By Wolf Richter -
Keyhole Inc., a venture-capital funded startup, was acquired by Google in 2004. Its product became Google Earth. Its technology filtered into Google Maps and Google Mobile. One of the venture-capital investors? The CIA. It didn’t ruffle any feathers at the time. But now we have NSA leaker Edward Snowden and his media blitz.
Bureaucrats and politicians from all sides explained to us with the patience of the exasperated that the NSA’s surveillance programs Snowden had leaked were for our own good, that they’d prevented over 50 “potential terrorist events” since 9/11, etc. etc. President Obama, while in Berlin, assured Chancellor Merkel and her countrymen that these spy programs had performed miracles in their country, and she too expressed her support for them.
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The love affair of high-tech companies with the infamous NSA and CIA
