Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

“Watergate” was the name given to the scandal which brought down President Nixon after his team of “Plumbers” broke into the office of  Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Shouldn’t “Cablegate” bring down Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now that it is revealed that she ordered the collection of private information, including passwords and credit card numbers, of UN officials including UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon?

A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton's name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications.
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Washington also wanted credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures and "biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent representatives".

The secret "national human intelligence collection directive" was sent to US missions at the UN in New York, Vienna and Rome; 33 embassies and consulates, including those in London, Paris and Moscow.   [Guardian (UK), US diplomats spied on UN leadership, 11/28/2010]

The Guardian article details US espionage activities directed against government and business leaders in several countries.

Will Hillary Clinton be removed as a result of these revelations? Will US citizens even demand her removal? Watergate was then, Cablegate is now, and American citizens seem willing to let their government get away with anything.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 11/28/2010 06:19:00 PM