Scott Rickard: UN unable to take legal action against US government for espionage
Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist from Orlando, to get his take on the United States’ spying on the UN internet traffic.
Following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Can the UN take legal action against the US for its espionage activity against the international body?
Rickard: I don’t think so. I think they would have a hard time doing that. The systems have been installed for quite some time. They have been used against other nations, governments as well as the United Nations officials for decades. So, I’d be surprised to see anyone be successful at holding the intelligence community accountable for their activities.
Press TV: How much has America's espionage scandal damaged Washington's image internationally?
Rickard: I think a lot of the international countries understood this. They saw the fact that their countries have been spied on. They cooperate very heavily, especially in the Five Eyes states. Those countries - Australia, England and several other of the allies - worked very closely alongside the Americans in intelligence collection as well as outside the Five Eyes with Israel. They’re very close in contact with each other. And I think they all know that the spying is going on, especially at international organizations like the United Nations. And certainly it happened during the Olympics. Anytime the Olympics are going on, there’s all kinds of surveillance equipment installed on all the communications devices for the dignitaries and the participants that are heading to that city.
Press TV: How would Washington react if another country did the same against the US?
Rickard: The thing is the other countries don’t have the same access to the central offices. The kind of equipment that is installed to do these types of operations, like equipment from … that basically takes all the fiber communications and duplicates it so that it can be completely monitored. At the same time companies like … Naris, they create the voice communications recording equipment that’s installed at AT&T that basically can record all the phone calls that are made on those networks at the United Nations and elsewhere. Those are actually companies that are founded and headed by individuals from Mossad and Unit 8200, the NSA equivalent in Israel. So, these companies are extremely closely tied with American intelligence and have really no boundaries when it comes to collecting the intelligence not only against UN officials but also against American citizens anywhere else. And the fact that other countries would do this to the United States, they just don’t have the access to the facilities like the Americans do.
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