U.S.-E.U. Meeting on NSA Surveillance a
'Sham' (De Morgan, Belgium)
"Insiders I spoke to over the last few days see the two-day
meeting as a sham. Calling the Americans to order? Yeah right. ... As long as
the European Union remains as dependent on U.S. intelligence as it is today,
Brussels will never be master of its own house. I don't think this is a healthy
situation. Perhaps more European intelligence cooperation is part of the
solution. But in the year 2013, we lack the vision and statesmanship for that. The
result? Washington is laughing into its sleeve - just like Moscow and Beijing."
KristofClerix, journalist at MO*
Magazine, writes that as long as the European Union remains as dependent on
U.S. intelligence as it is today, Brussels will never be master of its own
house. His new book 'Espionage Target: Brussels' will be published in September
by Manteau.
Today
in Brussels, experts from the European Union and United States will meet for a
second day to discuss the PRISM espionage scandal. It's about time. The
disclosures of the unprecedented global intelligence operation made by
whistleblower Edward Snowden date back nearly seven weeks. That the privacy of
European citizens is systematically violated on such a large scale and European
institutions are directly targeted by U.S. espionage are apparently no reasons
to rush. Instead of a rapid, strong and united condemnation of the American NSA's surveillance, E.U. representatives deliberated about
who to authorize to enter into talks with the U.S. What an idiotic waste of
time. Ultimately, it is a motley crew that will have to put the screws to the
Americans of Homeland Security and Justice Department: representatives of the European Council (now
lead by Lithuanian President Herman Van Rompuy), the
diplomatic service of Catherine
Ashton, the European
Commission, E.U. anti-terror czar Gilles de Kerchove, one member of the working group on data
protection, and ten other experts from E.U. member states - including the president
of the Belgian privacy commission, Willem
De Beuckelaere. Their message to the American
spies: henceforth, please respect European law. The NSA
will be impressed.
A Sham
Insiders
I spoke to over the last few days see the two-day meeting as a sham. Calling
the Americans to order? Yeah right. As so often before, our grandiose European
countries are greatly divided about the desired reaction. The United Kingdom,
France and Germany - who themselves have an impressive signal intelligence
capability - don't want to offend Washington. Just in case their own espionage
activities abroad might come to light. Der Spiegel reported only
yesterday about the extensive cooperation between the NSA and German intelligence- not a welcome present for
Angela Merkel in this pre-election period.
The
central reason for Europe's soft reaction and that free trade talks with
Washington carry on undisturbed - is that we need the NSA.
Senior officials in the European intelligence community admit that we need the intelligence
from our Atlantic ally. "All of the most vital security data, from
terrorism to nuclear proliferation, come from the Americans," it is said behind
the scenes. A liaison officer for a major U.S. service I met in a Brussels café
once put it even more sharply: "Who do you think sees to it that no
attacks happen here in Belgium? That's me. Me. Do not forget it ..."
Serf of the
United States
History
repeats itself. The question of whether American spies should be given free
rein in the heart of Europe has been raised every few years since the end of
the Cold War. During the East-West conflict, we needed the Americans to expose Eastern
bloc spying. At that time, intelligence officials in the 1970s anonymously informed
the press of how CIA agents walked in and out of state security offices at will.
Albert Raes
- who took office as Administrator Director General of State Security in 1977 - called out the Americans. He diplomatically pointed
out to them in that they had to behave like any other friendly service. Belgium
might be a loyal ally, but it was not a serf of the United States.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
It
was the same song after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1996, Britain's Sunday Times came out with the news that
American spies had hacked into the computers of the European Parliament and European
Commission to steal secret information. Two years later, the European
Parliament set up a temporary committee of inquiry into Echelon, a global system for
the interception of communications via satellite. Listening and reading along
are the NSA & Co, and the scandals kept on
coming.
In
2006, American newspapers revealed the existence of the Terrorist
Finance Tracking Program. The U.S. Treasury Department and the CIA had been
given access to SWIFT's database, which secures communications among
10,000 financial institutions in 212 countries from La Hulpe,
near Brussels. Now there are Edward Snowden's revelations. And perhaps someone in
Belgium should figure out what steps the U.S. secret services have taken - not only the CIA but the 66th
Military Intelligence Brigade, the Air
Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Defense
Intelligence Agency, since September 12, 2001. Never heard of any of this?
That's what I mean.
As
long as the European Union remains as dependent on U.S. intelligence as it is
today, Brussels will never be master of its own house. I don't think this is a
healthy situation. Perhaps more European intelligence cooperation is part of
the solution. But in the year 2013, we lack the vision and statesmanship for
that. The result? Washington is laughing into its sleeve - just like Moscow and
Beijing.
