Sense, sensibilities and spying

摘要

The noun "Der Shitstorm" made a timely entrance to the official German lexicon this week. France is in a similar "avalanche d'emmerdements". So, too, are countries as far afield as Japan, India and Turkey, which are also digesting revelations about the nature and extent of America's electronic espionage on them. Material leaked to Germany's Der Spiegel and Britain's Guardian by Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, says its programmes "can and often do target the signals" of around 30 "third-party" states, with which America has otherwise friendly ties. It spied on, among other targets, the European Union's diplomatic headquarters in Brussels, using nato premises to do so. The nsa exempts only a handful of close "second-party" allies, chiefly Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.