Report: NSA directly spied Brazil, Mexico leaders

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Report: NSA directly spied Brazil, Mexico leaders
Sep 1, 10:23 PM EDT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- A new report says the U.S. National Security Agency's spy program on global Internet and telephone traffic directly targeted the leaders of Brazil and Mexico.

That's from U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro. He worked with the Brazilian TV news program "Fantastico" for a show that aired Sunday night.

Greenwald says on the program that documents dated June 2012 and provided to him by NSA leaker Edward Snowden show the communications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto were targeted.

In Pena Nieto's case, he was being targeted while still a presidential candidate and not yet the elected leader. The documents indicate the contents of Pena Nieto's communications were accessed.





Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_BRAZIL_NSA_LEADERS?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

---

(Short article, no more at link.)

[dkf]

1. Exactly who do they NOT spy on?

[Downwinder]

2. Snowden and Manning slipped under the radar.

[dkf]

5. They did it by themselves so no one to communicate with.

[Thinkingabout]

3. Some have set themselves up to be spied on, when you try to play with the big boys

Don't expect to be treated with kid gloves. The kitchen is going to get hotter.

[SoapBox]

4. "...from U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro"

Huh? Greenwald lives in Brazil?

WTF? I never knew that. And he's touted as THE U.S. journalist to yap about the NSA?

Another freak that says that they are such the good American but has left America?

No cred!

[Hissyspit]

6. He's an American citizen.

He lives in Brazil because of the lack of rights for male spousal partners in the U.S. You know, civil rights that are kept from him through no fault of his own? He regularly traveled to U.S. before the Snowden thing.

You are trashing him and yet you are completely oblivious? Talk about no credibility.

[msanthrope]

25. Um, no. He met his partner after he had moved there. I suspect the NYS and federal tax liens

he had incurred up to that point encouraged him to 'retire' to Brazil.

[Hissyspit]

30. You "suspect."

O.k. He's still an American citizen and can live wherever he wants.

In a profile in Out magazine, Greenwald explained that his residence in Brazil was due to the fact that an American law, the Defense of Marriage Act, barred the federal recognition of same-sex marriages at the time and thus prevented his partner from obtaining immigration rights in the United States.[23] (The pertinent section of said law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, in U.S. v. Windsor.)

[msanthrope]

37. In that same interview with Out, he described how he met Miranda on a beach

after he had already retired from his law practice...

http://www.out.com/news-commentary/2011/04/18/glenn-greenwald-life-beyond-borders?page=full

He also owes over 100k in tax liens. I'd live outside the US too if I owed that much.

[pnwmom]

33. That's a crock. Brazil's situation with regard to gay civil rights has been like that of the US --

Last edited Mon Sep 2, 2013, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

inconsistent, variable depending on the state, but improving.

The Brazilian Supreme Court first gave partners in stable same-sex relationships the same rights as married couples in May 2011; and gay marriage first became legal – in a single Brazilian state – in June 2011. Brazil, like the US, has been making great strides – but they started after the U.S., not before. (Edit to add: The Brazilian high court in May 2013 approved same-sex marriage for the whole country -- good for them. But that's not why Greenwald moved to Brazil years ago.)

Brazil is no paradise for LGBT. The progress they have made has been because of actions of judges, not the Brazilian legislature or popular votes; and Brazilian LGBT are far more likely to be the subject of hate crime murders than in the US.

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/mass-gay-wedding-held-rio-brazil101212#sthash.nzfvShH3.dpuf


On 5 May 2011, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court granted same-sex couples in stable partnerships the same rights as straight couples.

And on 27 June 2011, a judge in São Paulo converted for the first time a same-sex civil union into a same-sex marriage.

A resolution in the state was then passed to permit other same-sex civil unions be changed to marriage status. However this does not hold force beyond São Paulo state.

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/topics/LGBT%20rights%20in%20Brazil#sthash.YyGRcYjT.dpuf

June 1, 2012
280 gay hate murders in Brazil and Peru in 2011
A report shows the chances of a gay man being murdered in Brazil are 800% more likely to occur than in the US
SNIP
Brazil's Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB) documented 266 murders of gays, lesbians and transvestites in Brazil last year, six more than in 2010.
According to Professoe Luiz Mott, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Bahia and founder of the GGB: 'The underreporting of these crimes is striking, indicating that the number represents just the tip of an iceberg of cruelty and blood.

[Hissyspit]

35. It's about Miranda coming to U.S.

Should he want to. That situation has changed in U.S. recently, too. Greenwald is concerned with travel to U.S. for other reasons now.

But none of that justifies the nonsense in the post to which I was responding.

[go west young man]

12. What kind of logic is that?

According to your logic any journalist from any country that resides elsewhere has no credibility. Does that same thinking go for war correspondents that choose to live overseas? Or BBC reporters living here in the US? You do realize expats of all types have been influential the world over? In your mind do all human beings that move to another country have a right to comment on their homeland? You do realize this is Democratic Underground right? Where we espouse freedom and liberty? It's not The Nationalist Front".

[Nanjing to Seoul]

13. So all Americans living abroad need to shut up and not yap about anything?

I live in China! Am I another freak that says they are such the good American but has left America?

[ellie]

7. OK. This needs to stop.

This is getting ridiculous.

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Snowden/Greenwald are the Energizer Bunnies of spy scandals.

The hits just keep on coming. Ouch.

[think_critically]

9. i'm sick of this guy

This guy is nothing but an attention whore. We want the NSA to spy on foreign governments. Are people stupid enough to believe that they don't try and spy on us all the time. And for all of these snowden worshipers on this board please explain to me how you can support him when he chooses russia of all places as his place of asylum. The fact that he would accept asylum from a country that has shown time and time again that it could care less about human rights says a lot about him. He's a self serving punk plain and simple and I'm sick of people treating him like he's some damn hero. A fucking hero would have only released the information about NSA activities in this country and then stood trial and plead his case in front of the american people. That would have made him a hero.

[PSPS]

10. Good old #5

Worshiper/Apologist Hit Parade:

1. This is nothing new
2. I have nothing to hide
3. What are you, a freeper?
4. But Obama is better than Christie/Romney/Bush/Hitler
5. Greenwald/Flaherty/Gillum/Apuzzo/Braun is a hack
6. We have red light cameras, so this is no big deal
7. Corporations have my data anyway
8. At least Obama is trying
9. This is just the media trying to take Obama down
10. It's a misunderstanding/you are confused
11. You're a racist
12. Nobody cares about this anyway / "unfounded fears"
13. I don't like Snowden, therefore we must disregard all of this
14. Other countries do it

[think_critically]

11. typical

You just typed 14 completely meaningless points. You can choose to live in this fantasy land if you want to but this faux outrage is really annoying. Every country on this planet collects and exploits data and so does every major corporation. I can't believe people are so naive. Obama didn't start this program an he certainly won't be the last president to use it. If you think Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would shut down this entire spying apparatus then you clearly have no idea of how the world works. The fucked up thing is that people will trust Obama to take their money, i.e. raise taxes, and spend it wisely but will not trust him with their tweets,facebook posts, or cell phone logs. The day I'll start worrying about the NSA is the day that some right wing whack job can't call Obama a socialist- muslim-communist-bastard and not get locked up. If we ever get to that point then it'll be time for a revolution but until then people just need to get real.

[Downwinder]

14. Do you dispute the report of the United States Senate

Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities?

[Nanjing to Seoul]

16. Nowhere in taxes does it say people can data mine me

And yes, I don't want anyone snooping in my private anything.

One reason I don't use twitter and barely use facebook is because it's another way of having eyes look at me that I might not want looking at me because I don't want their eyes looking at me for any reason, good or bad.

I remember a time a warrant was needed to get phone records. I love the freedoms we used to have.

[MyNameGoesHere]

18. Bet you love those spy vs. spy comics?

Seems like that is the extent of your spying knowledge.

[PSPS]

22. My god, you're right! Not only did Obama to "raise taxes," he takes their guns too!!11!1 Right?

I've seen the light! Let's all get behind our being spied upon by our own government to ... teach them a good lesson!!11!1!!

[primavera]

38. So your argument is that, if a thing is being done, that makes it legitimate?

So there's no point in troubling ourselves over things like extrajudicial rendition, torture, and murder, or indefinite detention without trial, because, hey, those things are being done, it's the real world we live in, ergo, it's just the way life is? What, then, is the point in trying to fight any injustice? So gender and racial discrimination are endemic, corporate polluters are wrecking the planet, our government institutions are hopelessly corrupt and beholden to corporate interests, the rich get richer while everyone else gets poorer, but, really, who cares? That's the real world, so we need to just suck it up and stop whining, right?

[DeSwiss]

15. Hahahahahaha!!!!

- Keep the hits coming Glenn you've got 'em screamin' for mercy!

[DeSwiss]

17. K&R

At this point it might save time if they just published the names of people NOT being spied on by the NSA.

- That's gotta be a shorter list......

[pnwmom]

19. Oh, thank you so much, Snowden and Greenwald. We really needed you to leak everything

you could find about US spying on foreign countries.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. So you're reduced to saying that journalists should cover up anything embarrassing

just out of patriotism?

[pnwmom]

31. No, you're reduced to having to justify the unjustifiable -- Snowden's sucking up 58,000

unread documents in vacuum hose style, and scattering them around the blogosphere -- just because he could.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. "scattering them around the blogosphere"? The Guardian is not 'the blogosphere'

I really despair about the calibre of the complaints of the anti-Greenwald squad (you tend to object to Greenwald's character even more than Snowden's). Your arguments are so badly thought out, and so frequently reliant upon made-up shit like "scattering them around the blogosphere", that I worry about the future of the centre of US politics.

[pnwmom]

34. Fine. "Scattering them around the world." That's what he is doing. n/t

[kelliekat44]

20. I am about tired of hearing about NSA spying and Greenwald's dripping tidbits designed to

keep embarrassing the Obama administration at every turn. I notice that as soon as Obama makes a decision about anything, Greenwald leaks just a little more info. Let's just realize that the US has been spying on every national leader they can since the country's birth in 1776. To the Trash Bin for me with anymore of these Greenwald-Snowden report.

[blkmusclmachine]

21. The Feds also retain images of all addresses on all mail pieces going through the Post Office

Your tax dollars at work

[Rumold]

36. This is the part that gets me

our tax dollars funding their economic espionage to enrich themselves.

[Octafish]

24. It's for their own good.

Like Henry Kissinger said about democracy:

''The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.''

[Shivering Jemmy]

26. Good. That's the NSA's job

[bunnies]

27. Just in time for the G20.

Interesting timing, as usual.

[wildbilln864]

28. so why weren't they spying on Syria too? n/t

[matt819]

29. This is not a problem, folks

Spying on other countries is fine. I don't even have much heartburn spying on allies.

There is nothing wrong with this. As they say, second oldest profession. We'd be foolish if we didn't. So let's not get our knickers in a twist over the valid role of the American intelligence community, or, on the flip side, the valid role of other nations to do the same. (And that's where counterintelligence kicks in. Again, a valid role for any intelligence organization.)

The issue I have is with collecting metadata, phone calls, e-mails, etc. on Americans in America without a warrant.