Sin justificación espionaje a México. The Washington Post
El
diario norteamericano afirma que estas prácticas han perdido el sentido común
al no estar ligadas con la lucha antiterrorista
No parece existir una justificación válida para el espionaje a México y Brasil,
consideró el diario norteamericano The Washington Post.
En
su editorial, el rotativo destacó que Estados Unidos necesita ajustar sus
actividades de espionaje hacia aliados como los países ya mencionados, para
evitar una innecesaria alineación en sus relaciones bilaterales.
El
Post critica a la administración de Barack Obama al señalar que ha perdido el
sentido común al conducir acciones sin nexo a la lucha antiterrorista.
Estados
Unidos ha defendido sus acciones insistiendo que sus actividades no son ajenas
al espionaje que conducen otros países, explicación que el Post consideró
"está teñida con cinismo".
Aunque
Obama ha indicado que las prácticas de espionaje necesitan ser ajustadas e
incluso prometió a Peña Nieto una investigación sobre las actividades de
espionaje a su país, el Post estimó que el gobierno requiere hacer más a partir
de los incidentes con México y Brasil.
"Seguramente
la revisión (de estas prácticas) que tiene lugar no conducirá al final de las
actividades de espionaje externo y no debería, pero se necesitan mejores
controles políticos junto con una inyección de sentido común", precisó el
rotativo.
Este es el editorial en inglés/
Associated Press Writer Adam Goldman contributed to this report.
Why
spy on friends? A Q&A explaining why NSA might listen in on a foreign
leader’s calls
By
Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, October 24
WASHINGTON
— German Chancellor Angela Merkel complained to President Barack Obama in a
phone call this week after receiving information that her cellphone may have
been monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies. The White House said the U.S.
isn’t monitoring and won’t monitor Merkel’s communications — but didn’t address
what might have happened in the past.
A
look at some of the questions swirling around overseas surveillance by the
National Security Agency, which has angered allies on two continents and caused
concern domestically over the scope of the intelligence-gathering.
Q:
The NSA spy programs that former analyst Edward Snowden revealed were focused
on finding and stopping terrorists, but what other kinds of NSA espionage has
he revealed?
A:
Snowden also revealed the other types of spying the agency is authorized to do,
such as allegedly intercepting foreign diplomats’ or leaders’ communications,
like the alleged eavesdropping on Merkel, as well as on Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff and Mexican former president Felipe Calderon. Other revelations
included charts that described how the U.S. supposedly listens in on European
Union and United Nations missions, and also spies on citizens in Hong Kong and
China.
Snowden’s
cascade of leaks initially concentrated on how the agency scoops up millions of
U.S. phone records and Internet. That is authorized by the 1978 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows a secret court to authorize U.S.
electronic surveillance of people engaged in espionage or international
terrorism against the U.S. on behalf of a foreign power.
___
Q:
Why bug the phone of an ally?
A:
Even a close ally like Merkel doesn’t share everything with the Americans, but
decisions she makes can have a major impact on U.S. foreign, defense and
economic policy overseas. Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic party just
won an election, and she is in the process of wooing other German political
parties to form a coalition government. The party she chooses could pull her
political policies in a different direction, in terms of counterterrorism
cooperation with the U.S., for instance, or perhaps the new coalition might
chill Merkel’s support of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
___
Q:
The Patriot Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, gives the NSA
authority to sweep up phone records and internet communication data. Under what
authority could the NSA spy on a world leader’s cellphone? Merkel’s country has
no official involvement in terror, but drives European economic policy. Is the
U.S. permitted to spy for many reasons?
A:
The NSA’s particular marching orders under “Executive Order 12333--United
States intelligence activities” include gathering signals intelligence and
turning it into something other agencies like the Pentagon and the CIA can use.
NSA officers collect that data by any number of means — satellite, spy plane
flights or drones all outfitted with still, video and/or infrared cameras, or
by placing a microphone in the walls of a foreign embassy, or by using computer
technology to hack into a foreign computer terminal, or intercept billions of
bites of code as it flows on fiber optic and other cables around the world.
The
data an NSA analyst handles can be as varied as the way it’s collected. A
cryptographer might have to crack the code on an encrypted message, or a
language specialist might have to translate a rare dialect.
___
Q:
Why would the U.S. want to spy on economic policy?
A:
NSA is also tasked with finding out the kind of policy information that might
help U.S. diplomats and trade representatives negotiate future deals, and also
what kind of policy changes might be ahead with a major economic heavyweight
like Germany.
___
Q:
Do other countries spy like this on the United States?
A:
They do, but most don’t have the U.S. technology or financial resources — $10.8
billion for fiscal 2013, according to a budget document Snowden leaked. The NSA
is rivaled only by Britain’s code-breaking Government Communications
Headquarters or GCHQ, an agency the U.S. works with closely, according to the
Snowden documents. U.S. ally Israel is considered one of the top
counterintelligence threats. U.S. spies and diplomats who work in Israel expect
to have phone calls intercepted, and their intelligence work disrupted. Israeli
security services are even suspected of breaking into the homes of the
successive CIA station chiefs and tampering with sensitive equipment.
___
Associated
Press Writer Adam Goldman contributed to this report.
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2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
