The Snowden affair won’t go away. Instead it grows wider and thicker and is causing a huge international diplomatic row. First, it raised a huge cry in the United States when ordinary Americans were shocked to learn that their own government, the champion of individual liberty, was spying on them. Now the affair has extended the spying to European Union offices and other countries friendly to the United States like Japan, South Korea, Turkey, India, France and Italy.In early June, Edward Snowden, an American contractor with the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA employee, leaked information to the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom that the United States and United Kingdom governments were involved in massive telephone and internet surveillance of their citizens.The United States government responded in characteristic arrogant and high-handed fashion – first slapping criminal charges on Snowden and then trying to bully Hong Kong (China) and Russia, and any country that would take Snowden in to hand him over. America is used to bullying other countries and getting its way. Not so this time. Hong Kong where Snowden first fled and Russia where he is reportedly still in the transit area of Moscow airport flatly refused. Even little Ecuador offered Snowden asylum, although reports now say they are no longer very enthusiastic about it.Spying is as old as human society, going back to the time when humans started competing for resources, and is practiced by every nation to varying degrees. In fact it is even expected and accepted as normal practice.So why is the United States so sensitive to Snowden’s leaks and continued freedom that it is prepared to do everything to lay its hands on him and stop further leaks?There are several reasons for this. First, it is admission that the spying is widespread and that Snowden still has very sensitive information. Indeed Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week that he may still have up to 200 very sensitive documents.Second, there is a sense of shame as well. The United States has been making loud public accusations against China as the chief cyber spy. Now it turns out that the United States is guilty of the very crime and has been at it on a huge scale. The US has been involved in a massive phone and internet surveillance of China, hacking into Chinese phone companies to view SMSs and other messages of their Chinese clients. Third is the diplomatic row it is causing among US allies. Spying is acceptable so long as it is done against enemies. It is even tolerable among friends provided certain lines are not crossed. But apparently, it is totally unacceptable when friends are massively targeted as seems to be the case in the Snowden affair. That is why Mr Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament was so dismayed and angry on hearing reports that EU offices , including those used by ministers of EU countries, had been bugged by American intelligence agents.There is also the fear that the spying revelations may undo the work President Barack Obama has been doing in mending fences with allies and restoring America’s international standing that took a severe knock under President George W Bush and his war on terror. Ms Susan Rice, incoming National Security Advisor, has strenuously denied this, which actually lends it credence.What do Snowden’s revelations have to do with us in Africa, you may ask. We do not pose a security or any other threat to the mighty USA, individually or collectively. There are no industrial secrets to steal from us. We cannot match their hi-tech snooping and eavesdropping. In fact, we are an open book to them.Its significance lies in what it reveals about the US government’s response – its hypocrisy. When an American fugitive from justice escapes to another country, or a national of another country commits an offence against the United States, the government will pull out all the stops to have them brought to the US for trial. It will pressure every country – big or small, powerful or weak – to comply with its demands.When a criminal runs away from justice from a country like Rwanda and flees to the United States or Europe, no amount of pleading on moral or legal grounds will move these countries to return the fugitives to face justice.Often the plea for the refusal is that they are protecting the human rights of the fugitive.Rwanda has many genocidaires living and working in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They are not in hiding like Snowden. How about returning them here to stand trial? They killed hundreds of thousands or planned and still plan the extermination of an entire people. Snowden has not killed anyone.There are Rwandan criminals who stole from the public and traitors who committed high treason living in the US and Europe. Why have they not been returned to answer charges here?We have often been lectured on the sanctity of human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of access to information and other freedoms. But the application of these very noble principles is selective, not universal and is done only when it suits the powerful.In Africa, that is the significance of the Snowden affair – to lay bare the different standards for our countries – one for the powerful, the other for the less so.josephrwagatare.wordpress.com
