The Espionage Scandal

The uncomfortable political position in which U.S. President Barack Obama finds himself while trying to convincingly explain to his Western allies the reason for the mass espionage — which involved illegal wiretaps of several heads of state’s personal communication devices — creates a profound strategic imbalance.

In Europe, the scandal is achieving dimensions that are damaging the traditional confidence within the pacts of the Atlantic alliance, due to the undisguised irritation expressed by the friendly, spied-upon leaders. This situation brings up again the regular connectivity of the different sectors of the economy in the private sphere.

The European Parliament has requested that the agreement to transfer banking details to the U.S. be cancelled, something very sensitive to the White House because it grants them access to information about certain financial transfers in its fight against terrorism. Furthermore, Brussels is looking into suspending another long-standing agreement, the so-called “safe harbor” through which some 3,000 U.S. businesses access European information in order to plan investments and evolve their businesses. This would establish a standard European protection of information to avoid illegal meddling.

The counterattack was launched by the Western European espionage agencies who are working together on mass supervision of Internet and telephone traffic. Citing documents leaked by NSA ex-analyst Edward Snowden, the British newspaper The Guardian said that the methods included bugging fiber-optic cables and undercover work with private telecommunication companies.

The newspaper points out Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands as countries where the intelligence agencies had developed these kinds of methods in cooperation with counterparts such as the British surveillance agency GCQU. This is a piece of information that could embarrass the governments that have most strongly protested against the mass espionage by the U.S. and what Snowden revealed. As can be seen, there are no victims, but rather victimizers who are peeking sideways out of their eyes.