Revelations of Edward Snowden: Geopolitics and Lessons to Draw (Part I & II)
Part I
As a rule the discussions related to what has been revealed by Edward Snowden about USglobal electronic surveillance boil down to violations of human rights and illegal interference into the private lives of millions in different parts of the world. If it were all about it, then the White House would not set so many store by the case and raise the issue of Snowden’s extradition to the top level of interstate discussions and even go as far as to cancel summits.
Barack Obama was scared enough to cancel his appearance at international forums, like it was in the case of the recent APEC summit, for instance.
The reason for the Washington’s concern is different: Snowden has revealed the extent of control exercised over countries and peoples, something that changes the very perception of the contemporary world and spurs the efforts of the humanity being «under test» to seek the ways to counter such nefarious activities…
Many believe that Edward Snowden has not revealed anything not known or guessed before, it’s the scale of snooping that strikes imagination making even professionals gasp. The main thing is that this time it’s not conspiracy conjectures or the stories concocted by marginals that hit the world radar screen, but rather legally effective genuine documents produced for everyone to get acquainted with.
There are many definitions for the term geopolitics all boiling down to the notion that it is a science related to the control over ground, sea and, nowadays, air and space. Today the list could be added by information and cyber space, which require quite a different type of control than the traditional domains.
As a geopolitical domain, the information space stands out for its duel quality of being an object and a subject at the same time. To great extent the domain is virtual, but it becomes quite a real subject when related to geographic coordinates.
In the XIX century – the first half of the XX century the scholars debated the relative importance of land (Halford Mackinder, the heartland theory) or sea power (Nicolas John Spykman, the conception of Rimland) for global leadership. The control over air and space started to be normally seen as crucial in the second half of the XX century. The XXI century started with the maxim defining the control over cyberspace as the key to world dominance.
The first lesson of paramount importance to be drawn as a result of Snowden’s revelations is the fact that the United States is involved in overt and covert global cyberspace surveillance to maintain its leadership and gain foreign policy advantages. It’s not only the collection of confidential information about the humanity on an unprecedented scale. The US is using cyberspace to acquire the capability to inflict serious material and military damage to a potential enemy and exert influence on other world actors.
Asked about the United States formally complaining it was a victim of cyber spying conducted by a number of states with China at the top of the list, Snowden replied quite reasonably that the United States practically hacked all messages. No matter the US propensity to differentiate things, in reality it is America that is actually spying on everyone without distinction.
Suffice it to remember that Internet, a cornerstone of contemporary cyberspace, was created and funded as ARPANET project by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is part of the US Defense Department structure. Allegedly the project was «let slide» and has gradually become what it is today.
There have always been doubts about its «sliding really freely», now it has become clear the generic umbilical cord between US security agencies and the new information space has always remained intact. Internet is the basis for World Wide Web, WWW and a lot of other communications systems.
US and UK intelligence services know how to break encryption codes that protect electronic messages and data related to banking accounts and medical records. The US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have got access to the most reliable data protection systems.
SSL is the most widely spread one, so it was paid special attention to. It was broken by specifically designed top secret Bullrun program. The similar British program is called Edgehill. 4G wireless technology was given priority. The NSA XKeyscore is a tool that collects «nearly everything a user does on the internet».
PRISM is a cornerstone of US global surveillance (formally launched in 2007); its existence was revealed by Snowden. The program went into full swing during the tenure of incumbent President. It was nobody else, but Barack Obama, the one who gives preference to «soft and smart power» technologies of political manipulation, who saw PRISM as a «magic crystal» to reveal all the secrets in the world.
A special structure to carry out the mission – the United States Cyber Command – was established upon President Obama’s order in 2009. General Keith B. Alexander, (the head of the National Security Agency – the most secret entity of US intelligence community) was appointed the Commander, U.S. Cyber Command.
In 2010 the United States was the first country to regard cyber space as another domain adding to land, sea and airspace. In 2011 Congress approved funds for Cybercom’s offensive technologies development. In August 2012 it was reported for the first time that the Pentagon took practical steps to introduce them online.
The National Security Agency secretly worked to acquire the capability to crack the most widely spread encryption codes used in Internet to protect various data: from electronic messages to financial transactions. It used diversified methods to achieve the goal: from establishing so called «back doors» and «black boxes» in popular programs to using supercomputers, secret court warrants and manipulating international procedures of encryption standards.
The agency spends annually over $250 million for SIGINT Enabling Project to actively engage US and foreign IT-companies either by clandestinely exerting influence on them or openly using their commercial products to adopt them for practical purposes.
The National Security Agency is capable of intercepting around 75% of Internet traffic going through the United States. The country is an international traffic hub; the amount of traffic by far exceeds what is recognized officially.
That’s the way the system functions: the NSA asks IT – companies to redirect to it the traffic flows with high probability of containing valuable intelligence data. The companies: Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple, PalTalk are to comply with the NSA requests according to the decisions handed down by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
According to Snowden, the NSA interests go far beyond the mission of countering «unfriendly penetration» or terrorism, something the White House officials constantly talk about to justify the activities. In reality they encompass the whole range of relevant information on key issues home and abroad.
In particular, this approach has been adopted by Americans recently to overcome the implications of world financial crisis at the expense of rivals and partners as well. Taking advantage of the fact it is closely acquainted with all ins and outs of world business situation, the US has managed to keep its economy afloat and redirect the process of its deindustrialization «at the right time at the right place» keeping one step ahead of others when it comes to making offers while competing.
Second lesson. The control over cyberspace is exercised in close alliance with the chosen countries of Anglo-Saxon world – Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In this case the interaction is much more extensive than with other partners, especially in the field of information exchange.
This informal alliance takes advantage of the fact that English is absolutely beyond competition as the international communications language, this advantage is used to reach geopolitical targets. At times the informal alliance is called Anglosphere. Some people believe this union, which is kept together by common interests in the communications domain, especially Internet, will lead the way for the rest of humanity in the twenty first century. (1)
Brushing up on the fascinating masterpiece of anti-utopian vision 1984 by George Orwell, this community of nations could be compared with Oceania. The coalition of Anglo-Saxon nations is based on the interoperability of their armed forces. The idea to develop close military cooperation belongs to generals Dwight Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery. The level of interoperability is even higher than in NATO. Cyberspace is recognized as another domain of combat operations.
According to Snowden, the states allied with the United States, like Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, have agreements with Washington on sharing the communications data. Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the most trusted nations for the United States.
Such large countries as Germany and France enjoy the third position in the list of trusted nations when it comes to SIGINT, probably the United States has less confidence in them and harbors no wish to share the gains.
The international reaction to the Snowden’s revelations made surface the special relationship between English speaking Anglo-Saxon countries. Great Britain, Canada and Australia are the main participants and beneficiaries of PRISM and other affiliated programs. These are the states where Snowden is most strongly condemned as a «traitor».
In London it went as far as a team of special services agents breaking into the Guardian office and senselessly destroying the equipment to take revenge for making public what Snowden had said. Before the raid the Guardian published his revelations about Great Britain and the United States snooping together during the G20 London summit in 2009.
Top level foreign politicians and officials had their messages intercepted and phone calls tapped during the event. The operation was carried out by Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency.
It also surfaced thatGreat Britain has a large surveillance station in the Middle East destined to intercept phone calls, electronic messages and Internet traffic. The UK intelligence agencies tap undersea fiber optic telecommunications cables going across the region. The information is shared with US partners. The program’s estimated cost is one billion pounds.
Notes:
(1) James C. Bennett, The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
Part II
Third lesson. Being a US ally is not a guarantee of a country’s information sovereignty being respected. The cyberspace control is not an end in itself. The real objective is carrying out the traditional strategic mission of gaining geopolitical dominance over large spaces. It would be naïve to expect that the US cyber interference overseas could be suspended as a result of some concessions or friendly persuasions.
The evidence adduced by Snowden proves that the United States closely monitors the European Union’s central structures as well as the communications of its closest allies among the EU member-states that stay beyond the Anglosphere. Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey are all under tight surveillance being non-European friends of the U.S…
The United States tapped the phone calls of 35 world leaders, mainly those who headed US-allied states. The fact is corroborated by the recent publications by the Guardian based on the evidence produced by Snowden. According to the newspaper reports, the National Security Agency asked White House, State Department and Pentagon officials to share contact information on foreign politicians.
In a NSA document, that saw light in September 2010, Europeans are defined as a location target. The European Union’s embassy in Washington and the New York-based EU United Nations mission were «transparent» for Americans from top to bottom as a result of the operation Perdido.
The phones were tapped, computers cracked, hard disks copied and inside office net communications intercepted. The interference was immune to all attempts to enhance protection systems and encompassed the European Union’s central servers in Brussels. (1 The EU central office in the Belgian capital was monitored by the US mission at NATO headquarters.
Perhaps this kind of special attention was especially insulting for Francois Hollande who has always made a point of being close to the U.S.A. – a rare case for a French leader. No go. As it happened, he and French state agencies have regularly been targets for US snooping efforts. This espionage operation was described in the NSA memo, as a «silent success in which SIGINT helped to shape U.S. foreign policy».
To vaunt its merits, the intelligence agency even quoted the American Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice about the work carried out on this occasion by the NSA. According to her, the information she received, «helped me to know ….. the truth… revealed their real position on sanctions … gave us an upper hand in the negotiations….» (2
The eavesdropping was not limited by those who were suspected of involvement in terrorist activities but also spread on prominent bankers and politicians. For instance, from December 10 2012 to January 8 2013 there were 70, 3 million recordings of French citizens’ telephone data were made by the NSA, text messages (SMS) were captured too. The NSA graph shows a peak of intercepts falls on December 24, 2012 (the Christmas eve) and January 7 2013.
The Snowden’s disclosures spurred additional inquiries by some states to add to the impressive picture of imposing surveillance by «big brother».
At first German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried hard to help the United States make the blown out scandal die down. In particular, the Chancellor assured that she was no longer under surveillance after starting to use «super reliable and super protected» German smartphone Secusmart, that is used by members of cabinet and other top officials.
According to the Spiegelinvestigation conducted jointly with the BND (the German Federal Intelligence Service) and BSI (the German Federal Office for Information Security), Angela Merkel has been under surveillance for many years.
Now it’s clear the National Security Agency has spied on Germany more intensely that previously believed. Internal NSA statistics indicate that the agency stores data from around half a billion communications connections in Germany each month. This data includes telephone calls, emails, mobile-phone text messages and chat transcripts.
The statistics, which Spiegel has also seen, show that data is collected from Germany on normal days for up to 20 million telephone calls and 10 million Internet data exchanges.
Last Christmas Eve, it collected data on around 13 million phone calls and about half as many online exchanges. On the busiest days, such as January 7 of this year, the information gathered spiked to nearly 60 million communication connections under surveillance. (3 The experts say the evidence obtained by Snowden shows Europeans are not US equal partners and do not enjoy full sovereignty in the US-led Empire. (4
Fourth lesson. China, India, Brazil, Mexico and other emerging world leaders are special targets. In this case the surveillance is even more imposing as these nations are viewed as game changers capable of exerting significant influence over world affairs.
The disclosed scale of US interference into their cyberspace has happened to be too large. For instance, upon getting the news on total surveillance President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff cancelled an official visit to the United States. She also demanded explanations from Ottawa, a part of Anglosphere, concerning the fact that Canadian spies targeted Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry.
A similar row in Mexico is getting hot too now. China and India have announced the implementation of large-scale countermeasures programs.
Fifth lesson. Russia is still a target of priority for US spying activities, no matter it has unilaterally abandoned the policy of global standoff against the United States. Unlike what is stated by US officials publicly, the National Security Agency secret documents define it as a partner of convenience and envisage taking the most extreme measures against it if need be.
Due to the reasons stipulated by geographic realities (Russia is a huge space), there is no ground for hopes the attitude will ever be changed.
The Russia’s U.S. offices and missions are under total surveillance – this fact is confirmed by the recent row over the snooping on Rossotrudnichestvo. Besides the Guardian obtained from Edward Snowden a map with the National Security Agency’s foreign infrastructure, including the widest reaching system developing intelligence from computer networks called XKeyscoreis. According to it, one of the largest servers is installed in the US Moscow embassy.
The G20 London summit is a vivid example of Anglosphere partners joining efforts against Russia. It was the first time then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met US President Barack Obama.
There was too much work to process all the acquired intelligence, so the paper entitled: «Russian Leadership Communications in support of President Dmitry Medvedev at the G20 summit in London – Intercept at Menwith Hill station» was drafted four months after the visit by Medvedev. Back then the NSA intercepted communications from Menwith Hill station, Yorkshire, used jointly by the US and the UK. The paper was sent only to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, that’s it.
On October 25 The Washington Post reported U.S. officials have notified foreign intelligence services of some states that Snowden took materials that shed light on their secret cooperation with the United States. If these documents are published, the newspaper writes, intelligence operations that along with the United States involve other countries, could be at risk.
As the Washington Post reports, the operations are suspended in case of allied states, but not the provisional partners of convenience like Russia.
In one case, for instance, the files contained information about a program run from a NATO country against Russia that provides valuable intelligence for the U.S. Air Force and Navy, said one U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. (5
Sixth lesson. The leading international organizations like the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and others are viewed by the United States as rivals in their aspiration to gain control over the world, they are seen as targets for surveillance efforts.
Striving for global dominance, Washington snoops on these international entities without looking back at international law or moral norms of diplomacy.
The National Security Agency has conducted total surveillance over everything happening in the United Nations headquarters providing an advantage for US diplomacy. The NSA operatives constantly work in the UN under the cover of diplomats getting reinforcements during the sessions of UN General Assembly.
The same thing applies to the International Atomic Energy Agency and other international bodies. There is one thing that makes the disclosures provided by Snowden even more delicate – the internal instructions say all US staffers of international bodies without exclusions (not the special services operatives only) are to collect and submit upon command all personal data on foreigners without making any distinction. (6
Michael Vincent Hayden is a former director of the National security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
In his CBS interview he pointed out,
«I’ve been out of government for about five years, so I really don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t confirm or deny it,» he said. «But I think I can confirm a few things for you here this morning. Number one, the United States does conduct espionage. Number two, our Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans’ privacy, is not an international treaty. And number three, any European who wants to go out and rend their garments with regard to international espionage should look first and find out what their governments are doing.» President Barack Obama went on to say something similar, «In European capitals there are people who are interested, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be, should I end up meeting with their leaders».
These statements are nothing more than ruses. No doubt Americans do their best in the interests of national security, something done by all intelligence services of the world since ancient times.
The matter is the United States is too fervent in its efforts having transgressed all imaginable limits. It has given birth to a monster that tries to have each and everything there is on the planet under its control. The quantity is converted into new menacing quality. The claims that the control exercised inside America is selective, while being ubiquitous overseas, looks at least like «bashful totalitarianism».
Seventh lesson. The cyberspace control exercised by the United States envisions not only the collection of information but also massive psycho-political operations of unparalleled scale aimed at acquisition of control over people’s behavior. It all leads to the conclusion: aside from the classic components of national might, any contemporary state that wants to be independent on international scene needs to have its own enhanced information space infrastructure and adequate means to protect it.
Dmitry MININ | Strategic Culture Foundation