Barry Grossman, an international lawyer, believes the US decision to expand its spying operations against Russia is nothing new and it has already been done.
“The latest announcement by the US security apparatus about basically rejigging its surveillance systems and its spying network and satellites from focusing on the Mideast to Russia is to be expected, I rather doubt that it wasn’t already done beforehand,” Grossman told Press TV on Monday.
US intelligence services and the military are scrambling to expand spy satellite coverage and communications-interception efforts across Russia amid heightened tensions over the Ukrainian crisis.
The plan for increased surveillance comes as US military satellites spied on Russian troops near Crimea last month but failed to pick up any telltale communications, the Wall Street Journal reports.
However, Grossman said the new move is only to justify what has been done before. “A form of rhetoric is being used opportunistically by the US security apparatus not so much to lobby the public into supporting even greater spying operations but in fact really to justify what it’s doing already.”
“The US really never misses a bit when it comes to pointing out the weaknesses or the alleged weaknesses in its own spying system in order to lay the ground for justifying what’s already been done, what they would like to continue doing and to obtain bigger budget,” he added.
The dispute over Ukraine’s political crisis and reintegration of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea with Russia has sent the US-Russian relations into a steep, downward spiral.
US officials hope the “surge” in intelligence-gathering assets will improve tracking of the Russian military and tip off Washington to any plan by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
AT/ISH
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