US spy game puts friendships on the line

IT'S not a secret that when it comes to intelligence gathering by governments, everybody spies on everybody, including friends on friends. From that perspective, the latest revelations of US spying on leaders in Germany, Brazil and Mexico, shouldn't have come as a huge surprise. The outrage that was seen in Europe and Latin America and now in Asia is only partly about the revelations that friends are spying on friends, but more about the scope and the scale of this kind of operations being conducted by US spy agencies, and a sense that the Americans have taken things to a new and dangerous level.

Moreover, while world leaders have probably been operating under the assumption that they are, indeed, being spied on by friendly governments, the latest revelations have helped expose what has been going behind the scenes to a wide international audience. As a result, leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel are being forced to protest and show indignation because their voters are upset. Hence, while Mrs Merkel originally played down the reports that she was being taped, she has been forced to take a much more forceful approach because of the outrage expressed by the German media and public.

Spying on Mrs Merkel and other friends of the US may provide decision makers in Washington with important information about political and economic developments in target countries such as Germany and can give the US an edge on this or that diplomatic issue. On the other hand, this kind of information has very little effect on the issues that really affect national security. What should be of concern to Americans should be information that would help capture terrorists, as opposed to information about what the German chancellor is thinking about the free trade negotiations between Brussels and Washington.