![\"spytried\"](\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2013\/06\/spytried.jpeg\")
<\/a>particular, has puzzled some observers. Turkey was a valued friend of the UK. The other nations were not threatening national security. Why was it necessary to eavesdrop on financial issues that could be discussed openly?<\/p>\nThe \u201cwhy\u201d is always the big issue.<\/p>\n
Hiding behind a shadowy cloak of \u201cnational security,\u201d or \u201cfighting terrorism,\u201d America\u2019s NSA and Great Britain\u2019s GCHQ continue to spy upon other government officials for purposes having little or nothing to do with either threat. In Gun\u2019s case, the NSA invited GCHQ to join in its spying on the Security Council in an effort \u201cto obtain results favorable to US goals.\u201d In this later misadventure, the purpose for spying on G20 summit meetings in 2009 was essentially the same\u2013to collect intelligence \u201crelevant to HMG\u2019s desired outcomes.\u201d In both cases, the objective was solely to obtain political advantage.<\/p>\n
And that is why, in both cases, the operations were highly classified, and why, in both, the individuals who leaked information about them became targets themselves. Gun was arrested in 2003, weeks before the invasion of Iraq. Snowden, on the run, no doubt will be arrested before long.<\/p>\n
The British\u2013fiction\u2019s ultimate master spies\u2013are essentially (although not entirely) free to spy upon whomever they wish for whatever purpose, given provisions in their Intelligence Services Act. The NSA lacks this broad-based permission. Instead, from time to time, denials are issued declaring that the agency works only within the \u201cconfines of the law.\u201d Others have questioned this claim.<\/p>\n
Looking even farther back than the 2003 NSA spy operation against the UNSC, one finds another lesson in what happens when government indulges in illegal (or inappropriate) surveillance. In 1949, FBI agents tapped conversations between an accused Soviet spy, Judith Coplon, and her attorney. Initially, agents lied on the stand, denying the existence of illegal electronic surveillance. In the end, they admitted having listened in on conversations conducted between the defendant and her attorney, even during the course of her trial. Coplon, although convicted twice, did not serve prison time\u2013principally because an appellate court found the government guilty of wrongdoing. The case began a debate about wiretapping and secret surveillance that continues more than sixty years later.<\/p>\n
As noted, will they ever learn?<\/p>\n
Marcia Mitchell<\/strong>\u00a0is co-author of\u00a0The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n