http://news.antiwar.com/2013/07/01/obama-spying-on-europeans-standard-practice/

Obama: Spying on Europeans ‘Standard Practice’

Downplays Need for Surveillance But Insists It Will Continue

by Jason Ditz, July 01, 2013

Speaking today from Der es Salaam, President Obama defended the mass surveillance of European diplomats, saying the practice is “standard” throughout the world and would continue despite complaints.

Revelations of the systematic US bugging of European Union buildings in Brussels as well as offices in the United States have fueled a major backlash among EU nations, with officials warning that diplomatic talks with the US will be compromised since the US is known to be listening in on negotiators.

Incredibly, though defiant on the practice, Obama downplayed the need for such surveillance, saying there was “no reason” to rely on intelligence, and that if he really wanted to know what EU officials were thinking he’d just call and ask them.

But despite the huge diplomatic costs, the huge financial costs, and his insistence that the practice is totally unnecessary, Obama insisted that there would always be surveillance of allied diplomats, insists “that’s how intelligence operations work.”

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/07/20137113360142571.html

Bugging row threatens EU-US trade deal

French president asks US to immediately cease spying on European institutions saying it could threaten key trade talks.

Last Modified: 01 Jul 2013 15:49

"We cannot accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies," Hollande told journalists [EPA]

French President Francois Hollande has said reports that the US bugged EU diplomatic missions could threaten crucial free trade talks, despite US efforts to downplay the growing espionage scandal.
Hollande asked the US on Monday to immediately cease spying on European institutions, adding "enough elements have already been gathered for us to ask for explanations" from Washington about the spying allegations.
"There can be no negotiations or transactions in all areas until we have obtained these guarantees, for France but also for all of the European Union, for all partners of the United States," he said.
The French minister of foreign trade, Nicole Bricq, also raised her fears saying "We must absolutely re-establish confidence... it will be difficult to conduct these extremely important negotiations."
Negotiations over creating the world's largest free trade zone between the EU and the US are due to start on July 8 in Washington.

A German government spokesman said if media reports were true, it would be unacceptable Cold War-style behaviour between partners who required trust for a new trans-Atlantic trade area.
Also Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to discuss the allegations with the US President, Barack Obama.
Greece said it was baffled by the reports of covert surveillance and added that it would request "clarification" if there was any truth behind them.
"(Greece) is unable to grasp information that has come to light regarding surveillance of, among others, Greek diplomatic missions from the services of a friend and ally," foreign ministry spokesman Constantinos Koutras said in statement.
EU security sweep
Meanwhile, the EU has ordered a security sweep of its buildings after the spying allegations.
The Commission called in the US ambassador to the EU, William Kennard, for discussions on the issue with Pierre Vimont, the EU's top diplomat.
Earlier in the day, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry said that he did not know the particulars about allegations that the US bugged European Union offices, and that countries involved in international affairs undertook different activities to protect their national interests.
"Every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that. All I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations. But beyond that I'm not going to comment any further until I have all the facts and find out precisely what the situation is" he added.
The latest revelations from US intelligence whistleblower, Edward Snowden, published in a German magazine Der Spiegel showed that the National Security Agency lists 38 embassies and missions and describes them as "targets".
According to Der Spiegel, the NSA taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month, much more than any other European peer.
The list includes the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as other US allies including Japan.
The document outlines how the NSA spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls, but also gaining access to documents and emails.
Surveillance methods included planting bugs into encrypted fax machines and other communications equipment.

Sunday, June 30, 2013 2:13 PM

Spying Out of Control: NSA Bugs EU Offices, Gathers Routine Info On US Citizens; Is NSA Surveillance Legal? Constitutional?

Just to show how far out of line NSA surveillance has gotten, the US is gathering routine information on US citizens and has also been bugging EU offices.

Der Spiegel reports "Senior European Union officials are outraged by revelations that the US spied on EU representations in Washington and New York. Some have called for a suspension of talks on the trans-Atlantic free trade agreement."

Please consider Spying 'Out of Control': EU Official Questions Trade Negotiations

Europeans are furious. Revelations that the US intelligence service National Security Agency (NSA) targeted the European Union and several European countries with its far-reaching spying activities have led to angry reactions from several senior EU and German politicians.

"We need more precise information," said European Parliament President Martin Schulz. "But if it is true, it is a huge scandal. That would mean a huge burden for relations between the EU and the US. We now demand comprehensive information."

Schulz was reacting to a report in SPIEGEL that the NSA had bugged the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington and monitored its computer network (full story available on Monday). The EU's representation to the United Nations in New York was targeted in a similar manner. US intelligence thus had access to EU email traffic and internal documents. The information appears in secret documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden, some of which SPIEGEL has seen.

The documents also indicate the US intelligence service was responsible for an electronic eavesdropping operation in Brussels. SPIEGEL also reported that Germany has been a significant target of the NSA's global surveillance program, with some 500 million communication connections being monitored every month. The documents show that the NSA is more active in Germany than in any other country in the European Union.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who has been sharply critical of the US since the beginning of the Prism scandal, was furious on Sunday. "If media reports are correct, then it is reminiscent of methods used by enemies during the Cold War," she said in a statement emailed to the media. "It defies belief that our friends in the US see the Europeans as their enemies. There has to finally be an immediate and comprehensive explanation from the US as to whether media reports about completely unacceptable surveillance measures of the US in the EU are true or not. Comprehensive spying on Europeans by Americans cannot be allowed."

Elmar Brok, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in European Parliament added his opprobrium. "The spying has reached dimensions that I didn't think were possible for a democratic country. Such behavior among allies is intolerable." The US, he added, once the land of the free, "is suffering from a security syndrome," added Brok, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. "They have completely lost all balance. George Orwell is nothing by comparison."

Green Party floor leader in European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit went even further. "A simple note of protest is not enough anymore. The EU must immediately suspend negotiations with the US over a free trade agreement," he said. "First, we need a deal on data protection so that something like this never happens again. Only then can we resume (free-trade) negotiations."

The US has thus far declined to respond to the revelations printed in SPIEGEL. "I can't comment," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told journalists on Saturday in Pretoria, according to the German news agency DPA.

Evidence Overwhelming

The US has not officially acknowledged that fact but nor has the US denied it. But the evidence is overwhelming. "I can't comment". is the best the US can do.

The Financial Times comments on the mess in EU demands answers over claims US bugged its offices

A diplomatic row over communications surveillance deepened as European ministers reacted with disbelief and fury to reports that EU offices were bugged by US intelligence services.

Der Spiegel said it had gained partial access to a NSA document dated 2010, which was obtained by Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor turned whistleblower.

The document revealed the NSA had placed bugs and tapped into internal computer networks at the EU’s offices in Washington, as well as at the EU’s mission to the UN, according to Der Spiegel. The White House declined to comment.

In Germany, especially, where sensitivities over spying remain acute because of large amounts of snooping conducted before 1989 by the Stasi, the East German secret police, the revelations about extensive US surveillance have caused a political furore.

“It defies all belief that our friends in the US see Europeans as enemies,” Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said. “If EU offices in Brussels and Washington were indeed monitored by US intelligence services, that can hardly be explained with the argument of fighting terrorism.”

Although Germany and the US co-operate extensively on intelligence matters, the partnership is not as deep as that between the US and UK. Together with Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the UK enjoys a privileged status. However, Germany is classified as a “third-class” partner.

“We can attack the signals of most foreign third-class partners, and we do it too,” Der Spiegel quoted a passage in an NSA document as saying.

Meanwhile, Rafael Correa, Ecuadorean president, said on Sunday that Mr Snowden’s fate was in the hands of Russian authorities. The man who first brought the snooping allegations out in the open is thought to still be in a Moscow airport transit zone awaiting news of his asylum request from the South American country.

Legal But Unconstitutional

Washington Post writer Laura K. Donohue, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and director of Georgetown’s Center on National Security and the Law, says NSA surveillance may be legal — but it’s unconstitutional.

The National Security Agency’s recently revealed surveillance programs undermine the purpose of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was established to prevent this kind of overreach. They violate the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. And they underscore the dangers of growing executive power.

The intelligence community has a history of overreaching in the name of national security. In the mid-1970s, it came to light that, since the 1940s, the NSA had been collecting international telegraphic traffic from companies, in the process obtaining millions of Americans’ telegrams that were unrelated to foreign targets. From 1940 to 1973, the CIA and the FBI engaged in covert mail-opening programs that violated laws prohibiting the interception or opening of mail. The agencies also conducted warrantless “surreptitious entries,” breaking into targets’ offices and homes to photocopy or steal business records and personal documents. The Army Security Agency intercepted domestic radio communications. And the Army’s CONUS program placed more than 100,000 people under surveillance, including lawmakers and civil rights leaders.

After an extensive investigation of the agencies’ actions, Congress passed the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to limit sweeping collection of intelligence and create rigorous oversight. But 35 years later, the NSA is using this law and its subsequent amendments as legal grounds to run even more invasive programs than those that gave rise to the statute.

We’ve learned that in April, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ordered Verizon to provide information on calls made by each subscriber over a three-month period. Over the past seven years, similar orders have been served continuously on AT&T, Sprint and other telecommunications providers.

Another program, PRISM, disclosed by the Guardian and The Washington Post, allows the NSA and the FBI to obtain online data including e-mails, photographs, documents and connection logs. The information that can be assembledabout any one person — much less organizations, social networks and entire communities — is staggering: What we do, think and believe.

To the extent that the FISC sanctioned PRISM, it may be consistent with the law. But it is disingenuous to suggest that millions of Americans’ e-mails, photographs and documents are “incidental” to an investigation targeting foreigners overseas.

Congress didn’t pass Section 215 to allow for the wholesale collection of information. As Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who helped draft the statute, wrote in the Guardian: “Congress intended to allow the intelligence communities to access targeted information for specific investigations. How can every call that every American makes or receives be relevant to a specific investigation?”

Illegal And Unconstitutional

New York Times op-ed contributors Jennifer Stisa Granick and Christopher Jon Sprigman make the case that the NSA Actions are both illegal and unconstitutional in their article The Criminal N.S.A.

THE twin revelations that telecom carriers have been secretly giving the National Security Agency information about Americans’ phone calls, and that the N.S.A. has been capturing e-mail and other private communications from Internet companies as part of a secret program called Prism, have not enraged most Americans. Lulled, perhaps, by the Obama administration’s claims that these “modest encroachments on privacy” were approved by Congress and by federal judges, public opinion quickly migrated from shock to “meh.”

It didn’t help that Congressional watchdogs — with a few exceptions, like Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky — have accepted the White House’s claims of legality. The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, have called the surveillance legal. So have liberal-leaning commentators like Hendrik Hertzberg and David Ignatius.

This view is wrong — and not only, or even mainly, because of the privacy issues raised by the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics. The two programs violate both the letter and the spirit of federal law. No statute explicitly authorizes mass surveillance. Through a series of legal contortions, the Obama administration has argued that Congress, since 9/11, intended to implicitly authorize mass surveillance. But this strategy mostly consists of wordplay, fear-mongering and a highly selective reading of the law. Americans deserve better from the White House — and from President Obama, who has seemingly forgotten the constitutional law he once taught.

Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contract employee and whistle-blower, has provided evidence that the government has phone record metadata on all Verizon customers, and probably on every American, going back seven years. This metadata is extremely revealing; investigators mining it might be able to infer whether we have an illness or an addiction, what our religious affiliations and political activities are, and so on.

The law under which the government collected this data, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, allows the F.B.I. to obtain court orders demanding that a person or company produce “tangible things,” upon showing reasonable grounds that the things sought are “relevant” to an authorized foreign intelligence investigation. The F.B.I. does not need to demonstrate probable cause that a crime has been committed, or any connection to terrorism.

Even in the fearful time when the Patriot Act was enacted, in October 2001, lawmakers never contemplated that Section 215 would be used for phone metadata, or for mass surveillance of any sort.

Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican and one of the architects of the Patriot Act, and a man not known as a civil libertarian, has said that “Congress intended to allow the intelligence communities to access targeted information for specific investigations.” The N.S.A.’s demand for information about every American’s phone calls isn’t “targeted” at all — it’s a dragnet. “How can every call that every American makes or receives be relevant to a specific investigation?” Mr. Sensenbrenner has asked. The answer is simple: It’s not.

Let’s turn to Prism: the streamlined, electronic seizure of communications from Internet companies. In combination with what we have already learned about the N.S.A.’s access to telecommunications and Internet infrastructure, Prism is further proof that the agency is collecting vast amounts of e-mails and other messages — including communications to, from and between Americans.

The government justifies Prism under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Section 1881a of the act gave the president broad authority to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance. If the attorney general and the director of national intelligence certify that the purpose of the monitoring is to collect foreign intelligence information about any nonAmerican individual or entity not known to be in the United States, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court can require companies to provide access to Americans’ international communications. The court does not approve the target or the facilities to be monitored, nor does it assess whether the government is doing enough to minimize the intrusion, correct for collection mistakes and protect privacy. Once the court issues a surveillance order, the government can issue top-secret directives to Internet companies like Google and Facebook to turn over calls, e-mails, video and voice chats, photos, voiceover IP calls (like Skype) and social networking information.

Leave aside the Patriot Act and FISA Amendments Act for a moment, and turn to the Constitution.

The Fourth Amendment obliges the government to demonstrate probable cause before conducting invasive surveillance. There is simply no precedent under the Constitution for the government’s seizing such vast amounts of revealing data on innocent Americans’ communications.

One of the most conservative justices on the Court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., wrote that where even public information about individuals is monitored over the long term, at some point, government crosses a line and must comply with the protections of the Fourth Amendment. That principle is, if anything, even more true for Americans’ sensitive nonpublic information like phone metadata and social networking activity.

We may never know all the details of the mass surveillance programs, but we know this: The administration has justified them through abuse of language, intentional evasion of statutory protections, secret, unreviewable investigative procedures and constitutional arguments that make a mockery of the government’s professed concern with protecting Americans’ privacy. It’s time to call the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs what they are: criminal.

Criminal is Correct Viewpoint

There is no doubt that actions by the NSA are both illegal and unconstitutional.

Yet, instead of going after the perpetrators of crimes, the US is going after Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who leaked the documents detailing the illegal surveillance to various news agencies.

Rand Paul on Snowden

Finally, please consider Rand Paul: Clapper Lied, Snowden Told the Truth.

Senator Rand Paul told CNN yesterday that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden will be historically viewed as a truth teller whereas Obama national security director James Clapper will be judged as a liar for telling Congress that the NSA was not spying on Americans.

“I would say that Mr. Snowden hasn’t lied to anyone,” Paul told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “He did break his oath of office, but part of his oath of office is to the Constitution, and he believes that, when James Clapper came in March, our national director of intelligence came and lied, that he [Snowden] was simply coming forward and telling the truth that your government was lying. This is a big concern of mine, because it makes me doubt the administration and their word to us when they talk to us, because they have now admitted they will lie to us if they think it is in the name of national security.”

Paul is referring to Clapper’s March testimony in front of the Senate intelligence committee, during which he claimed that the National Security Agency did “not wittingly” collect data on Americans’ communications.

Following Snowden’s revelations about the PRISM program, Clapper tried to clarify his remarks by stating, “I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner by saying ‘no.’”

“Mr Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law in the name of security – Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy, so I think there will be a judgment because both of them broke the law and history will have to determine,” added Paul.

So, who is the criminal here, and who is the hero? One is wanted on charges of treason, the other is not wanted or charged with anything.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/06/30/german-prosecutors-may-file-charges-over-us-british-surveillance/

German Prosecutors May File Charges Over US, British Surveillance

Justice Minister: US Using 'Cold War' Methods

by Jason Ditz, June 30, 2013

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Recent revelations about the NSA’s broad surveillance of German phone and Internet communications have fueled major concerns in the country, as Federal Prosecutors say they are preparing criminal charges against US and British spies involved.

Hessian prosecutors were the first to receive complaints about the matter, but that is likely to grow precipitously after German media outlets reported the US surveillance has collected more than half a billion phone calls and emails per month in Germany alone.

Though broad internal surveillance is also an issue in the US, the NSA’s policies don’t make spying on Germans illegal as such. The US lists Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand as “second party” nations exempt from surveillance, but considers Germany fair game. The program also explicitly targeted European Union diplomats.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the US policy was “beyond comprehension,” and said that such “Cold War” methods were unacceptable toward allies. Officials are urging the EU to take direct action to stop the surveillance.

http://rt.com/news/germany-summons-us-ambassador-leaks-476/

France and Germany demand explanation for US 'Cold War' spying leaks

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Published time: July 01, 2013 10:25
Edited time: July 01, 2013 11:31

US Ambassador to Germany Murphy speaks to German Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, 2010 (Reuters / Thomas Peter)

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French President Hollande Gives Obama An Ultimatum

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/01/2013 - 07:10

#BREAKING France's Hollande tells US to 'immediately stop' spying

7:07 AM - 1 Jul 2013

Senior US Officials Provide Misinformation on Classified Programs

Key US-EU Trade Pact Under Threat After NSA Spying Allegations

As a result of NSA revelations / dysfunctional foreign policies as well as failed economic policies - will we see so called extremist or non core parties come into power in France and Germany ?

‘France is plagued by bankruptcy and mass immigration’ - Marine Le Pen

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Published time: July 01, 2013 08:52

France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen (AFP Photo / Kirill Kudryavtsev)

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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen believes her National Front party is going to come to power later in the decade and vows to overcome the burden of EU unity. Immigration, economic problems, the military, and gay rights all shape her agenda.

“We are hunted down in all circumstances because we express an opinion that is different from the one-way track of thinking developed by the European Union,” Le Pen said on RT's SophieCo, believing the institution itself to be deeply undemocratic, and noting a surge in the popularity of patriotic parties across the disillusioned continent.

Le Pen heads up the National Front, France’s third-largest party, and has been making concerted efforts to grab France back from European unity which she argued has not done the country any favors.

‘Undemocratic EU’

“All peoples are starting to reject the European Union, which is a deeply undemocratic system that has failed,” she said. “We submit to the demands of Germany,” she stated, shedding light on her trajectory as party leader.

“I’m not here as a bystander, I’m here to come into power and apply the ideas that are mine and that I can see are already being applied in other countries around the world,” she said.

Le Pen was adamant that it wasn’t necessary to stay committed to either the Euro or Europe. “Defending the European Union and the Euro, the single currency that was imposed on us, almost feels like defending a religion. Meaning there’s no exchange of arguments, and to be against the Euro is a sort of blasphemy. So I’m asking for a referendum,” she said, lauding the French national interest as her top priority.

“If I hold a referendum and the people don’t follow me, then of course I will submit to the people’s decision, but I would try to defend France’s interests within the EU,” she added.

Still from RT video

Le Pen believes that a number of the National Front predictions have come true, and a lot of French people have been beginning to recognize the party’s accuracy on a wealth of issues. Of particular note to Le Pen was their anticipation of risks with immigration, and on the economic model.

She said the ‘ultra-liberal model’ had been “imported from and imposed by the United States…which destroys economies and denies the people the riches that they themselves have created, and denies nations their sovereignty,” firmly believing it is not in France’s interests to pursue it.

“Things are getting worse and worse, and these two movements managed to turn one of the world’s richest countries, France, into a bankrupt country with a rocketing unemployment rate, with poverty that continues to rise, with a real feeling of despair, and with a culture that is collapsing,” she said.

‘Freedom for a people comes from control over its borders’

Le Pen proposed tighter border controls on the country, which she described as “bankrupt” and “with a rocketing unemployment rate” – something she has partially ascribed to immigration risks and an economic model imported from the United States. Le Pen said that border controls were important not just in terms of human traffic, but in terms of capital flow and products too.

However, the human element retains special importance for Le Pen. She believes that stricter measures need to be taken to ensure France’s success as a nation as it strikes a balance between manual and intellectual work.

Illegal immigrants eat on February 28, 2013 meals distributed by the "La Belle Etoile" (Pretty Star) association in the port of the northwestern French city of Calais. (AFP Photo / Philippe Huguen)

She says some deterrents are in order so that from the moment immigrants have no further interest in coming to France, they’ll stop.

“Today there are even illegal immigrants who benefit from larger social aid that some French citizens can’t obtain,” she pointed out.

Her immigration proposals and ideas on religion, culture and customs have seen her branded racist by critics.

‘When in France, live like the French’

“I’m being hunted down for saying I think it’s not normal that prayers should be allowed to take place right in the middle of the street, blocking traffic… it was a territorial occupation that is unacceptable,” she said.“Instead of telling them ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do ’our government has told them ‘stay as you are, it’s your right.’”

Le Pen has outlined a system she names the “national priority policy,” which will give preferential treatment to French nationals who possess the same skill to housing and job placements. “This is what I call a small deterrent” she commented, believing more stringent controls to be of economic benefit to French nationals.

‘Austerity measures are a remedy that actually kills the patient’

However austerity measures being imposed by Europe are also having a detrimental impact on France’s economy, Le Pen said, calling them “a remedy that actually kills the patient.” Raising taxes and lowering earnings does nothing but slow down the economy, according to her. “More taxes constrict the economy and so there is less development,” she said, mentioning that their imposition results in a vicious cycle.

The co-president of the Left Party Jean Luc Melenchon marches on June 2, 2013 against austerity in the southwestern city of Perpignan. (AFP Photo / Raymond Roig)

‘Sexuality belongs in the sphere of intimacy’

The economic model ‘imported’ from the USA has been accompanied by gender theory and the introduction of books such as “Dad wears a dress” – a move Le Pen believes should be backtracked upon. “People are free to do what they want morally as long as it doesn’t contradict the law. But to publicize it in schools, as is the case in France?” she questioned.

“Let us review everything that pertains to the freedom of morals, sexuality and therefore the private life. It’s none of the public’s concern.” She mentioned that she worked alongside several gay politicians who kept their private lives out of politics.

‘French leaders are under the influence of Qatar and Saudi Arabia’

Le Pen went on to compare French intervention into the affairs of Mali, Libya and Syria, unconvinced that there wasn’t some inherent contradiction in the action.

“What is incoherent in the behavior of French leaders,” said Le Pen, “is that they fight the Islamists in Mali, but support them in Libya, and in Syria!”

The causes of the seemingly contradictory interventions run much deeper than France, she argued. “Ithink that French leaders are under the influence of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who are pulling the strings far behind the scenes, and who are providing weapons and assisting Islamic fundamentalists across the world.”

“We must denounce that, which is what I’m trying to do in my own country,” she said, denouncing the forms of totalitarianism that are rampant in the 21st century. “There’s Islamism and globalism,” she said

“That’s the totalitarianism of religion on one hand, and of trade on the other. And so I fight it. But I fight it everywhere. In Mali, in Libya, in Syria,” Le Pen stated.

and......

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/opinion/sunday/germans-loved-obama-now-we-dont-trust-him.html?hp&_r=0

Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don’t Trust Him.

Henning Wagenbreth

By MALTE SPITZ

Published: June 29, 2013

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BERLIN — IN May 2010, I received a brown envelope. In it was a CD with an encrypted file containing six months of my life. Six months of metadata, stored by my cellphone provider, T-Mobile. This list of metadata contained 35,830 records. That’s 35,830 times my phone company knew if, where and when I was surfing the Web, calling or texting.

The truth is that phone companies have this data on every customer. I got mine because, in 2009, I filed a suit against T-Mobile for the release of all the data on me that had been gathered and stored. The reason this information had been preserved for six months was because of Germany’s implementation of a 2006 European Union directive.

All of this data had to be kept so that law enforcement agencies could gain access to it. That meant that the metadata of 80 million Germans was being stored, without any concrete suspicions and without cause.

This “preventive measure” was met with huge opposition in Germany. Lawyers, journalists, doctors, unions and civil liberties activists started to protest. In 2008, almost 35,000 people signed on to a constitutional challenge to the law. In Berlin, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest data retention. In the end, the Constitutional Court ruled that the implementation of the European Union directive was, in fact, unconstitutional.

In Germany, whenever the government begins to infringe on individual freedom, society stands up. Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when the government knows too much about someone. In the past 80 years, Germans have felt the betrayal of neighbors who informed for the Gestapo and the fear that best friends might be potential informants for the Stasi. Homes were tapped. Millions were monitored.

Although these two dictatorships, Nazi and Communist, are gone and we now live in a unified and stable democracy, we have not forgotten what happens when secret police or intelligence agencies disregard privacy. It is an integral part of our history and gives young and old alike a critical perspective on state surveillance systems.

When Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister from 2005 to 2009, pushed for the implementation of the data-retention law, Germans remembered the Stasi’s blatant disregard for privacy, as portrayed in the 2006 film “The Lives of Others.” They recalled their visits to the Hohenschönhausen district of Berlin, the site of the former Stasi detention center.

They were reminded of the stories of their grandparents, about the fear-mongering agents in the Gestapo. This is why Mr. Schäuble’s portrait was often tagged provocatively with the phrase “Stasi 2.0.”

Lots of young Germans have a commitment not only to fight against fascism but also to stand up for their own individual freedom. Germans of all ages want to live freely without having to worry about being monitored by private companies or the government, especially in the digital sphere.

That was my motivation for publishing the metadata I received from T-Mobile. Together with Zeit Online, the online edition of the weekly German newspaper Die Zeit, I published an infographic of six months of my life for all to see. With these 35,830 pieces of data, you can follow my travels across Germany, you can see when I went to sleep and woke up, a trail further enriched with public information from my social networking sites: six months of my life viewable for everybody to see what exactly is possible with “just metadata.”

Three weeks ago, when the news broke about the National Security Agency’s collection of metadata in the United States, I knew exactly what it meant. My records revealed the movements of a single individual; now imagine if you had access to millions of similar data sets. You could easily draw maps, tracing communication and movement. You could see which individuals, families or groups were communicating with one another. You could identify any social group and determine its major actors.

All of this is possible without knowing the specific content of a conversation, just technical information — the sender and recipient, the time and duration of the call and the geolocation data.

With Edward J. Snowden’s important revelations fresh in our minds, Germans were eager to hear President Obama’s recent speech in Berlin. But the Barack Obama who spoke in front of the Brandenburg Gate to a few thousand people on June 19 looked a lot different from the one who spoke in front of the Siegessäule in July 2008 in front of more than 200,000 people, who had gathered in the heart of Berlin to listen to Mr. Obama, then running for president. His political agenda as a candidate was a breath of fresh air compared with that of George W. Bush. Mr. Obama aimed to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, end mass surveillance in the so-called war on terror and defend individual freedom.

(Page 2 of 2)

But the senator who promised to shut Guantánamo is now a second-term president who is still fighting for its closure. And the events of the past few weeks concerning the collection of metadata and private e-mail and social-media content have made many Germans further question Mr. Obama’s proclaimed commitment to the individual freedoms we hold dear.

DURING Mr. Obama’s presidency, no American political debate has received as much attention in Germany as the N.S.A. Prism program. People are beginning to second-guess the belief that digital communication stays private. It changes both our perception of communication and our trust in Mr. Obama.

Even as a Green Party politician, I wasn’t impressed with Mr. Obama’s focus on fighting global warming. While his renewed enthusiasm is appreciated, it served as a distraction from the criticism he is currently facing for allowing invasive state surveillance. He cannot simply change the subject.

His speech caused many Germans to question whether Americans actually share our understanding of the right balance between liberty and security. In the past, we celebrated the fact that both countries valued this balance, and there was huge solidarity with America after 9/11.

But the policy decisions of the Bush administration after the attacks — from waterboarding to Guantánamo — appalled Germans. We were shocked to see this mutual understanding disappear. Now we are not sure where Mr. Obama stands.

When courts and judges negotiate secretly, when direct data transfers occur without limits, when huge data storage rather than targeted pursuit of individuals becomes the norm, all sense of proportionality and accountability is lost.

While our respective security services still need to collaborate on both sides of the Atlantic to pursue and prevent organized crime and terrorism, it must be done in a way that strengthens civil liberties and does not reduce them. Although we would like to believe in the Mr. Obama we once knew, the trust and credibility he enjoyed in Germany have been undermined. The challenge we face is to once again find shared values, so that trust between our countries is restored.

Perhaps instead of including a quote from James Madison in his speech, arguing that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare,” Mr. Obama should have been reminded of the quote from another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, when he said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Malte Spitz is a member of the German Green Party’s executive committee and a candidate for the Bundestag in the September national election.

Catharsis Ours

Monday, July 1, 2013

NSA spying on European allies - France , Germany and Italy seen as targets , but UK , Canada , Australia and New Zealand not targets ! German prosecutors may file charges over UK and US spying , France and Germany issue ultimatums to the US !