The Secret Services: Defenders of Democracy

David with the head of Goliath - Caravaggio

In the past weeks, we have been invaded by news stemming from the Snowden Files. Those news prompted France to act shocked; Germany to lose its cool; Brazil to go hysterical and Mexico to deal with it quietly. Other countries also made it to the headlines, but preferred to focus on the French and German circus for a change.

They tried to embarrass the US with these leaks. But in the end, we learnt that France was the one supplying the NSA with the information concerning its national and foreign citizens, after all. I wonder what we are going to learn about Germany - a country that is one of Europe's Islamist Hubs and holds ambiguous positions when it comes to Russia, Iran, Israel (despite their smiling faces), the grave situation in Africa etc.

In truth, these past weeks have been entertaining; however, while people were busy panicking over or insulting the US Intelligence Community (IC); I was busy scrapping the surface of this whole affair.
Underneath the whole "scandal" I found one interesting fact: the western IC suspects there is something profoundly wrong in the political sphere. Something that is threatening to erode our society.

In recent years, the IC has been banalised to the point of not being respected any longer. After the 9/11, 4/11 and the 7/7  - for instance - the secret services fell prey to people's suspicion and disdain. They didn't trust the agencies that (they sponsor with their tax money and that) had allowed those attacks to occur: where were they? People asked. Now, the several agencies cooperate with each other to keep us all safe and still people are not satisfied. But I digress...

The French made a huge scandal and, practically, forced the head of the NSA (Army Gen. Keith Alexander) to expose the extent of the agency's relationship with the DGSE. But what else were the French trying to hide? Given the fact that Germany lost its cool right after President Hollande, and PM Fabius, accused the US of "unacceptable behaviour between friends", we could feel compelled to theorise that France did the German job and then shared the results with its American allies. It is only a speculation, obviously; however, the implications of such act would be rather interesting.
Angela Merkel lost her cool, probably because she found out that despite German's atoning efforts, the allies still do not trust Deutschland.

The Secret Services as Defenders or Democracy

After scrapping some more, I realised the IC is in a privileged position of not only having to keep us all safe, but also of protecting our democracies (from potential infiltrators).

If we look at Europe (one of America's most important trade partners), we must acknowledge that there is a severe problem going on there; one that politicians are having a hard time solving.
Politicians' main job description is to legislate (in a way that benefits the people), to solve problems and keep the people happy - i.e. working, being safe and distracted with futilities. When politicians fail, by system, in doing their job and the people is unhappy for long periods of time, something is deeply wrong and someone is benefiting from it.

This is when democracy is in peril and when the secret services come to its rescue: the establishment needs to know the intentions of political leaders who are systematically unable to solve problems; who are systematically unable to take a firm position in crucial issues and incapable of siding with historical allies; who keep society with suspicious elements; who systematically try to disrupt a country's stability and development etc etc. Certain influential public figures should be under scrutiny as well.

I scrap the surface of events and realise that a new order is being given birth:

Political Community Vs Intelligence Community

Ladies and gentlemen, faites vos jeux.

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