Surveillance programs reveal US hypocrisy

US Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of the US Cyber Command, director of National Security Agency (NSA), testifies before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington D.C. on June 12, 2013. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

In the past years, the US Government has been blaming other countries for threatening cyber security. However, the recent leakage of the two top-secret US surveillance programs of the National Security Agency (NSA) has smashed the image of the US as a cyber liberty advocate and revealed its hypocrisy.

Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old defense contractor, revealed last week that the NSA is monitoring a wide swath of telephone and Internet activity as part of its counterterrorism efforts.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong Wednesday that the United States is involved in extensive hacking operations directed against China.

In an interview with the newspaper, Snowden said he wanted to demonstrate "the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries."