Der Spiegel has a lengthy story about NSA surveillance of "friendly" nations, including Germany.
This is the point where I start yawning. What the hell did they think that our spies were doing? They are supposed to spy on foreigners, that's their job. Things have changed since 1929, when Secretary of State Stimson closed down a code-breaking unit with the explanations that "gentlemen do not read each other's mail."
I would be astonished if the Germans didn't have spies working in their erstwhile allies' nations. There were persistent allegations a long time ago that the Japanese government was intercepting every fax sent and received from overseas by every hotel that was popular with foreign (especially American) businessmen, and that the Japanese government was sharing the content of those faxes with Japanese companies.
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2 comments:
Spying is by definition an illegal act. We are breaking the law and numerous treaties with countries who are supposedly our allies. If it not ok for our government to gather "Meta Data" on it's own citizens,and I posit it is not, then it is just as wrong to spy on people who are not even our citizens. Although certainly not surprising, it is still shameful. With friends like us, who needs enemies. I'm glad you find this topic yawn inducing.
All countries spy on one another.
Do you really think that the German Federal Intelligence Service confines its activities to subscribing to the International Herald Tribune?
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