Editorial | US intelligence fiasco a wake-up call for all
- Hypocrisy of outrage over China’s alleged spy balloon exposed by leaks that show Washington has been snooping on friends
On the seismic scale of intelligence leaks, the latest from the Pentagon appears to be much less significant and damaging than those released by Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks in the past decade. It is still extremely embarrassing for Washington.
A 21-year-old Air National Guardsman has been arrested. He was involved in a social media platform used by only dozens of people, where the documents first surfaced.
Despite the arrest, it’s still unclear whether the leak was a hack or a disinformation campaign.
At the very least, the intelligence documents, some marked “top secret”, show the US has been spying on the government of South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, one of Washington’s staunchest supporters in the Asia-Pacific. That rather exposes the hypocrisy of Washington’s outrage over China’s alleged spy balloon, shot down with much fanfare in February.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken even postponed a visit to China over that.
