Snowden’s Revelations Highlight Moral Decline of America

Alleged routine US surveillance of internet use and phone calls is “morally problematic,” argues Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research in India. He lists several reasons: designation of a separate set of human rights for foreigners versus citizens; blithe suggestions that the US need not justify violation of non-citizens’ basic privacy rights; US disregard for the rule of law of other countries or its own laws when operating in other countries; US application of a wide range of standards, high for guns but low for privacy, in maintaining balance between security versus liberty goals. Also disappointing, according to Mehta, is a lack of institutional safeguards or political opposition: US citizens who criticized former President George W. Bush for similar activities hesitate to condemn President Barack Obama. The United States will struggle to criticize China or other nations on their surveillance activities, as the US response to a contract worker exposing surveillance targets confirms that there is no overarching global standard for human rights. – YaleGlobal