Spying is not in Telstra's charter, so why should we pay money to get a good service that can shaft us anytime we fart?... The world of information and information transfer is a new ball game that even Orwell's 1984 never imagined... The point here is that we're not humans anymore, not even pigs or rabbits in "Animal Farm", but we're illusioned happy go lucky numbers, until we fart and our number is up...

Well, as long as we're "happy" and then die "happy", the world was good... whatever the world was...

Mercosur will recall their ambassadors for consultations, from France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, after the refusal, last week, of these countries to allow the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, to enter their airspace.

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela "will recall their ambassadors for consultations from the countries involved" in this episode, said Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro during a biannual summit of Heads of State of Mercosur.

Bolivian president's plane was forced to stop in Vienna on his return from Moscow last week, several European countries, including France, have closed their airspace him on the basis of information that Edward Snowden was on board.

Le Monde.

Meanwhile:

The American whistleblower Edward Snowden has accused the US of waging a campaign of "historically disproportionate aggression" against him during an extraordinary meeting with human rights activists and Russian officials at the Moscow airport where he has been trapped since 23 June.

In his first appearance since disclosing his identity in the Guardian last month, Snowden insisted he had no regrets and had made a "moral decision" to leak dozens of secret documents outlining US surveillance programmes. He also announced he would apply for political asylum from the Kremlin and appealed to those present for help in leaving the airport.

The US has lobbied governments around the world to refuse entry to Snowden and has invalidated his US passport.

Last week, a plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, was grounded in Vienna after several European countries blocked their airspace amid suspicions that Snowden was on board.

"The government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have," Snowden said. "I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression."

The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, accused Russia of "providing a propaganda platform" for Snowden, which "runs counter to the Russian government's previous declarations of Russia's neutrality".

"It's also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr Snowden to further damage US interests," Carney said during a White House briefing.

The US president, Barack Obama, was scheduled to speak to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, by telephone on Friday evening.

Snowden appeared relaxed and in good spirits in camera-phone footage posted on the website of the Russian tabloid newspaper LifeNews. At one point, as he was assailing the US for attempting to "legitimise an illegal affair", an airport announcement broke in. He smiled: "I've heard this many times".

Snowden said he would request asylum in Russia until he was permitted to travel to Latin America. Venezuela has offered him political asylum but he remains unable to travel there without travel documents.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/12/edward-snowden-accuses-us-illegal-campaign

Meanwhile Gus now believes that the secret surveillance has stopped...  Gus also believes in Santa Claus and the good fairy...