Brazilian President Snubs Obama: How US Cyber Espionage will Destroy the Internet
Posted on 09/18/2013 by Juan Cole
The USG Open Source Center reports on Brazilian press reaction to President Dilma Roussef’s decision to cancel her state visit to Washington DC this fall, after revelations by Edward Snowden that the US National Security Agency not only intensively spied on all Brazilians online and engaged in industrial espionage but that special efforts were made to spy on the president herself.
Brazil is now the world’s 6th largest economy at $2 trillion a year, and is economy is bigger than that of Britain. Its middle class has doubled in size in the past decade. Brazil’s major trading partner is China, followed by the European Union and then the US (trade with the US in 2010 was $60 bn annually). China has more investments in Brazil than does the US.
Roussef intends to denounce massive US cyber espionage in her speech at the United Nations meeting later this month in New York. Most worrying, the Brazilian government appears determined to have all Brazilian email and web traffic stay inside the country on local servers, so as to avoid going through the NSA’s custody (the NSA put sniffers on fiber optic cables around the world to extract all data passing through them, including emails, web browsing and telephone calls).
The internet works because each node or connection point is equidistant from all other nodes or connection points. If national bottlenecks are created, it could destroy net neutrality and interfere with international searching and communication. By being greedy for big global data, the NSA may have killed the goose that lays the golden egg.
At the same time, knowledge of NSA tactics encourages other governments also to put their populations under intensive electronic surveillance. The US is the ultimate bad example.
The OSC report:
President Rousseff Cancels State Visit to Washington –The Brazilian broadcast and printed media granted broad coverage to the imbroglio involving US electronic media surveillance reportedly focused on Brazilian targets including President Dilma Rousseff, and the impending announcement of her decision to cancel or not a planned trip to the United States. In the early afternoon Rousseff announced her decision to cancel the trip.Tania Monteiro writes in Sao Paulo Agencia Estado that according to Planalto Palace the atmosphere is not right for a state visit to Washington in view of espionage allegations involving the US Government. In Rousseff’s assessment the United States did not offer satisfactory explanations of allegations that surfaced in the media. President Rousseff plans to criticize the surveillance claims when she addresses the opening session of the UN General Assembly.Tai Nalon reports in Sao Paulo Folha de Sao Paulo that President Rousseff stated that the absence of an internal investigation into the espionage allegations prompted her to cancel the planned visit. The presidential communique states that “the Government of Brazil is aware of the importance and diversity of the bilateral relationship grounded in respect and mutual trust,” reads the statement. “The illegal practice of interception of communications and data on citizens, companies, as well as members of Brazil’s administration constitute a serious fault that assails national sovereignty and individual rights, and is therefore incompatible with democratic relations between two friendly countries.”Rousseff also expressed confidence in an adequate solution to the matter to allow the visit to take place as soon as possible to advance building “our strategic partnership to even higher levels.” Prior to the release of Rousseff announcement Carlos Alexandre pondered in Brasilia Correio Braziliense that the likely cancellation would not have any impact on Brazil-US relations or on US security and surveillance policies.
Brazil Bails On US State Visit Over Illegal Spying; Demands "Full Public Apology"
While the White House is trying to play this down currently in the press conference, Brazil's President Rousseff has issued a statement postponing her trip to the US due to the illegal espionage of the Americans:
- *BRAZIL SAYS U.S. HASN'T PROVIDED ADEQUATE EXPLANATION ON SPYING
- *BRAZIL'S SAYS IT NEEDS U.S. EXPLANATION BEFORE STATE VISIT
- *BRAZIL SAYS U.S. ILLEGAL MONITORING OF GOVT, COS. IS 'SERIOUS'
- *BRAZIL PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF POSTPONES STATE VISIT TO THE U.S.
According to AP, Obama spoke to Rouseff on the phone but that didn't do it as the Brazilian President demanded a full public apology.
Via AP,
Brazil's president has postponed a state visit to Washington in response to U.S. spying.President Dilma Rousseff says Tuesday she's not making the trip next month, which was to include a state dinner.Rousseff has been angered reports based on leaked National Security Agency documents. They've shown that her communications with top aides were intercepted.The NSA espionage program also targeted state-run oil company Petrobras.Brazil reportedly has been the top Latin American target for spying, with data on billions of emails and telephone calls swooped up in NSA programs.President Barack Obama called Rousseff late Monday and tried to talk her into maintaining her trip, the Brazilian president's office said.But Rousseff was demanding a full public apology from Obama for the spying, which she didn't get.
And The White House's response,
Statement by the Press Secretary on Postponement of the State Visit of President Dilma Rousseff of BrazilYesterday, the President spoke by telephone with President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil to follow-up on their meeting in St. Petersburg and Ambassador Rice’s meeting with the Foreign Minister of Brazil last week.The United States and Brazil enjoy a strategic partnership rooted in shared democratic values and in the desire to advance broad-based economic growth and job creation. President Obama’s invitation to President Rousseff for the first State Visit of his second term is a reflection of the importance he places on this growing global partnership and the close bonds between the American and Brazilian people.The President has said that he understands and regrets the concerns disclosures of alleged U.S. intelligence activities have generated in Brazil and made clear that he is committed to working together with President Rousseff and her government in diplomatic channels to move beyond this issue as a source of tension in our bilateral relationship. As the President previously stated, he has directed a broad review of U.S. intelligence posture, but the process will take several months to complete. President Obama and President Rousseff both look forward to the State Visit, which will celebrate our broad relationship and should not be overshadowed by a single bilateral issue, no matter how important or challenging the issue may be. For this reason, the presidents have agreed to postpone President Rousseff’s State Visit to Washington scheduled for October 23.President Obama looks forward to welcoming President Rousseff to Washington at a date to be mutually agreed. Other important cooperation mechanisms, including the presidential dialogues on political, economic, energy, and defense cooperation, will continue.
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