NSA: For Europe, it's Better to be 'Heard than Ignored' (El Pais, Spain)
"We in Europe have long complained that the United States
hasn't been listening to us, that we are a dispensable continent, and that we no
longer even show up on America's radar, inundated as it is with blips from the
Asia-Pacific. Now we find that they're not only listening to us, they are spying
on us - and on a massive scale. ... We wish to receive the same treatment that
Washington grants its first cousins in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. That's a far cry from a 'stop it!'"
Obama must
consider whether alienating his citizens from his allies increases international
security.
We
in Europe have long complained that the United States hasn’t been listening to
us, that we are a dispensable continent, and that we no longer even show up on America's
radar, inundated as it is with blips from the Asia-Pacific. Now we find that they're
not only listening to us, they are spying on us - and on a massive scale. And it
does so without feeling obliged to offer us any kind of explanation, never mind
actually halting such practices. Behind it all is Obama - he whose praises Europe
sung, and the one we believed in because he wasn’t Bush. They control the
technology that enables this intrusion for the achievement of political,
commercial or economic objectives, under the cover of the battle against
global terrorism. They oversee the servers of American companies like Google,
Microsoft or Apple. They use America's “soft power” to control cyberspace,
which is the scaffolding of globalization. However, this abuse, warns The New York Times, reduces America's capacity
to influence global affairs by way of example and moral leadership. It took the
eavesdropping of Angela Merkel - also known as the “mobile chancellor” due to her
extensive and continuous use of her cell phone to govern Germany - to unleash a
storm in transatlantic relations.
At
stake is confidence in the United States. Obama must weigh whether alienating
his citizens from his allies is a promising strategy for enhancing international
security. It doesn't t seem like the best way to make friends in time of need,
when the Middle East is seething, when the U.S. remains mired in its decision
to abandon Afghanistan, and when the Arab Spring is collapsing. Its strategy of
an Asia pivot to contain China is still a half-hearted pirouette. The U.S.
looks like an absent-minded giant incapable of resolving its primary domestic
problem, the budget. It is a superpower that collects taxes as if it were a run-of-the-mill
nation - but one that faces colossal expenditures, above all in defense, but also in
infrastructure and healthcare, where it suffers shortages that are inadequate for
a developed country. Distracted from its alliances, the right attitude would be
to mend relations with Iran by controlling its nuclear development without
resort to military force, not threatening to attack Syria and thereby inciting its Saudi ally, Egypt and
Turkey, all of which now question Washington’s reliability, as do Europeans, given
the contempt created by wide-scale eavesdropping. The violation of
international law committed with drone attacks, as confirmed by independent
observers, is yet another sign of the strange attitude shown by the Obama
Administration, which has been exhibiting some rather erratic behavior on the international
stage. The United States, having problems managing its partial decline, often behaves
awkwardly, still a victim of a self-satisfied arrogance stemming from its supposed
exceptional place as the indispensable nation, when in every instance it is
becoming less so.
We
have been advised that our communications are tapped. Through Le Monde we discovered the details of Datagate - exposed by American analyst Edward Snowden,
which is a massive electronic spying effort that the United States has unleashed
in France. This year, the same newspaper revealed that French authorities had
developed their own electronic surveillance network monitoring telephone calls,
e-mails, text messages, and the Twitter and Facebook messages of their own
citizens and third country nationals. President Hollande called Obama to demand
an explanation, which has so far been limited to a general appeal for finding the
right balance between privacy and the need for security in a dangerous world.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Europeans
have hitherto preferred to treat this problem bilaterally with Washington. We
still don’t believe that there is strength in numbers, fearful of bothering the
big boss - a classic behavior of the weak when the strong pursues an opposing
policy. We have a chronic incapacity to earn respect. Now, overwhelmed by the
leaks by Snowden, who is sheltered by Putin in Russia, the E.U. summit in
Brussels called on the great powers to yield to the commandment not to spy on the
allied leaders you are sitting at the table with. We wish to receive the same
treatment that Washington grants its first cousins in Great Britain, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. That's a far cry from a "stop it!"
The
United States is, and will continue to be, our best friend. In Washington they
think Europe is overreacting - that those that can, always spy on one another, just
as easily as they do the U.S. Westerners and communists spied on each other extensively
during the Cold War, and the implosion of the USSR did little to change that
long tradition. Long gone is 1929, when Secretary of the State Henry Stimson
explained why the State Department was closing its unit for decryption, saying
"Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." Today, the capacity to
rapidly collect and analyze vast amounts of data has quickly abolished privacy.
If the government wishes to, it can even penetrate your kitchen electronics. For
Europeans, isn't it better to be heard than ignored?
