Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The problem with trying to throw people under the bus…

…is that some of them refuse to go.
The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping.

Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies.
I cannot imagine how Obama’s pantaloons have not yet combusted, what with all the lies he tells (must be due to the fact that the mainstream media serve in the capacity of asbestos drawers).

5 comments:

bruce said...

They should be glad to sacrifice themselves to preserve the King's sacred Honor.

JeffS said...

No surprises there. Not only are foreign leaders fair game when it comes to intelligence collection, I'm certain that the Euroweenies return the favor to us, with interest. And thus has it ever been.

The Israelis are right, this outrage from Europe is pretty naive. More likely, it's faux outrage, a chance to poke America in the eye, and divert attention from their own (self-made) woes.

Obama should have stood firm, and told 'em to buzz off. But he lacks the backbone for this sort of confrontation, and hence tried to throw the intelligence community under the bus.

Bad move, that. Really bad move. Spooks have long memories.

RebeccaH said...

I agree with JeffS. Nations have always spied on each other, even friendly ones. Most people don't know their governments are spying on everyone, thus the feigned outrage by governments.

That said, there's no way Obama comes out of this looking good. If he was aware and denied he was aware, then he's a liar (big surprise there). If he truly didn't know, that's even worse, because it shows him up as an idiot.

bruce said...

Five Eyes, the Anglo conspiracy. Continentals always make it 'Anglo-Saxon'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement

Paco said...

Just to keep things straight: I have no problem with the spying. Its Obama's protestation of complete ignorance that I find offensive (unless he really was ignorant of it, which is just scary).