Gentlefolk,
Not only is it not wrong for a country to engage in intelligence gathering, not only is it necessary and normal, but it is a correct and proper activity of a democratic government. Intelligence gathering and espionage (obtaining secret or confidential information about a country, organization, or society without permission), by providing a national government with additional information on which to act, increases the security of the citizens.
There is no issue of Americans being superior, equal to, or inferior to citizens of any other country. The United States gathers intelligence – spies on if you prefer – the UK, which does the same to France, which does the same to Morocco, which gathers intelligence on Egypt which spies on Malaysia, whose agents attempt to find out what Australia is doing, which has a surveillance program on Indonesia, etc, etc, etc.
Here is a link to a list of
over 70 countries with intelligence gathering agencies. Note the names of the first five entries in the list.
Who among us would have prohibited U.S. intelligence organizations from gathering information
which could have prevented 9/11? Who among us would have prohibited British intelligence organizations from gathering the information
which did prevent the bombings of the U.S. bound flights from the U.K.?
Without a doubt, the world would be a more dangerous place were it not for the intelligence gathering organs of the various sovereign nations uncovering the plans that each has for the other and in so doing preventing the more malicious plans.