WASHINGTON — The last time a trove of leaked documents revealed US spying activities around the world, the response from allied governments was swift and harsh.
In Berlin, thousands of people took to the streets to protest, the head of the CIA station was expelled, the German chancellor told the US president that it was “unacceptable to spy on friends”. In Paris, the American ambassador was summoned to change clothes. The Brazilian president angrily canceled a state visit to Washington.
That was a decade ago, after the massive leak of classified documents detailing US surveillance programs by the previous government. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowdenwho turned them over to the WikiLeaks website for publication in what he called public service to expose government violations.
The latest leak of classified documents to emerge online this year, the motive behind remains unknown, shows once again the wide reach of US spy agencies, including capital of friendly countries such as Egypt, Korea, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates.
While the documents mainly focus on the war in Ukraine, they include CIA intelligence summaries describing conversations and plans at senior levels of government in those countries, in some cases were attributed to “signal intelligence” or electronic wiretapping. They have served to remind the world of America’s espionage talent – and the diplomatic shocks and reputational damage stemming from the leaks.
America’s adversaries have sought to exploit this awkward moment. Just a few months ago, US officials condemned Beijing for its prying eyes, in the form of spy balloons drift over many continents. On Wednesday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry reversed the situation, noting that the United States owes the international community an explanation for the “indiscriminate theft, surveillance and eavesdropping of national secrets.” around the world, including their allies.”
Unlike 2013, however, US allies seem to have largely ignored the latest examples of apparent espionage.
The governments of Egypt, Israel, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates call leaked reports of their discussions false or fabricated but say little or nothing about the operation itself. monitor. (U.S. officials do not dispute the overall authenticity of the documents, although they have warned without specifics that some of the content may have been altered since its appearance.) online.)
The mild reaction may be the product of a dim view of the long reach of US spy agencies. The end of the Cold War may have ended a golden era of espionage, but documents leaked by Mr. Snowden in 2013 reveal that a new era of espionage began after September 2001. It is clear that the United States, by fear of foreign terrorism and aided by technological advances, has created a sophisticated global surveillance network that is collecting vast amounts of data from millions of people. emails and phone calls around the world.
It shocked many people at the time. Less so today.
Charles Kupchan, who became senior director of the White House National Security Council for Europe less than a year after those revelations, said: “I assume the reaction to this latest leak would be much more silent than the response to Snowden’s revelations.
Mr. Kupchan said, “Snowden put cats out of pocket” by revealing the full scale of US surveillance around the world. “To some extent, the US spying on its allies is old news,” he added.
That could be a relief for President Biden. President Barack Obama, whom Kupchan served, found himself working with the phone to clean up the damage from revelations about allies’ surveillance.
Perhaps the most explosive was the revelation that NSA directly targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, prompting her to tell Mr. Obama, as she later recounted, that “stalking friends is unacceptable.” Political opponents criticized Merkel for allowing the United States to trample on German sovereignty, and German public opinion toward the country turned sour.
Mr. Obama acknowledged the damage during a February 2015 meeting with the German leader, telling reporters as they sat together in the Oval Office that “there is no doubt that Snowden’s revelations hurt German impressions on the US government and our intelligence. cooperation.”
Brazilian politics were similarly provoked when Snowden documents revealed that the NSA had track emails and phone calls by President Dilma Rousseff. Mr. Obama’s personal appeal in a 20-minute phone call was not enough to stop an angry Rousseff from canceling a state visit to Washington scheduled for next month. Soon after, she criticized the United States in remarks at the United Nations for “an insult to the principles that should govern relations between nations, especially between friendly nations.” benevolent”.
Mr. Obama called on France, first after the 2013 revelation that the NSA was spying on citizens and their political and business leaders, and again after the revelation that Washington spied on not one but one the last three French presidents. Mr. Obama called President François Hollande to assure him that the practice was over.
A Pew Research Center poll later found that those revelations damaged the public image of the United States, but not severely. Pew’s Survey out of 44 countries perceive widespread opposition to covert U.S. surveillance, with more than 73% of respondents saying they oppose spying on their leaders. The survey also found that Mr Obama’s approval ratings had fallen in Germany and Brazil. But global opinion about the United States remains generally positive.
It’s too early to say how public opinion might be affected by newly discovered classified documents online, but there is little indication of a backlash. Benjamin Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, said he expected little outcry.
One major reason, he said, is that the documents leaked by Mr Snowden not only spy on world leaders but also spy on masses of people, making angry people feel that their day-to-day privacy may be infringed.
That creates more political problems for leaders, Mr. Rhodes said. “There was some outrage in terms of performance, in part because it was about the email of” their people.
There has also been “a normalization of these leaks,” he said, citing not only the NSA files Snowden released but also a The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ huge archive of diplomatic cables given to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning, a former military intelligence analyst.
“At this point, I can’t imagine anyone being shocked to learn that the United States is interested in decision-making in these countries,” Mr. Rhodes said.
Some purported examples of such decision-making include Egypt’s plan to secretly supply Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, tightening ties between the Emirati intelligence agencies and Russia, war strategy discussions in Ukraine, and support anti-government protests from officials in the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. (The Washington Post reported on intelligence about Egypt, and AP news agency reported on the United Arab Emirates based on materials they exclusively obtained. Both governments have denied the allegations.)
So far, the only obvious political consequences from the latest leak have occurred in South Korea, where a classified US document describes a debate among senior national security officials. on whether to send artillery shells abroad. This could anger Russia. Opposition leaders in South Korea have condemn the United States for distrusting allies and “infringing upon the sovereignty” of the country.
Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asian Policy Studies, says it’s mostly a matter of domestic political understanding, as South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party works to disrupt undermining the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Mr. Yoon, interested in a close alliance with the United States, has little interest in the diplomatic dispute with Mr. Biden. And South Koreans may be tolerant of wiretapping due to their very favorable attitude toward the United States, in part because they see Washington as an important defender of China’s growing power.
“I don’t think it’s the same as the response we got to WikiLeaks,” Mr Yeo said. “I don’t think it will harm the alliance in the long run.”
He added, “It’s more of a shame that the United States still has to spy on its friends.”
