Nothing could be finer than to throw the book at China

“Today we are announcing an indictment against of five officers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” announced Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday.

The AG is accusing five Chinese military hackers of stealing trade secrets from American companies.

It led to this question at the White House briefing, “What is the difference between the U.S. spying on (Mercedes Benz) and what these five Chinese men are being accused?”

That question comes up because of what NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said last January to a German TV interviewer: Does the NSA spy on (Mercedes) to have the advantage of what’s going on in the scientific and the economic vote?

“There is no question that the NSA is engaged in economic spying,” said Snowden.

So he’s saying that we do exactly what these Chinese military hackers are accused of doing. In fact, the latest Snowden documents reveal that the NSA actually intercepts computer equipment in transit, opens the package, installs invisible bugging devices, then re-seals the package!

But in any event, White House spokesman Jay Carney says there is no moral equivalence here.

“We have made clear that our signals intelligence programs serve a specific national security commission, and that does not include providing a competitive advantage to U.S. companies.”

So we’re still the good guys. And to any bad guys listening who perhaps thought that the Constitution would prohibit us from the kind of intrusive data gathering it would take to catch you?

Surprise!