New spies and new risks

Compared with the raw emotion exposed over the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl, for which three American soldiers in Okinawa await trial, the case of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly spying on the Japanese during car talks earlier this year looks theatrical.

The rape case will be exploited by nationalists and ordinary Japanese who feel that the American bases and troop strength in their country should be reduced, patently so as the war is 50 years past.

Few can be indifferent to the nasty symbolism of the rape, a parallel in Japanese eyes to a war-time victor having its way with the subdued.

Taken together, the two incidents are a disturbing gauge of how fragile trust between the two allies has become.

The Japanese make a show of being incensed over newspaper disclosures that CIA operatives had picked up intelligence about their negotiating position against the Americans over the extent to which they would allow American imports of cars and parts.

In all probability, the Americans will make no response. What this bit of play-acting says is that snooping over negotiating strengths goes on, but make sure you do not get caught. Once it becomes public, it behooves the aggrieved government to make the appropriate noises. In February, the French government asked the U.S. to recall several diplomats suspected of economic espionage.

If the CIA-Japan flap plays out to an anti-climactic end, it would be a relief. The world's two strongest economies do need to back off from the stance of open combat. It is troubling enough that these are the early days of a whole new genre of spying -- and the motivation thereon -- now that the economic struggle among nations is becoming as grim as the old contest over ideology and the military edge deadly.

As surely as bees to honey, more will get into the game simply because there is no alternative when the livelihood of whole nation is the prize. International goodwill...will be the first casualty.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore