NSA Spying and extra — Global Issues

September 16, 2025

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by Anup Shah
This web page Created Monday, October 07, 2013

This web page: https://www.globalissues.org/article/802/surveillance-state.
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At the beginning of June 2013, numerous paperwork detailing surveillance by intelligence businesses such because the US’s NSA and UK’s GCHQ began to be revealed, based mostly on info provided by NSA whistle blower, Edward Snowden.

These leaks revealed a large surveillance program that included interception of e mail and different Internet communications and telephone name tapping. Some of it seems unlawful, whereas different revelations present the US spying on pleasant nations throughout numerous worldwide summits.

Unsurprisingly, there was numerous furor. While some international locations are little doubt utilizing this to win some diplomatic factors, there was elevated tensions between the US and different areas world wide.

Much of the US surveillance packages got here from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist assaults on the US in 2001. Concerns a couple of crackdown on civil rights within the wake of the so-called struggle on terror have been expressed for a very long time, and these revelations appear to be confirming a few of these fears.

Given the widespread assortment of data, apparently from central servers of main Internet corporations and from different core servers that type a part of the Internet spine, actions of tens of millions (if not billions) of residents have been caught up in a dragnet type surveillance drawback referred to as PRISM, even when the communication has nothing to do with terrorism.

What impacts would such secretive mass surveillance have on democracy?

On this web page:

Secrecy; US Congress unaware of mass NSA surveillance program
If you’ve received nothing to cover…
Access to vasts quantity of consumer knowledge from Internet Giants
Internet Governance
Americans and residents of different international locations
Spying on pleasant international locations and worldwide establishments
US mainstream media deal with Edward Snowden
Privatization of surveillance means even much less accountability?
More info
1. Other web pages
2. News tales from IPS

Secrecy; US Congress unaware of mass NSA surveillance program

One of the main considerations within the US has been how members of the US Congress themselves weren’t conscious at how huge the actions have been. Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist that revealed the paperwork from Edward Snowden wrote a follow-up article every week after the preliminary revelations. He famous Democratic Representative Loretta Sanchez’s feedback stated after Congress was given a labeled briefing by NSA officers on the company’s beforehand secret surveillance actions that what was revealed was simply the tip of the iceberg and that it’s broader than most individuals even understand. She added that the majority of them in that session have been astounded to be taught a few of this.

Greenwald continued to mirror on the gravity of what she stated:

… as a member of Congress, she had no concept how invasive and huge the NSA’s surveillance actions are. Sen. Jon Tester, who’s a member of the Homeland Security Committee, stated the identical factor, … fairly frankly, it helps folks like me change into conscious of a scenario that I wasn’t conscious of earlier than as a result of I don’t sit on that Intelligence Committee.

How can anybody suppose that it’s remotely wholesome in a democracy to have the NSA constructing a large spying equipment about which even members of Congress, together with Senators on the Homeland Security Committee, are completely ignorant and discover astounding once they be taught of them? How can anybody declare with a straight face that there’s strong oversight when even members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are so constrained of their potential to behave that they’re lowered to issuing obscure, impotent warnings to the general public about what they name radical secret legislation enabling home spying that may stun Americans to find out about it, however are barred to reveal what it’s they’re so alarmed by? … What sort of particular person would suppose that it might be preferable to stay at the hours of darkness — completely ignorant — about them?

Glenn Greenwald,
On Prism, partisanship and propaganda
, The Guardian, June 14, 2013

And even the unique creator of the controversial Patriot Act, has argued that the present metadata assortment is unbounded in scope. He added that the overwhelming majority of information collected don’t have anything to do with investigating terrorism, and requested, How can each name that each American makes or receives be related to a particular investigation?

Greenwald additionally makes an attention-grabbing commentary about partisanship and describes how in 2006 the Democrats have been very clearly against this sort of secret surveillance that Republicans had spear-headed within the aftermatch of the 9/11 terrorist assaults. And he contrasts that with how defensive Democrats have been this time spherical. He additionally factors to this attention-grabbing YouTube video that summarizes this (although learn the article, too!)

Biden in 2006 faculties Obama in 2013 over NSA spying program, Electronic Frontier Foundation, June 2013

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If you’ve received nothing to cover…

Defenders of those packages have typically argued that when you have nothing to cover then you shouldn’t fear about this invasion of privateness.

Cory Doctorow, writing in The Guardian, responded as to why you must care:

We’re unhealthy at privateness as a result of the results of privateness disclosures are separated by numerous time and house from the disclosures themselves … it occurs so far-off from the disclosure that we will’t be taught from it.

You ought to care about privateness as a result of privateness isn’t secrecy. I do know what you do in the bathroom, however that doesn’t imply you don’t need to shut the door if you go within the stall.

You ought to care about privateness as a result of if the information says you’ve performed one thing unsuitable, then the particular person studying the information will interpret every thing else you do by way of that gentle.

…

You ought to care about surveillance as a result of you already know individuals who will be compromised by way of disclosure: people who find themselves homosexual and within the closet; folks with terminal sicknesses; people who find themselves associated to somebody notorious for some terrible crime. Those persons are your folks, your neighbors, perhaps your youngsters: they deserve a life that’s as free from problem as you might be along with your fortunate, skeleton-free closet.

You ought to care about surveillance as a result of as soon as the system for surveillance is constructed into the networks and the telephones, unhealthy guys (or soiled cops) can use it to assault you.

…

As for Hague: if the harmless don’t have anything to worry from disclosure, then why did his personal authorities demand an unprecedented system of secret courts through which proof of UK intelligence complicity in unlawful kidnapping and torture will be heard? Privacy, it seems, is completely important for the highly effective and utterly nugatory for the remainder of us.

Cory Doctorow, The NSA’s Prism: why we should always care, The Guardian, June 14, 2013 (Emphasis added)

And, John Naughton, writing in The Observer, provides:

Citizens who had performed nothing unsuitable, declared Uncle Hague, had nothing to worry from complete surveillance.

Oh yeah? As Stephen Fry noticed in an exasperated tweet: William Hague’s view appears to be we will disguise a digital camera & bug in your room & when you’ve received nothing to cover, what’s the fear? Hell’s enamel!

Hell’s enamel certainly. I can consider 1000’s of people that don’t have anything to cover, however who would have good causes to fret about intrusive surveillance. Journalists looking for to guard their sources, for instance; NHS whistleblowers; folks looking for on-line assist for private psychological torments; frightened youngsters looking for recommendation on contraception or abortion; estranged wives of abusive husbands; asylum seekers and dissident refugees; and so forth.

In a method, Hague’s smug, patronising tone was the least troubling side of the NSA/GCHQ story. More worrying was the unexplained contradiction between claims within the Prism PowerPoint slides that the NSA routinely collects knowledge from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple, and the businesses’ frantic denials that this was the case.

John Naughton, The NSA has us snared in its entice – and there’s no method out, The Observer, June 15, 2013

The different factor Hague overlooks is how the UK’s GCHQ used very misleading means to intercept communications throughout necessary G20 summits to grasp the personal positions of different governments, together with regimes pleasant with the UK. This included establishing faux Internet cafes, putting in spy ware similar to keyloggers, and intercepting emails.

It has typically been thought that every one governments want to (or do) carry out some type of spying and espionage throughout worldwide conferences, and it’s generally within the nationwide curiosity to take action (or not less than will be argued that method).

In addition, because the journal Foreign Policy revealed, the US spied by itself residents way back to the Vietnam struggle, together with spying on two of its personal sitting senior senators and outstanding figures similar to Martin Luther King, boxer Muhammad Ali, and others. This wasn’t with congressional oversight, however on the White House’s behest; an abuse of energy, because the journal additionally famous.

But it has been not often attainable to show such suspicions, till now. Another necessary instance was the US and UK’s efforts to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the varied UN conferences about Iraq-related resolutions, the place the US and UK have been considered spying on buddies and others.

Finally, the when you have nothing to cover argument misses a basic level; having such vasts quantity of information, doubtlessly unnecessarily when collected through a dragnet type system, is awaiting abuse. The NSA and others at the moment declare they aren’t abusing their roles (however now we have already heard them misinform Congress, so they’re already going through public belief points which is difficult for a secretive group anyway), however with all this knowledge, it’s the potential to abuse it (internally, or by way of hacks, and so on) that’s the privateness concern right here. Secrecy (particularly in a democracy) by-passes checks and balances. In the case of the US, who strongly declare there’s authorized and judicial oversight in this stuff, it’s nonetheless performed in secrecy; it’s not clear how a lot private knowledge of atypical residents (of the US and remainder of the world) is caught on this.

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Access to vasts quantity of consumer knowledge from Internet Giants

Another side of the US/NSA spying story was the involvement of Internet giants similar to Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter.

It was claimed that the NSA had some sort of backdoor or direct entry to the vasts quantity of information these corporations have on their customers, which the Internet titans vigorously denied. In some methods, these denials look like spin as corporations should adjust to authorized surveillance requests and the data might not technically be shared through backdoors.

On the opposite hand, corporations aren’t legally allowed to acknowledge sure forms of intelligence requests so legally there will be vasts quantities of information sharing however the secrecy surrounding it means it’s not clear how a lot privateness invasion is legit or not.

But on the very least it emerged there have been presumably 1000’s of requests for just about all knowledge for numerous customers they’d goal. And that the NSA have been capable of seize an unlimited quantity of Internet knowledge.

Edward Snowden informed the Hong Kong-based South China Post that there had been greater than 61,000 hacking operations globally, with lots of of targets in Hong Kong and on the [Chinese] mainland. We hack community backbones–like large Internet routers, mainly–that give us entry to the communications of lots of of 1000’s of computer systems with out having to hack each single one, Snowden added.

And some corporations are solely too prepared to promote to the US authorities to help these actions. For instance, Inter Press Service notes a Californian firm providing US authorities businesses software program to intercept alerts on undersea cables that can be utilized to research all types of well-liked Internet companies, similar to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

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Internet Governance

It is attention-grabbing to notice that a couple of months earlier the US was resisting what appeared like worldwide efforts to place the stewardship of the Internet within the fingers of the United Nations slightly than being a decentralized system (although with the US having last say over the adjustments to sure elements of the core, or root, Internet servers).

At the time, a lot of the know-how neighborhood and others argued that the US is an effective defender of the Internet (and helped create it within the first place), and that placing it into the fingers of the UN was actually the agenda of countries like Russia, China and others with questionable information on human rights. Examples similar to surveillance and censorship got as causes to not belief different governments. And boards and blogs have been crammed with the same old over-simplistic UN-bashing that the US is commonly recognized for.

The US, by comparability, (most likely rightly) argued that the present decentralized system works properly. Internet giants similar to Google additionally weighed in alongside comparable strains, as did numerous Internet freedom activist organizations and people.

Unfortunately, even with the present system, governments sadly can sensor giant parts of the Internet in the event that they need to. But because the latest spying episode has revealed as properly, that is maybe one more reason for the US not desirous to relinquish management of such a globally useful useful resource. Being capable of faucet into among the core Internet servers, lots of that are based mostly within the US or US-friendly nations, offers it a bonus of different international locations and entities.

In different phrases, if even inside the present system international locations like China and Russia can censor and monitor the Internet why do they care about wanting extra management? Larry Geller offers an instance:

No doubt wrongdoers utterly perceive that they mustn’t plot their actions utilizing Gmail. They know that if their cell telephones are powered on, somebody within the US is aware of the place they’re. So they keep away from utilizing the techniques that the NSA is monitoring. Those whose knowledge does get recorded and analyzed are overwhelmingly atypical residents—of this and different international locations. The NSA computer systems are crammed with atypical folks’s knowledge, together with particulars of their love-lives, their monetary transactions, and which motion pictures they’ve ordered tickets to see.

The latest leaks by Edward Snowden might revive strain to maneuver to extra native management of information flows to forestall US spying. Do different international locations care whether or not we document their citizen’s personal knowledge? Perhaps not a lot. But Putin might care that his personal telephone calls are on file someplace in Utah.

Larry Geller, NSA spying might revive opposition to US management over the Internet, Disappeared News, June 11, 2013

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Americans and residents of different international locations

Some of the scandal within the US has been that the surveillance by NSA has included American residents. Lost in that concern is the privateness of non-US residents. It nearly seems that mainstream US media aren’t too apprehensive about that. But residents world wide are rightly out-raged.

It just isn’t just like the US-based companies (similar to these from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and others) are simply replaceable. Not solely do folks world wide depend on these companies, however these corporations depend on folks world wide utilizing their companies too.

Being international companies, the concept of nation states and citizen rights have probably not developed rapidly sufficient to cater for the adjustments being led to by the Internet. (It has equally been argued that the way in which firms are pushing for a neoliberal type of globalization, nation states are struggling to deal with that, too, so there’s maybe an actual concern of democracy and other people’s rights in a brand new world that’s essentially at stake.)

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Spying on pleasant international locations and worldwide establishments

I believe the principle factor I need to emphasize is I don’t have an curiosity and the folks on the NSA don’t have an curiosity in doing something aside from ensuring that … we will stop a terrorist assault… We don’t have an curiosity in doing something aside from that. And we’ve tried to arrange a system … to make it possible for these packages aren’t abused.

US President Barack Obama, President Obama Holds a Press Conference, Whitehouse.gov, August 9, 2013

Breaking UN protocol at a General Assembly assembly of all members states Brazil strongly criticized the US for illegally infiltrating its communications community, intercepting telephone calls, and breaking into the Brazilian Mission to the United Nations. President Dilma Rousseff dismissed the US argument that such actions have been to counter terrorism. Instead, she argued, company info — typically of excessive financial and even strategic worth — was on the heart of espionage actions.

Reports additionally surfaced of the US spying on the United Nations and numerous European international locations, together with the workplace of the European Union on the UN. The US had managed to crack the UN’s inside video teleconferencing system, as a part of its surveillance of the world physique.

Leading know-how website, Ars Technica, additionally provides that the NSA additionally runs a bugging program in additional than 80 embassies and consulates world wide, underneath a program referred to as the Special Collection Service, an intensive program that has little or nothing to do with keeping off terrorists, in accordance with Der Spiegel.

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US mainstream media deal with Edward Snowden

When Edward Snowden made his revelations he hoped the main focus can be on the problems, not on him or his plight. But as many have recognized for a few years, the US mainstream media isn’t capable of do reporting of significant points; sensationalism and specializing in people are simpler to do in comparison with tackling core points which might maintain energy to account (be it authorities, company or in any other case).

In a Q&A session with The Guardian, he famous that Unfortunately, the mainstream media now appears much more curious about what I stated after I was 17 or what my girlfriend seems to be like slightly than, say, the most important program of suspicionless surveillance in human historical past.

In the US, a lot of the main focus had change into about whether or not he was a traitor or not; he felt there was no probability of a good trial within the US as a result of the US had brazenly accused and judged him of treason. In response to questions on whether or not he was a traitor he added

US officers say this each time there’s a public dialogue that would restrict their authority. US officers additionally present deceptive or instantly false assertions in regards to the worth of those packages, as they did only recently with the Zazi case, which court docket paperwork clearly present was not unveiled by PRISM.

Journalists ought to ask a particular query: since these packages started operation shortly after September eleventh, what number of terrorist assaults have been prevented SOLELY by info derived from this suspicionless surveillance that would not be gained through every other supply? Then ask what number of particular person communications have been ingested to realize that, and ask your self if it was price it. Bathtub falls and law enforcement officials kill extra Americans than terrorism, but we have been requested to sacrifice our most sacred rights for worry of falling sufferer to it.

It’s necessary to remember I’m being referred to as a traitor by males like former vp Dick Cheney. This is a person who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a sort of atrocity warm-up on the way in which to deceitfully engineering a battle that has killed over 4,400 and maimed almost 32,000 Americans, in addition to leaving over 100,000 Iraqis lifeless. Being referred to as a traitor by Dick Cheney is the best honor you can provide an American.

Glen Greenwald, Edward Snowden: NSA whistleblower solutions reader questions, The Guardian, June 17, 2013

When requested how the therapy of different whistleblowers influenced him, he had a profound problem for President Obama:

Binney, Drake, Kiriakou, and Manning are all examples of how overly-harsh responses to public-interest whistle-blowing solely escalate the size, scope, and talent concerned in future disclosures. Citizens with a conscience aren’t going to disregard wrong-doing just because they’ll be destroyed for it: the conscience forbids it. Instead, these draconian responses merely construct higher whistleblowers. If the Obama administration responds with an excellent harsher hand towards me, they are often assured that they’ll quickly discover themselves going through an equally harsh public response.

This disclosure supplies Obama a possibility to enchantment for a return to sanity, constitutional coverage, and the rule of legislation slightly than males. He nonetheless has loads of time to go down in historical past because the President who appeared into the abyss and stepped again, slightly than leaping ahead into it. I’d advise he personally name for a particular committee to evaluate these interception packages, repudiate the harmful State Secrets privilege, and, upon getting ready to depart workplace, start a convention for all Presidents forthwith to reveal their respect for the legislation by appointing a particular investigator to evaluate the insurance policies of their years in workplace for any wrongdoing. There will be no religion in authorities if our highest places of work are excused from scrutiny — they need to be setting the instance of transparency.

Glen Greenwald, Edward Snowden: NSA whistleblower solutions reader questions, The Guardian, June 17, 2013

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Privatization of surveillance means even much less accountability?

Chris Pyle, a former navy teacher uncovered the CIA and Army’s monitoring of tens of millions of Americans engaged in lawful political exercise within the Nineteen Seventies. His revelations finally resulting in a collection of legal guidelines aimed toward curbing authorities abuses.

He was lately interviewed by the wonderful Democracy Now! in regards to the latest NSA revelations and echoed considerations raised by others; about lack of awareness and oversight by Congress and that the secrecy is uncontrolled.

But he additionally provides that privatization of surveillance (70% p.c of the intelligence funds of the United States at the moment goes to personal contractors, Democracy Now! notes) is leading to an absence of accountability and importantly a method for governments to shirk their authorized tasks; the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures, solely binds the federal government, doesn’t bind firms. That’s a significant issue, he notes.

Chris Pyle, Whistleblower on Domestic Spying in 70s, Says Be Wary of Attacks on NSA’s Critics, Democracy Now!, June 13 2013

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More info

This website will most likely not have the ability to sustain with new revelations as they’re revealed. However, there are a selection of web sites which can be price following on this concern. In addition, the IPS information feed that this web site carries can even cowl this.