In the Collounsburythread, yojimbo pointed me to an Arabic news website, www.aljazeerah.info. While scanning some stories there, I ran across this article, apparently from the Jordan Times, by Norman Soloman.
Note: I have just run across this website, and I have yet to determine if it has any credibility. The Jordan Times only offers the previous seven days of articles, so I was unable to find it on their site. However, I did find the article on alternet.org and workingforchange.com (links go to same article as above).
So, do you believe that the US government takes advantage of the proximity of the UN Headquarters in order to gather intelligence data to be used to exploit diplomatic efforts? If so, doesn’t that twist the word diplomacy?
Should US media be carrying/covering this story, even with no confirmation available from US officials? Lack of confirmation doesn’t seem to be much of a deterent in other stories…
And a curious question: Anyone seen these reports before? If so, please specify your country.
I don’t know about the accuracy of your source, but (and correct me if I’m wrong, someone) I thought we always spy on everyone, friend or foe. So does everyone else. I thought that was just part of the game.
This got buried (link is to the Washington Times itself, you scoffers), but the bugs found in European Union headquarters last week have been identified as of American origin. Obviously any country with the desire and ability to bug the EU could bug the UN, too.
Kalhoun, I understand your perspective, but do you extend that to suggest that it is a “non-story”, and therefore, not worthy of coverage from US media?
*"An employee at GCHQ, the government’s electronic eavesdropping centre, has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act after the Observer published an article based on a leaked US intelligence memo.
The Observer reported last week that the US is intercepting telephone calls and emails of foreign delegates to the UN security council.
The front-page article was based on a memo written by a senior official at the National Security Agency (NSA), the US equivalent of GCHQ, which advised that the US wanted information on “policies”, “negotiating positions” and “alliances” of security council members. "*
ElvisL1ves’ link covers the bugs found at EU headquarters in mid March. The Guardian/Observer broke the story on UN surveillance by the NSA on March 2nd: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
Of course the Administration has denied the memo’s existence, but the story seems to have held up better than the one about Iraq’s Nigerian uranium connection.
-On preview, I see that London_Calling’s got a followup story which lends credibility.
I’m surprised this has taken so long to get to the boards. It was big thing in Europe, and English broadsheets covered it greatly. I can’t find the link at the moment, but American reporters wishing to write articles on it were discouraged from higher up; unfortunately, the NSA has generally been pretty successful at stopping newspapers from covering its operations.
For breaking news about American unethical monitoring of foreign governments and firms, stay up to date at Cryptome. It links to newspaper articles very quickly.
If we aren’t spyin on our friends, something wqould then be wrong.
Exactly my thoughts. I’d be almost insulted if Russia didn’t have spies in America. This has been the de facto state for the last centuries. Is anyone really surprised by this?
Well, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ would be my first reaction… Of course it’s common practice for nations to seek advantage over other nations. Problem here may come in two forms,
One: Is it okay to act in this way when it’s not a diplomatic matter as between two nations but (rather) concerning the UN Security Council and binding Resolutions, and,
Two: Is there any additional burden on the nation hosting the UN (to play more fairly)
…… I’d guess the general US reaction would be ‘Huh ?’ in both cases …. reflecting a different diplomatic style, perhaps.
AtoZCowboy said, “Kalhoun, I understand your perspective, but do you extend that to suggest that it is a “non-story”, and therefore, not worthy of coverage from US media?”
Not at all. I was simply saying that I’m not surprised. I didn’t hear much about it, and it sounds like the story has been somewhat squelched here in the U.S.
It amazes me that we have the nerve to get all pissed off when people spy on us, but we do it all the time. Evidently we get caught less.
Sure, if it is ok to practice espionage to protect the interest of your nation it doesn’t matter whether or not it is another single state or the United Nations.
**
We don’t make them pay their parking tickets, isn’t that enough?
I don’t get at all upset when other nations spy on us. I only get upset when we’re lazy with security or betrayed by our own people. I’m not even interested in punishing spies all that much, I’d rather exchange them for any of our spies who are captured. Except in the case of traitors, I want them to serve a long prison sentence.
The only spies I expect to see punished are traitors. Other than that, it doesn’t bother me. I suppose having some spies over here probably makes other world leaders less nervous about America.
Wasn’t there a news story a few years ago about a Russian who had managed to bug areas of the State Department? IIRC, we just told him to pack his bags and go home.
Apples and oranges. The issue here is not spying on another country, but spying on a diplomatic representation. THAT is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, IIRC.
I agree with the poster who stated that the US spying on the diplomatic representations at the UN is a special case. As the host country, the US should at the contrary have a duty to prevent spying to occur there, and at the very least not engage in doing it itself.
The USA spying on the EU commission in Brussels is another matter entirely.