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KoKo

(84,711 posts)
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 03:54 PM Feb 2014

"Lost Amid 'F*&k the EU' Controversy: The US Got NSA'd"

Lost Amid 'F*&k the EU' Controversy: The US Got NSA'd

Speculation growing that Russian intelligence gave its American political rivals a taste of their own (surveillance) medicine

- Jon Queally, staff writer

In the call, the U.S. diplomat, assistant secretary of state for European affairs Victoria Nuland, can be heard saying "Fuck the EU" to U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.

Victoria Nuland, an assistant secretary of state, meeting with President Viktor F. Yanukovych. (Pool photo by Mykhailo Markiv) The "undiplomatic" language of the high-level official made headlines on Thursday after the recording of the conversation between the two diplomats was posted online. But the controversy deepened on Friday as new questions were being asked about the origin of the recording, the role of U.S. "meddling" in the ongoing political strife in Ukraine, and the fact that the U.S. may have become victim of the same kind of surveillance techniques that the NSA—as exposed in leaks by whisteblower Edward Snowden—have been hard at work perfecting.

As the U.S., including Nuland herself, tried to account for the comments made in the call growing speculation surfaced that it was Russian intelligence who both made the recording and helped disseminate it to the public.

As this ITN News segment explores:






And the New York Times adds:

A link to the secret recording was sent out in a Twitter message on Thursday by Dmitry Losukov, an aide to Russia’s deputy prime minister, just as Ms. Nuland was in Kiev meeting with Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders. The White House pointed to that as an indication of Russian involvement, although it said it was not accusing Moscow of taping the call. “I think it says something about Russia’s role,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.

Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said she had no information about who posted the recording but criticized Moscow for promoting it. “Certainly, we think this is a new low in Russian tradecraft,” she said.

Mr. Losukov, responding to messages from a reporter on Twitter, rejected the American assertion that he was the first to disseminate the recording. “Disseminating started earlier,” he wrote, adding that his post was being “used to hang the blame” on Russia. Asked if Russia had any role, he said: “How would I know? I was just monitoring ‘the Internets’ while my boss was off to a meeting with the Chinese leader."

The secret tape, reported Thursday by The Kyiv Post, came to light as a Kremlin adviser, Sergei Glazyev, accused the United States of funding and arming protesters in Kiev and seemed to threaten Russian intervention.


http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/07-7



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KoKo

(84,711 posts)
3. Don't know...But it did expose that we are interfering in Ukraine
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:23 PM
Feb 2014

and that's a revelation that we taxpayers might want to know about to avoid another disastrous military situation caused by our meddling in other countries politics.


TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
2. All countries spy and bug and wiretap. We should be pretty unapologetic about that.
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:02 PM
Feb 2014

The bigger picture is, what are we doing with Ukraine, and why aren't conversations secured, and why does Victoria Nuland still have a job?

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
8. Her background is such...
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:34 PM
Feb 2014

that I don't know why she's in the Obama State Department. Her ties to Cheney and the Neo-Cons should have ruled her out. And, listening to that recorded conversation she does seem to lack a certain grace and style that doesn't seem to suit Kerry or PBO's chosen image for our foreign policy.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
9. Maybe because she was simply discussing US policy on interfering in selecting
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:39 PM
Feb 2014

governments for the 'democracies' we are supposedly supporting. Otoh, getting caught probably could get her fired, unless the leak originated inside the State Dept which seems far more likely.

malletgirl02

(1,523 posts)
10. Victoria Nuland
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:40 PM
Feb 2014

This is the same thing I been asking. If this had been Jane rank in file State Department employee she would have been long gone. I guess the rules are different for the bigwigs.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
4. Imo, that's the least of the problems revealed by this. For a long time it has
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:24 PM
Feb 2014

been suspected that the US and some of their European allies, France eg, have been manipulating these countries' politics, CHOOSING who their leaders should be while publicly claiming to be in support of Democracy.

In Libya, in Iraq of course, in many European states, to get in place governments, many of them dictators, Egypt eg, that will be nothing more than puppets and where necessary, arming so-called 'protesters'.

The question now is, what are they doing here? IF they are doing it all over the world, (remember the attempted coup in Venezuela?) then we can bet it is being done here.

As for who revealed the tape, it's very possible it was another Whistle Blower from inside the State Dept, which is said to be split on US policies abroad.

 

riderinthestorm

(23,272 posts)
6. Agreed. As if the blowback from our meddling in other countries' affairs has never happened
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:30 PM
Feb 2014

Our leaders keep doing this over and over and over.

This is a dispute in Ukraine between factions that want to align more with the EU or with Russia.

The US should be staying out of this.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
11. I had wondered about that, also..
Sun Feb 9, 2014, 04:42 PM
Feb 2014

A whistleblower could make sense if Kerry and Obama want to pull us back from intervention policies that were started by Neo-Cons decades ago. Nuland is in so thick with them and married to one of the Kagan's. She might have been going rogue.

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