The world has become a more dangerous place after Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations, as it helped the people who want to “blow up our families” and evade intelligence, British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Speaking at a news conference during the European Council meeting
in Brussels, Cameron said that the classified data that Snowden
leaked would make it harder for Britain and other countries to
provide security for their citizens.
“What Snowden is doing and, to an extent, what the newspapers are
doing in helping him do what he is doing, is frankly signaling to
people, who mean to do us harm, how to evade and avoid
intelligence and surveillance and other techniques,” he said.
This week’s EU summit has been overshadowed by allegations that
the US has tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, and was spying on France, Italy and other states.
The European leaders were angered by the reports, but Cameron
appeared to be on a different wavelength as he failed to come up
with any condemnation of the US eavesdropping during the two days
of the summit.
Snowden’s leaks are “not going to make our world safer. It's
going to make our world more dangerous. That is helping our
enemies,” Cameron said in some of his strongest comments on
the issue so far.
He warned that “there are lots of people in the world who want
to do us harm, who want to blow up our families, who want to maim
people in our countries. That is the fact.”
Britain came under fire in Brussels following accusations that it
assisted the NSA in its surveillance activities.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta attacked Cameron after media
reports claimed that the UK had intercepted secret Italian
communications and then passed them to the NSA.
Cameron declined to answer questions about Britain's possible
involvement in NSA spying, only saying that its intelligence
services routinely shared information with other European
countries and were subject to proper oversight.
According to Cameron, the people needed to adopt a
“cold-hearted” view of what the intelligence services did
rather than what he referred to as a “lah-di-dah,
airy-fairy” view.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin
Hayden, when asked by the BBC if the US had ever spied on
Cameron, said: "His communications have not, are not and will
not be monitored by the US."
On Friday, EU leaders issued a joint statement saying that the
surveillance in Europe had raised “deep concerns” among
citizens and may harm cooperation between the EU and the US,
particularly in counter-terrorism.
The Telegraph said Cameron was pressured into signing the
document by Germany and France, who are demanding a no-spying
pact between European countries and the US.
The German authorities have also joined forces with Brazil to
push for the adoption of a UN General Resolution that promotes
the right of privacy on the internet, which is seen as a first
major international move to restrain the NSA's intrusions into
the online communications of foreign citizens.
According to The Cable, that the diplomats from the two countries
met with a small group of Latin American and European
representatives in New York on Thursday to consider a draft
resolution that calls for expanding privacy rights contained in
the International Covenant Civil and Political Rights to the
online world.