National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy "open letter to the people of Brazil" that he's been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of NSA documents and that the agency's culture of indiscriminate global espionage "is collapsing." ● In the letter, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against U.S. spying. He wrote that he'd be willing to help the South American nation investigate NSA spying on its soil, but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum, because the U.S. "government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak." Revelations about the NSA's spy programs were first published in the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers in June, based on some of the thousands of documents Snowden handed over to Barton Gellman at the Post and to Brazil-based American journalist Glenn Greenwald and his reporting partner, Laura Poitras, a U.S. filmmaker.

Edward Snowden: An Open Letter to the People of Brazil

Brazil has rejected a contract for Boeing’s F/A-18 fighter jets in favor of the Swedish Saab’s JAS 39 Gripens. The unexpected move to reject the US bid comes amid the global scandal over the NSA’s involvement in economic espionage activities. The announcement for the purchase of 36 fighters was made Wednesday by Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim and Air Force Commander Junti Saito. The jets will cost US$4.5 billion, well below the estimated market value of around US$7 billion.

Brazil has no plans to grant asylum to Edward Snowden even after the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor offered on Tuesday to help investigate revelations of spying on Brazilians and their president, a local newspaper reported. ● The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, citing unnamed government officials, said the Brazilian government has no interest in investigating the mass Internet surveillance programs Snowden revealed in June and does not intend to give him asylum. In an "Open Letter to the Brazilian People" published by Folha and social media, Snowden offered to help a congressional probe into NSA spying on the country, including the personal communications of President Dilma Rousseff.

Russia Today/AWIP: Snowden offers to help Brazil investigate NSA spying when he's given asylum

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has pledged to help Brazil investigate the NSA’s spying activities. Snowden said he had been asked by Brazilian senators for information on “suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens.” In an open letter published by Brazilian paper Folha de S.Paulo, the former CIA contractor promised to aid Brazil in a probe into the National Security Agency’s spying program in the country. David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glen Greenwald, published the English original of the letter on his Facebook page.

AP/The Big Story: Snowden: NSA's indiscriminate spying 'collapsing'
Forbes: An NSA Coworker Remembers The Real Edward Snowden: 'A Genius Among Geniuses'
Washington Post: Edward Snowden doesn’t show up once in Google’s list of top 2013 searches
VoR: Edward Snowden named the "Person of the Year" 2013
VoR: 'It seems unlikely that the Russians would turn Snowden to the US' - expert

A record-equalling 188 countries on Tuesday condemned the five-decade-old US embargo against communist Cuba in an annual UN General Assembly vote that signalled hardening opposition to US sanctions. Only Israel joined the United States in opposing resolution, the smallest number ever. Last year two allies voted with the US government. Three Pacific island states normally close to the United States -- Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau -- abstained as the barrage of criticism of the embargo reached a new peak in the 22nd annual vote at the UN Assembly. China, Iran, which has launched a bid to thaw relations with the US administration, Latin American and African nations all publicly condemned the United States. "The US policy against Cuba is suffering from an absolute international isolation and discredit and lacks every ethical or legal ground," Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said.

Brazilian lawmakers indicated that, in lieu of direct teleconferences with Edward Snowden to gain further insight into allegations of NSA spying in their country, they may seek to seize documents now held by American journalist Glenn Greenwald. ● On Wednesday Greenwald spoke to Brazilian senators currently investigating evidence of US as well as British and Canadian espionage in the Latin American country. The legislators are part of a probe into potential foreign surveillance -- the Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito, or CPI -- called into action by President Dilma Rousseff in the wake of initial news reports alleging that even the president’s online communication had been intercepted. Greenwald, who appeared along with his partner David Miranda, a Brazilian national, broached several topics during the hearing, including the possibility of granting asylum to NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has voiced concern over allegations that his country spies on Brazilian officials, stressing on the need to repair the damage. ● The Canadian premier said during the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday that Ottawa is “reaching out very proactively” to Brasilia regarding the suspected spying of Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry, though he failed to comment further due to “national security operations.” Harper promised to confirm if the Communications Security Establishment of Canada (CSEC) is following its mandate.

Keith Jones: Canada spied on Brazil’s government as part of global commercial espionage campaign ■ Canadian mining companies have huge investments in Brazil. The two countries are important commercial rivals in mining and aircraft manufacture and are competing for foreign investment in their oil and natural gas sectors. According to the report that aired Sunday on O Globo Television’s “Fantastico” investigative journalism program, CSEC used the Olympia metadata mining program to track the communications of Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy. The report did not say whether communications deemed of special interest were read or listened to. But CSEC, NSA and the other three members of the “Five Eyes” signal intelligence partnership (Britain, Australia, and New Zealand) bluntly state that there are no legal-constitutional restrictions on their “right” to spy on communications in foreign countries—be they the communications of foreign governments, left and dissident groups, or private citizens.

Russia Today: ‘Aggressive and insidious’: More details of Canada spying techniques to follow, Greenwald promises ● Canada is in the spotlight of an ongoing spying scandal as Glenn Greenwald has promised to disclose more details of the espionage of the Five Eyes global intelligence alliance that has already sparked unprecedented fury in Brazil. American journalist Glenn Greenwald has promised to leak more secret cables he obtained from Edward Snowden in a series of interviews conducted on Monday. “There is a huge amount of stuff about Canada in these archives because Canada works so closely with the NSA,” Greenwald, who lives in Brazil told the Globe and Mail. Without providing details into the soon to be revealed secret documents, Greenwald suggested that the new material will shed more light into Canada’s global spying activities, including economic and industrial espionage against Brazil, which has been at the center of the recent scandal.

The NSA spying scandal has woken Brazil out of its data protection doze. Plans are being made for an optical network to link twelve South American countries with Europe and Africa, and largely avoid the US. ● Brazilhas decided to free itself from the embrace of its big brother to the north. Ever since the NSA data spying affair became known, the government has begun looking for ways to decentralize global data communication. "It doesn't make sense for data between Brazil and Uruguay to run via Miami," says the Brazilian secretary of state of telecommunication, Maximiliano Martinhao. He told Deutsche Welle that, ever since the NSA revelations, the long-planned development of South America's own fast Internet infrastructure has become a major priority. Martinhao says that preparations are already completed for the so-called Optical Ring, which will join twelve South American countries with each other, as well as with Europe and Africa. The project encompasses some 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of optical cable, and work on laying the cables will start at the beginning of 2014.

Russia Today: Canadian spy agency ‘dissected’ Brazilian Energy Ministry

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the expulsion of three US embassy diplomats, accusing them of plotting to sabotage the economy. ● Maduro made the announcement during a live TV appearance on Monday, saying chargé d'affaires Kelly Keiderling and the two other diplomats would have 48 hours to leave the country, AFP reported. He said the diplomats had met with the "Venezuelan far-right" to finance his opponents and "encourage actions to sabotage the power system and the economy." "We will not allow an imperial government to bring money and see how they can stop basic companies and stop the electricity to turn off all of Venezuela," Maduro said.

Nicolas Maduro Expels Three US Diplomats from Venezuela for Alleged Conspiracy
Venezuela's Maduro Cancels UN Trip, Alleges Former US Officials Involved in “Crazy” Plot

In his dramatic speech in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the UN to be moved out of the US and for Barack Obama to be tried for crimes against humanity. Speaking to RT, Morales explained his controversial proposals. ● In his most controversial demand, Morales said that Obama should face an international trial with human rights watchdogs among the judges. The Bolivian president accused his US counterpart of instigating conflicts in the Middle East to make the region more volatile and to increase the US’s grip on the natural resources it abounds in. He gave Libya as an example of a country where “they arranged for the president to be killed, and they usurped Libya’s oil.” “Now they are funding the rebels that fight against presidents who don’t support capitalism or imperialism,” Morales told Eva Golinger of RT’s Spanish sister channel, Actualidad. “And where a coup d’état is impossible, they seek to divide the people in order to weaken the nation – a provocation designed to trigger an intervention by peacekeeping forces, NATO, the UN Security Council. But the intervention itself is meant to get hold of oil resources and gain geopolitical control, rather than enforce respect for human rights.”

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff lambasted US spying on her country at Tuesday’s UN summit, calling it a “breach of international law.” She further warned that the NSA surveillance, revealed since June, threatened freedom of speech and democracy.

“Meddling in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and as such it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations,” Rousseff said. “Without the right to privacy, there is no real freedom of speech or freedom of opinion,” Rousseff told the gathering of world leaders. “And therefore, there is no actual democracy,” she added, criticizing the fact that Brazil had been targeted by the US.

The Guardian: Brazilian president: US surveillance a 'breach of international law'

Venezuela accused the United States on Thursday of denying President Nicolas Maduro's plane permission to enter U.S. airspace -- a claim that a State Department official denied. ● Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said U.S. officials have blocked plans for Maduro's presidential plane to fly through Puerto Rican airspace on the way to China. He [correctly] described the move as an aggression and called for an explanation from the U.S. State Department.

Stephen Lendman: Rogue State America
Russia Today: US airspace denial for Maduro is payback for offering asylum to Snowden

Venezuela accused the United States on Thursday of denying President Nicolas Maduro's plane permission to enter U.S. airspace -- a claim that a State Department official denied. ● Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said U.S. officials have blocked plans for Maduro's presidential plane to fly through Puerto Rican airspace on the way to China. He [correctly] described the move as an aggression and called for an explanation from the U.S. State Department.

Stephen Lendman: Rogue State America

Bolivian President Evo Morales will file a lawsuit against the US government for crimes against humanity. He has decried the US for its intimidation tactics and fear-mongering after the Venezuelan presidential jet was blocked from entering US airspace.

“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” said President Morales at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law.

In solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia will begin preparing a lawsuit against the US head of state to be taken to the international court. Furthermore, Morales has called an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to discuss what has been condemned by Venezuela as “an act of intimidation by North American imperialism.” The Bolivian president has suggested that the members of CELAC withdraw their ambassadors from the US to send a message to the Obama Administration. As an additional measure he will call on the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to boycott the next meeting of the UN.

● As an aide holds up a poster, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) speaks during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 31, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sen. Dianne Feinstein referred to the US, Canada and Mexico as “the Homeland” at an NSA Senate briefing on Wednesday, presenting a map that united the three nations as one. ● At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting held to acquire details on the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) made a geographic mistake in which she united three large countries into one. The error went by without comment during the briefing, but generated a significant response upon closer examination of the map. ● During the briefing, Feinstein, who serves as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was defending the NSA’s data-collection programs when she pulled out a world map that identified North America as the “Homeland”. The newly-declassified diagram showed terror activity that the NSA had allegedly disrupted throughout the world.

The Atlantic Wire: Welcome to the Homeland, Mexico and Canada! - you may also be surprised to learn that our homeland now includes both Mexico and Canada, two areas that we understood to be autonomous nations that are not part of the United States. Normally, this would be written off as a design goof, as one of the NSA's (newly adept) graphics guys using a little more light blue than he ought. This being the NSA, we're not inclined to offer that benefit of the doubt. Is this a way of blending in Canadian and Mexican terror activity disruptions (which, we'll remind you, is different from actual plots interrupted) to give a larger sense of the NSA's success at halting terrorism within our borders? We don't and can't know, of course, since the information about almost all of these 54 events is classified. Just know that the homeland is safe — be it Tampa, Toronto, or Tijuana — and that it's all thanks to the NSA.

A report published earlier this week by Spanish newspaper ABC details a series of heavy-handed threats leveled by US Secretary of State John Kerry against the government of Venezuela. The threats were made in an attempt to bully Venezuela out of granting asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden. During the phone call, Kerry reportedly made the following threats:

● To ground any and all Venezuelan airplanes flying in American or NATO airspace upon any suspicion that Snowden may be on board, including the flights of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “Immunity is for the president, not for the plane,” Kerry said.
● To revoke US entry visas to Venezuelan citizens.
● To bring criminal charges for drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes against Venezuelan officials. The ABC source said that Kerry mentioned specific names of government officials against whom the US would press charges.
● To immediately halt sales of US gas products to Venezuela. Venezuela purchases a half-million barrels of gasoline and 350,000 barrels of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, a gasoline additive, from the US each month.

ABC.es: EE.UU. toma represalias contra Venezuela para que no acoja a Edward Snowden

Robert Seldon Lady, former CIA Milan chief

Robert Seldon Lady was detained after Costa Rica sent him back to Panama. ■ A former CIA base chief in Italy who was convicted in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a street in Milan has been detained in Panama, the Italian justice ministry said. ■ An Italian official familiar with Italy's investigation and prosecution of Robert Seldon Lady said the former CIA official entered Panama, traveled to Costa Rica, and that officials there then sent him back to Panama where he was detained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because only Italy's justice ministry was publicly discussing the case. ■ In Panama City, Panamanian Security Minister Jose Raul Molino told The Associated Press that he was unaware of Lady's detention, and the press office of the National Police — which works with Interpol, the international police agency — said it had no information about the case. The CIA said it had no immediate comment about its former employee. ■ Lady was sentenced by an Italian appeals court in Milan earlier this year in the extraordinary rendition case to nine years in prison after being tried in absentia in Italy for the kidnapping of the Muslim cleric. The trials of Lady, 59, now retired from the CIA, and two other Americans in the case brought the first convictions anywhere in the world against agents involved in the agency's extraordinary rendition program, a practice alleged to have led to torture.

BBC: Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction
John Goetz and Matthias Gebauer: CIA Rendition Case: US Pressured Italy to Influence Judiciary
AWIP: Italian court convicts 3 in absentia for 2003 CIA kidnapping of Egyptian terror suspect in Milan

Al exfutbolista argentino Diego Armando Maradona le ha sido denegado el visado para poder entrar a los Estados Unidos. La embajada de Estados Unidos en Dubái -el 'Pelusa' reside allí desde hace un año cuando tomó la secretaría técnica de un club del pequeño territorio pérsico- le ha denegado el permiso de entrada al país por "sus relaciones de amistad con Fidel Castro y Hugo Chávez", según se atrevió a aventurar una fuente al diario británico The Sun. "Para él ha sido como una patada en los dientes", apuntilló. Maradona, que pisó por última vez suelo estadounidense en 1994 con motivo de la celebración de la Copa del Mundo, habría recibido la negativa seis días después de gestionar el permiso de entrada al estado de Florida, donde quería pasar las vacaciones con su familia en el parque temático Disney World. El argentino acudió a la embajada personalmente tras la negativa para intentar revocar la decisión, pero no obtuvo éxito alguno.

Cuba has admitted being behind a stash of weapons found on board a North Korean ship seized in the Panama Canal. The Cuban foreign ministry said the ship was carrying obsolete Soviet-era arms from Cuba for repair in North Korea. The ship was seized by Panama last week after "undeclared military cargo" was found hidden in a shipment of sugar. United Nations sanctions prohibit the supply of arms to North Korea [by what right?] in the dispute over its nuclear programme. A Cuban foreign ministry statement said Cuba reaffirmed its commitment to "peace, disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, and respect for international law". It said the vessel was carrying 240 tonnes of obsolete defensive weapons - two anti-aircraft missile complexes, nine missiles in parts and spares, two MiG-21bis fighter planes and 15 MiG engines. The Cuban statement said they were all made in the mid-20th Century and were to be repaired and returned to Cuba.

Spain has apologized for closing its airspace to Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane, which had to land at Vienna airport and was subsequently searched following reports that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board. "We regret this fact ... the procedure was not appropriate and bothered the president [Morales], putting him in a difficult situation," Spain's ambassador to Bolivia, Angel Vázquez, told journalists. The unconventional treatment of the Bolivian president has outraged Latin America.

The US is prying into emails of top Bolivian officials, said Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, who admitted he has terminated his email account in light of the revelations. - Morales said he learned about the alleged US email spying at the Mercosur regional summit in Montevideo that was held earlier this week, AFP reported. "Those US intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia, Morales said in a speech. "It was recommended to me that I not use email, and I've followed suit and shut it down," he added. Morales’ accusation of US email spying is just the latest scandal to emerge between US and Latin American officials in the wake of the Snowden affair. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told the same summit that more than 100 of his country's officials were also under electronic surveillance. He did not say what country he believed was responsible for the spying. ■ The accusations come just one week after Morales’ presidential plane, which was returning from Russia, was banned from European airspace and forced to land in Austria in the belief that NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who is presently in Moscow, was on board. Bolivia [correctly] asserts that it was US officials who were behind the decision to ground Morales’ aircraft. During the Mercosur summit, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay showed allegiance with Bolivia, [correctly again] saying the incident violated international law.

Anger is mounting in Latin America over the US intelligence gathering disclosed by controversial American whistleblower, Edward Snowden. - Colombia, the closest US military ally in Latin America, expressed concern on Wednesday about reports that it was the target of US electronic surveillance, saying it would demand an explanation from Washington. In a statement, the Colombian Foreign Ministry rejected "acts of espionage that violate people's right to privacy and international conventions on telecommunications." Snowden disclosed classified information about Washington’s electronic surveillance programs on a global scale last month. The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor disclosed that the agency's so-called PRISM Internet surveillance program gathered phone logs and Internet data on a massive scale. The NSA can present secret court orders to Internet firms like Google and Facebook to gain access to emails, online chats, pictures, files and videos uploaded by foreign users.

Bill Van Auken: NSA casts massive surveillance net over Latin America - According to the documents reported in the Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Globo, the most intensive surveillance has been conducted against both US allies—including Brazil, Colombia and Mexico—and against Venezuela, whose bourgeois nationalist regime has in the past come into conflict with US aims in the region. Also subjected to the NSA surveillance net have been Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and El Salvador, according to the O Globo report.

BBC: US allies Mexico, Chile and Brazil seek spying answers

If you would get to know that Israel launched a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons under the strict protection of the United States, shouldn’t you wonder why Washington then pressures countries like Iran that has continuously worked to demonstrate the peaceful nature of its nuclear energy program? What if you learn Tel Aviv got the uranium from Argentina which has moved towards a new stance in relations with Tehran?

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The Brazilian government began an investigation Monday into whether telecommunications firms operating in the country cooperated with the U.S. as part of a spying program that has collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations. - Anatel, the government agency that regulates the telecom sector in Brazil, said it's working with federal police and other government agencies on the investigation. The O Globo newspaper reported this weekend that information released by the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden showed Brazil is the top target in Latin America for the NSA's massive intelligence-gathering effort aimed at monitoring communications around the world. Brazil isn't alone in its concern; London-based advocacy group Privacy International filed lawsuit on Monday over alleged spying of internet and phone users in Britain. Earlier, official in Germany, France, Hong Kong and other nations lodged complaints.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has confirmed that his country received an official request for asylum from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday. This comes after Nicaragua received his asylum application at its Moscow embassy. - “We received a letter requesting asylum” from Snowden, revealed Maduro, during a press conference prior to a meeting with Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli. The fugitive "will need to decide when he will fly here," added the Venezuelan head of state. Maduro last week said that his country would provide Snowden with a safe haven from "persecution from the empire." Snowden, who last month leaked confidential information revealing NSA’s massive electronic surveillance program, known as PRISM, is currently facing charges of theft of government property, and two counts of espionage – one for leaking classified to data to those without a security clearance. The 30-year-old has not been seen in public since late June in Hong Kong, but is widely believed to be in the transit zone at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.