European Union Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding says the NSA surveillance of top allies has nothing to do with terrorism, and may instead be an effort to seek advantages for American corporations.

CBS News:

European lawmakers are also accusing the U.S. of probing financial transactions and Reding questioned whether the U.S. used security as an excuse to gain an economic upper-hand.

“Why are you sucking up information and why are you listening to the phone of a head of state, head of government?” she asked. “Why you listen to the phone of millions of innocent Europeans? This has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. Maybe it has to do with getting commercial secrets to be sucked out.”

It’s not the wildest accusation. Former CIA agent Robert Baer wrote a great book about how the National Security Council during the Clinton administration was, from his perspective, obsessed with the interests of American oil companies abroad. Of course history is littered with other examples of U.S. (and other countries’) intervention on behalf of corporate interests. Another great book on the subject (though this one is a novel) is John le Carre’s “The Mission Song.”

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer