English: United States President Barack Obama and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny participate in a bilateral meeting in the Dining Room at Farmleigh, an official Irish state guest house for visiting heads of state and dignitaries in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am sure that the NSA have good ways of weighing through the rubbish that they glean from the millions of European and worldwide phones/data and emails that the syphon off into their data banks. At least I hope so. They have a very mixed record at actually stopping terrorist incidents to date, and one fears that they are a bit like old fashion stamp collectors, building up a large collection, without ever posting a letter!
And what damage they are doing ….!
In a world built on alliances and trust, here are these spooks undermining any trust, any sense of camaraderie that they have available to them, by listening into the phone calls of ordinary citizens of Europe and elsewhere, while it is illegal to do the same to their own citizens! How bad is that for allies???
This is not to mention listening into the calls of the Chancellor of Germany, and saddest of all, possibly even our own Enda Kenny. What a threat to democracy he is likely to be! Not to be outdone, Enda sidestepped this embarrassing faux pas by saying diplomatically, that he just assumed that his phone was tapped, and never said anything of note! What a shock…!!
I might suggest that if he wants to get his message across, he need no longer rely on the diplomatic channels. It would be far better to ring up his wife, or a friend, and discuss his views over the phone. Surely the NSA will pick it up, and provide a hotline to Pennsylvania Avenue!
It really is time the US woke up to the fact that there are other people on this planet, and they need to start treating their allies as equals, or they will indeed end up on their own.
Security is one thing, ignorance is another.
P
On a lighter note – check out below!
- Breaking: Kenny summons US ambassador over phone taps (politics.ie)
paddyspiigs 