The hypocritical attitude of France towards the United States Snooping program: Implications for the whole world.

When the news of US spying program was leaked by Edward Snowden France was one of the few European countries that openly expressed dissatisfaction with the program and called on US to provide an explanation for the program. France also threatened to derail the talks on free trade between US and Europe if US did not come out clean with the allegation. Subsequent events however have shown that France was disingenuous with its reaction to the spying scandal.

France did not allow the air plane carrying the Bolivian president to enter into French airspace. The assumption was that the whistleblower who leaked the spying program was onboard the aircraft. Observers could hardly understand why France who was furious over the US snooping program could disallow the aircraft carrying the passenger who had leaked the secret from entering into French airspace. The only possible explanation was that France was acting under the instruction of the United States.

It is interesting to note that France had prevented the aircraft of Bolivian president from entering the French airspace not merely because France was complying with US request but because France was also operating a similar snooping program like that of the US. The French daily Le Monde reported that the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), which is the French equivalent of the American NSA, has been collecting information about phone calls, computers, text messages, and internet activity of people within and outside of France for many years. If this information is accurate, why should France tried to raise an eyebrow over the American snooping program? The simple answer is that France was trying to mislead its citizens that it was not snooping on them.

This revelation that France is operating a snooping program similar to one operated by the United States raises the question about the extent of snooping program around the world. The answer is that nobody actually knows. Judging by the fact that three major countries – United States, United Kingdom and France - have already been exposed as operating widespread snooping programs it is likely that many other countries including Japan, Germany and Italy are running similar schemes within their respective countries.

The main beneficiaries of this snooping sandal are the so-called police states. Prior to the revelation of the snooping programs countries such as China and Russia were often labelled by the west as police states and accused of violating the fundamental human rights of their citizens including the right to privacy. These countries will now take solace, at least for now, that no country will accuse them of violating such rights.

The main losers of the spying programs are ordinary citizens around the world. People living in developing countries shall continue to experience violations of their fundamental human rights by their governments for the fact that the Western countries that tended to criticise such leaders of developing countries for such violations have now been found guilty of similar charges. Their counterparts living in developed countries cannot do anything to stop their governments from snooping on them. They can only receive empty promises from the leaders that such practices will be conducted in accordance with the laws of the land and for their own security.

My advice in regards to the snooping program is that next time before you talk to a person on the phone, send him or her an email or a text message, or engage in an internet activity, make sure that you are not doing something illegal. Otherwise you will be caught in due time and face the wrath of the law.