The five eyes: A shady spy club
That can effectively monitor the entire populations of its member states.
“If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealth be added to that of the United States, with all that such cooperation implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe, and in science and in industry, and in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. On the contrary there will be an overwhelming assurance of security.”
-Winston Churchill
This is an excerpt from an extremely famous speech given in 1946 by Britain’s former Prime Minister Winston Churchill called Iron curtain. This speech marks the start of the Cold War.
It also marks the start for a call of Anglosphere unity. Churchill in this speech says, and I quote, neither the prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of word organisation will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples.
This speech can be interpreted as the justification for the grouping of the Five Eyes.
During World War II, while Britain and US were working together on their common goal to limit the axis power they realised that they can decipher German and Japanese codes. This led to routine exchange of information and later, meetings.
During this time, an informal agreement was made. In 1943, this agreement started being reffered to as the BRUSA agreement, which later evolved into the UK and USA alliance (UKUSA) in 1946, exactly the day Churchill delivered the Iron Curtain speech. Canada joined the alliance in 1948, followed by Australia and New Zealand in 1956.
The UKUSA agreement was first disclosed to the public in 2010, almost 65 years after it was signed, and no nation had officially recognized it until 1999.
This arrangement was kept such a well-kept secret that it’s said that Gough Whitlam, the prime minister of Australia (1972-1975), didn’t know about it until 1973.
While Five Eyes remained an enigma to the general public for most of its history, it came into major controversy in 2013 due to the disclosure of classified documents by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor. The documents revealed the jointly operated mass surveillance conducted by the Five Eyes to monitor the citizens of each other’s countries. Snowden called this network a "supranational intelligence organization that doesn’t answer to the laws of its own countries.”
Five eyes has again come into the limelight due to Canada’s serious allegations against India for the killing of an Indian-origin Canadian Citizen.
While the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists on having credible sources for these allegations, he still hasn’t clearly stated the source of his “credible sources”.
Through an article from the New York Times it’s believed the Five Eyes is the source of this information. Due to this Canada right now is in an awkward position. While they cannot reveal their true sources because that will diminish Five Eyes security and secrecy, they also cannot without stating the source of their information convince India to cooperate with them.
What do you think about this whole situation? I’d love to know!
