Press TV has conducted an interview with James Corbett, the editor of
the corbettreport.com, about the United Nations launching an
investigation into the massive surveillance programs of American and
British intelligence agencies following revelations from US
whistleblower Edward Snowden.
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press
TV: This inquiry will not have much power but it can make
recommendations to the UN General Assembly. What kind of recommendations
do you think it is going to be making?
Corbett: Well it is
difficult to say what recommendations it will be able to make especially
because the UN General Assembly is a body without any teeth as it has
been demonstrated over the previous decades.
And again I am not
sure what this new inquiry is going to uncover because I think only the
most naïve in international relations have not understood already that
they were being spied on by the US and Britain and other intelligence
agencies. Besides, it is really just the Edward Snowden's leaks [that]
are bringing this to the forefront.
So I am not sure that this
inquiry will really have really much effect other than a symbolic one
and I do not think any recommendations other than the recommendations
not to spy on allies will be the result of this type of inquiry.
Press
TV: But does the symbolism of this go very far in putting pressure on
governments like that of the UK and the US who have been pressuring the
media like The Guardian newspaper to not publish these revelations?
Corbett:
Well certainly the pressure is mounting not only from the political
classes but perhaps more importantly from the average public which is
now increasingly aware that these practices go on.
But I think
if the UN was being serious about really investigating these claims,
they would start by looking in their own backyard because of course the
most egregious cases of spying have happened at UN summits or on UN
premises in New York as has come out time and time again in the past and
in fact just recent revelations from earlier this month, sorry earlier
last month, showing once again for example Indonesia was spied on by the
US at the UN Summit and we have had reassurances from the Obama
administration back in October that they would not be spying on the UN
anymore but given the track record of what has happened at the UN in the
past, I think we can take those assurances for what they are worth.
So
there certainly is a symbolic value in this and in any way it is good I
think to put the pressure on these agencies to stop this type of spying
activity.
Press TV: So then basically what you are saying is
that we will see a lot of condemnation coming out of this for the US,
for the UK and maybe even more revelations but it will be business as
usual when it comes to our privacy online as far as telecommunications
go?
Corbett: Very much so and in fact we see that the biggest
political brouhaha is about the spying that is happening on politicians
themselves, on governments, on government agencies but there is not that
type of widespread condemnation of what is happening to the average
citizens.
And as you mentioned there and as Snowden revelations
and other leaks have made clear, basically communications across the
board on the internet are being collected wholesale by the NSA and its
adjunct in Britain and in other intelligence agencies across the world
and I think there needs to be more outrage on that issue rather than
specifically on spying on governments.
Originally aired on Press TV, December 3, 2013
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/...
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