How far should national security intelligence go?

[Hardwaremaster]

The security services in the UK have been out of control for decades, they keep dossiers on the very MPs who are supposed to be overseeing them and it's no coincidence that Prime Ministers who cross them find their careers nose dive shortly after. Parliaments reaction to Snowden has been very telling, they've not sought to reign in the security services, they've instead been attacking The Guardian for printing the facts. As for France and Germany kicking up a fuss, one has to wonder if their ultimate goal is access to Five Eyes, Der Spiegel seems to think so.

 

The thing is you can basically substitute this post for America all you will need to do is change the names.

 

Here is my question; if this is all supposedly over terrorism, every single country they happen to be spying on, has their own intelligence and security services, so why not cooperate with them and have them report their information directly, rather then scrutinize everything, which leaves me to believe there is a lot more to this then terrorism.

 

I would link some articles that might elaborate on the matter, but there seems to be a massive campaign of cover, denials, and backtracking followed by general confusion on the subject, which leaves me wondering what is actually going on here and whats the ultimate objective, considering there has been lot of domestic spying going as well.

Edited November 1, 2013 by Hardwaremaster

[HeyYou]

No one in the intelligence industry trusts anyone else. ESPECIALLY some other country's intelligence agency. The only info they trust, is info they gather themselves. Nature of the beast.

 

Now, granted, the US DOES cooperate, sorta, with a select few countries, but, we also spy on them, and they spy on us.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of the 'leaks', are done on purpose, to provide contradictory information, simply to keep the issue confused enough, that the general public is never really sure of what is actually going on. It's a given that nations spy on each, but, the extent is what has been open to question. Given some of the information that has been leaked (and real), it's not like anyone in their right mind is going to accept the words from some intelligence agency at face value. Especially when denying some wrong-doing, in which they have been pretty much caught red-handed.

[JimboUK]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/gchq-europe-spy-agencies-mass-surveillance-snowden The Germans and French can stop crying now, they've been at it as well.

[Maharg67]

Australia, my country, has been recently caught out spying on Indonesia to our north. I am wondering if the only nations not doing such espionage are those with no capacity to do so.

[HeyYou]

Australia, my country, has been recently caught out spying on Indonesia to our north. I am wondering if the only nations not doing such espionage are those with no capacity to do so.

Everyone spies on everyone else. Especially allies, as the consequences of being caught are significantly less.