Brazil's Minster of Justice Jose Eduardo Cardozo said on Tuesday that the
spying performed by his country's intelligence agency did not violate anyone's
privacy rights - unlike the spying committed by the United States.
Justice minister Cardozo:
counterespionage “norms”
Brazilian
intelligence
was
only
practicing
Cardozo's comments came after highly-respected newspaper Folha de Sao
Paulopublished a report describing how Brazil's Intelligence Agency, Abin, had
followed Russian, Iranian, and Iraqi diplomats as well as monitoring property
leased by the United States government.
Folha de Sao Paulo's report came on the heels of recent revelations that the
U.S. National Security Agency, or NSA, had previously spied on the private
communications of many Brazilian companies and individuals, including the
emails and phone calls of President Dilma Rousseff herself.
Brazil discovered the U.S. had been monitoring private communications through
documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the NSA.
Brazil's Minister of Justice, Jose Eduardo Cardozo said on Tuesday that his
country was only practicing counterespionage “norms”.
“I don't see what was done as a violation of privacy or rights, and it was done on
national territory. So, if you ask me how does this affect Brazil's image, I would
say that there has been no damage. All countries do, and have to do,
counterespionage. What I can't do is violate the rights of other people. What I
can't do is violate the sovereignty of others,” Cardozo said.
In the wake of the diplomatic firestorm caused by the Snowden leak, Rousseff
has both postponed a scheduled state visit to the U.S. and joined Germany in
proposing an anti-spying resolution to the United Nations.
Germany was one of several other countries other than Brazil that were also
allegedly targeted by NSA espionage. Alvaro Dias, a Brazilian senator, also
said that the difference between the activities of Abin paled in comparison to the
U.S.
”We have 500 million Reales (218 million dollars) for political intelligence and
the United States has 55 billion. This is the difference,” Dias said.