Spycraft: Leaked Documents Show German Intelligence Agency Spent Years Spying On Foreign And Domestic Journalists
Published: March 1, 2017
Source: Tech Dirt
The tools are there to be abused. Anyone who doubts this aspect of intrusive surveillance programs is either a supporter or a beneficiary. Oversight might be in place and various checks and balances instituted, but the scope and breadth of these programs ensures -- at minimum -- collection of communications and data government surveillance agencies have no business looking at.
If someone's given a tool that allows them to snoop on almost anyone with impunity, it will eventually be abused. Case in point: everywhere and everything related to state-sponsored surveillance.
Spiegel, which has published several surveillance agency leaks (from Snowden and others), has obtained some more documents. The documents haven't been published, but the contents indicate that -- from 1999 on -- Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) has used its powers to snoop on journalists and their sources.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Newly-Declassified_Documents_Show_that_a_Senior_CIA_Agent_and_Deputy_Director_of_the_Directorate_of_Intelligence_Worked_Closely_with_Owners_and_Journalists_with_Many_of_the_Largest_Media_Outlets/57067/0/38/38/Y/M.html
