All over Europe, government officials are doing their best interpretation of Captain Renault in the movie Casablanca, who declared himself “Shocked – shocked!” when he learnt there was gambling going on. Rather than gambling, though, European leaders are expressing shock over the revelation that nations – even allies – spy on each other.
Part of the surprise may arise from the fact that allegations of American tapping of senior officials’ mobile phones have come at the same time – and apparently from the same source – as earlier revelations of widespread data gathering and surveillance by the National Security Agency as part of US counter-terrorism efforts. Presumably, listening to the conversations of allied leaders does not have any counter-terrorism value.
At the same time, there are legitimate questions to be asked about the effect on privacy of US intelligence agencies gathering extensive data on communications in foreign countries. While Americans enjoy legal and constitutional protections against the invasion of their privacy, others – even those allied and friendly to the US – do not.