SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A woman talks on a cell phone on a street in Kabul. (Photo: Michael Foley/cc/flickr)
Afghan Fury Follows Revelations of NSA Spying
Government of Afghanistan statement decries phone call monitoring as "a violation of the human rights guaranteed to all Afghans."
May 27, 2014
The Afghan government denounced on Sunday the revelations that the NSA is monitoring nearly all the phone calls in Afghanistan, saying it violates the nation's sovereignty and the human rights of its people.
The Interceptreported last week on new revelations of vast surveillance conducted by the United States in a series of countries but withheld the name of one of those target countries citing a "specific, credible concern that doing so could lead to violence." That country was subsequently revealed by WikiLeaks to be Afghanistan.
"These activities are an obvious violation of agreements based on technical use of these [telephone] stations," Agence France-Presse reports an Afghan government statement as saying. "Most importantly, it is a violation of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan, and a violation of the human rights guaranteed to all Afghans."
"These [telephone] stations are installed in Afghanistan by U.S. and Britain forces for the purpose of combating drug smuggling," the statement continues. "The National Security Adviser has been directed to raise these illegal activities and the anger of Afghan government with the U.S. and seriously investigate the issue."
Yet according to Graeme Smith, Senior Analyst for the NGO International Crisis Group, which works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict, the fact that such surveillance is happening is likely to be of no surprise to Afghans, tellingVice News' Patrick McGuire that "many Afghans imagine that the fictional Jack Bauer is a realistic depiction of U.S. intelligence at work."
Smith added, "There's a frenzy of concern about surveillance in the rich world at the moment, but over here the problems are more basic: rising violence, villagers fleeing their homes, Taliban choking off supply routes, the war economy grinding to a halt, etc."
___________________________
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Afghan government denounced on Sunday the revelations that the NSA is monitoring nearly all the phone calls in Afghanistan, saying it violates the nation's sovereignty and the human rights of its people.
The Interceptreported last week on new revelations of vast surveillance conducted by the United States in a series of countries but withheld the name of one of those target countries citing a "specific, credible concern that doing so could lead to violence." That country was subsequently revealed by WikiLeaks to be Afghanistan.
"These activities are an obvious violation of agreements based on technical use of these [telephone] stations," Agence France-Presse reports an Afghan government statement as saying. "Most importantly, it is a violation of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan, and a violation of the human rights guaranteed to all Afghans."
"These [telephone] stations are installed in Afghanistan by U.S. and Britain forces for the purpose of combating drug smuggling," the statement continues. "The National Security Adviser has been directed to raise these illegal activities and the anger of Afghan government with the U.S. and seriously investigate the issue."
Yet according to Graeme Smith, Senior Analyst for the NGO International Crisis Group, which works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict, the fact that such surveillance is happening is likely to be of no surprise to Afghans, tellingVice News' Patrick McGuire that "many Afghans imagine that the fictional Jack Bauer is a realistic depiction of U.S. intelligence at work."
Smith added, "There's a frenzy of concern about surveillance in the rich world at the moment, but over here the problems are more basic: rising violence, villagers fleeing their homes, Taliban choking off supply routes, the war economy grinding to a halt, etc."
___________________________
The Afghan government denounced on Sunday the revelations that the NSA is monitoring nearly all the phone calls in Afghanistan, saying it violates the nation's sovereignty and the human rights of its people.
The Interceptreported last week on new revelations of vast surveillance conducted by the United States in a series of countries but withheld the name of one of those target countries citing a "specific, credible concern that doing so could lead to violence." That country was subsequently revealed by WikiLeaks to be Afghanistan.
"These activities are an obvious violation of agreements based on technical use of these [telephone] stations," Agence France-Presse reports an Afghan government statement as saying. "Most importantly, it is a violation of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan, and a violation of the human rights guaranteed to all Afghans."
"These [telephone] stations are installed in Afghanistan by U.S. and Britain forces for the purpose of combating drug smuggling," the statement continues. "The National Security Adviser has been directed to raise these illegal activities and the anger of Afghan government with the U.S. and seriously investigate the issue."
Yet according to Graeme Smith, Senior Analyst for the NGO International Crisis Group, which works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict, the fact that such surveillance is happening is likely to be of no surprise to Afghans, tellingVice News' Patrick McGuire that "many Afghans imagine that the fictional Jack Bauer is a realistic depiction of U.S. intelligence at work."
Smith added, "There's a frenzy of concern about surveillance in the rich world at the moment, but over here the problems are more basic: rising violence, villagers fleeing their homes, Taliban choking off supply routes, the war economy grinding to a halt, etc."
___________________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.