Publicat el 9 de maig de 2022 a DiariMés
Versió ampliada en anglés. (English version)
The end justifies the forms (English)
The reduction to one sentence of Niccolo Machiavelli's contribution to human relations and also to politics, like all oversimplifications, is unfair. The means may or may not be justified, but all too often what is wanted is to justify the forms. The formality of relationships is neither fortuitous nor conventional. It is, or at least usually is, operational. It has a purpose and a justification. When things go well, perfect. When they go wrong it can always be said that it could have been done differently, in some other way, shape or form.
Sometimes what is sought is to find a formula. Etymologically, formula is diminutive of form: a small form. When the adjective "magic" is added, it is expected to give results, even unexpected ones.
In conflict situations, information is essential. You must first know your situation, your approaches and your strengths. Then you have to know those of the opponent.
The political differences between the Spanish state, officially known as the "Kingdom of Spain", and Catalonia date back a very long time. Differences that have become an acute conflict in recent times and for well-known reasons. In this situation, the state has implicitly and explicitly acknowledged that Catalonia is its adversary. And, in this recognition, the urgent need to obtain information becomes real and urgent.
There is a lot of information, essential and obvious: the Catalan people have expressed their desire to resolve the conflict with the separation from the Spanish state. Catalan leaders, thinkers, scientists, authors, business people and poets have made that clear. People in gigantic rallies of hundreds of thousands on the streets and also voters at the polls in ballots, legalised or not, supported that.. No mysteries there.
There is other information that has to do with immediate intentions or activities that are interpreted as unwanted or, from a totalitarian point of view, illegal. And, above all, the identification of leaders or influential people on whom to act.
To obtain this information the state has dedicated its National Information Centre (CNI) for a long time, with uneven fortunes. For example, they were unable to find any of the ballot boxes in the 1-O referendum. Or to control some criminal Islamists in Ripoll attacking people in Barcelona Ramblas.
Opting for another way to get information, they outsourced the service to an Israeli computer company, NSO Group, which offered a highly effective and supposedly undetectable cell phone communications spying program. The legality of this way of obtaining information is covered by its confidentiality, a state secret. In order to obtain information, the end justifies the forms.
However, that is a very questionable form of carrying politics. Spying political opponents is not accepted in any normal democracy. And spying on common people for just their ideas, political or otherwise, is indecent. Spying on lawyers in charge of the legal defence during a trial, widely exceeds the limits of justice and the legal system. That has been done with the help of cyber resources capable, not only to gather all the information of a cellular phone terminal, but to manipulate the messenger service, insert texts or images, open cameras and microphones without the knowledge of the user. Furthermore, the system used conveys all the information obtained to the system owner, the NSO Group, which then sends it to their client, in this case, the Spanish government. That puts the information in foreign hands and questions their eventual control.
The most basic principle of anyone who deals with sensitive and secret information, which is what spies do, is not to get caught. In the field of communications, cyber or other, it is essential that, in case they are intercepted, they are hidden, encrypted. The National Cryptologic Centre (ICC), a branch of the CNI, is dedicated to this.
Fortune did not accompany them here either. They have been caught and, in addition, there have been difficulties in protecting the communications of several members of the Government, including their Premier.
What remains to be known is what they thought of doing with the information obtained. This is more worrisome. The CNI, like similar intelligence services of different countries, not only gathers information but has assets that may act upon the information obtained. No evidence has been unearthed so far of any “wet” or “black” activities. But as they say in Galicia regarding witches (“meigas”): they do not exist, but they are…
By the way, the fact that "the end justifies the means" is not in Machiavelli's writings. It probably comes from Ovid's poem collection "Heroins", which is much softer, in the line that in love and war, all’s fair. Watch out, then
Xavier Allué
May 2022
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