Spying Among Friends: The NSA's Friendly Espionage

Not only do we have friendly fire in times of war, but we now also have friendly espionage in times of peace. The former is usually a regrettable accident on the battlefield, the result of a lack of coordination between forces on the same side who end up in each other’s firing lines. And the latter is a source of strife between the United States and its principal allies, one that threatens to unleash a serious crisis as Russia and China look on in glee.

In recent days, outrage has been mounting across Brazil, Mexico, Germany, France and a few other European countries at the revelation that their communications have been under surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies. In addition to tens of thousands of regular citizens, 35 heads of state or government have had their telephone calls intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency, the largest intelligence agency in the world.

Washington cannot deny it: The proof is in the thousands of documents stolen by ex-NSA analyst Edward Snowden, who handed them over to three journalists whom he trusted, before being granted political asylum in Russia. The publication of the first batch of papers exposed the vast global network established by the NSA to trace communications — including emails and text messages — in any country. The U.S. purports to be protecting itself against terrorism and, according to those responsible for the initiative, has foiled dozens of terrorist plots.

To begin with, the affected countries played down the issue, hoping to maintain good relations with Washington. All this changed in light of the subsequent disclosures over the interception of communications made by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders whose names have not yet surfaced. In the face of such large-scale violation of their national sovereignty, staying silent no longer remained a possibility. Rousseff cancelled her trip to the United States, and Merkel has demanded an explanation from U.S. President Barack Obama (national security adviser to the White House, Susan Rice, informed her that at the current time Merkel’s line was not being spied on, nor would it be in the future, but she said nothing about whether it had been in the past).

It is clear that, in its obsession with the fight against terrorism, the U.S. has overstepped the mark. Its obligation now is to rectify what one of its top-ranking civil servants, quoted in The New York Times, has described as a “colossal error of judgment.”*

However, the NSA’s massive intrusion should not be the only cause for alarm: The inability of the affected countries’ intelligence services to detect and prevent the NSA’s spying is equally worrying, particularly since some countries that are less friendly, such as China or Russia, could also be doing the same.

Washington has denounced Beijing’s aggression in this respect on many occasions, for stealing military secrets, getting hold of state-of-the-art technology or even hitting a media outlet such as the The New York Times, after it published information detailing the corruption of China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao last year.

According to the Pentagon, around 90 percent of Internet attacks against the U.S. originate from China. Beijing has allegedly stolen information from more than 140 U.S. companies in the last six years and managed to obtain documentation relating to a new fighter jet.

The friendly countries also spy on each other, especially in the economic arena. Washington has complained several times about the aggression of French services, which are alleged to be running an espionage program to gain U.S. technological secrets. Indeed, companies across all the industrialized countries have unleashed a ferocious commercial war to conquer overseas markets and sell their products: Boeing vs. Airbus, high-speed trains, oil pipelines and — unsurprisingly — weapons and defense systems.

Former French Minister Bernard Kouchner has admitted as much in a recent interview: “Let’s be honest, we also eavesdrop. Everyone is listening in on everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous. The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us.”

In the midst of the media storm sparked by Snowden’s documents, there is plenty of political theater to be seen in the European leaders’ reactions. None of them actually use their cell phone to discuss important matters; the same goes for business leaders working in sensitive sectors. And the NSA knows it. That ought to be sufficient motivation for the NSA to cease its indiscriminate spying, an activity that aggravates its country’s allies and contributes precisely nothing to the fight against terrorism.

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.