Brazil, 24 Jul (Xinhua) -- The Brazil president has been monitored by the United States
Xinhua News Agency reporter Bian Zhuodan
Brazil media recently reported that the United States government has been monitoring Brazil President Lula for 50 years. After the news was exposed, it caused an uproar.
Analysts pointed out that United States's interference in adhering to the "Monroe Doctrine" and treating Latin America as its own "backyard" has never changed, and the US surveillance of Lula disclosed this time is the latest example. Relying on its hegemonic status and technological superiority for a long time, the United States has continuously expanded its "surveillance map" around the world, conducted indiscriminate surveillance on countries including its allies, and acted recklessly to safeguard its own selfish interests, seriously undermining the sovereignty of other countries and undermining the international order.
This is the United States Capitol photographed in Washington, the capital of United States, on April 23. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
Half a century of surveillance
Lula's biographer Fernando · Moraes recently revealed that his writing team recently obtained 819 documents about Lula from different agencies in the United States from 1966 to 2019, showing that the United States government has been spying on Lula for more than half a century.
According to Brazil media reports a few days ago, most of the documents written in the name of "research reports" obtained by Moraes came from the United States Central Intelligence Agency, amounting to 613 documents, including Brazil's military plans and information about Brazil's oil production. In addition, there are 111 documents from the United States State Department, 49 documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency, 27 documents from the Department of Defense, and a number of other departments.
Moraes said that the "research report" he currently has received is up to 2019, and it is unknown how many more "research reports" there will be in the last five years, especially since Lula starts his third presidential term in 2023. Brazil political analysts believe that the number of "studies" on Lula may be far greater than imagined.
On July 22, Brazil President Lula participated in a dialogue with foreign media in Brazil in Brazil. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Lucio · Tavola)
The length of the United States government's surveillance of Lula and the scope of its content are staggering. After the media exposure, Gracy · Huffman, president of the Brazil Labor Party, posted on social platforms: "Since Lula joined the union in 1966, to participating in the creation of the Labor Party, serving as president, and even being imprisoned, the United States has been monitoring him." "They spy on our defense, our foreign relations, and who knows what else!"
The hegemonic style of the "Monroe Doctrine".
This is not the first time that United States surveillance of Brazil has been exposed. In 1994, the United States National Security Agency intercepted a call between France's Thomson-Wireless Telegraph Corporation and Brazil about the Amazon rainforest monitoring system, which ended in a $1.4 billion contract for the monitoring system to Raytheon in United States; In 2013, Brazil media exposed United States NSA surveillance activities against then-Brazil President Dilma Rousseff and other members of the government; In the same year, Wired magazine United States revealed that the United States National Security Agency had also monitored Brazil oil companies......
This is the headquarters of the Brazil oil company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 4, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Tiancong
Since James · Monroe, the fifth president of United States, delivered his State of the Union address more than 200 years ago, throwing out the so-called "America is the America of the Americans," the "Monroe Doctrine" has become one of the cornerstones of United States' foreign strategy. Brazil political analysts pointed out that the US surveillance of Brazil officials, including Lula, reflects its imperialist hegemonic mentality of treating Latin America as its own "backyard", and also exposes the essence of the "Monroe Doctrine" interfering in the internal affairs United States of Latin American countries.
"In recent years, United States' control over its so-called 'backyard' appears to have loosened on the surface, but this is based on the strengthening of another kind of control — focused surveillance." Marcos · Pires, a Brazil political economist, told reporters that "United States government agencies have reached an unbridled level of surveillance of key figures in various fields of the Latin American United States." ”
Many people in Brazil's political and academic circles believe that the United States government keeps saying that it respects other countries, but in fact it has been trampling on the sovereignty of other countries. Brazil columnist Reinaldo · Azevedo pointed out that United States regards Brazil as its "backyard" and "part of the United States group" and believes that Brazil should be subordinated to the interests of the United States; Brazil, on the other hand, sees the two countries as cooperative and commercial partnerships, and wants to maintain its diplomatic independence, which makes United States "unhappy." He also believes that Brazil is a key member of the "Global South" and a member of the BRICS, which also makes it a target for United States containment and suppression.
A surveillance empire that "discriminates equally".
For a long time, United States has carried out large-scale and indiscriminate surveillance around the world, from the "Black Box Project" after World War I, the "Clover Operation" after World War II, to the "echelon system" during the Cold War, and then to the "Prism" secret surveillance project exposed in 2013, the scope of United States surveillance is extremely wide and there are many victims. Timofy · Bordachev, program director of the Valdai International Debate Club, a Russia think tank, commented that United States believes it is necessary to peek into all the cracks around it, and bugs must be placed at every angle.
In recent years, scandals about United States' spying on other countries have been exposed from time to time, and many "allies" have become the objects of Washington's "key attention." Germany's "Der Spiegel" magazine once broke the news that the United States has set up listening stations in Berlin, Paris, Geneva and other European cities. The "WikiLeaks" website also disclosed that former Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and former France presidents Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande and other European dignitaries were monitored by the United States during their tenure. Secret U.S. military documents circulating on social media last year show that United States is eavesdropping on U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and leaders of allies or partner countries such as Korea, Israel and Ukraine.
Journalists open a web page in Moscow, Russia, July 12, 2013, to read a message from Edward ·, a former United States defense contractor. In 2013, Snowden exposed to the media the large-scale secret surveillance project of the US "Prism", which included then-Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and other dignitaries. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Kehong
Today, United States' foreign surveillance behavior has become "institutionalized." In the name of "anti-terrorism," the US government has continuously expanded the authority of its security agencies to facilitate its surveillance of other countries. Among them, Section 702 of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows US intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance on "foreign targets" without court permission and collect their phone calls, text messages and Internet communications. In April, Section 702 was approved in the United States Congress. Over the next two years, United States intelligence agencies not only retained their power, secured higher budgets, but also expanded their surveillance.
Analysts have pointed out that the United States is monitoring and monitoring other countries under the banner of "safeguarding national security," but in fact it is stealing other countries' secrets, interfering in other countries' internal affairs, acting recklessly and recklessly to maintain its own hegemony, and seriously undermining international rules and order. Finland an opinion piece on the website of the Helsinki Times said that United States cyberespionage and years of surveillance of allied leaders reveal the ways of a hacking state, United States the most serious threat to global cybersecurity.
Azevedo pointed out that the world today has shown a trend of multipolarization, and it is wrong to think that the United States is still the hegemon of the unipolar world. However, the United States is still watching its so-called "Latin American backyard" and the whole world. "When a declining empire thinks it is an empire, it does something like this." (Participating reporter: Kan Jingwen)
Source: Xinhuanet