SoylentNews

c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Intercept (Glenn Greenwald) runs an article [firstlook.org] on US plans to use their spook agencies for economic espionage - based on a secret National Intelligence 2009 report [firstlook.org]:

Throughout the last year, the U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that it does not engage in economic and industrial espionage, [...] an NSA spokesperson emailed The Washington Post to say (emphasis in original): “The department does ***not*** engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.”
After that categorical statement to the Post, the NSA was caught spying on plainly financial targets such as the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras [theguardian.com]; economic summits [globo.com]; international credit card [spiegel.de] and banking systems [spiegel.de]; the EU antitrust commissioner [cnet.com] investigating Google, Microsoft, and Intel; and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank [reuters.com]. In response, the U.S. modified its denial to acknowledge that it does engage in economic spying, but unlike China, the spying is never done to benefit American corporations.

[...]

But a secret 2009 report [firstlook.org] issued by Clapper’s [James Clapper Director of National Intelligence] own office explicitly contemplates doing exactly that. The document, the 2009 Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review—provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—is a fascinating window into the mindset of America’s spies as they identify future threats to the U.S. and lay out the actions the U.S. intelligence community should take in response.

One of the principal threats raised in the report is a scenario “in which the United States’ technological and innovative edge slips”— in particular, “that the technological capacity of foreign multinational corporations could outstrip that of U.S. corporations.” Such a development, the report says “could put the United States at a growing—and potentially permanent—disadvantage in crucial areas such as energy, nanotechnology, medicine, and information technology.”

[...]

... the report describes itself as “an essential long-term piece, looking out between 10 and 20 years” designed to enable ”the IC [to] best posture itself to meet the range of challenges it may face.” Whatever else is true, one thing is unmistakable: the report blithely acknowledges that stealing secrets to help American corporations secure competitive advantage is an acceptable future role for U.S. intelligence agencies.

Hey, US govt.... three cheers and all the world's love.

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Original Submission