They do notice us

On Saturday the 4th of December Wikileaks released a cable from the Secretary of State created on the 3rd of November 2008. It is classified as secret/noforn.
http://is.gd/icKVZ

Most of the cable focuses on serious topics - al Qua'ida, the execution of the Bali bombers, a suicide attack on a Pakistani official and so on.

It also contains reports on attempted "cyber attacks". These range from the trivial (such as a virus infected e mail claiming to come from a US embassy but being sent from a yahoo account) to serious attempts to hack into the US DoD. The cable also summarizes a conference held by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is the official name of the domestic secret service.

The passage I found most interesting, however, was a report on a peaceful, yet improvised demonstration at the Stockholm embassy. Twelve to fifteen protesters carrying banners demanding the fair treatment of Guantanamo detainees appeared in front of the embassy, took photographs of the building and disappeared soon after.

This rather banal event made it into a diplomatic cable sent out by the Secretary of State (not the Stockholm embassy!), and it was classified as secret. It is listed under the heading "significant events", not under "suspicious activity". The latter category contains reports of persons taking photos of embassies or suspicious cars.

Thus, the photographs were not the only reason why this event was described in a classified cable. Rather, it seems that the banners were perceived as a threat.

They do notice us, and they don't like things such as demonstrations on sensitive topics.

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