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They believed Snowden was on-board, and to make the plane go to Wien, the Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian governments were pressured to deny Morales rig
by overkalix 8y ago
They believed Snowden was on-board, and to make the plane go to Wien, the Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian governments were pressured to deny Morales right of passage and pressured him to allow the plane to be searched. The governments of half of Europe fold like a cheap suit to the interests of the US intelligence services.
- peteretep 8y ago> The governments of half of Europe fold like a cheap suit to the interests of the US intelligence services The governments of most of Western Europe have geopolitical interests strongly allied to the US. > Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian So, all members of SIGINT Seniors Europe except Portugal.
- overkalix 8y agoIs it in the interests of European governments for the US government to spy on European governments and citizens? Cool-cool-cool.
- peteretep 8y agoI mean, I don't want to go all _Tu quoque_ here, but if you think that's a one-way street then I think you're being a little naive. Examples (in English) from two German news sources: https://www.dw.com/en/austria-angry-at-germany-over-enormous-spy-effort/a-44257734 https://www.dw.com/en/austria-angry-at-germany-over-enormous... https://www.thelocal.de/20170622/germany-spied-on-the-white-house https://www.thelocal.de/20170622/germany-spied-on-the-white-...
- coldtea 8y agoYeah, just one is a superpower, with the budget for this of 10 western states combined, and the others are not. Also one side has bases in all of the others, the others do not have their bases at that side, and so on...
- StavrosK 8y agoIt's in the interests of European governments to continue a good relationship with the US government, obviously. That's what "allied" means.
- coldtea 8y agoIn the same way it's in the interests of shop-owners to continue a good relationship with the mafia. During the cold war, if an "ally" didn't have a good relationship, they could see their government undermined, pressured in all kinds of ways, or even toppled with their support. Not much different today, though it's less in the open. "Allied" can mean a lot of things, but it can also be forced upon populations, have them dragged into wars for your side's interests, and so on. Not everything is what it writes on the tin.
- mrtksn 8y agoAFAIR, the idea is that they all spy on each other so that they cannot be accused of spying on their own citizen. So when Germany needs to know more about one of their citizens they can ask the USA.
- coldtea 8y ago>The governments of most of Western Europe have geopolitical interests strongly allied to the US The governments of most of Western Europe have a long history of selling out their national interests (especially the weak bureaucrats and career politicians put in place past the 80s, not someone like De Gaulle). In exchange they get US support for their campaigns, handouts, and some trinkets for their peoples. In lesser countries, e.g. Balkans, periphery, etc, stability guarantees are also given ("you wouldn't want something bad to happen between you and your neighbors now, would you?", or "You'd like to have those investments keep coming in, right?"). And when some larger countries try to get out of this stronghold, e.g. trying to buy the cheapest oil from where they want (even if the US doesn't like it), or pay in Euros as opposed to dollars, they are quickly shown their place...
- patrickaljord 8y agoWhich is why the US hates on Russia and China so much. They're their biggest competitors.