Secretary of State Kerry
with Brazil Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, at a
press conference in
Brasilia. Patriota gave Kerry an unapologetic
dressing
down over U.S. espionage
activity against his and other countries.
Explaining John Kerry's Shellacking in Brazil (Estadao, Brazil)
"In reference to Brazil's once infamous National
Information Service, a feature of the 1964 dictatorship, General Golbery do Couto e Silva confessed to having 'created a monster.' What can be said, then,
of the monumental U.S. intelligence apparatus, with its extravagant and unaccountable
resources and the decisions of its generals, which have been shielded from
public scrutiny? Marx used to repeat a phrase by Roman poet and playwright Publius Terentius Afer: 'I
consider nothing that is human alien to me.' When an organ of one of the
world's most powerful states acts as if that were its motto, there are no
limits to what it is capable of perpetrating."
Secretary of State Kerry listens with surprise as Brazil Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota tells him that the United States must 'terminate' its espionage activities against 'citizens of Brazil and other countries.'
It would be the natural order of things if the
harsh words heard by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoken to him publicly in
Brasilia by his counterpart Antonio Patriota were
mere posturing. They were uttered during a discussion about the monumental
global electronic espionage program being conducted by the National Security
Agency (NSA) and revealed last May by former intelligence analyst Edward
Snowden. However, the indignance of the Brazilian government sounds genuine.
Not that the Foreign Ministry, the president, nor our federal lawmaking bodies,
are naive enough to imagine that any country in the world able to eavesdrop on
others would fail to do so just because they are friends, in line with the principle
coined by legendary U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson (1867-1950): "Gentlemen,"
he said, "do not read other gentlemen's mail."
But what led Chancellor Patriota,
during an interview alongside Kerry, to go above and beyond any previous expression
of protest about the extent of the NSA's activities?
Particularly after what has been, paradoxically, a prolonged period of harmony
and cooperation between the two nations. Notwithstanding any differences, they
have coexisted peacefully on issues like Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. Moreover,
Kerry came to Brazil to prepare for the first state visit to the U.S. by President
DilmaRousseff, with all of
the positivity that generally infuses the diplomatic sphere before such occasions,
and which is scheduled for October. Patriota spoke of the
risk of a "shadow of suspicion" being cast over relations if the
dispute over intercepted Brazilian electronic communications and phone calls
isn't dealt with "satisfactorily." In turn, during her hour-long
meeting with the U.S. envoy, Dilma demanded
protection of the content of Brazil's intercepted data.
Brazil does not besmirch the imperatives of
security after the outrage of September 11, in the name of which Washington
adopted policies that came to violate international treaties to which it is a
signatory, and which disregard the individual rights enshrined in its
Constitution. However, the fact that Brasilia has signed off on these policies
- as Kerry highlighted - does not make them any more legitimate. The "land
of the free" remains a democracy, but one that is under observation. Since
the days of Bush, the White House has claimed that the relative loss of privacy
to countless numbers of people has prevented terrorist attacks on
U.S. soil and abroad. According to Kerry, this also includes
Brazilians, and of course, that is impossible to check. There is an iron law that is
well known: the more widely information is disseminated, and the more urgent
the "need to know" governments invoke to safeguard national security,
the greater the danger of perverting the instruments assembled to achieve that
end.
In reference to Brazil's once infamous National
Information Service, a feature of the 1964 dictatorship, General Golbery do Couto e Silvaconfessed
to having "created a monster." What can be said, then, of the
monumental U.S. intelligence apparatus, with its extravagant and unaccountable
resources and the decisions of its generals, which have been shielded from
public scrutiny? Marx used to repeat a phrase by Roman poet and playwright Publius
Terentius Afer (185 - 159 BC): "I consider
nothing that is human alien to me." When an organ of one of the world's
most powerful states acts as if that were its motto, there are no limits to
what it is capable of perpetrating. However, the efficiency of an NSA may vary
in inverse ratio to its size. According to experts, by this measure, on substance,
the U.S. loses to Cuba.
Perhaps to appease Brazilian sensibilities,
Kerry admitted during a private exchange with Patriota
that Washington should have given prior notice of the interceptions to its
allies. But as the chancellor said, "the provision of clarification does
not mean accepting the status quo."
