intercepting every Russian (and global) form of communication, knew all about this long ago...

From its origins as a management consulting firm, Booz Allen has quietly grown into a government-wide contracting behemoth, fed by ballooning post-Sept. 11 intelligence budgets and Washington’s increasing reliance on outsourcing. With 24,500 employees and 99% of its revenues from the federal government, its growth in the last decade has been stunning (and until very recently with little to no knowledge from the main street that it even exists).