New Snowden Docs Implicate NSA in Spying on American Lawyersselfnews Post The latest documents covered by Glenn Greenwalds colleague, Laura Poitras, for The New York Times, highlight economic surveillance, as well as how loose are the dots which NSA claims need to be connected for the good of the nation. As discussed in the video below, these documents also reinforce the close working relationship between the Five Eyes alliance to form a network of global surveillance that likely cooperates in order to circumvent local laws and constitutions. You see, it wasnt the NSA of the United States spying on American lawyers working on trade agreements, it was their close partner Australia who actually conducted the surveillance . . . then shared that information ironically enough with lawyers at the NSA. While some media are downplaying the significance of these findings, they reveal the potentially vast ramifications for those who do any type of business abroad. Heres a piece from The New York Times that would definitely raise a lawyers eyebrows: To quickly summarize The Times James Risen and Laura Poitras had a look at documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Those documents show the NSAs counterpart in Australia had conducted surveillance on Indonesian government officials seeking help from a U.S. law firm on trade talks. From the piece we learn: The Australian Signals Directorate offered to share info from its spying with the NSA. The Australians asked the NSA for legal guidance since information it would come across was covered by attorney-client privilege. The piece prompted subsequent headlines like this: US law firm representing Indonesian government caught in NSA spying web. (Via RT) And this. (Via The Hill) Which is all a little scary-sounding with the underlying suggestion that just having trade andeconomic insight is enough for an American business to bespied on. A tempting story line, especially considering how it fits into an already existing narrative about the NSA and Snowden-leaked documents. (Via euronews) PRESIDENT OBAMA: You cant have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy Were gonna have to make some choices as a society.(Via The Guardian) The narrative that despite what the U.S. government says, spying isnt just for national security interests. In fact The New York Times piece pretty bluntly suggests its report underscores the extent to which the N.S.A. and its close partners engage in economic espionage. But The Washington Posts Orin Kerr pokes a few holes in the piece: Namely, that despite the fact we know the Australians sought legal advice and got it from the NSA, we dont know what that advice was. Nor do we know what actual intelligence ended up being shared. So he concludes, It seems to me that the story here isnt NSA helped spy on U.S. lawyers.Rather, the story here is more like Australian government obtained legal guidance from NSA General Counsels Office on what to do Meanwhile the Australian government has denied any suggestion that it spies for commercial purposes. Australia, by the way, is part of the so-called Five Eyes alliance, which also includes the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand. The alliance regularly exchanges intelligence. 