Editor's note: Anthony Moretti is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

One of the most embarrassing moments in Barack Obama's presidency occurred in late 2013, when he was forced to apologize to the then French President Francois Hollande and the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Those apologies were necessary because among the many pieces of intelligence leaked by Edward Snowden was evidence that the National Security Agency had been spying on French citizens and on the German chancellor.

Strike one, you might say.

Fast forward to 2021, and Joe Biden, who, like Obama, had been in office less than a year when he was hit by a spying scandal. This time, Danish state media reported that Denmark's intelligence agencies had assisted the Americans in the spying that had taken place from 2012 to 2014. This time, it was French President Emmanuel Macron and the same German chancellor Merkel who demanded answers from the U.S. president.

Strike two, you might say.

Fast forward again, this time to 2023, and here we go again. Newly leaked documents – and it is not yet clear from whom, although most definitely not Snowden – assert that the American government has regularly spied on South Korea and Israel. Remember, South Korea is one of America's strongest allies in Asia, and Israel is its reliable friend in the Middle East.

Strike three?

A portion of the leaked documents suggest that the U.S. government was eager to convince South Korea and Israel that it needed to send weapons to Ukraine. Some of the files show that the South Korean government was unable or perhaps unwilling to support the American effort. Closely related to that, other documents indicate that the U.S. government was attempting to push the right buttons so that Israel would be convinced to send weapons as well. To this point, neither country has contributed to arming Ukraine, or if it has done so, it has been done covertly; the release of these classified files would lead any rational person to conclude that there is no way they will ever send arms to Ukraine now.

No one likes the airing of dirty laundry, and the recent leaked documents scandals, including the one the country is dealing with right now, serves as a reminder that Washington spies on its allies and its enemies. Taking responsibility for those actions and admitting that they are done, and perhaps attempting to explain why they are necessary, would be the approach consistent with America's belief in its exceptionalism. However, history tells us that once the leaker is identified, an effort will be made to label that person as a traitor.

Daniel Ellsberg certainly knows that. He was responsible for the leaking of the information in 1971 that eventually became known as the Pentagon Papers. Those documents exposed the wider effort the U.S. military had made to tamp down Communism in Vietnam. One document noted a commitment to rein in China. For its efforts, Ellsberg spent the next several years attempting to convince a skeptical public and often hostile political elites that his goal was not to damage national security, a convenient trope used by official Washington, but to ensure that the American public knew that the war in Vietnam was doomed. He was convicted of multiple charges and could have served more than 100 years in prison. However, a judge threw out the convictions because the government engaged in the illegal wiretapping of Ellsberg and other misconduct.

The aforementioned Snowden also knows that he is considered a traitor throughout Washington. Again, he is the man who distributed numerous documents pertaining to the National Security Agency, and many of those files demonstrated that the government was spying on friends and foes. Snowden eventually moved to Russia, and he has said on multiple occasions that he knows that he would have no chance at a fair trial should he ever return to the United States.

In effect, the attempts to label people such as Ellsberg and Snowden as traitors are a sign of deflection. This effort at deflection is necessary because citizens of even more countries now know that their governments are being spied on by Washington's eager-to-reach-anywhere-around-the-world tentacles.

In 2013, Washington wanted to convince domestic and international audiences that Snowden was doing the bidding of one of America's enemies, perhaps Russia or China. They failed. Snowden's revelations left little doubt that the U.S. treated its friends with contempt (and its enemies worse). We should expect in the coming days that there will be an attempt to characterize the person responsible for this current leak scandal in the same way. Who will believe such claims this time?

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