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NSA Busted Conducting Industrial Espionage In France, Mexico, Brazil, China and All Around the World

George Washington's picture




 

U.S. Conducts Industrial Espionage Globally

Le Monde has revealed that the NSA gathered more than 70 million French phone calls in a single month.

France’s largest English-language newspaper – The Local – reports:

Le Monde said the documents gave grounds to think the NSA targeted not only people suspected of being involved in terrorism but also high-profile individuals from the world of business or politics.

 

***

 

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault [said]  “I am deeply shocked…. It’s incredible that an allied country like the United States at this point goes as far as spying on private communications that have no strategic justification, no justification on the basis of national defence,” he told journalists in Copenhagen.

Der Spiegel notes:

The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years.

 

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In the space of a single year, according to the internal documents, this operation produced 260 classified reports that allowed US politicians to conduct successful talks on political issues and to plan international investments.

The NSA was recently revealed to have been spying on Brazil’s largest oil company.

Guardian columnist Seumas Milne correctly notes:

#NSA-#GCHQ about power not security: hacked #Mexico president for political/investment edge, leak shows, like #Brazil….

The NSA was also recently busted spying on Chinese technology company Huawei.

German companies are concerned that the NSA has conducted espionage in that country. And the leaders of Latin American countries have also expressed disgust at the industrial espionage.

The NSA is also spying on the biggest financial payments systems such as VISA and Swift.

In a slide leaked by Edward Snowden, “economic” was one of the main justifications for spying.

The top U.S. spy’s justification for such financial spying is:

“We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries’ economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets.”

(Top financial experts say that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are also using the information to profit from this inside information.  And the NSA wants to ramp up its spying on Wall Street … to “protect” it.)

The Spying Has Been Going On For Decades

It is true that the spying is about power, and not security. Proof here, here and here.

But this has actually been going on for decades.

It has long been clear that the U.S. spying program is being used for industrial espionage. The New Statesman wrote about it in 1988. Die Zeit in 1999.

The New York Times reported in 1995:

Each morning, they gave Mickey Kantor, the United States trade representative, and his aides inside information gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Tokyo station and the electronic eavesdropping equipment of the National Security Agency, sifted by C.I.A. analysts in Washington.

 

Mr. Kantor received descriptions of conversations among Japanese bureaucrats and auto executives from Toyota and Nissan who were pressing for a settlement, and read about the competing pressures on Japan’s Trade Minister, Ryutaro Hashimoto.

 

When the negotiations came to a climax in Geneva, the intelligence team was in place at the Intercontinental Hotel, working alongside Mr. Kantor’s negotiators, offering assessments of how far the Japanese side could be pressed.

 

***

 

Spying on allies for economic advantage is a crucial new assignment for the C.I.A. now that American foreign policy is focused on commercial interests abroad. President Clinton made economic intelligence a high priority of his Administration, specifically information to protect and defend American competitiveness, technology and financial security in a world where an economic crisis can spread across global markets in minutes.

 

***

 

At the Treasury Department, the trade representative’s office and the Commerce Department, officials say they now receive a torrent of information from the C.I.A.

BBC reported in 2000:

A report published by the European Parliament in February alleges that Echelon twice helped US companies gain a commercial advantage over European firms. [Here's the report.]

 

Duncan Campbell, the British intelligence expert and journalist who wrote the report, raises the prospect that hundreds of US Department of Commerce “success stories”, when US companies beat off European and Japanese commercial opposition, could be attributed to the filtering powers of Echelon.

 

***

 

The European consortium Airbus lost a $6bn contract with Saudi Arabia after NSA found Airbus officials were offering kickbacks to a Saudi official.

 

The paper said the agency “lifted all the faxes and phone-calls between Airbus, the Saudi national airline and the Saudi Government” to gain this information.

 

***

 

The US firm Raytheon used information picked up from NSA snooping to secure a $1.4bn contract to supply a radar system to Brazil instead of France’s Thomson-CSF.

 

***

 

Former CIA director James Woolsey, in an article in March for the Wall Street Journal, acknowledged that the US did conduct economic espionage against its European allies, though he did not specify if Echelon was involved.

BONUS: 

 

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Wed, 10/23/2013 - 04:43 | 4082042 Mediocritas
Mediocritas's picture

It's always amusing to see another foreign diplomat expressing outrage at the NSA's activities given that they're all doing the same snooping themselves and always have been.

It's all about increasing power relative to the other guy, which means (during times of "peace") extracting secrets that lead to the $$$s. Simple as that. Terrorism has always been a very minor concern.

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 00:28 | 4078450 darteaus
darteaus's picture

This leak is good news for China, as this will force the US government to fight a fear guard action to attempt to keep what little business it currently has.

Meanwhile, China moves ahead with oil imports, gold purchasing, resource acquisition, gold purchases and trade agreements.

It's how you bring down a giant-a thousand arrows.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 22:58 | 4078287 Eahudimac
Eahudimac's picture

Zerohedge is the best when it comes to compiling all of the bullshit going on in the world and presenting it in a meaningful way. I get a headache reading all of the nonsense. I mean, how in the hell has the USA not imploded on itself yet? So, we have a tyrannical, corrpupt government, a crimial banking cabal, both of which espouse crony capitalism, while the sheeple unknowingly cheer their crimes and usher in their own demise. And for those of us who understand what is going on, and I estimate we are <1% of the population, we are really getting it up the ass with sand in the vaseline. What do you do? Most of us who understand this are too busy going to work everyday to try and make a better life for themselves, only to have more and more of it taxed away in the form of Obamacare, record numbers of people leeching off of the taxpayers, an insane political system intertwined with an insane financial system that is increasingly robbing the unsuspecting citizenry of what little weath they have left, and to top it all off, a rapid growing population of very uninformed and mis-educated voters who want to be ruled over by this system. Common sense has no place in the world anymore. It's been replaced with a mix of willfull ignorance, apathy, submission and a culture that celebrates these three traits. It's depressing. 

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 00:05 | 4078420 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

Yes, very depressing. Especially when you account in the top 1% of the US holds almost half the wealth of the country which has been growing substationally in the last 20 years.Almost seems like the rats know the ship's going to sink and are sucking as much 'blood' out of the still alive(assets) and jumping in the few lifeboats and high-tailing it to South America, which further dampens the monetary base as deflation implodes what's left of the middle class.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 22:52 | 4078269 tony bonn
tony bonn's picture

"...French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault [said]  “I am deeply shocked...."

bbbwwwaaahahahhahahahhahhahahahhhhhhaaaahhahhahhhahahahahaha!!! what lying sack of shit....his government cooperates with the nsa and has been doing so for decades....

anyone who is shocked or thinks this is news is a few light bulbs short of a christmas tree....a nation which spends trillions of the cia, homeland security, fbi, tsa, and other nazi organizations, to say nothing of its terrorist military, is going to be spying on its own citizens as well as foreigners....

the same rockefeller nazis who murdered kennedy, rfk, king, lennon, malcolm x, reagan, ford, and a slew of other political enemies is not going to stop short of spying on conversations.....in attempting to kill ford, rockefeller was killing one of his own who helped murder kennedy.

so to think that these nazis would pause before eaves dropping is imbecility of the highest order....

 

Tue, 10/22/2013 - 01:04 | 4078485 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

Most top politicians are psychopaths with an astounding curriculum vitae or a secret criminal past or present. The elites know why the chose them. They are easy to control.

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/merkels-murky-past-more-evidence-...

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 22:06 | 4078139 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

THEY WILL HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:40 | 4077677 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

Totally O/T but a subject GW follows:

A very disturbing report from a long time pacific sailor on a recent trip from AUS to Japan to CA.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1848433/the-ocean-is-broken/?cs=12

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:31 | 4077654 Reptil
Reptil's picture

It's pretty much over for the Republic. There goes the fifth. Say "bye-bye".

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/15787-supreme-cou...

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:25 | 4077638 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

Notice the Mexican govt policy of criminal invasion and reconquest isn't mentioned, (NOT that it was a concern of our govt at all). 

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:30 | 4077607 layman_please
layman_please's picture

nsa has nothing to do with usa, except who pays for it(us citizen) and who operates it (us government). it's a tool for global elite who have no other affiliation or fidelity to usa. 'unfortunately' usa was once rich enough to become a platform for their global policy. in their minds countries are nothing more than mere smokescreen to confuse the peons.

nsa has so many analysts/subcontractors that it's impossible for the public to have a clear overview who are all the entities with backdoors to nsa databases. 

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 18:58 | 4077567 piceridu
piceridu's picture

GW, just want to give you props for keeping the torch lit. Your relentless pursuit of the truth is much appreciated.

Thank you

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 18:03 | 4077429 Widowmaker
Widowmaker's picture

Widowmaker has said it many times.  Mark this post because the NSA spying is connected to investment banks (now bank holding companies), and has been since 2004.   This is about money and tilted markets (and diplomacy).

END THE NSA, VOTE OUT THE ENCUMBANTS THAT VOTED FOR PATRIOT ACT!

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:29 | 4077644 Randoom Thought
Randoom Thought's picture

Sure it is connected to a power that controls both the banking powers and the military ... and most likely the religeous powers as well.

This power has been around a lot longer than 2004. However, it is only since WWII that we have been introduced to its use of technology against the people.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 18:59 | 4077571 silverserfer
silverserfer's picture

yes, but money is a tool of power. you dont use power to steal money when you already have the power to creat money out of thin air. banks are tools of those in power. Money is used to contol people and companies to due your bidding. think strategery.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:31 | 4077331 butchtrucks
butchtrucks's picture

Good.   Uncle Sam gotta keep a close eye on these no-count pinko-punko cheese eating surrender monkeys.  

Now where did I leave my Freedom Fries?

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:27 | 4077318 Chupacabra-322
Chupacabra-322's picture

What was once Criminal is now out in the open & legal. It doesn't hurt to have the masses desensitized to Criminal business practices like murder, espionage & drug trade as normal. Throw in the Criminal Politcians, Agencies & Justice System & you have a recipe for a AuthoritarianTotalitarian Fascist Police State Tyranny.

Which is exactly what we have today.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:31 | 4077651 Randoom Thought
Randoom Thought's picture

We are currently involved in a long process of rolling disclosure, at the completion of which, we will be introduced to the true power and our position relative to it.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:07 | 4077272 Quantum Nucleonics
Quantum Nucleonics's picture

Come on. They are an f-ing spy agency. What do you think we've been paying them for all these years?  We're shocked, shocked that spying is going on.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:40 | 4077173 Racer
Racer's picture

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/

And see how the US increased global terrorism because of their intervention into other countries and dictated over them

Type in Afghanistan or Iraq!

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:36 | 4077162 Walt D.
Walt D.'s picture

This cuts both ways. I can remember Air France bugging the seats in First Class and passing the conversations of US businessmen onto French companies with whom they were going to do business.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 22:42 | 4078241 DoChenRollingBearing
DoChenRollingBearing's picture

+ 1

Not good work here George...

Everyone spies on us!

France and China have been aggresively spying on us since the 1980s, believe me, I know.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:36 | 4077160 redwater
redwater's picture

Not only can the U.S. Spy- they can back door your systems to pilfer and sabotage (stuxnet).

Breaking and entering, wire tapping, destruction of data and property are standard, day-to-day, normal business conduct for the United States.

Industrial espionage, sabotage...exceptionalism

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:33 | 4077157 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say at some point somebody is gonna get a bit piqued about the US sniffing their undies and do something nasty about it.

Might have something to do with bonds, gold, oil, reserve currency...etc.

It's always fun until somebody pulls out a particle beam weapon...

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:25 | 4077134 redwater
redwater's picture

The NSA are George Soros' investment advisors.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:04 | 4077062 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

The NSA (along with the reserve currency thingy) truly do make Americans exceptional. We have exceptional data and exceptional printers.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 21:09 | 4077928 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

I was going to point out American Exceptionalism as well. People don't seem to recognize how the west won... threats, wars, bribes, eavesdropping.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:36 | 4077285 Anasteus
Anasteus's picture

The fact that the elite has demeaned itself by spying on everyone just confirms how clueless and therefore paranoiac it's becoming. It's an act of pure desperation, a clear sign of quandary. They know the situation is rapidly worsening and they subconsciously surmise the game is over. In fact, they are doing the worst thing imaginable - they are revealing their true hostile nature thus infuriating the whole world and even those with the last remnants of sympathy towards them. In short, they act like total idiots.

Don't get scared and fooled by the last phase of the furious dog at death's door.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 21:08 | 4077924 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

How can you be so sure that the spying is not being done by good guys to catch the evil oligarchs and their minions in their conspiracies.

 

I know, unbelievable given the evidence, but still, a possibility. It would equally explain all of the surveillance... you have to throw a big net if you're going after unknown parties... whether low life or lower life.

 

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:01 | 4077038 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Do you realise that the inventors of WWW Icann are now openly saying they want Dilma Roussef of Brazil to head up a project to ensure that the WWW architecture can be saved from Pax Americana shenanigans.

What is the US coming to when its best sons now call on OTHER sovereigns to save their best inventions. 

After Snowden in Russia, Icann in Brazil.

Thats the unkindest cut on Jefferson's grave.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 15:48 | 4076982 Randoom Thought
Randoom Thought's picture

People should probably wake up quick to understand that the globalists are using our own government to make us the next hated enemy of the world. Good people ... evil government sacrificing its own people for the creation of a global government.

Those working in the NSA should start considering what purpose they really serve and how it is going to affect them and their families.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 21:04 | 4077916 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

They are trying to get the other nations to act on their inclination to destroy the dollar. They have been stoking that fire for a while now, but everyone is so used to being an unethical whore, they're still worried about who will be their sugar daddy once they turn on the dollar.

 

Of course, this is just at the level of the complicit nit wits, those people who believe in one side good other side bad but are not in on the actual conspiracy... they're just useful idiots. The true oligarchs and their minions are not actually so dumb, they know what will happen, they're just waiting, prodding.

 

 

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 15:40 | 4076961 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

So how much will the US GDP drop now that the secret advantage that US firms had over their foreign competition is no longer working?  IBM's China sales dropped by 15% in the last quarter and will continue to drop.

Which foreign country will continue to buy Cisco equipment?  These NSA revelations are a debacle for many US technological companies and we will see the consequences for years.  But, not to worry, Janet Yellen will be printing for years into the future.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:39 | 4077172 Urban Roman
Urban Roman's picture

Put it this way: from now on, the area formerly known as "Silicon Valley" will be known as "Silicon Gulch". 

Bye bye, Cisco, Google, Oracle, Sun (well there wasn't much left of Sun anyway), etc etc etc. 

Long Linux, Tor, PGP. 

[edit] not Tor, it was a product of the US MIC. 

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 22:13 | 4078159 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

And corporations have to make up for the losses to make the Wall St shills happy. More outsourcing, layoffs are coming, salaries will go down. It will be more like "Silicon Gulag" soon.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 15:28 | 4076926 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

I am waiting for the admission that Barry knew he was gonna get that Nobel because he had the offices bugged.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 15:50 | 4076991 Randoom Thought
Randoom Thought's picture

The Nobel is rigged by elitists to reward those who serve their agenda.

Obviously the elitists have the dirt on the Nobel committee and would punish them or their families if they did not comply with their demands.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 18:52 | 4077555 silverserfer
silverserfer's picture

Barry upon arriving the private Nobel prize after party "so when do i get to sacrifice a goat? I heard you guys have goats and hookers."

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 19:33 | 4077662 Randoom Thought
Randoom Thought's picture

No need for hookers ... there was a goat and there was Barry. Barry sold himself long ago.

Mon, 10/21/2013 - 16:47 | 4077199 Bindar Dundat
Bindar Dundat's picture

No tears for the Frenchies PLEASE. They have been putting bugs in the head rests of Air France for years.  They are the feaking pirates of International trade. Their complaints about being bullied are a bit rich....

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