Full Text: The United States' Global Surveillance Record
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, May 27, 2014
IV. The United States' global surveillance program hit by worldwide criticism
After the PRISM program was exposed, the United States encountered worldwide criticism, including from its allies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "We need trust among our allies and partners. Such trust now has to be built anew."
The fact that the NSA spied on Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, and hacked the email of Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto before he took office, triggered outrage in those countries. "The Brazilian government is determined to get clarification from the U.S. government... and require specific actions to be made to remove the possibility of espionage once and for all," Rousseff said. Not receiving a satisfactory reply, she postponed a state visit to Washington.
Rousseff also condemned the U.S. hacking of the computer networks of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras, noting that "it will be evident that the motive for the U.S. spying attempts is not security or the war on terrorism, but strategic economic interests... Clearly, Petrobras is not a threat to the security of any country."
In order to avoid U.S. network surveillance, Brazil is planning to build an undersea optical cable to link with Europe. The Brazilian government has ordered its postal service and federal data processing center to develop a new email system to guard against foreign espionage and protect its economic and political security.
The Global Internet Governance Conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in late April 2014 focused on building a new international Internet governance order. The United States, which had in the past often bragged about Internet freedom, tried to keep a low profile, yet still brought the blame of others on itself. During the conference, Brazilian President Rousseff chid the United States without mentioning it by name. "(In Internet governance) multilateral participation is very important. All the participating governments should be treated equally and all alike without discrimination instead of one country having more say than all the other countries," she said, directing at the U.S. government's manipulation over the Internet regulatory agencies, and its monitoring of other countries' networks. Russia also sharply denounced the United States, saying that the U.S had "arrogated to itself" the ownership of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). "This situation makes the international society very worried," the Russian representative said.
After U.S. surveillance of Malaysia was exposed, Malaysia's foreign ministry sent a written protest to the U.S. ambassador to Malaysia. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that the surveillance infringed upon national sovereignty and that the Malaysian government firmly opposed all forms of U.S. monitoring activities in Malaysia.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)