MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - The United States is losing the moral high ground in the wake of revelations that the country was spying on millions of its citizens, as well as other countries, including high-ranking politicians and members of business community, said Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent and a whistleblower, in an exclusive interview with Radio VR. “[The US] is certainly losing trust, moral high ground and a lot in the diplomacy.”
Moreover, mass surveillance is damaging US credibility and hurting business. For instance, local IT companies suffered economic blow as a result of numerous spying scandals, she pointed out. “The United States is doing something that to me seems counterproductive because its own internet communication companies are losing business this way.”
Nevertheless, the US still engages in multi-billion mass surveillance that Rowley described as “aggressive offensive spying” reminiscent of the cold war era. She stated that the trend is reinforced by the ongoing “hot wars”, like the one in Ukraine.
Moreover, the US doesn’t want to publicly apologize for the controversial conduct. The former FBI agent, who was named TIME “Person of the Year” along with two other whistleblowers in 2002, explained that country supporting internet freedom around the world cannot be engaged in mass surveillance at the same time. “If they advocate publicly for [internet freedom], they then have hard time apologizing for violating what they are advocating. And exposing this hypocrisy is key.”
“We need a lot more transparency that can only be achieved through public pressure,” she said.
Dinah PoKempner, general counsel at Human Rights Watch, shares that sentiment. “I’m afraid if we leave governance only in the hands of states we are going to have that perverse incentive toward espionage and lack of accountability in surveillance,” she told Radio VR.
PoKempner maintains that surveillance is sometimes necessary. “There are legitimate state interests in national security, public order, and crime suppression that make surveillance warranted.” According to her, it has to be strictly necessary and proportionate. “It can’t be more than is required,” she said. For instance, gaining economic advantage or avoiding diplomatic embarrassment, however desirable they might be, cannot be used as real national security justifications to spy on another country.
Commenting on the recent spying scandal involving the US and Germany, Rowley explained why the row failed to spark controversy in the United States. “Germany is sensitive to [spying] because they have experienced not one but two totalitarian governments. Therefore, they have much better appreciation of what the right to privacy should be and how it should translate into democracy. And the United States [since 9/11] has been carried away with national security trumping various freedoms that are ingrained in the Constitution.”
The whistleblower also asserted that Germany could use the scandal to its advantage. The country reportedly wants to join the Five Eyes intelligence alliance comprising the US, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Berlin could use the recent spy row as a pretext to “pressure US to be led in the club.” Rowley believes that could indeed happen.
Germany set to monitor US and UK secret service agents operating in the country for the first time since the end of WWII, Reuters reported July 24 citing unnamed government sources. The decision allegedly endorsed by Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen as a direct response to a series of spy scandals that tarnished Berlin’s ties with London and Washington.
