BUGGED: German Chancellor Angela Merkel uses her mobile phone during a speech at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, in Berlin on October 26, 2011 (XINHUA/AFP)

In the eyes of the U.S. intelligence community, the whole world appears to be naked. After the recent leaked disclosure by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden about the U.S. prying into others' secrets—even eavesdropping on dozens of heads of state and international organizations including the UN, WTO and IMF—the international community was dumbstruck.

It has been revealed that NSA monitored the phone conservations of at least 35 world leaders. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, government head of a decades-long ally of Washington, has also fallen victim to the U.S. spying program. Reports say that is still just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sprawling U.S. spying mechanism. Indeed, only days later, more sources show that nearly the entire globe has fallen under the umbrella of surveillance. The latest revelation from The New York Times says that two of its most important Asian allies—Japan and South Korea—are also on the agency's official mission list.

Spying is not new in the global community, but wholesale spying is still a taboo. A Western proverb says that "Gentlemen do not read other gentlemen's mail." And one related anecdote points out that when Nazi Germany invaded the former Soviet Union in 1941, the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stopped the UK Government from spying on them by saying "they have become our friends and we do not spy on friends."

With nearly every country on every corner of the world bugged, a question arises: Who does Uncle Sam trust?

State of insecurity

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States gained widespread sympathy and support domestically and abroad to fight terrorist activities. And since then, it began to enhance its anti-terrorist efforts by all means. However, that initial sympathy has seemingly been abused.

"The United States changed its orientation toward national security following the attacks in 2001 and expanded its spying operations, launching a large-scale monitoring system never seen before. This shows a severe lack of confidence in its national security," said Teng Jianqun, Director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). "However, the eavesdropping on foreign leaders and even its allies has nothing to do with anti-terrorism. The unprecedented spying activity has produced an extremely negative influence on international relations."

Under the current embarrassing situation, any explanation from the United States is a feeble one. Observers said the world's sole superpower has become addicted to such acts of espionage.

Though the United States insists its monitoring activity is for its own national security, these excuses are untenable, said Zhang Guoqing, a senior research fellow of the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. For instance, Zhang said, one of the major reasons for Merkel's being on the list of U.S. monitoring activity is that the leading position of Germany in science and the economy has constituted a threat to the United States, while the latter wants to grasp the new developments and plans of Germany to enhance its own position in those fields.

In addition, Zhang noted Germany has already become the economic bellwether of Europe after the continent was hit by a debt crisis. Washington is also interested in Germany's role both in European integration and in its relations with Russia. "The U.S. wants to know what's happening behind the scenes of its European ally," said Zhang.

After the string of revelations surrounding U.S. espionage activities, the U.S. intelligence authorities made little reflection as to the morality of their actions.