MORE SMOKE SCREENS ON THE FRA ACT

The other day Sweden's commander in chief tried to convince the Swedish public that the blanket wiretapping program, a.k.a., the FRA Act, is necessary to prevent Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan from putting a rocket-propelled grenade in a Swedish airplane flying missions in Afghanistan. This explanation, which came close to the absolute freezing point of the human intellect, is now surpassed by an even more far-fetched attempt at blowing smoke screens in the eyes of the Swedes:

The purpose behind the FRA Act is to eavesdrop on Russia [according to] numerous sources with connections to Swedish intelligence services. 'The main reason behind the law is that the government, the military and other government agencies need intelligence about Russia', according to a person [with intelligence connections]. ... 'Our location means that some 80 percent of Russia's contacts with large parts of the world run on cables through Sweden. This is the main point in this whole thing' ... according to a source with good insight into intelligence operations ... .

And by now the Russians know about the FRA wiretap program and are taking precautionary measures. Instead of running their communications on cables that detour through Sweden - whose geographic position is far from as central as this newspaper purports - they will run them on cables through Poland or Hungary. Not to mention that their contacts with China, India and North America can run on cables that are so far from Sweden that not even the FRA can reach them.

Each new excuse that the Reinfeldt administration is coming up with makes them look more and more pathetic. At the very least, they ought to adhere to the good old principle: if you're in a hole, quit digging.