NSA was justified post-September 11

Another week, another NSA spying scandal. That’s what it feels like, anyway.

Continuing an impressively scandal-ridden few months for the National Security Agency thanks to information leaked by Edward Snowden, allegations have emerged claiming the United States tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone for years — reportedly since before she was even in office.

Everyone’s favorite “patriotraitor” appears to be behind this latest foreign relations pratfall as well. The original report on U.S. surveillance in Germany, published by German magazine Der Spiegel last month, was based on classified NSA documents Snowden gave the magazine in June.

The resulting diplomatic fallout hasn’t been pretty.

The White House rushed to reassure Merkel that it wasn’t tapping her phone currently, but didn’t say it hadn’t in the past.

Then-NSA director General Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper gave vague and occasionally contradictory arguments that basically amounted to “we probably didn’t do this, but even if we did, all nations spy on each other.”  

Brazil and Mexico have both expressed disapproval with the alleged spying.
Germany is upset, of course, and on Oct. 23 Chancellor Merkel called President Obama personally to express her disapproval.   

The conversation “must have been just horrendously uncomfortable,” Max Fisher said in an Oct. 23 Washington Post article. I have no trouble believing it was.  

Surely, there can be no justification for this.

Well, except for the circumstances under which this surveillance came about.

The report claims the U.S. started tapping Merkel’s phone in 2002. It was presumably approved earlier that year or in late 2001, but I strongly doubt it was approved on or before September 10, 2001.  

It seems clear to me that this spying was the same kind of Patriot Act-mentality overreach responsible for Abu Ghraib, NSL gag orders and a general sense of condoned Islamophobia.  

I don’t think any of these examples had a positive influence on America, its citizens or its international standing, but I do believe they were well-intended.

Think back to the months after Sept. 11.  

Three thousand Americans had died in the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history.  

An iconic national landmark was reduced to rubble.

The U.S. economy almost crashed. And had it crashed, it would have almost certainly led to a global financial collapse.

In this environment, I would easily choose potential government overreach over the chance of an event like Sept. 11 happening again.  

It’s hard to blame government officials for choosing to spy on allies and U.S. citizens when failure to prevent another attack could not only cost American lives, trust and morale — it could also signal a worldwide economic depression greater than any in recent memory.

It’s not entirely clear when the U.S. stopped bugging the Merkel’s phone. Like so many other post-Sept. 11 policy changes, it probably went on longer than was necessary.

I’m not sure I support the U.S. spying on allies 12 years after Sept. 11, but I consider the creation of such espionage programs in the wake of the attacks as justified.   

— kkusisto@indiana.edu