NSA Overreach May Have Contributed To UK's Unwillingness To Help With Syria

from the comes-back-to-hurt dept

As you may have heard, UK Prime Minister David Cameron dealt with something of an embarrassment when the UK Parliament voted down his Syria policy this week. There are a number of reasons why this likely happened, but an editorial in the Guardian notes that the latest NSA surveillance revelations may have had something to do with it:

There is no evidence that British public opinion has turned isolationist. There is plenty of evidence that it is fed up with the debilitating post 9/11 years of national sacrifice, with the humiliating excesses of US national security policy (not least its abuses of human rights and surveillance), with the unequal burden-sharing among allies and, above all, with the failures of policy.

Yes, there are a variety of issues buried in there, but key among them is the "excesses" of the US' "national security policy" complete with excess surveillance. We've been pointing out for a while that these revelations could have wider impact and reverberate much further than US officials seem willing to admit, but this may be a small sign of that in action.

Filed Under: david cameron, fed up, fud, national security, nsa, nsa surveillance, overhype, overreach, syria, uk