Europe Will Rue Toppling Obama Over Snowden
(La Stampa, Italy)
"Those who wish to genuinely understand the Snowden case, PRISM and the NSA, beyond hypocrisy and propaganda, have to put them within their traditional context - as a clash among international espionage agencies, rather than a noble campaign of journalism against power. ... If
Europeans, as is happening now with some leaders hunting for summer headlines,
fall into the trap set by Putin and Chinese intelligence to rid themselves of
Obama, they may perhaps get a small boost in image now, but in the long term,
they will pay a substantial price."
In
a comical scene from the classic movie Casablanca,
looking for excuses to shut down a nightclub run by Rick - Humphrey Bogart -
the amusing French Captain Renault bursts out: “I’m shocked, shocked to find
that gambling is going on in here!” - just as the croupier hands him his winnings.
The same hypocritical and embarrassing shock runs through Western foreign
ministries that publicly pretend to be "shocked" to learn that there
has been surveillance conducted by our American allies against their European
partners, including the Italian Embassy in Washington, with bugs planted under
the Dropmire
program on cryptofaxes at E.U. embassies.
The
practice, revealed by German newspaper Der Spiegel and the
English Guardian as part of their
coverage of the NSA case involving the PRISM program
and whistleblower Edward Snowden - now a refugee in Putin’s Russia - is neither
virtuous nor respectable, nor as far as the public is concerned - acceptable.
Spying among friends is disagreeable. But as diplomats, politicians and
practitioners of international affairs know perfectly well, intelligence agencies
seek to monitor "all" information from enemies and allies alike. The
English used to keep an eye on De Gaulle during the Second World War. Italy and
Germany, allies, spied on one another so much that their suspicions are even documented
in Galeazzo
Ciano's diaries [Ciano, Italy foreign minister and Mussolini's son-in-law,
was killed by firing squad after being charged with treason by the Nazis].
During
the Cold War, Paris, Washington, London, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, companions in
arms, intercepted the transmissions of one another, planted bugging devices, and
by stealth, monitored their mutual military and industrial plans. It is just as
it was in the old 007 movies with Sean Connery, when head of secret intelligence
"M" suggests cooperating with the CIA “up to a point.” Beyond the
Iron Curtain, the intrigues between Moscow and Beijing were bloody, from the clashes on Zhenbao Island along the Ussuri
River in 1969, to the 1971 plane crash in Mongolia of General Lin Biao.
So
while German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is right to ask, quite
annoyed, for a clarification from Obama’s White House, it is important to keep
things in their proper proportions, and not allow propaganda - American,
European, Russian, or Chinese - to take over. Most of all, however, we must not
allow a crucial U.S.-E.U. trade agreement to be put off by this game of fencing
conducted by spies.
It
is comical to hear that formidable governments, known for their sharp-eyed
control over their own citizens and repression of dissidents, are now turning Edward
Snowden into a hero - and Obama into Big Brother. Moscow television is
describing the former NSA contractor, a refugee at
their capitol's airport, as a Robin Hood that has exposed to the world how
press freedom is the privilege of the former USSR, but is being trampled on in
the country that invented the Web.
If
Europeans, as is happening now with some leaders hunting for summer headlines,
fall into the trap set by Putin and Chinese intelligence to rid themselves of
Obama, they may get a small boost in image now, but in the long term,
they will pay a substantial price when it comes to information sharing on
counter-terrorism.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
For
his part, Obama should follow the advice of the wise Senator Udall, and rather
than travelling the world giving speeches filled with always-fascinating
soaring rhetoric about brotherhood and justice, and then surreptitiously follow
the policies of his hated predecessor George W. Bush, he should eliminate the secret
protocols under the Patriot Act. Then of course, yes, he should continue the
work of intelligence, but without the darker and more odious aspects that are
beyond judicial review. At the time of the Church Committee in
1975, America was able to publicly clean up the excesses of the CIA, NSA and FBI in time for the end of the Cold War.
Those
who wish to genuinely understand the Snowden case, PRISM and the NSA, beyond hypocrisy
and propaganda, have to put them within their traditional context - as a clash
among international espionage agencies, rather than a noble campaign of
journalism against power. The gaffe by the Guardian,
which it was forced to remove from its Web
site but was already in its print edition, is confirmation that good
information is hard to come by at the moment. Suddenly Wayne Madsen pops out, trying
to drag Italy into the cauldron.The former
spy who now lives on fairytales and plots is convinced that Obama is a
"gay African renegade and an imposter in the White House.” The fact that this
prestigious Anglo-Saxon newspaper fell for his provocation, and was forced into
the embarrassment of taking down the article without giving readers an explanation (talk about “transparency”…), proves how few "truths" PRISM
refracts, while on the other hand, how shamelessly biased and blind many are to propaganda, however cunning or naïve they may be.
