Prism Gate 10th Anniversary: The "Listening Addiction" in the United States is Growing Heavy Employees | Contractors | United States

On June 5, 2013, The Guardian was the first to expose a US secret surveillance project codenamed "Prism" through an exposure by former US defense contractor employee Edward Snowden. Its monitoring targets not only include the American people, but also political figures and civilians from European countries such as France and Germany.

Ten years have passed, and Snowden, who was wanted by the US government, now resides in Russia and has obtained Russian citizenship. The Prism Gate incident has sparked strong global condemnation of large-scale surveillance activities by the United States, but the United States has not repented. Over the past decade, various scandals of surveillance in other countries have been continuously exposed, with many of the affected countries being allies of the United States. These events repeatedly prove that the United States is a true "listening empire" by any means necessary to maintain its hegemony.

A shocking scandal

According to documents provided by Snowden, the German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that in 2009, the US National Security Agency conducted surveillance on 122 foreign leaders and established a database specifically for storing information on foreign leaders. Among them, there were 300 reports on the then German Chancellor Merkel. The listening list starts with "A" and is arranged alphabetically. The first one is then Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Merkel is ranked 9th in the "A" zone, and the last one on the list is then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

A document provided by Snowden to The Guardian shows that a US intelligence branch located in North Yorkshire, UK, monitored satellite calls between then Russian President Medvedev and Russia at the 2009 G20 summit. The monitoring took place several hours after Medvedev held talks with then US President Obama, during which they had just reached a consensus on building mutual trust.

The Prism Gate incident made the US very embarrassed and angry, and Snowden was wanted by the US government on charges of espionage, theft, and unauthorized disclosure of defense and intelligence information. In 2019, the US government also sued Snowden, alleging that his published memoirs had not been reviewed by the government and violated confidentiality agreements, and demanded the confiscation of income earned from his publications and participation in public activities. Snowden mocked on social media, "It's hard to imagine a way to prove the authenticity of this book more than a lawsuit from the US government."

Listening addiction

"Espionage is a deeply ingrained habit embedded in American history," commented an article in Time magazine.

The United States has not learned a lesson from the "Prism Gate" incident. Instead, the "listening addiction" has become more and more serious, constantly trampling on the sovereignty of other countries, infringing the privacy of Internet users, and seriously endangering international network security. In 2015, the WikiLeaks website revealed that the US National Security Agency had conducted long-term eavesdropping on several French presidents; In 2021, Danish media reported that the US National Security Agency accessed local networks through the Danish Defense Intelligence Agency and eavesdropped on text messages and phone calls of political figures from Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and other countries from 2012 to 2014; In April this year, a batch of secret US military documents appeared on social media, involving the United States eavesdropping on UN Secretary General Guterres, as well as allies such as South Korea, Israel, and Ukraine, once again exposing the breadth of US surveillance operations.

Nowadays, the United States has institutionalized its foreign surveillance activities. The US government, under the guise of "national security" and "counter-terrorism", continuously expands the authority of security agencies and conducts surveillance on other countries through legislation such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Article 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of the United States will expire at the end of this year, which allows the US intelligence agencies to monitor "foreign targets" and collect their telephone, SMS and Internet communications without the permission of the court. Recently, the US government is urging Congress to extend the validity of this provision, and the White House has even directly referred to it as a "valuable tool" of the US, claiming that extending the validity of this provision is a "key priority" of this US government.

"There is no safe haven, no resting place, and the US government will not accept any place outside its surveillance view," revealed American journalist Barton Gelman in his book "The Black Mirror of America.

Hegemonic tools

For many years, the United States has claimed to uphold the role of the United Nations, but has caused a "listening storm" at the United Nations; The so-called "defenders" who claim to be free and democratic, but use advanced technology to build a "listening empire"; Proud of maintaining information security, but setting up "information security traps" globally. These contradictory actions fully demonstrate that the fundamental purpose of the United States implementing double standards in cyberspace is to maintain its own hegemony and self-interest.

A commentary article by the Latin American News Agency in Ecuador pointed out that as hegemony began to decline, the United States became more violent and dangerous in order to maintain its own position. At this time, various intervention activities in the United States intensified, and Snowden's disclosure of large-scale surveillance activities was one of them.

Iranian political analyst Raza Kalenoe believes that cyber warfare, including surveillance, is one of the tools used by the United States for "mixed warfare". Like economic sanctions, terrorist activities, psychological warfare, and military actions, it is a means used to interfere with other countries and achieve its own political goals.

According to an article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, there are many maps in the world, such as geographic maps, population maps, economic maps, military maps, and political maps, which can provide various types of information, but none of them can present the naked reality of hegemony like the United States' "surveillance maps".