Snooping

It’s not just German Chancellor Angela Merkel who knows that the NSA has its feelers, like a global kraken, in all areas of political and private life. China’s leadership and the technology giant Huawei were also the target of the U.S. intelligence agency, as has now come to light.

This piece of news in itself is not sensational; experts have long suspected that Beijing is also conducting intensive cyberespionage on U.S. defense and industrial sectors. It is rather unsavory, though, that Edward Snowden’s most recent revelations have come just as America’s first lady is on a trip to China and has been telling students there how important freedom of the Internet is.

This is what Michelle Obama naturally didn’t mention: That the NSA has directly accessed the servers of large U.S. companies as it siphons off data and is probably still doing so, that her husband let the Department of Justice listen in on journalists’ work-related and private conversations just to expose a whistle-blower, and that not one single journalist was allowed to fly on Air Force One on her trip to China, where questions or interviews were unwelcome in any case. America’s first lady may initiate fashion trends and enjoy teaching people about healthy eating, but neither she nor her husband is a suitably credible ambassador for freedom of the media or freedom of opinion.