Wikileaks: US Obligates Foreign Governments to Vet Political Nominees Against NSA Database

Julian Assange described the diplomatic cables leaked by former US Army Private Chelsea Manning as "the vivisection of a living empire," as something that shows "what substance flowed from which state organ and when." 

A brief analysis of these documents quickly proves Mr. Assange's assertion to be true, and a more thorough study soon yields clues as to the extent of influence exerted on foreign governments by America's ever-watchful intelligence apparatus. It was only with the release of files from the United States' signals intelligence agency by Edward Snowden that the world gained confirmation of what four-decade National Security Agency insider, William Binney, had been saying for years.
Binney: Snowden's OG. WKM

Mr. Binney quit the NSA because he grew increasingly dismayed at the agency's wanton disregard for the Constitution, coming to believe before resigning in disgust that to them, "the individual liberties preserved in the U.S. Constitution were no longer a consideration."

Mr. Binney resigned shortly after the attacks of September the 11th, and already by then he knew of NSA plans to intercept and store all of the world's communications, utilizing a massive facility in Utah to eventually crack all encrypted data. It appears that about two years after Mr. Binney retired, the United States was already using its growing databases to look into the lives of foreign politicians, often furnishing information not available even to local governments.

A confidential cable sent from the US Embassy in Santo Domingo in 2004 details a meeting between the US Ambassador and the-then President-elect of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez. Mr. Fernandez, a New York-raised lawyer, detailed that he never tried cases involving narcotics offenses because he had a zero-tolerance policy in the matter.

The US Ambassador implored Mr. Fernandez, nonetheless, to "vet with U.S. databases the names of prospective nominees for sensitive positions." It appears that Mr. Fernandez complied, and subsequent cables indicate that the United States was keeping tabs on the chief of the country's intelligence agency. 

Over a decade later, and US databases have expanded astronomically, with the NSA likely making efforts to "vet" every single foreign leader with influence. Corruption is still rampant in the Dominican Republic, so it's not exactly clear if the databases have worked elsewhere, but the NSA would certainly say that their program prevents terrorism and reduces corruption, much like the KGB did in the Soviet Union. For his troubles, Mr. Binney was harassed by the government and his house was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.