After the running drama from Wikileaks revelations came the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who set the stage for international disputes regarding privacy violations, data sharing, and state sovereignty after his revelation of PRISM, the U.S. surveillance program. However, when a report revealed that the NSA had bugged Angela Merkel's phone (amongst others), the gravity of the situation took a drastic turn.
Various national newspapers, such as the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, had warned leaders about the NSA tracking millions of phone calls in Spain, Germany, and France, citing a document with information obtained from Snowden. According to the report, German Chancellor Merkel's phone had been bugged since 2002, and there was a "not legally registered spying branch" in the U.S. embassy in Berlin, through which the NSA and CIA collected their information.
However, this news concerns not only Germany, but rather the world as a whole. In fact, various countries, such as China, had previously expressed their concern regarding U.S. spying programs at the recent APEC Summit in Bali, Indonesia earlier this month.
It was also revealed that the NSA encourages high-profile functionaries of the Obama Administration, including the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon, to share their agendas so that the agency can monitor the telephone numbers of foreign leaders. The document explains how one of these functionaries, who is not identified, turned over more than 200 numbers, including the contacts of 35 world leaders.
On Monday, EU leaders met in Brussels to discuss urgent themes such as the economy, the creation of a banking union, and the pressing issue of immigration following the Lampedusa tragedy, but all of these issues fell to the backburner after the NSA scandal. Ironically, this must have been the first time that the economic situation of Europe was not discussed at such a high level meeting in recent years.
Leaders at the summit left their diplomatic terminology at home and plainly expressed their outrage for the situation while coordinating a response and possible measures to be taken. Although the group was divided between those who are keen on answering with a firm stance and those who want to respond with a more moderate tone, safeguarding the relation with the U.S. above all else, it has been a while since the world has seen the members of the EU display such a united front.
So far, the European Parliament has asked for a cancellation of the treaty on transferring bank data to the U.S., an important issue for Washington that allows the U.S. to monitor terrorism-related activity. The European Commission is also studying the possibility of suspending the "safe harbor" deal, which allows 3000 U.S. companies to access data in the EU.
Amidst all this chaos, the only one who seems to have wavered very little is Obama. The U.S. President has denied spying or ever having spied on Merkel and that, had he been aware of the situation, he would have stopped it.
While the European Union decides what response it deems appropriate, U.S. ambassadors are being summoned by various Heads of State for further explanations, and even U.S. citizens have taken to the streets in Washington, DC to protest. One thing is for sure—if Obama does not give Europe the explanations it wants, it will lead to severe consequences in EU-U.S. relations.
Video by Al Jazeera.
a global affairs media network
Video Wednesday: NSA Scandal Raises Transatlantic Tensions
October 30, 2013
After the running drama from Wikileaks revelations came the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who set the stage for international disputes regarding privacy violations, data sharing, and state sovereignty after his revelation of PRISM, the U.S. surveillance program. However, when a report revealed that the NSA had bugged Angela Merkel's phone (amongst others), the gravity of the situation took a drastic turn.
Various national newspapers, such as the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, had warned leaders about the NSA tracking millions of phone calls in Spain, Germany, and France, citing a document with information obtained from Snowden. According to the report, German Chancellor Merkel's phone had been bugged since 2002, and there was a "not legally registered spying branch" in the U.S. embassy in Berlin, through which the NSA and CIA collected their information.
However, this news concerns not only Germany, but rather the world as a whole. In fact, various countries, such as China, had previously expressed their concern regarding U.S. spying programs at the recent APEC Summit in Bali, Indonesia earlier this month.
It was also revealed that the NSA encourages high-profile functionaries of the Obama Administration, including the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon, to share their agendas so that the agency can monitor the telephone numbers of foreign leaders. The document explains how one of these functionaries, who is not identified, turned over more than 200 numbers, including the contacts of 35 world leaders.
On Monday, EU leaders met in Brussels to discuss urgent themes such as the economy, the creation of a banking union, and the pressing issue of immigration following the Lampedusa tragedy, but all of these issues fell to the backburner after the NSA scandal. Ironically, this must have been the first time that the economic situation of Europe was not discussed at such a high level meeting in recent years.
Leaders at the summit left their diplomatic terminology at home and plainly expressed their outrage for the situation while coordinating a response and possible measures to be taken. Although the group was divided between those who are keen on answering with a firm stance and those who want to respond with a more moderate tone, safeguarding the relation with the U.S. above all else, it has been a while since the world has seen the members of the EU display such a united front.
So far, the European Parliament has asked for a cancellation of the treaty on transferring bank data to the U.S., an important issue for Washington that allows the U.S. to monitor terrorism-related activity. The European Commission is also studying the possibility of suspending the "safe harbor" deal, which allows 3000 U.S. companies to access data in the EU.
Amidst all this chaos, the only one who seems to have wavered very little is Obama. The U.S. President has denied spying or ever having spied on Merkel and that, had he been aware of the situation, he would have stopped it.
While the European Union decides what response it deems appropriate, U.S. ambassadors are being summoned by various Heads of State for further explanations, and even U.S. citizens have taken to the streets in Washington, DC to protest. One thing is for sure—if Obama does not give Europe the explanations it wants, it will lead to severe consequences in EU-U.S. relations.
Video by Al Jazeera.
