NSA GCHQ use Angry Birds as a Trojan Horse

There is never likely to be more conclusive proof that the NSA's spying programme had little, if anything to do with defence or counter-terrorism than Edward Snowden's most recent revelation.

The liklihood of radicals from either end of the bogus political spectrum or the extremes of any religion are unlikely to be detectable within a boolean hoop as massive as the 1.7 billion players of Angry Birds. If your brain is jellied sufficiently to gain anything meaningful from playing the game, it is extremely unlikely that you are going to pose a threat to western civilisation but according to the latest leaks, that is not how intelligence gatherers see things.

US and British spies 'get personal data from Angry Birds'

That is, of course, unless those cartoon anarchists are practicing throwing their fizzing bowling ball bombs on their iPhones cunningly disguised with feathers.

The greatest sadness I feel here is that those most affected by this are the ones who will least give a shit. They will reside firmly in the 'if you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to hide' camp. But it questions the role played by developers such as Rovio and manufacturers such as Apple play in producing and marketing extremely addictive Trojan Horses for the nefarious exploitation of government spies and the relationship between corporate and government power which has become increasingly nebulous.

NSA Files Melodrama - UK Government Self-Portrait As Idiots

It is impossible to follow the latest developments in the NSA/Prism/Snowden/Guardian saga without shaking one's head in sheer disbelief at the extremes of oppression and stupidity both emanating from the same source.

It is often said of perceived conspiracies that they are either evil or stupid but here it is impossible to separate the two. The complicity in persecuting a whistle blower who has exposed the tyrannical surveillance of the sinister US National Security Agency in partnership with the insidiously ubiquitous user fiendly corporations Google, Facebook and Apple is clear malfeasance of the highest order in a so-called free society.

But the pantomime which took place in the basement of The Guardian's offices on 20th July 2013 surely exposes the UK government and its agents as the most inept fools imaginable. To quote The Guardian:

A senior editor and a Guardian computer expert used angle grinders and other tools to pulverise the hard drives and memory chips on which the encrypted files had been stored.

As they worked they were watched by technicians from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) who took notes and photographs, but who left empty-handed.

The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, had earlier informed government officials that other copies of the files existed outside the country and that the Guardian was neither the sole recipient nor steward of the files leaked by Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor. But the government insisted that the material be either destroyed or surrendered.

Even the most inexperienced amateur in the field of espionage must have realised that it was very likely that copies may have been made - and given that the drives being destroyed had been components in computer equipment at The Guardian; i.e. they were not the vehicles by which the data was delivered, it must have been obvious that they were not, by any reasonable deduction, original. Mr Rusbridger even made it quite explicitly clear that other copies existed stating that there were known to be copies in Brazil and America (it would be surprising if there were not dozens of copies secreted around the globe). But the government agents had their theatre to perform and supervised as the two employees of The Guardian destroyed the computer drives like a pair of Mafia goons tripping on power.

The butter cream came today with the revelation that Liberal Democrat (yes, Liberal Democrat) leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg had said that he supported the government action. Most people are aware that David Cameron is just a posh thug who is doing the bidding of the corporate elite and has instigated a holocaust on the underclasses to protect their obscene capital. Nick Clegg is merely a timid little boy who has been allowed o wear a prefect's badge who, having had his first taste of railway gravy, is too cowardly to contradict his seniors except with their say so.

Guardian told to destroy NSA files for national security, says Clegg