Espionage ... From Washington, With Love (Les DerničresNouvellesd'Alsace, France)
"As long as it was just spying on and even assassinating foreign citizens on foreign soil without trial or evidence, Europe and its leaders didn't have much to say. ... Seen from that angle, everything all at once becomes acceptable: torture, kidnapping, drones executing civilians from the depths of the sky. The illegal interception of communications thus also joins the list."
Bolivia President Evo Morales after his plane, outbound from Russia, was forced to land in Vienna. A number of countries refused to allow it to fly through their air space when suspicions arouse that Edward Snowden might be on board.
The
United States can afford many things, and it effectively allows a lot. It is
always forgiven because for the last 70 years it has been the guarantor of a
certain balance that is not - or not only - one of terror; and because it is an
indispensible ally for any external operation - humanitarian or military.
Without its green light and support, nothing gets decided on this side of the
planet; we already saw this in Mali and it is confirmed every day in Syria.
All
in its vision of a world that revolves exclusively around its domestic security
and its own commercial interests, America also takes certain liberties with the
interests of others. If one doesn't subscribe to its hegemonic vision, from a
strictly ethical point of view, these are increasing and unjustifiable
liberties. In this sense Barack Obama, the first winner of an anticipatory Nobel
Prize and who needed to embody a break with the past, goes further than George
Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. combined.
As
long as it was just spying on and even assassinating foreign citizens on
foreign soil without trial or evidence, as occurs daily in Pakistan or Afghanistan,
Europe and its leaders didn’t have much to say. Like their respective publics,
they ultimately realized fairly quickly that in ensuring their own security, it
is the world’s security that the Americans were preserving.
Seen from that angle, everything all at
once becomes acceptable: torture, kidnapping, drones executing civilians from
the depths of the sky. The illegal interception of communications thus also
joins the list, allowing them to remove individuals like bin Laden from
society. Depriving others of liberty in order to ensure your own freedom is an
old concept.
One
would have to be truly naive to imagine that those great ears would stop
listening at the threshold of an ally’s chamber. A spy is there to spy, on everyone
and all the time. That includes their friends and family, and they will always
find a justification for it; yesterday the communist threat, today the danger
of terrorism.
