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Ryan Slaughter
Ms. Sobotka
Debate I
May 6, 2015
Espionage: The United States and its Allies
I would first like to begin by reciting a small excerpt of a statement made by Henry John
Temple, the British Prime Minister from 1859 to 1865, during a speech in the House of
Commons on March 1st, 1848 regarding the foreign affairs of Britain. I paraphrase, We have no
eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and
those interests it is our duty to follow (Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston). With this
statement I bring forth the contention that the United States should, in the best interest of the
United States and its citizens, continue to practice methods of espionage towards its allies and,
especially, its enemies not only in the search for offensive, military action, but also in the search
for economic advantage in the perpetual competition that is the world market.
To begin, I offer the following term coined by a document titled, Government Spying
for Commercial Gain, (Burton 17), which is Traditional Economic Intelligence, it is defined by
the referred document as the act of United States intelligence organizations collecting and
analyzing economic data on behalf of the United States Government decision makers. This
traditional approach does not provide the information gathered to private sectors, instead the
information is used to evaluate a nations condition economically, and often politically, to predict
future actions of the targeted nation, so that United States government may decide where it might
need to later intervene or work to match technologically, through government sponsored research
or subsidies, as to avoid conflict or substantial competition from other nations. This information

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could include the development of a new major market or industry, development of a new
technology, or something on the lines of a trade agreement with a hostile nation. This form of
espionage is constantly used today in most notable nations, however in this discussion I will only
be mentioning the following governments: France, Germany, Brazil, and the United States.
The United States government is notorious for exercising this form of espionage against
its allies and has been criticized by the governments and citizens of the nations it has targeted.
Recently, the United States, specifically the National Security Agency, used modern
technological methods of espionage to monitor the German government, a well-known ally of
the United States, through the cell-phone of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel (Smith). It is
not explicitly stated that the information gathered from her cell-phone was for an economic
advantage, it was possibly for a political evaluation of her likeliness to side with the United
States in United Nations decision making; this is just speculation. In October of 2013, the
United States government was called out by the French government for the National Security
Agencys actions in France. The National Security Agency was accused of recording and
monitoring French citizens telephone data, the Agency was suspected of targeting important
people tied to French politics and business (Bugging Mrs Merkel). The information gathered was
not distributed to private sectors, as far as we know, for it remained within in the confines of the
United States government, the information gathered possibly served as a business advantage for
the United States government. A similar occurrence took place in Brazil when the National
Security Agency broke into the computer networks of Petrobas, a large, government Oil
Company located in Brazil, and stole data from them (Boadle). This was only discovered after
former National Security Agency employee, Edward Snowden, illegally released highly-sensitive
National Security Agency Documents related to the Agencies covert actions within the Brazil

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and abroad. It is speculated that the United States was spying on Brazil for an economic
advantage in because the United States was discovered intruding into Petrobas networks after the
company found the worlds largest deposits of oil within the last decade as well as one of the
largest deposits of oil in the world. A shift of favor in the United Nations towards another
country, the development of a coalition between a state and business to develop an industry, or a
sudden jump in the amount of valuable assets another nation throws at the market can put the
United States in a position of disadvantage.
The United States government spies on its allies not only for economic and political
advantage, the United States spies on its allies to ensure loyalty. During the conflict between the
United States and Iraq in the early years of the 2000s as the United States prepared for an
invasion forcefully relieving Saddam Hussein and his government from power in 2002, it was
discovered that the French government was supporting Saddam Hussein with weapons leading
up to the Invasion by the United States (French connection armed Saddam). The legality and
legitimacy of this deal is still in question as it is claimed that the deal between the French
governments was not sanctioned. It is this sort of under-the-table deal that took place between
the French and Iraqi government that shows it doesnt matter who your ally is, they will regard
their interests above our interests.
The United States government constantly faces opposition by citizens of its target
nations and even some of its own citizens all claiming that it is morally wrong for an ally to spy
on another ally. It may seem unethical, but the purpose of a government is to maintain the
stability of the nation and the stability of its society while putting its people and interests before
the interests of its allies. The primary purpose for the United States to conduct intelligence
mission against its allies are for an advantage in the economy to secure a good financial standing

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for the United States as well as ensuring loyalty in agreements and alliances. Not only is the
United States government organizing intelligence missions to other countries, other countries are
organizing intelligence missions in the United States. John Miller, a former worker at the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence, commented on intelligence missions by other nations
stating, Close military, economic and political allies of the United States conduct regular
intelligence collection operations against the U.S. overseas and in some cases even on U.S. soil
(Trowbridge).
I am going to end with the same statement I made in the beginning because I think that it
is important and it should be further emphasized, We have no eternal allies, and we have no
perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to
follow. I do not want this to be confused with the abandonment of our allies, I just believe that
the United States government should consider the interests of the American people and the
United States before it considers the interests of other people of other nations. If covert
intelligence gathering means the stability, safety, and prosperity of the United States and its
people then I believe the United States government should conduct such missions. Therefore, I
can conclude by saying that I believe that the United States of America should use methods of
espionage against its allies for the best-interest of the nation.

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Works Cited
Boadle, Anthony. NSA spying on Petrobras, if proven, is industrial espionage: Rousseff. 9
September 2013. Thomson Reuters. Internet. 6 May 2015.
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/09/us-usa-security-snowden-petrobrasidUSBRE98817N20130909>.
Bugging Mrs Merkel. 26 October 2013. The Economist Newspaper . Internet. 6 May 2015.
<http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21588428-not-even-german-chancellor-safeamerican-snoops-bugging-mrs-merkel>.
Burton, Mark. "Government Spying for Commercial Gain." n.d. Central Intelligence Agency.
PDF. 6 May 2015. <https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kentcsi/vol37no2/pdf/v37i2a02p.pdf>.
French connection armed Saddam. 8 September 2004. The Washington Times, LLC. Internet. 6
May 2015. <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/sep/8/20040908-1230001796r/?page=all>.
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston. The House of Commons. London: 1 March 1848.
Internet. 6 May 2015.
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Temple,_3rd_Viscount_Palmerston>.
Smith, Alexander. U.S. Spy Scandal Triggers Outrage, Paranoia in Germany. 2 August 2014.
Internet. 6 May 2015. <http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/nsa-snooping/u-s-spy-scandaltriggers-outrage-paranoia-germany-n170366>.
Trowbridge, Alexander. NSA spying: Ally anger justified? 3 July 2013. CBS Interactive Inc.
Internet. 6 May 2015. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-spying-ally-anger-justified/>.

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