Big Brother Is Watching

U.S. surveillance program causes embarrassment and worldwide debate

 

SUPPORTING SNOWDEN: People march in a demonstration supporting U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong on June 15 (CFP)

By Yu Lintao

"Big brother is watching you"—the phrase made famous in British author George Orwell's political satire Nineteen Eighty-Four—has suddenly taken on fresh relevance following revelations of a massive surveillance network stemming from the world's biggest superpower.

It would have seemed unbelievable if it were not for the former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden, who revealed to the press the highly classified program of U.S. intelligence agencies, codenamed PRISM. Under the program, the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been secretly tapping directly into the central servers of nine U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person's movements and contacts over time.

Observers claim that the program, due to its scope, capabilities and implications, marks the bleakest moment yet in the history of the Internet. It makes not only U.S. citizens but almost all worldwide users of these Internet services potential targets of NSA surveillance. According to the young former NSA agent, there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland covering public officials, businesses and universities.

Coincidentally, an article on the website of the U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine disclosed that a number of confidential sources have indicated that a highly secretive unit of the NSA, called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, has been successfully penetrating Chinese computer and telecommunications systems for almost 15 years, generating some of the best and most reliable intelligence information about China.

The matrix

The U.S. Government is now in an awkward position. General Keith Alexander, chief of the NSA, previously denied any surveillance of the U.S. public in a congressional hearing. During his first visit to China in 2009, President Barack Obama spoke eloquently in his speech about Internet freedom at a meeting with students of the Fudan University in Shanghai. Moreover, in a statement following Google's dramatic withdrawal from China, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged U.S. media companies to play a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance. Now, with the extent of this secret program laid bare, their past words appear feeble and false.

Xu Peixi, an associate professor with the Communication University of China, remarked that when American politicians and businessmen make accusatory remarks, their eyes are firmly fixed on foreign countries as they turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds.

Google officials attributed the American Internet giant's withdrawal from China to state "surveillance" by the Chinese Government. By the same logic, one would expect the company to take responsibility for leaking data and information to the NSA and withdraw from the U.S. market, said Xu.

In the past several months, Washington has incessantly accused Beijing of cyber attacks targeting the United States. Some U.S. politicians even claimed the cyber security issue is at the center of the Sino-U.S. relationship and appealed to Obama to press China to halt so-called "cyber theft" during the latest bilateral summit in early June.

Facts prove that the United States itself is a major perpetrator of cyber attacks, said Teng Jianqun, Director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies. "For a long time, the United States has used the issue of cyber security to launch a campaign of anti-China propaganda. Washington owes Beijing an explanation for its own hacking activities," Teng said.

According to Teng, the NSA takes orders directly from the U.S. president. With at least 160,000 agents, the annual funding for the NSA tops $15 billion. It is reported that 90 percent of U.S. intelligence is gathered by the NSA.

"The leaks from Snowden show the NSA is the largest matrix for intelligence gathering of the United States, and even the largest worldwide," said Teng.

Snowden's revelations have touched off a backlash in the United States. Though some tolerate such surveillance for national security reasons, most people have expressed outrage. Some U.S. politicians have tried to douse the flames. Obama argued that one cannot have both 100 percent security and 100 percent personal privacy, saying that the two must be balanced.

However, the question is where to find that balance between security and privacy. And while the U.S. public may agree to such surveillance to protect national security, what about the privacy of foreigners?

Teng noted that it is the general practice of the United States to overemphasize its own security and rights while disregarding or criticizing other countries.

Li Yuxiao, a professor with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and an expert on social networking studies, said the United States claims to protect the free flow of information in its international cyber space strategy. Its long-term goal, however, is to serve the interests of the United States in controlling the cyber world.

In Li's opinion, the free flow of information must be based on the protection of the legal rights and privacy of individual Internet users.

Scapegoating China

In a TV news program on June 16, former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney denounced Snowden as a traitor, and said China would "probably be willing to provide immunity for [Snowden] or sanctuary for him in exchange for what he presumably knows or doesn't know," hinting that Snowden is a Chinese spy.

Teng said the PRISM program is a big scandal for the U.S. Government because privacy is a sensitive issue in the West. Cheney is no doubt trying to shift the focus, while warning China not to contact Snowden for intelligence, he added.

China's Foreign Ministry rejected spy claims against Snowden. The latter also denied that he has any links with China. In a live Q&A with Guardian readers from a secret location in Hong Kong, Snowden said the accusations from American politicians are a "predictable smear" designed to "distract from the issue of U.S. Government misconduct."

"If I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing?" said the whistleblower.

Snowden said it is the highest honor as an American to be called a traitor by Cheney, who he said helped engineer the warrantless wiretapping program during the run-up to the Iraq War, which has killed over 4,400 Americans as well as more than 100,000 Iraqis. Snowden added that he fled the country because he doubts that he will be given a fair trial at home.

From what Snowden has revealed, the United States holds an absolute advantage in "cyber warfare" and can launch cyber attacks worldwide at any time. Meanwhile, it poses as a victim of cyber attacks and accuses other countries, including China, of the same misdeeds it has been shown to inflict upon its own citizens.

Observers believe that by pressing Beijing, Washington is trying to set rules for other countries in the cyber security domain that would guarantee the dominance of the United States in cyber space.

"The development of the Internet should be an issue concerning everyone. It is not reasonable for a country to set rules for the whole world for its own benefit, nor is it fair to engage in universal monitoring," Li said.