Embassy closures earn little respect for a US that's lost the benefit of the doubt
Embassy closures earn little respect for a US that's lost the benefit of the doubt
We might be forgiven for thinking embassy closures provoked by terrorist threats were all very convenient for the NSA
Richard Norton-Taylor
theguardian.com, Monday 5 August 2013 16.30 BST
A Yemeni soldier at a checkpoint on the road to the US embassy in Sanaa. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP
Not so long ago, a decision by the US and other western countries to close their embassies because of a risk of terrorist attacks, citing "chatter" from intercepted communications between al-Qaida-inspired jihadists, would have been treated overwhelmingly with unquestioning respect.
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That they needed to go so far out of their way to defend the NSA is testament to growing concern among many other members of Congress and the US public, according to opinion polls, since the disclosure by Edward Snowden, to the Guardian and Washington Post, of the extent to which the NSA is intercepting the personal communications of Americans and non-Americans alike.
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That scepticism may lead to potentially dangerous cynicism is the fault of the failure adequately and convincingly to hold the intelligence agencies to account. The detail of operations, certainly recent ones and ones planned for the near future, may need to be protected by secrecy. But as other commentators have pointed out, the US government, in its approach to secrecy and in particular in its attitude towards WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, has not been able to distinguish between a US Apache helicopter crew shooting unarmed men, including Reuters journalists in Iraq, and the exposure of operations that might conceivably threaten the lives of innocent Americans.
The US and UK securocracies have not been able to distinguish between the invasion of privacy and a legitimate need to protect the public from terrorist threats. Until they do so, they will sacrifice the "benefit of the doubt" approach, the public's trust, that they will need to depend on in future.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/05/embassy-closures-us-nsa
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