The recent revelation of Project Auroragold by the NSA revealed the agency’s plans to use the telecommunication network to have the ability to tap any cellphone in the world. While this is yet another PR disaster for the NSA after Snowden et al, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Any intelligence agency, be it the NSA, MI6, or the KGB, should take steps to enhance its capability and reach around the world. Through it, theoretically, it can protect the national interests of its nation. Intelligence agencies all over the world are already listening and eavesdropping. In the words of Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister:
“Let’s be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. We don’t have the same means as the United States — which makes us jealous.”
What the NSA is undertaking is a natural consequence of the powers afforded to it by the nation’s leaders. Just last month, the senate failed to pass the legislation targeted at curtailing NSA’s intelligence operations. The NSA like any other agency is acting like it should it is the requisite responsibility on the elected leaders to ensure that the agency does not violate its powers. One cannot expect an intelligence agency to be transparent, however, the lack of clarity and outright lies about its surveillance program is what is troubling. And the consequence of being the intelligence agency of the sole superpower makes the NSA an easy target. People like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are driven by a sense of righteousness and purpose to right a wrong. These modern day Guy Fawkes’ are a natural outcome of the recent revelations about NSA’s surveillance program and its perception of the Goliath.
We cannot live in a world envisioned by Julian Assange of no secrets and complete transparency. In the words of Jaron Lanier:
“a free flow of digital information enables two diametrically opposed patterns: low-commitment anarchy on the one hand and absolute secrecy married to total ambition on the other”
Certain information has to be safeguarded by the governments to maintain order in the society. On the other hand, we cannot have too many secrets where vigilantes will arise to break the code. (Yes I watched Sneakers for the umpteenth time!)
As the US continues to serve as the sole superpower (despite the economic rise of China), the world needs a responsible and organized NSA. Dissidents, leaks, and cyber attacks are a consequence of its status and current perception. Perhaps the NSA can draw a page from a tiny-island nation of Singapore and its deployment of a PRISM-type infrastructure.
Ali S. Kamil 