Oil Espionage: How the NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC

Whew! I was getting worried that perhaps the Snowden leaks have been thwarted. For the next installment we have spying on OPEC. Not really great big news, or anything exciting, but well, this lets me know that there will still be more to come.

So what goodies did they find out? It looks like OPEC was preparing an antitrust lawsuit inside the US. What a nice advantage to have, huh? Spying on your opponent for a lawsuit? Another juicy tidbit is that they discovered that the Saudis were underhandedly withholding price increase info. Another was that the Saudis were releasing incorrect oil production figures. But on a good note, they followed the FISA court and stopped spying temporarily once the Saudis would enter the US.

This time though, the US had some help via Europe's GCHQ.

Documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that both America's National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have infiltrated the computer network of the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In January 2008, the NSA department in charge of energy issues reported it had accomplished its mission. Intelligence information about individual petroleum-exporting countries had existed before then, but now the NSA had managed, for the first time, to infiltrate OPEC in its entirety.

The British, who also targeted OPEC's Vienna headquarters, were at least as successful as the NSA. A secret GCHQ document dating from 2010 states that the agency had traditionally had "poor access" to OPEC. But that year, after a long period of meticulous work, it had managed to infiltrate the computers of nine OPEC employees by using the "Quantum Insert" method, which then creates a gateway to gain access into OPEC's computer system. GCHQ analysts were even able to acquire administrator privileges for the OPEC network and gain access to two secret servers containing "many documents of interest."

Oil Espionage: How the NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC

I would think at this junction it's a safe bet they spied on EVERYONE, and anyone with dealings with the US is slowly coming to the realization that yes them too.

It may hurt, and it may shame us a bit, but just maybe it will generate enough out rage to get some positive changes around here..

benrl
I would think at this junction it's a safe bet they spied on EVERYONE, and anyone with dealings with the US is slowly coming to the realization that yes them too.

It may hurt, and it may shame us a bit, but just maybe it will generate enough out rage to get some positive changes around here..

Agreed, I had a difficult time getting excited over this one, could you tell? So are we becoming conditioned to accept this as the norm?

Like I previously stated, all this leak means to me, is that they are still chugging along. Which pleases me greatly. I want the NSA fried and good so we can get rid of this boil on American butts.

There is supposed to be at least one pretty big US leak coming along. It was said that the outrage would parallel that incited by Merkels. Makes me wonder if Snowden has proof of political targeting? If only...

reply to post by elouina


The nexus between government spying and industry is always a revolting thing to see. Of course there's a national security interest in things like the real Saudi reserves, but you know the secrets are slipping out in back rooms to oil executives over very expensive meals. The idea of the government spying on everybody is one thing, the idea of the government spying on everybody, and handing it over to "select" corporations disrupting the free market to favor cronies is quite another.

After all these cozy years with the Saudis I'm glad to see this coming out.
It would be even better if Bush ordered it then had to explain to this "very good friends" the Bin Ladens exactly why that happened. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on that wall.
By now I should think everyone knows the NSA is spying on them - no exceptions.
They probably even spy on themselves in quadruplicate of course.