Revelations this week that
the US may have monitored the phone calls of up to 35 world leaders have been
making significant diplomatic waves in American relations with several powerful
countries, and prove that the Edward Snowden saga is far from over. This week
the German newspaper Der Spiegel published a damning article outlining the
evidence for, extent of, and political effects of the NSA’s alleged
surveillance program run out of the US embassy in Berlin, with targets including
the cell phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel herself since 2002. Outrage is
mounting in allies as far afield as Mexico, France, and Germany as citizens
question an already unpopular superpower’s intentions.
While surveillance centers
operating from within embassies technically enjoy diplomatic immunity for their
actions, when they get caught as they have now the backlash is swift and harsh.
The United States is already viewed throughout the world as a self-centered
bully, willing to push its policies on supposed friends and pressure countries
into taking actions they would not normally. The current scandal only serves to
augment the image of the US as an irresponsible, overbearing hegemon. That an
intelligence agency would secretly listen in on the phone calls of not only the
citizens of our allies but their leaders themselves is politically unethical
and extremely damaging. Today reports are surfacing that President Obama himself was told of the surveillance of Chancellor Merkel in 2010 and has repeatedly re-approved the program, further damaging US-German relations although he denies the allegations.
