"The United States and its coalition `Five Eye' partners enjoy a close intelligence partnership and do not spy each on each other," writes former CIA officer Mark Lowenthal in his book "Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy." The group includes the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. "Beyond that, all bets are off," he writes.
The U.S. surveillance of its allies is largely focused on activities related to weapons proliferation and corrupt practices, and doesn't generally involve politics, trade or other domestic issues, according to James Lewis, national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He said the U.S. is concerned about companies in other countries who may be selling nuclear technologies or missiles to countries like Iran. He said increased sanctions on Iran have made that less of a problem with companies located in allied nations in the last couple years.
Lewis said the foreign corrupt practices that attract U.S. attention often involve instances of bribery - such as a company offering money to a country in order to secure a contract, or other criminal activities like money laundering or drug trafficking.
Israel and the U.S., two ardent allies, also have a long history of mistrust. The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency's Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.
Russia and the U.S. have a storied history of spying on each other, immortalized in print, film and cartoon, and sometimes still veering into the ridiculous - like the embarrassing publicity after a CIA officer was caught trying to recruit a Russian security officer who was largely inaccessible, with his wig, alternative identification and spying contract ready for the Russian to sign in hand. The CIA officer's cover was blown and a diplomatic incident ensued. The Russian government expressed outrage, but as is customary in these tit-for-tat incidents, no further action was taken. U.S and Russian authorities continue to work together to figure out if one of the Boston Marathon bombers was in contact with terrorists or militants in the former Soviet Union, said the U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing intelligence operations.
Leaker Snowden is believed to be caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, says it may take months to rule on his case. According to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that has adopted Snowden and his cause, he has requested asylum from more than 20 countries.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Snowden will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, but added that Snowden has no plan to stop leaking. Putin repeated Russia's stance that it has no intention of sending Snowden back to the United States, also insisting that the stranded American isn't a Russian agent and that Russian security agencies haven't contacted him.
