[Vision2020] nsa

[Paul Rumelhart]

Well, the NSA revelations have managed to piss off France and Mexico, and have now pissed off Germany.  If the US could somehow achieve this level of rage as well, maybe we could get on the road to recovery.

Paul


http://boingboing.net/2013/10/24/us-ambassador-to-germany-summo.html



US ambassador to Germany summoned to explain NSA bugging chancellor Angela Merkel
Cory Doctorow at 7:22 am Thu, Oct 24, 2013 

John B Emerson, the US ambassador to Germany, has been summoned to a 
meeting with Guido Westerwelle, the country's foreign minister, over 
revelations that the NSA bugged chancellor Angela Merkel's phone. Germans are pissed about this. The country's defense minister told a television interview 
that the allegations were "really, really bad" and that there could be 
no more "business as usual" in US-German relations. Merkel herself is 
described as "livid." 


Merkel's political opponents, such as the Pirate Party, had criticized 
her for failing to do enough to bring the US to account over leaks 
regarding bulk US surveillance of Germany; now they're making great 
political capital out of the fact that Merkel herself appears to have 
been directly targeted by US spooks. 


Though, as a Guardian commenter observes: "If Merkel has done nothing wrong she has nothing to fear. If she objects to having her phone tapped doesn't that suggest she might be a terrorist?" 

Quotation from The Guardian:


Merkel was said by informed sources in Germany to be "livid" over the 
reports the NSA had bugged her phone and convinced, on the basis of a 
German intelligence investigation, that the reports were utterly 
substantiated. 
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>The German news weekly, Der Spiegel, reported an investigation by German intelligence, prompted by research from the magazine, that produced 
plausible information that Merkel's mobile was targeted by the US 
eavesdropping agency. The German chancellor found the evidence 
substantial enough to call the White House and demand clarification... 
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>
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>...Merkel told Obama that "she unmistakably disapproves of and views as 
completely unacceptable such practices, if the indications are 
authenticated," Seifert said. "This would be a serious breach of 
confidence. Such practices have to be halted immediately." 
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>The sharpness of the German complaint direct to an American president 
strongly suggested that Berlin had no doubt about the grounds for 
protest. Seibert voiced irritation that the Germans had waited for 
months for proper answers from Washington to Berlin on the NSA 
operations 
Germany summons US ambassador over claim NSA bugged Merkel's phone [Philip Oltermann/The Guardian] 
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