PLA has set up Chinese version of ‘PRISM’ monitoring in H.K.: Kanwa

Hong Kong, Nov. 17 (CNA) The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has established a large-scale signals and information monitoring facility in Hong Kong similar to the U.S. PRISM monitoring program, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Information Center.

In a report obtained by CNA, Kanwa, which publishes a monthly magazine on Asian defense issues, said that intelligence experts have made the findings after observing the facility from the top of Tai Mo Shan, the highest mountain in Hong Kong with a altitude of 950 meters.

Laser weapons inch closer to battlefield

Who wouldn’t want a ray gun?

The military aims to turn lasers weapons from science fiction into reality for everything from space platforms to Humvees.

“RELI” is the Department of Defense’s relatively new Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which is meant to create next-generation lightweight, compact laser weapons.

Friend and Foe

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) – New reports are confirming the close cooperation of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) with the National Security Agency (NSA). According to these reports, BND agents have repeatedly visited the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade to discuss technical issues. The NSA has also furnished the BND instruments for analyzing intercepted data. A former head of the Austrian intelligence service has confirmed that it was a “common understanding among all European intelligence services” to be “aware” of the NSA Prism surveillance program. Already years ago, officials of the US military have been quoted saying that the US military espionage center that is being established in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden – and that will reportedly also be used by the NSA – is destined to gather information “on the current situation of friend and foe, and everything that can influence our mission.” The German government has also admitted that the Western block’s cooperation of the intelligence services – which includes abduction and torture of suspects in the so-called war on terror – dates back to secret agreements between the leading NATO powers during the post-WW II decades.

Merkel justifies NSA eavesdropping surveillance

Despite “justified questions” to the American intelligence community regarding eavesdropping on German networks, the US remains Berlin’s “most loyal ally”, announced Chancellor Angela Merkel in interview to Die Zeit weekly.

Merkel has made her first detailed comment into the unraveling diplomatic scandal with the America’s National Security Agency (NSA) global telecommunication eavesdropping, including those of its European allies, Germany foremost among them.

French intelligence spying on emails, phonecalls: newspaper

As mentioned in a previous post, the real scandal is that the foreign governments who are screaming the loudest, have been doing it as well.

AFP – French secret services intercept all communications in France, stocking telephone and computer data for years, daily newspaper Le Monde reported Thursday amid an international uproar over spying by the United States.

Government officials have not responded to AFP requests for comment on the Le Monde report, which said data from communications was being stored on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service.

The DGSE “systematically collects electromagnetic signals emitted by computers in France, as well as the data feed between France and abroad: the entirety of our communications are being spied upon,” said the report.

NSA Spying in Germany: How Much Did the Chancellor Know?

What everyday people don’t understand is that countries spy on other countries on a routine basis, even allies. Matter of fact, in the real geopolitical world there is no such thing as an ally, only ‘interests’ — especially to the United States. England has regularly spied on the US, and vice-versa. Much like the NSA/CIA/FBI, Interpol (European CIA equivalent) has even been given nearly full authority (with immunity) to act as they please on American soil, by this very same US administration.

In addition, the NSA spying had to have been known long ago and approved by these same foreign governments complaining and making a scandal out of it. In summary, this is only being turned into a ‘scandal’ to make sure the politicians don’t lose popularity among their respective voters. This is not to whitewash what’s going on, but to point out that the real scandal is that the politicians in such countries as France and Germany allowed it to happen, have been caught red-handed and are only putting on a show for public consumption.

While the Chancellery appears to be outraged by the NSA’s spying tactics in Germany, the opposition doubts the revelations came as a surprise to Angela Merkel. Just how much could she have known?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have to be pretty clear with US President Barack Obama the next time she has him on the line. At least that’s a reasonable assumption, based on the anger she has expressed about American spying operations in the European Union and Germany.

PRISM makes trade deal a mission impossible

“Data spying scandal threatens EU-US trade talks, headlines the Financial Times, reporting on the latest twist in the story about allegations the US intelligence service, the National Security Agency, routinely gathered phone records and tracked internet use of citizens in a surveillance programme called PRISM. The news emerged following a leak by a former Central Intelligence Agency employee who was named by The Guardian as Edward Snowden, 29.