NSA vs. neocons — game on!

Looks like the shit may really hit the fan now on that the National Security Agency stands exposed of spying on foreign governments, even foreign leaders. Well — on one particular government.

Per the header, Gen. Keith Alexander and his groupies not only spied on people like Angela Merkel, prime minister of Germany, but on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as well as (at least) two Israeli embassies.

Yep, I'm sure al Qaeda was hiding spies inside the Israeli Defense Ministry.

If this doesn't put paid to the cybersnooping, at least in its current format, what will?

In reality, it shows the NSA's vacuuming operations, in this case, are really nothing other than a massive extension of older traditions of government espionage for reasons of fixing foreign policy, or, as in the case of one other spying, for trade policy reasons:

Also appearing on the surveillance lists is Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission, which, among other powers, has oversight of antitrust issues in Europe. The commission has broad authority over local and foreign companies, and has punished a number of American companies, including Microsoft and Intel, with heavy fines for hampering fair competition. The reports say that spies intercepted Mr. Almunia’s communications in 2008 and 2009. 

I mean, that's all this is. The EC also harbors no al Qaeda operatives. But, it does have a stronger bent toward corporate regulation, in many cases, than does Dear Leader and his gang of merry neoliberals.

At the same time, don't forget that Britain’s General Communications Headquarters was a willing partner in much of this. The industrial side of the cybersnooping targeted a bunch of non-AngloAmerican companies, like French oil giant Total. Don't tell me that this isn't related to post-war Iraq oil drilling shenanigans involving big American companies plus Shell and BP.

So, it's more insidious than even previously known. And, as conducting industrial espionage, like Hannah Arendt on Adolf Eichmann, more banal. But, that's even worse.

Evil is at its most dangerous when it's at its most banal.

And, that summarizes not just the industrial espionage, but NSA spying in general.

It's always presented as if it's "for our own good," but when We the People ask for details of how it's been for our own good, we're either shushed or else fobbed off with lies. Those lies, in turn, are often based on FBI sting operations that border on, if not engage fully in, entrapment.