Don't it always seem
to go
That you don't know
what you've got
Till it’s gone
“There are many things my father
taught me here in this
room. He taught me: keep
your friends close,
but your enemies closer”.
Michael Corleone, the infamous, fictitious hero from Francis
Ford Coppola’s ‘Godfather’ movies, was a wise man, when he uttered the aforementioned
quote.
People and countries need to have a very watchful eye
towards their enemies, in order to protect their own interests. Effective (counter)espionage
has been a life-saver for many countries in the past and helped them to survive
through times of war, peace and economic hardship: “all is fair in love and war”
is a beautiful and justified proverb.
And of course, although most people don’t like it, it is also
smart politics for many countries to have a watchful eye towards their friends.
Especially, when these countries have doubts about their friends’ plans and
good intensions. It would be stupid to ignore these basic lessons, as these
were taught the hard way to almost every country, during the past centuries which
were full of smaller and bigger wars all over the world.
Unfortunately, President Barack Obama of the United States and
his henchmen, like British PM David Cameron, seemed to have mixed up the Michael
Corleone quote very badly; during the last decade, they kept their friends so close,
that these friends started to feel like being enemies of the United States and
the United Kingdom. And now these friends are enraged and looking for revenge…
What millions of officials, special interest organizations
like Bits for Freedom and worried private citizens failed to do, was achieved
by one intelligent and ‘nerdish’ youngster with an opaque past: he put espionage
and (the complete loss of) privacy & secrecy back on the map of many people
and governments.
Whether you agree with Edward Snowden’s actions or not: it
was just what the doctor ordered in a world, where privacy and secrecy were
things of the past, “because we had nothing to hide and we trusted that our
friends would behave themselves like friends indeed”.
Well, continental Europe and a.o. Brazil found out the hard
way, that we couldn’t trust our friends, especially when these friends were
represented by ‘alphabet soup’ government services, like the NSA, CIA or (the
British) GCHQ.
In other words, it was time for officials and citizens, who
had been assuming the ostrich position for a long, long time, to pull their
heads out of the sand and face the music.
In the past, the European Union’s tone of voice towards the
intrusive laws and the espionage actions of the United States and – in its
trail – the United Kingdom had always been very trivializing:
- “Well, we understand that the United States Patriot Act is an undemocratic and intrusive piece of junk law, which violates all our European privacy and information protection laws and puts the information of the whole world in their crosshairs. But you have to understand: the Americans suffered enormously from these terrible attacks on 9-11 and hey… they are our friends!!”
- “Of course, it is massively harming our privacy, that we have to send all this private information about ourselves and our families to the US, when we want to go there for holidays or business. And naturally, it is ridiculous that the EU doesn’t force the Americans to do us the same courtesy, but we have to send this information; otherwise we can’t get in there”.
- “Yes, we know that the CIA is monitoring the SWIFT-messages in Belgium and we know also that the NSA is tapping our telephone calls and email, but they are our friends. We are sure that they won’t abuse the information, aren’t we?!. The battle of Airbus vs Boeing, concerning the delivery of US Army refueling planes, where Boeing seemed to know the size of all offers that Airbus made, must have been an incident”
And this friendly, forgiving and trivializing stance would probably
have continued forever, had not Edward Snowden entered the world stage and
opened Pandora’s Box, with his revelations about the international spying and
tapping networks of the United States and Great Britain.
Suddenly, it seemed that the protests against these intrusive
policies gained critical mass: not only among the aware and increasingly worried
European and Brazilian citizens, but finally also among the government leaders
of the continental European countries and Brazil.
When it came to official protests against these espionage
policies, Angela Merkel (the German chancellor) was
forced by her citizens to run the gauntlet. In the beginning of
September, Merkel had to deal with massive protest demonstrations of worried
and enraged German citizens, against the vast espionage programs of her allies:
The protesters were
also furious at what they regard the German government's lax reaction to the US
surveillance activities.
“Intelligence agencies like the NSA shamelessly spy on telephone
conversations and Internet connections worldwide (and) our government, one of
whose key roles is the protection from harm, sends off soothing explanations,”
said one of the demonstrators.
However, of late, the loudest protests came from President
Dima Rousseff of Brazil.
First, she publicly offended President Obama, by openly withdrawing
her announced visit to the US (the first in almost twenty years), due to the
espionage scandal.
Where a “diplomatic
headache” would have been sufficient in case of other, more ‘normal’ diplomatic
scandals, Rousseff chose for the frontal attack in this situation. And to make
things even worse for Obama, Rousseff gave the US a public scolding during today’s
UN General Assembly, almost unprecedented for allies and trade partners of the US.
This scolding must not only be seen as a testimony of the
Brazilian anger about this espionage scandal, but also as exemplary for the
changed economic and political situation in the world. Brazil is officially one
of the ‘big boys’ now and wants to be treated with respect by its allies.
The Financial Times wrote the following lines upon this
developing story:
Brazil’s President
Dilma Rousseff took her campaign against US spying to the UN on Tuesday,
opening the organisation’s annual general assembly with a strong attack on
foreign espionage using the internet.
The president, who
last week postponed what would have been Brazil’s first state visit to
Washington in nearly two decades over the issue, proposed a set of
international norms to guarantee privacy on the internet.
“We are ... confronting
a case of grave violations of human rights and civil liberties as well as the
invasion and capture of secret information about the activities of
companies and above all, disrespect for the national sovereignty of my
country,” she told the assembly.
Ms Rousseff’s pursuit
of the espionage issue will add to pressure on the US to respond to Brazil’s
complaints, with Latin America’s largest country seeking a formal explanation,
apology and pledge not to repeat the activity.
There is little to be misunderstood in this message, by Dima Rousseff, I suppose.
And today, the Dutch newspaper ‘Telegraaf’ printed an article, which
testifies that Brazil is not the only party to (slowly) lose its patience with
the United States.
Even the European Union – normally notorious for its weak
and obedient reactions and nondescript explanations, when it comes to such political
quarrels with the United States (and the United Kingdom) – shows signs that it
has finally hit the limits of its patience and forgiveness towards its most
important trading partner.
Brussels increases the
pressure on the United States, in the affair concerning the American espionage upon
European banking data. This Tuesday, the European Commission announced
disguisedly that it plans to abolish a certain treaty with the United States.
When the accusations [against
the US – EL] prove to be right, these represent a violation of the treaty. This
was emphasized by European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström of Internal Affairs,
during a public hearing at the European Parliament. She stated to be
dissatisfied with the information and explanations that she received from the Americans,
until now.
The treaty in question
concerns an agreement between the EU and the US upon the international payment
operator SWIFT, which maintains the payment traffic of over 10,000 banks, other
financial institutions and companies. Under strict circumstances, the US are
allowed to monitor certain data, as a consequence of their war against
international terrorism.
However, certain media
stated shortly that the American intelligence service NSA is clandestinely and
systematically monitoring all payment traffic. However, when asked, SWIFT
itself stated to have no proof of illicit intrusions of their network and data.
Of course, this is only a small and innocent reaction of the
EU in – what seems to be – a very limited share of the whole, far-stretching
espionage scandal.
However, it could be that the European Union finally starts to
understand what happens to the privacy and secrecy of their own organization and
their citizens, when these kinds of espionage by countries that could be
considered as friends, are allowed.
Brazil is already further on this path and seemingly doesn’t
want to stop yet.
The remainder of the Financial Times article (which I didn’t
print) was full of contemplations about the question, whether it was a sensible
step of Brazil at the UN today. Probably, in the eyes of many diplomats, it
wasn’t.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Brazil sent a very
powerful signal to the US and UK today: these countries should stop with keeping their friends closer than their enemies. Else, loyal friends could easily turn
into enemies, in these time of economic hardship and brutal competition for economic growth.
A signal that cannot and should not be overheard by the rest
of the world…
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