James A. Donald:
> The US officials planning the deal did not consciously know
> they were lying. The European offiicials that accepted the
> deal did not consciously know they were being lied to. People
> with that kind of hostile and cynical attitude do not get
> appointed to those kind of jobs.
Of course holding a "hostile and cynical attitude" is a requirement to be
appointed to such a job. After all, these folks have to lie for a living.
Remember, the European reaction once realizing the magnitude of ECHELON was
to swiftly push for the establishment of a competing and ideally even more
invasive interception system. As highly effective tools of social control,
hardly any government official would even contemplate their dismantlement.
The only concern a government official will have is how he and his
department can rapidly reap the benefits of such systems.
The EU of course knew that the US was not about to share the full bounty of
ECHELON. Consequently, the EU is pushing for an even more pervasive
interception system under EU control. Being able to monitor the
communications of ideally all citizens at ideally all times is clearly in
interest of any government. Hence systems that enable such monitoring will
be deployed if technically feasible. Irrespective of the complaints of a few
"radicals". No conspiracy theory is need to explain the logical actions of
governments that are simply each acting in their own self-interest.
--Lucky
