Abstract

In the surge of violations of international law, the USA has been under the realm of abstruse introspection due to its unhinged efforts to destabilize the allied states' cyber networks. This abstract objectifies the maligned activities of the USA to possess control and command over its allies regardless of international standards of sovereignty and integrity. These practices abjure the trust and confidence building among nations, eroding their diplomatic, economic, and military relations. This research emphasizes the importance of historical events leading to the construction of the USA's robust and scrutinized policies regarding national and international security. Moreover, addressing international law, this paper emancipated the need for action against such violations. However, it also entails the policies and rules to regulate surveillance intelligence practices among alliances in order to ensure trust and retain diplomatic relations.

Key Words

Espionage, Trust Deficit, Ethics, USA Allies, Freedom Act, Patriot Act, Five Eyes, Edward Snowden

Introduction

It was disclosed by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor that the United States is monitoring the communication of other states, taping the conversation of over 35 world leaders, and collecting data of internet users all over the world.  However, the point is that the data is gathered not only from the threatening states but also from the US allies, the United Nations, and the friendly states. The president of the USA, Barack Obama claimed that he didn't order the NSA to listen to 35 world leaders. The White House claimed that the NSA was not engaged in any further spying on the US allies' leaders and it has been discontinued but many state leaders especially allies states questioned the intelligence unethical practice that badly affected the relationship of trust.  Doubts have intensified as mounting revelations suggest discrepancies between US government rhetoric and practice, particularly if NSA efforts to crack codes and install back doors for spying have damaged security and confidence in cyberspace (Farrell & Finnemore, 2013).

Harsh reactions, different debates, and discussions forced the USA to review its NSA intelligence activities and introduce reforms in the form of the Freedom Act. National Security Agency was exercising great power after the 9/11 incident granted by Congress as well as the Bush and Obama administrations. After the revelation of Edward Snowden, the legality of the National Security Agency program was challenged in courts, and different reviews were made. Obama administration changed the agency practice lines with lawmaker-defined parameters, which tried to keep the activities of the National Security Agency within the boundaries of the USA law, national interests, and values. But ironically reforms are still not able to make these types of intelligence gathering unlawful, it is only restructuring the National Security Agency for greater transparency, limiting the storage of government data and political approval will be required for all controversial operations. It is creating balance in protecting national security and will also respect civil liberties. All processes will require the interaction of diplomatic relations and intelligence operations. In January 2018, Donald Trump again signed into law a bill that renewed NSA warrantless internet surveillance activities and programs (Volz, 2018).

This paper will examine the ramifications of the National Security Agency spying on US allies; and will deal with the controversial issues of trust and security cooperation among the USA and its allies. It will examine why the USA committed these types of spying acts when it started, and how it worked. After Edward Snowden, which type of reaction has been observed by the allies' leaders, what important steps have been taken by the USA to rebuild the trust of allies? It deals with the important question that these spying acts are according to ethics, if yes then why USA feel the need to change it and fail to justify its own position? And if it is not ethical, then how allies are able to trust the USA policies related to sensitive issues like security and threats? The hypothesis of the study is that trust deficit is the ultimate reason for USA communication warfare over its alliances. Alliance politics has been brought under threat by the USA itself because USA uni-polarity and hegemony are also under threat because of other great powers such as China in the same realm.




Theoretical Framework

For a better understanding of USA surveillance activities on its own allies, two theoretical concepts can be adopted; one is the ethical approach and the second is the trust deficit theory.




Ethical Approach

There are a lot of definitions of ethics that present different views.  Geoffrey Harpham calls it "the site of a desire for a clean conscience" (Harpham, 2000). In other conceptions, ethics has the more practical goal of "systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior" (Singer, 2024).

There are different branches of ethical theories, but the most important and relevant for spying is concerned with normative ethics. It is dealing with the wrong and right conduct of life. The normative school of thought has three primary schools of thought: virtual ethics, deontological ethics, and consequentiality ethics. Virtue ethicists, such as Aristotle, maintain that it is less important to learn rules of behavior than to foster good habits of character, such as benevolence, fortitude, and sincerity (Anon, 2022). If one wants to develop these good acts then consistently perform these acts to become character habits.  A second theory of normative ethics is consequentialism, which maintains that acts should be judged exclusively by their consequences. Jeremy Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism falls within this category. Deontological ethics place special emphasis on the relationship between duty and the morality of human actions (Eldridge, 2024) As the role of intelligence is increasing, it has been linked with different ethical issues especially when states deal with other states. 

The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America didn't emphasize the ethical obligation for the professional working of intelligence. Under the leadership of the Director of National Intelligence, ethics and ethical words were never mentioned. All the documents only focus on revamping the nation's intelligence methods, mindset, and leadership to make the intelligence business a truly national endeavor (Hudson, 2010). The objective of the intelligence was really admirable, but it failed to provide proper guidelines of ethical practice to their intelligence officers. In 2005 some goals were identified by the intelligence, and in 2009 strategy was revised to introduce some ethical goals. It affirms that the Intelligence Community must "exemplify America's values" by "operating under the rule of law, consistent with Americans' expectations for protection of privacy and civil liberties, respectful of human rights, and in a manner that retains the trust of the American people" (Hudson, 2010). Practically it didn't work, because the document didn't mention any policy of USA ethics or values. Edward Snowden revealed that the USA didn't practice any ethics for the spying of its own citizens. 

The USA spied on its own ally's state leaders and their citizens can't be considered according to the normative ethics. It has been mentioned by the US administration that allies trust matters a lot, and the USA will never commit any spying on its allies. However, Edward Snowden proved that the NSA engaged in these types of unethical spying on its ally states. 

A century ago, the Black Chamber was founded after World War I by the United States, long before the existence of the NSA– known as the Cipher Bureau and created to crack the codes of foreign governments. But officially it closed in 1929, a decision Secretary of State Henry Stimson later justified with the quaint declaration: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail" (Crowley, 2013). Regan's administration concentrated on the relationship between the USA and its allies, as stated that Washington and its allies must decide whether to focus on repairing trust or recognizing the need to, in the words of US President Ronald Reagan, 'trust but verify'.  There is a lot of contradiction between the words and actions of the US government related to the spying of allies. Trust matters a lot in the allies' case. The USA breached the trust of its allies when Edward Snowden revealed the surveillance of allies' leaders and citizens.




Trust Deficit

The acceptance of vulnerability to the development of a trusting relationship among states is recognized by trust. James Notter stated, "If states risk and not being exploited, it builds confidence in the trustworthiness of others" (Wrighton, 2022). Trust is a firm belief in reliability, ability, and truth, a belief built up over time through repetitive positive interaction. It is always based on personal experiences. There are four basic drivers that can lead trust into mistrust criteria, security dilemma, the challenge of peaceful/defensive self-image, ambiguous symbolism, and ideological fundamentalism. USA spying activities on its allies revealed by NSA contractors not only directly challenged the USA's self-image in the eyes of its allies but also created a trust deficit situation. Some scholars argue that broken trust can't be repaired, but some optimists come up with indicators to rebuild trust. However, allies cannot rebuild their trust straightforwardly. The USA tried to rebuild the trust by dealing with surveillance issues in relationships with its allies and also ensured that in the future these activities would not be conducted. 

Figure 1



In the Obama era, the US government was willing to reconcile with its allies comes with a lot of justification as well as a proposal for trust restoration. However, the Trump administration's decision to reauthorize the NSA spying program again raised a question of the trust relationship of the USA with its allies.




Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is a former employee of the CIA, and also a former contractor of the US government. He is a computer professional; he presumably copied the classified information of the US National Security Agency and UK (GCHQ) Government Communication Headquarters and disclosed it publically in 2013 without the permission of the authority. The information disclosed by him revealed several USA global surveillance programs & the working of Five Eye. "Five Eye" engaged in the spying acts with the cooperation of Telecommunication companies. USA Department of Justice put charges against Snowden for violating the Espionage Act and also stole of the USA government property papers. But didn't claim that the document that had been presented by them was not valid. He got asylum in Russia. The surveillance disclosure by Edward Snowden to the media just created a lot of tension in the relationship of the USA with the European Union states as well as with its allies. Some allies really reacted in a harsh manner; many statements have been given by them. It raised a lot of questions about the trusty relationship between the USA and its allies. 

There is no exact idea of the document that was stolen by Edward but Australia estimated that 15000 Australian intelligence files and UK officials estimated 58000 British Intelligence files have been disclosed by him (Anon, 2013). NSA Director Keith Alexander initially estimated that Snowden had copied anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents (Hosenball, 2013). In July 2014, The Washington Post reported on a cache previously provided by Snowden from domestic NSA operations consisting of "roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts."(Gellman, Tate, and Soltan 2014) In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures."(Capra 2014) When retired NSA director Keith Alexander was asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, Alexander answered, "I don't think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don't have an accurate way of counting. What we do have an accurate way of counting is what he touched, what he may have downloaded, and that was more than a million documents."(Joye 2014)

But Snowden claimed that he checked all the documents carefully and thoroughly before they were turned over to journalists. He stated, "I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over" (Greenwald, MacAskill, & Poitras 2013). U.S. Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers stated in June 2014, that some terrorist groups had altered their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Snowden, the damage done was not significant enough to conclude that "the sky is falling" (Sanger, 2014). But in February 2015, Rogers said that Snowden's disclosures had a "material impact" on the NSA's ability to "generate insights as to what counterterrorism, what terrorist groups around the world are doing" (Cooper, 2015). In April 2015 the Henry Jackson Society, a British neoconservative think tank, published a report claiming that Snowden's intelligence leaks negatively impacted Britain's ability to fight terrorism and organized crime (Haynes, 2015).

Nevertheless, Snowden declared that NSA activities are just against the liberty of human rights, violating the basic principles of ethics. He just revealed that NSA spying is unethical, trust deficit in its allies and not just, it is a violation of human rights. He revealed how Five Eye and the NSA are surveillance to get the required information. Edward lives in Russia with his wife and is very afraid that President Vladimir Putin might hand him over to Donald Trump as a gift to start a good strategic relationship between the USA and Russia (MacAskill & Topham, 2019).




Five Eyes

Five Eyes also known as FVEY, represents an intelligence alliance of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is a multilateral agreement among them, cooperating with each other for signals intelligence. It started its work during the Cold War era. ECHELON program was initially introduced by them. It was a surveillance system that monitored communications between the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. But now it is revealed that this service is used by them to monitor citizens' and leaders' communication all over the world. In 1990, the disclosure of ECHELON publically started a new debate in European states. But after the 9/11 accident, the war against terror started, just expanding the surveillance capabilities of FVEY. Now it is monitored all over the world with the help of the World Wide Web (www). 

Edward disclosed that Five Eyes Intelligence is considered a supra-national institute because it is not answerable to any law of any state. It revealed that it is engaged in the spying of the citizens and leaders of other states and these are sharing with each other and using for their own means. Several programs have been operated by the Five Eyes for surveillance, some reported in the media as:

PRISM: With the help of this program, the USA collected the internet communication of its own nine major internet companies. It was launched in 2007 and jointly operated by GCHQ and ASD. Many USA telecommunication companies found engaged in cooperating with PRISM including Yahoo, Skype, Facebook, Youtube, Apple, etc. However, it has been indicated by The Washington Post that 98% of documents all over the world user gathered from Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google by PRISM. 

STATEROOM: It is a very secretive intelligence program which is intercepting international radio, internet traffic, and telecommunications. It has been operated by all the members of the ECHELON. 

XKeyscore: It is also a secret program, it is a computer-based system first used by the NSA. USA agencies were searching global internet data. And it is collected on a daily basis. Later on, it was shared with New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, the German Bundesnachrichtendienst, and the Australian Signals Directorate.

Tempora: Tempora is the name of the clandestine computer system. It is initially operated by GCHQ, and the main motive of this program is to spy on internet communication, which is normally extracted from fiber-optic cables. Fiber-optic cable provides access to a large number of internet users, and getting its personal data. It was also exposed by Edward Snowden, and GCHQ is sharing collected data with the NSA. 




Huawei and Five Eye

Huawei is a Chinese consumer electric company facing a lot of criticism from the USA regarding intellectual property and cyber-security and is alleged to contain backdoor enables surveillance by Chinese government. There have been calls from US entities to prevent the use of Huawei or other fellow China companies in relation to 5G wireless technologies by the USA and its allies. The USA signed a national defense spending bill in August 2018 to ban the government from purchasing Chinese Huawei. (Macias, 2018)Huawei argued that there is no evidence of USA espionage claims, even in the UK Huawei is working with GCHQ and ensures its products are safe and secure. 

Rob Joyce, an NCA senior official stated that the Five-Eyed group would not technology from states which posed a threat to critical national infrastructure. He also claimed that we are not going to the USA to have Huawei in our sensitive networks (Holton, 2019).

National Security Agency (NSA)

It is the intelligence organization of the USA and is created for foreign intelligence purposes. It is responsible for getting the data and information of the other citizens and leaders of the other states for monitoring. These collected data have been used for counterintelligence purposes. A discipline has been used commonly known as signals Intelligence. NSA provides two types of services to the government; firstly, it secures the communication of the US government office and provides protection from network warfare. Secondly, many programs collect the data and information of different leaders and citizens all over the world. It was disclosed by Edward Snowden that the NSA engaged in physical spying, surveillance, and unethical sabotage of many other states including its own allies. It is ensuring its physical appearance in many other states with the help of the SCS (Special Collection Service). SCS also engaged in burglary, wiretapping, and close surveillance. NSA stated, "We will protect national security interests by adhering to the highest standards of behavior" (Anon n.d.).

After 9/ 11 NSA got a lot of power and introduced different projects to counterterrorism activities. NSA collects a lot of information through the internet and the mobile, to handle these situations NSA created a new information technological system known as ThinTread. It is considered of good privacy mechanism and was storing encrypted surveillance. It was canceled and transferred when Michael Hayden selected Trailblazer. In 2002, the Trailblazer project was introduced but canceled in 2004. NSA complained about much performance of the Trailblazer and it was over budget, not actively responsive, and not providing desired results. In 2005, Turbulence was started by the NSA. It consists of small pieces and is considered inexpensive rather than one Trailblazer. It has capabilities of offensive cyber warfare. It is operating to inject malware into computers. USA Congress also objected to Turbulence in 2007. It criticized that cyberspace needs higher speed for information processing. 

It has been revealed by Edward Snowden that the NSA spying on billions of people all over the world through the internet and telephone. It is done in the name of terrorism but gathers economic, foreign affairs, as well as commercial secrets. It has been mentioned in declassified documents that 17, 835 phone lines were permitted in an alert from 2006 to 2009 (Greenberg, 2013). But only eleven percent is according to the legal standard of RAS. NSA unethical spied on the leaders and citizens of the UN, EU, and its allies. It tracks the location to trace calls and cell phones of millions of people on a daily basis and keep an eye on the movement of people. NSA accesses all communication of people via Facebook, Google, Skype, Microsoft, and Apple & AOL. It collects all contact lists of people from personal email. All privacy settings used by internet users have been weakened by the NSA by using different technologies. NSA is collecting communication data or spying on its own citizens according to the USA law known as the Patriot Act, to counter terrorist acts. However, the targeted audience is not only domestic citizens but also foreigners.  Edward Snowden claimed that ninety percent under surveillance are ordinary Americans, their text messages, emails, and online accounts have been examined by the NSA. Moreover, the National Intelligence Annual Report exposed that the FBI searched US citizens' electronic data without any warrant as many as 3.4 million times (Lan, 2023). On Saturday, President Joe Biden also signed legislation to extend surveillance authority by two years. The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act is extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act into 2026, allowing the NSA to continue its legal right on USA telecom and internet providers to hand over all communication data for usage in any national security investigation (DiMolfetta, 2024).




Patriot Act

The Patriot Act was passed by the US Congress after the terrorist attack of 9/11. It's considered a responsive law to counter terrorist activities. It is considered a contraction for fuse Americans to provide the best tools for obstructing terrorism. The act gives great authority to the federal officer to intercept and track communication for law enforcement purposes as well as for foreign gathering means. It also allows the Secretary of the Treasury to check the foreign money laundering of financial institutions, and ensure to close the entry of terrorists into US territory. And also remove the existing terrorists in the USA state. New penalties, and procedural techniques adopted to counter domestic as well as international terrorism. The main motive of the Patriot Act is to identify and deter the terrorists and give them punishment, not only in the USA but all around the world. For this law enhancement, investigatory tools and purposes have been adopted, some are the following:  

? It is strengthening the US government and agencies to detect, prevent, and impeach money laundering and will stop all finance for terrorism. 

? All appropriate measures will be taken to check the financial services of money laundering 

? To reinforce measures to counteract the utilization of U.S. money for individuals obtained by corrupt officials and will return all stolen assets to the USA citizens.

? To examine foreign jurisdictions and foreign finance institutes and their transactions to stop criminal abuse.

The US Patriot Act allows the NSA to expand wiretaps and give permits for secret searches. It also allows the NSA to share all secret information among different agencies. It's according to the act that spying is justified and agencies have full rights to access the voicemails of the USA citizens and all around the world. It is not only giving permission to access voice mail, but also interception of e-mail (all electronic communication), credit cards, and telephone numbers of phone users. It is also strengthening agencies to get access to IP addresses and get the records of meetings and sessions of internet users and mobile users. Many telecommunication companies are cooperating with agencies to ensure the safety of the state and counter-terrorist activities. 




NSA Acts

There are three important factors that justified the acts of the NSA spying on its own citizens, leaders, and citizens of its allies. But it failed to justify that it is also the ethical one. These are the following:

1st

 National Security Agency has legal authority to access internet traffic because of state security threats. So National Security Agency didn't commit any crime legally. These acts have been adopted by government agencies to suspect terrorists and adopted for the protection of US citizens. It is another debate about whether is ethically acceptable or not. But in the case of USA citizens spying, the government came up with the justification "If doing nothing wrong, then no need to worry." However, it is a warrantless search, and cannot be considered ethical according to the human rights principles. 

2nd 

The National Security Agency is cooperating with United Kingdom Intelligence (GCHQ), and both intelligences are getting benefits for the capability from each other. The intelligence relationship developed since World War II, when the UK shared its achievement of Bletchley Park with the USA. Now USA claims that the National Security Agency is helping GCHQ to stay safe and work within British law. Both states cooperate with each other the identify the threats of terrorism by adopting different methods like traffic of terrorism and serious criminals. 

On the other hand, the USA's attitude toward its other friendly states especially its allies entirely presents a different picture. It is not cooperating or sharing related to intelligence secrecy, whereas spying on the conversation of the leaders as well as citizens. If civilian spying is justified by identifying the coming non-conventional threat, then how the USA is able to justify the act of surveillance of political leaders?  

3rd

Facebook, Google, iPhone, and many other companies claimed that they didn't allow the National Security Agency to access all servers and read or check all mail and personal data of the users. But they have confirmed that obeyed Patriot Act law. They allowed the National Security Agency to get all the required information about the suspected persons. Indirectly it shows that the National Security Agency examines the personal data of all over the world including its own citizens with their permission or any search warrant to identify the terrorists. 

Reaction of the Allies

 It is nothing new to the engagement of state intelligence companies to spy on other state leaders, especially for states. But Edward Snowden revealed the most important spying matter in world history. It revealed around 1000 important targets of USA surveillance. The USA is spending €60bn on intelligence, and the spying target list includes the leaders of the allies, friends such as Germany, France, and Israel, international organizations heads, and even some foreign company heads. It was claimed unethical by almost all the targeted leaders and wasn't tolerated by them. But on the other hand, it raised a lot of questions on the matter of trust among allies. It is a crucial time for the USA, which has no option but to accept unethical spying and apologize for its acts. Even the USA changed the Patriot law into the Freedom Act and tried a lot to develop trusty relationships again with its allies, but it is not the justification of the last unethical spying activities. Because leaders spying cannot be justified by the statement of the USA Act that it is a "necessity to counter-terrorism". Harsh reactions have been observed by ally states, some leaders' statements and reactions are stated below: 




Germany

It has been revealed by Edward Snowden that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone has been regularly tapped by the USA agencies (NSA). The reaction was really harsh, as Merkel gave a statement that "spying on friends is not at all" (Murphy 2015). It has been also revealed that the German agency BND was cooperating with the NSA and spying on thousands of German citizens, especially protestants. But the government reacted and was shocked when it revealed that leaders have also spied on the NSA. Merkel also commented that we are unfortunately part of the Five Eye like David Cameron. Merkel's surveillance was not acceptable to Germany. Even John B. Emerson (ambassador) tried to convince about Merkel's mobile tap. In 2014, Germany was demanding an agreement of "no spy" with the USA. The current situation in transatlantic relations is worse than it was at the low point in 2003 during the Iraq War," Philipp Missfelder, coordinator for transatlantic relations in Germany's foreign office, told NBC News (Lamarque, 2014). German parliament also started an investigation of the NSA and will formulate a strategy that how to save Germany for future spying.




France

NSA spying on French presidents was also not acceptable for France, and a different statement was given by France that Paris would not tolerate any spying actions. "France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the protection of its interests," the French president's office said, adding that US spying allegations had surfaced in the past. USA ambassador had been summoned by the foreign office after the Wikileaks revelations that three presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Hollande had been spied on by the NSA. In 2013, Charles Rivkin explained NSA surveillance acts of French people. "We cannot accept this kind of behavior between partners and allies; we ask that this immediately stop," Hollande told journalists during a visit to the western city of Lorient (Mainville, 2013). But the situation became interesting when The Wall Street Journal showed NSA collected data and revealed that it was collected by French Intelligence and after that shared with USA agencies. It was according to French law, the bill give the right to intercept the phones and emails of citizens without the judge's approval. Stephane Le Foll stated "We find it hard to understand or imagine what motivates an ally to spy on allies who are often in the same strategic positions in world affairs" (Willsher, 2015).




Italy

Italy also resisted the spying on the allies and Prime Minister Enrico Letta directly questioned John Kerry about the spying of Italy citizens. And demanded to clarify if the NSA really intercepting communication in Italy. Angelino Alfano (Italian interior minister) stated "We have a duty to [provide] clarity to Italian citizens—we must obtain the whole truth and tell the whole truth, without regard for anyone" (Virgo, 2013).




European Union

Joaquin Almunia, European Commission vice president also appeared on the surveillance list, and he reacted harshly. He raised antitrust questions on the USA-Europe relationship. European Commission was utilizing a lot of authority for foreign and local business companies all over Europe, and for business, regulations have punished many American companies especially Microsoft, Google, and Intel, etc. heavy fines had been paid by them for maintaining of fair competition. Edward Snowden revealed that all communication of Mr Almunia had been spied on from 2008 to 2009. Mr Almunia notified Google for its running its unethical search engine, it had been complained by the other companies that Google prioritized its own search and Google also used rating & reviews of other websites without their permission. While settling all matters with Google, Alumnia warned Google that these types of future activities would lead to large fines.  Almunia claimed that the NSA spied on him for economic purposes; it is an unethical act and can't be tolerated. Contacted by The Times, Mr Almunia stated that I am strongly upset about spying. Mr Hanen, (European Union Spokeswomen) "  said that it was already engaged in talks with the United States that were "needed to restore trust and confidence in the trans-Atlantic relationship." She added that "the commission will raise these new allegations with U.S. and U.K. authorities."(Glanz and Lehren 2013) Ms Vines stated that the NSA didn't use economic spying for business means but some were really important and justified for national security. It provides help to get better understanding of the economic structure and politics, and will able to guide decision makers of best interest for national security. Indirectly it has been admitted by the NSA to engage the unethical spying of the economic sectors and ironically justified that data will be used only for national security purposes. 




Israel

When revealed that Olmert's email had also been spied on by the NSA, the reaction was not different from the previous leaders. Mr. Olmert stated, "This was an unimpressive target," (Glanz & Lehren, 2013). President George Bush simply refused to have knowledge about the mail spying of the Olmert. It was intercepted when Israel dealing with fallout rocket attacks on Gaza. And NSA also targeted the Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an internationally recognized center for research in atomic and nuclear physics. The US government also accused Israel of planting spying devices near the White House during Trump's presidency (Lippman, 2019). On the other hand, both states jointly attacking the Iran nuclear program, means cooperating and trusting at a high level.   




USA Response to Its Unethical Spying

It claimed that states are spying on the leaders of others even friends, it is nothing new in its nature. Mr. Barak, who declined to comment, has said publicly that he used to take it for granted that he was under surveillance. In the Allies spying case, Obama claimed that he didn't have much idea about the spying of Allies' leaders, he admitted that it was unethical and will not be repeated in the future. NSA persons gave the statement that it is only performing its duty for state security purposes and didn't use it for the economic advantages of the state, many times these data have been collected with the collaboration of the state agencies.  The reaction was really harsh from the Allies when revealed that leaders had been spied on by the National Security Agency. If it was only about the common citizens it was common and all state agencies like France, and Germany engaged to spy on their own citizens and shared it with the National Security Agency. The USA Freedom Act is also not able to stop spying on US citizens and it will be accessed by the NSA and against American Fourth Amendment rights. Communication companies like Google, and Facebook still have to disclose their information to the government. It means that it again gives access to the US government to get the information of internet users all over the world including spying. 

After the revelation of Edward Snowden, the harsh reaction towards the allies especially towards the European Union state USA administration faced a lot of problems. Even some US senators also criticized USA unethical spying, as Republican Senator Susan Collins told ABC News. "Friends don't spy on friends" (Crowley, 2013). USA tried to satisfy its allies with different types of justifications and tried to prove that allies trust matters a lot for USA government. Some following justifications are given below:

In the case of Germany, when Merkel reacted harshly it also disclosed that German intelligence was also engaged in spying on two USA secretaries Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Merkel also wished to become part of Five Eyes. It proved that German civilian spying had been done by German intelligence and after that shared with the NSA. However, the US administration personally ensured that leaders spying would not be conducted in the future. France's president called Obama and discussed these spying affairs. "The exchange was a chance to emphasize the principles that must govern relations between allies in matters of intelligence," said Hollande's office. "President Obama clearly reiterated the firm pledge he made in November 2013, after the Snowden affair, and which was repeated during the state visit [by Hollande] in February 2014, to end practices that might have operated in the past but which are unacceptable between allies (Willsher, 2015). In the case of Israel, President Bush claimed that he had no idea about the spying on Mr Olmert. He is surprised by this revelation. European Union Commission vice president objected to NSA data used for economic motives. It was really shocking for the European states because the parliament also signed an agreement in 2010 with USA government and access USA to bank transfer of European citizens. The main purpose was to help the intelligence of the USA to track the funding sources of terrorism. "We do not use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line," said Vanee Vines, an N.S.A. spokeswoman (Glanz & Lehren, 2013)  To gain the trust of the allies, the USA took step important steps most important one was the Freedom Act. 




USA Freedom Act 2015

USA Freedom word drives from ten latter "United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act. Freedom Act has been passed by the Senate with a vote of 67-32, and Barack Obama's signature shifted the bill into law. The bill passed after the massive movements of the masses against the rights of the NSA and its unethical spying. The bill is going to end the massive collection of the USA citizen's phone calls and messages by the National Security Agency. It created public interest advocate FISA court for its overseas surveillance program. It will end the secret laws of FISA and will introduce Special Advocates for the representation of public privacy matters. It is introduced by Jim Sensenbrenner, with certain objectives:

? To stop the massive personal data collection of US citizens by the NSA and all other secret agencies

? Foreign intelligence surveillance court should increase transparency & satisfy the US allies

? Independent advocates will be created for case hiring before FISA. 

The Trump administration asked Congress to reauthorize the NSA spying program to overcome current challenges as technological changes, communication habits, and our adversaries' tradecrafts will continue to adapt and evolve. In light of the dynamic environment, the administration supported the reauthorization of the provision. The Trump administration asked Congress to reauthorize the NSA spying program to overcome current challenges as technological changes, communication habits, and our adversaries' tradecrafts will continue to adapt and evolve. In light of the dynamic environment, the administration supported the reauthorization of the provision. Senate passed the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act (2020) to reauthorize through 1 December 2023 intelligence data gathering under FISA and also amends FISA-related provisions. According to the bill, the FBI can't use FISA to gather the following information; call records continuously, physical items if someone expects privacy and a warrant is usually needed, or cellular or GPS location data (Rep. Nadler, 2020).

Conclusion

The United States has taken numerous measures, such as the Freedom Act, to regain the trust of its allies. However, there is no guarantee that similar actions won't be taken in the future. Germany is the first state who take the initiative with Brazil to go United Nations resolution against indiscrimination surveillance. That it is against the freedom of expression, privacy, and against democratic values. In 2014, the International Court of Justice took notice and ordered Australia to stop spying on the East Timor. It was the first time that these types of restrictions were imposed on the Five Eyes member state. It is unethical, the USA felt guilty when it was revealed. Before the revelation, it was acceptable for the USA. There is no surety that the US government will not be spying on its allies in the future. Additionally, it can't be denied that the USA has established a norm of spying on its citizens and allies, leading other states to likely adopt similar surveillance practices.

References

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