Has there been any conspiracy behind Snowden`s leaks and is there specific timing behind his moves? To find out more we are joined live on the phone now by Jim Killock, a British political activist and Executive Director of the Open Rights Group.
Are these leaks being timed to some major political events such as the G20 summit?
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I really have no idea whether it’s been politically timed. Obviously it is very damaging because everyone will be in these events thinking exactly what are they were being spied on, what they were being monitored by British government and of course that will make people very nervous and much more distrustful. That said I don’t think it is a secret that this kind of behavior is taking place by a number of governments, it is probably more of a shock in a way to see it out in the open and precisely what is going on and for it to have public discussion of it. And I think it does deserve public discussion whether the states should be this distrustful of each other, whether spying on diplomats is actually an acceptable practice.
What affect do you think the disclosure of such information will have on Britain’s foreign relations?
I think it must be damaging, I don’t think it will be a surprise to governments that this goes on, however, seeing it act in an open and seeing the attempts and precisely what has been attempted on a very high level officials is going to be very aggravating. So, that must be damaging.
What is more appalling to you personally in this situation – the spying tactics of the UK intelligence or the fact that they were unable to keep their operations secret?
I think there are a couple of things. One is some of the tactics that the security forces have engaged in may well have got wider than just diplomats concern by using bugging internet cafes and so on. There may well be other people’s information incepted which may break the law and we need to see no more of that. But I think the really shocking thing here is that governments are mistrustful of each other and they can’t operate openly and they are prepared to do very devious things to get information to each other. In previous times when people have discussed this kind of interception is acceptable, governments have generally agreed that it isn’t acceptable.
Should we expect more scandalous leaks from Snowden?
I hope so. I think the good thing about this, the really good thing about this is that we are seeing proper debate about where the line should be drawn and while governments are unlikely to make arguments, they shouldn’t be relying on spying on each other particularly when it is about national interest information. The general surveillance of the population which Snowden has revealed and also practices of secret calls and secret mandates to obtain information, that is very disturbing because it could be very general kind of surveillance. If you protest against the United States, foreign aggression perhaps, you could well be surveillance on laws and Snowden has opened this discussion and that can only be a good thing.
Do you think the scandal will affect the upcoming G8 summit?
Yes, I think it will affect. It is going to affect everyone, the atmosphere of this event, but also there will be discussions on whether it is reasonable for foreign economies to be placing their data in American service, which are then being used for surveillance purposes. That is a direct economic impact, it is all about our privacy and our ability to trust those companies when we are doing business with them online and if we can’t trust an American government and American companies in the fastest growing sector of the economy, then that can be very bad news for jobs in the economy and growth.
American and British special services try to tap Medvedev’s phone
American and British special services spied on Dmitry Medvedev during the G20 summit in 2009 when he visited London. This was revealed by former CIA and NSA agent Edward Snowden.
In 2009, the special services of the US and Britain spied on the G20 participants in London. For example, they tried to pick up signal from a satellite phone used by the then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. They also spied on other participants displaying their talents. For one, they opened a special Internet café where all computers were loaded with spying programmes. With the assistance of these programmes agents of the NSA and their British colleagues got access to the correspondence and passwords of the participants. Despite the fact that this is scandalous information, there is no surprise in the move. Commenting on the situation, veteran of Foreign Intelligence Service Lev Korolkov has this to say.
“This is common practice of all special services in the world that need to know the secrets of their counter-agents. It does not matter who they are, partners, opponents or some others. Consequently, any state that has strong special services is trying to get these kinds of secrets, the possession of which helps develop its own foreign policy,” Korolkov said.
The Guardian reported that American agents tried to tap Dmitry Medvedev’s phone ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. However, experts say that the report will hardly affect the agenda of Vladimir Putin’s talks with Barack Obama which will be held on the sidelines of the summit. This episode will have no impact on Russian-American relations as a whole, says expert in Americanology Alexei Pilko.
“This will hardly affect Russian-American relations because this is not a significant episode. Consequently, I believe that it will have no serious impact on bilateral relations. I think, if Putin and Obama make a mention of the incident, it will be limited to a few words. They have very important issues ending with the Syrian crisis. And they will hardly spend time on phone tapping,” Alexei Pilko said.
Former CIA and NSA agent Edward Snowden leaked information about phone tapping. Last week, he revealed that both CIA and NSA are spying on American citizens. This concerns tapping phones and activities on social networks and getting access to e-mails. Snowden also said that one can monitor any US citizen, including the President using his computer. However, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough dismissed this information.
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