Posted on 12/19/2013 10:48:20 AM PST by kronos77
"I envy Obama because he can spy on his allies without any consequences," said Putin when asked about how his relations had changed with the US following Snowden’s espionage revelations.
During an annual question-and-answer session with journalists, Putin praised Edward Snowden’s actions, saying that he was working for a “noble cause.” At the same time he accepted the importance of espionage programs in the fight against global terrorism, but said the NSA needed guidelines to limit its powers.
“There is nothing to be upset about and nothing to be proud of, spying has always been and is one of the oldest professions,” said Putin.
Referring to the vast amounts of metadata gathered on citizens by the NSA, Putin said it is impossible to sift through all of that information. It is “useless” to look at the analysis of spy agencies because it is the opinion of analysts and not facts and as such can be misleading.
“You need to know the people who analyze them, I know, I did it,” said Putin, harking back to his career as a KGB agent.
The Russian president described Snowden as a “curious character” and said it was not clear why the former CIA contractor had decided to blow the whistle on the NSA’s international espionage program at such a young age.
Russia is not working with Snowden and has not received classified documents from him, Putin said. The whistleblower has been allowed to reside in Russia but only on the condition he does not “engage in anti-American propaganda.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
I think Putin means that it is impossible to sift through all this data and make sense of it. As someone once said, data is not information and information is not wisdom. To see what he means, Google on your last name and see if the results make sense. Not some of the results that you pick and choose, but all of the results.
Vlad can spy on whoever he wants.
And he probably does.
But if he gets caught, he'll have to face greater consequences than Obama did.
That's one reason why he won't get caught.
That's the part I disagree with. Given sufficient resources, that huge miasma of meta data out there could be sorted and cross-referenced in all sorts of ways. Sense can be made out of it. Sure, in the end that analysis is subject to human review, with its frailties, but the data itself can be worked with, because we do have the resources. The Russians probably don't, but who knows?
OK then, how come the plans for the Boston Marathon terror attack was not sifted out of this data? (NSA had been fully operational by then.)
You are assuming Obastard’s crew cares about the Boston Marathon bombing. Additionally, I would not suggest we have a perfectly functioning system going so they have to be selective about what they’re looking for. Unless the Boston bomber guy used the words “Tea” and “Party” together that info would have been back-burnered.
He says that he can't get away with spying? When Putin did get caught infiltrating SVR agents into the USA , he got away with with Obama's help! Obama let the Russian agents go! He shipped them back to Russia to a hero's welcome and Putin personally sang "patriotic" Soviet songs with them!
Putin is trying to make it seem like there are no consequences to Obama's spying on our allies, which is not true. Obama has seriously damaged America's relationship with our allies. They idea that Putin does not spy on his own "allies" is ridiculous. You think Russia does not spy on Red China? or Islamofascist Iran? Baath Socialist Syria? Putin's allies are the most murderous genocidal thugs on Earth. Of course he spies on them! Is anyone stupid enough to think that he just trusts his evil treacherous backstabbing comrades? Of course not!
Say what you want but it is illegal in Russia to use wiretap transcription as an evidence unless there were a court order to wiretap one. One can’t be charged with any sort of traffic if either side of the deal was an undercover agent. It is called “provocation” and it’s LEOs who has to be charged for felony of luring a person this way. Their judicial system is extremely open. All the court rulings nationwide are accumulated into a databases on a state level. You can read every single on-line at any given time.
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