Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has canceled preparations for a planned visit to the White House, Agence France-Presse reports.
Rousseff is reportedly furious about leaks detailing how the National Security Agency spies on her private communications, according to Reuters.
The formal state visit to Washington next month was planned to discuss a possible $4 billion jet-fighter deal — which is reportedly also in jeopardy— as well as cooperation on commercial agreement on oil and biofuels technology.
The annoucement comes as a surprise in the sense that international espionage is not illegal, and there are indications that Brazil's government spies on communications of its citizens.
In June Dr. Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, an international expert on laws governing cyber conflicts and cyber warfare, told Business Insider:
"Let's be quite clear: Intruding into another state's systems in order to figure out what's in there — that's simply espionage, everybody's doing it. ... The answer of international law [regarding espionage] is: 'Don't get caught while you're doing it on foreign territory.' That's all."
On the other hand, the U.S. got caught. Meaning that Rousseff's reported cancellation is part of the political fallout of Edward Snowden's leaks.
Here's the reaction of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil and has provided the country's government and media with evidence of NSA spying:
