Is America Spying on al-Maliki's Phone?

Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, was upset because the CIA tapped her cell phone. She demanded explanations from the U.S. administration via its embassy in Berlin. Then, a number of leaders of European and Latin American states announced that the same thing had happened to them, and they also demanded explanations and an apology. America kept silent for a few days as the White House was preoccupied with deciding how to handle these leaks, leaks that mean the country is unable to protect its secrets for much longer and that have come at a time when the world has not yet forgotten agent Edward Snowden’s escape. Snowden embarrassed America when he revealed the existence of a U.S. program monitoring Internet communications around the world. What is happening? The world is uncovering America’s agents and secrets! Germany, France, Mexico and other U.S. allies are complaining about the country and demanding that it respond instead of remaining silent. This is happening in the other world, the world of democracy and transparency.

What is happening in our world is totally different, which compels us to ask what kind of spying America is doing on the al-Maliki government and other politicians in Iraq. All of us know what kind of presence America has in Iraq and in the region. Certainly, we are being spied on — our government, our parliament, our parties, perhaps even our groups and our clans and tribes. If we all know this, how can we prove it? Even if we proved it, what would al-Maliki be able to say to America if Germany and France, with their political, economic and military influence, are unable to extract an apology or an official recognition that it has spied on them?

With what language would al-Maliki speak? Would he announce it via the media and appear publicly, as Merkel did, saying to Obama, “What are you doing in Iraq?” Or would he be satisfied by notifying the American embassy and not waiting for a response? Yes, that is the bitter reality that we sense and see but can’t acknowledge, that we whisper in each other’s ear but cannot change in any way. It’s like a young man who was once healthy and well, but has been afflicted with a disease that has debilitated him.

Nothing is there to make America fear for its agents anymore. They work freely and openhandedly, and there is no longer anything they need to take into consideration when they conduct spying operations. They have modern technology that enables them to reach the farthest points and, unfortunately, they have thousands of collaborators who give information about what they do and don’t know. They no longer have any real adversaries in the region — all of them trapped in the orbit of the American dream. We no longer see any Bazofts being executed for taking photos of a military instillation, and American cinema won’t find any stories to produce into a new James Bond series. Everything happens simply and easily.

Nowadays, we see reconnaissance planes photograph and launch rockets at select targets. We see embassies with unreal numbers of personnel and amounts of equipment. We see satellites that count us morning and night. It’s the era of countries and governments that are fair game for violation and countries and governments that tower over us in everything. For us, it is the era of being lost, wandering. For them, it is the era of victory and superiority. How long shall these circumstances remain?