The international condemnation regarding the
on-going intelligence gathering of the world’s intelligence agencies exposed by
the NSA whistle-blower and fugitive Edward Snowden is in reality much ado about
nothing.
Most citizens of the world are blissfully
unaware of a dangerous, secretive and ruthless parallel world that co-exists
alongside them but which they do not see or even think about. In this parallel
world, agents are recruited, intelligence is gathered and plans formulated and
executed to disrupt, destroy and neutralise threats. It is this parallel world
that keeps the governments – and by implication the populace - safe and their
enemies in a state of constant concern and vigilance.
Without intelligence, governments are unable
to “see over the hill” and adapt and modify their strategies according to new
or developing threats. All intelligence agencies gather overt and covert
information/intelligence not only on their enemies but also on their allies. To
achieve this, laws are sometimes broken and sometimes crimes are committed to
discover the plans of others.
Spying on ones allies is nothing new. This
has been done for centuries and has numerous aims such as determining if their
allies are silently acting or turning against them, making decisions that could
impact on the national security, provide early warning to allies of pending
threats and even coordinate and support actions that are being planned against their
allies.
Espionage and covert direct action are major
components of this parallel world. Telephones are tapped, email communications
are monitored and sometimes disrupted, prominent persons are watched and
followed, high-value targets are assassinated, threat networks are infiltrated
and penetrated, false-flag operations are launched to confuse and mislead
opposing intelligence services, disinformation operations are launched and so
forth.
The golden rule is always: “Don’t get
caught”.
Being caught or compromised can result in a
major embarrassment to the government that launches the operation. However,
despite the political rhetoric and public anger that then takes place, even the
targeted governments understand the need for intelligence gathering and other
covert operations – as they too conduct similar operations.
Without intelligence, national strategies and
national security strategies will be empty shells with no direction or guidance.
Without intelligence, these strategies will not be able to adapted and provide
sufficient early warning to the government of threats and pending or planned
actions.
In Africa, major intelligence failures abound
– Mali, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Kenya, Somalia and so forth to name but a few. These failures occur because
insufficient attention is given to intelligence operations or intelligence is
simply ignored. This lack of intelligence is a major contributing factor to
providing any threat network with an advantage. The results are clear for all
to see.
Whereas the world was shocked by the extent
of the NSA’s capabilities, the media storm that erupted was in fact much ado
about reality. Those that shouted the loudest often do not realise that without
these operations, they would probably not have the freedom they claim to advocate.
