26/10/2013 17:00 Merkelphone scandal shocks Europe but spies are unmoved Page 1 of 3 http://theconversation.com/merkelphone-scandal-shocks-europe-but-spies-are-unmoved-19567 ‘Why don’t you borrow my cell, Angela, it’s secure…’ Cyrus Farivar 26 October 2013, 9.32am BST Merkelphone scandal shocks Europe but spies are unmoved Claudia Hillebrand Lecturer in Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism at Aberystwyth University Revelations about the extent of the American National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) global communications surveillance have raised considerable media and political attention. The fact that the NSA not only bugs the phones of drug kingpins and reads the e-mails of al- Qaeda members, but also targets so-called “friendly” states, such as Germany, Brazil and France, has had a significant impact on the current discussion. Der Spiegel’s allegations that even the mobile of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel was not safe from American spying efforts were widely seen as scandalous. As Robert Roßmann in the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “(a) greater affront by a friendly state is hardly conceivable”. For scholars and practitioners of intelligence the news is much less surprising, though. The former director of France’s domestic intelligence agency DCRI, Bernard Squarcini, stated in an interview with Le Figaro that “there is no reason to be surprised” as allies have been spying on each other for a long time. And he is right, of course. The history of intelligence provides examples of occasional friend-on-friend spying. The point of gathering information about foreign governments and countries is to establish an informational picture which is as accurate as possible and helps to make good political decisions. Everybody’s doing it… The uncomfortable truth for those being outraged by the #Merkelphone revelations is that no government wants to be blind with respect to any other country or region in this interdependent world. As John McLaughlin, former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said earlier this week: “All governments collect information on nearly all governments.” This includes material gained from intercepting foreign communications data through Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) institutions, such as the NSA and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). However, spying among friends is an