SPYING HYPOCRISY: I think the Brazilian President is not so much upset that we spy, but that we spy better than her spies spy.

I have warned repeatedly that the NSA disclosures by Edward Snowden via Glenn Greenwald and others serve a dual purpose.

Part is to expose genuine breaches of privacy about which we should be concerned; part is to disrupt U.S. foreign intelligence activities and relations with other countries. The former provides excellent cover for the latter.

The leaks and disclosures are all one sided — as if other countries don’t spy on the U.S. and their own citizens. It would be nice to see “whistleblowers” defecting from the Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies spilling their secrets to newspapers, but they know better for the safety of themselves and their families.

The latest outrage is exhibited the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, who canceled a state dinner in her honor in Washington, D.C., because of revelations by Glenn Greenwald that the NSA spies on her, Brazil, and the Brazilian state oil company.

The hyprocrisy is dripping. The Brazilian intelligence agencies are quite expansive and have a long history (post-junta) of spying abuses.

Yes, this gets pointed out a lot on twitter, but not so much in conventional media.