What on earth! Have we always spied on other countries during peace time, or is this something new since obammy came to town?
The Germans are flying helicopters over our embassy in a “How do you like it?” response.
“What on earth! Have we always spied on other countries during peace time,”
I attended numerous classified briefings by the FBI in the ‘80’s. They showed convincing evidence that spying was taking place every day. We wanted to use regular PC’s. They took us to the top of our building and pointed an antenna at Hercules over a mile away. They tuned in on people who were working on the same proposal we were working. We could read every word they typed.
The French conduct the most thorough technology theft in the world. When the cold war ended they didn’t fire any spies. They turned them lose to spy on American industry to help French industry. (We don’t do that. Of that I’m certain.) A negotiator for Honeywell went to France and during the negotiation told the French company rep he wasn’t authorized to give them what they were asking for. The Frenchman said, “sure you are,” and showed him a copy of the Honeywell rep’s negotiating authorization which they apparently got from his locked briefcase in his hotel room while he was at dinner. He got up and left.
Yep, they all do it.
The US has always spied on other countries, and other countries have always spied on the US. There is nothing peculiar about any of that, and in many ways most spying takes place during peace time (when it is easier to do so than during times of overt conflagration). The spying extends to allies as well, with the Israelis spying on the US, the US on the Germans, the French on the Brits, and so on. Some of it is targeted (e.g. Ben-Ami Kadish and Jonathan Pollard spying on the US for Israel), some of it is business related (the French in particular), and most is just general stuff for anything that may be of interest and available.
The issue with Snowden is that it brought things that were well known in private to harsh public light and review. It is not that the Brazillians didn't know that the US was looking at their stuff. It is that the depth and breadth of it came out, and came out publicly. Officials couldn't just refuse to do anything.