Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept released more documents provided by international man of mystery Edward Snowden today and this revelation is so milquetoast I don’t know why they even bothered.
via The Hill
Newly reported documents from government leaker Edward Snowden shine a light on a secret program that the U.S. used to spy on cellphone communications around the world. […]
The mission of the “Auroragold” program, the NSA says in one slide, is to “maintain data about international [cellphone] networks” as well as “forecasting” their growth. According to one document from May, 2012, the agency had collected technical information on about 70 percent of the world’s cellphone networks.
I don’t know about you, but my mind was blown when I learned that the NSA monitors communications in other countries around the world. I mean that is their job, but it’s still mind blowing — if you’re a moron.
Buried more than halfway down the Intercept report is a mention that other countries also engage in this type of behavior using similar techniques and technology as part of an alliance, but that only garners a brief mention because the NSA is the big bad boogeyman and don’t you forget it
Once again this story appears to be based largely on Power Point slides and conjecture. It isn’t noted until the end of the piece that President Obama has ordered the NSA to disclose software vulnerabilities that the agency finds unless it compromises an ongoing operation.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I wrote this for the sole purpose of mocking not just The Intercept but anyone who reads their reports as if they were the stone tablets of conspiracy.
The rest of us have real problems to deal with.