So much for the plan to not use Twitter and the rest...
When the news broke and the inanities of hierarchy and authority started to bubble up like toxic sludge last seen in 1950s Hollywood B-rated movie, a friend of the K-Landnews started to take notes.
Some of the notes have found their way into a few posts of the past days, the most insipid one, though, deserves public acknowledgement.
Countries have always spied on each other.
It is true.
And it deserves a little explanation.
Up until not very long ago, less than 200 years to be generous. very few people could even read and write.
There was no camera, no photocopier, a somewhat limited press, and very, very little international travel. How to find out good information: HUMINT, that nasty bastard word for human intelligence.
Even 30 years ago, a newspaper from certain countries was not easy to get. To wit: the bulging eyes of the security guards when our friend walked up to the gate with such a paper in his hands.
True Cold War story: A 20-ish year old kid beat the spies by drawing a map of the "Soviet Union" that is almost spot on today. The kid used public information. Then spies tried to hire kid - and failed.
True Yemen story: U.S. spooks got really close to "that American guy" in Yemen. Story got into papers as breach of secret, followed by lots of whining about why this is illegal and bad. I'll bet the lone Susan B. dollar coin still sitting in the drawer that the story in the paper scares the terrorists more than drones.
How to prevent countries from spying on each other?
In Europe, again not long ago, we are talking the 1800s, "Germany" consisted of a whole bunch of independent countries, all happily spying on each other.
Then, these countries went away. We have not been able to find reports of Bavaria spying on Hamburg since.
Just saying.
International cooperation and international bodies
The current generation of "leaders" seem to think that international cooperation and meetings are just a front for a taxpayer funded vacation.
Humans love to share information. We are sharing machines. Which is why some democratic countries need secret courts....
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