[liberationtech] Hey, does the NSA own Germany? Because that would be bad.

[Alberto Cammozzo]

Thank you Kate,
this is an important resource for UE citizens.
A quite extensive and documented coverage on the NSA-BND issue has 
appeared in English on the Electrospaces blog following the hearings.
You may be interested in connecting with them and link their articles.

<http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2014/11/german-investigation-of-cooperation.html>
<http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2014/12/german-investigation-of-cooperation.html>
<http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2015/01/german-investigation-of-cooperation.html>
<http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2015/05/german-bnd-didnt-care-much-about.html>
<http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2015/05/new-details-about-joint-nsa-bnd.html>

Bests,

Alberto

On 17/09/2015 03:59, Kate Krauss wrote:
> Hi Liberation Tech,
>
> I visited a German hacker conference recently, and it gradually became 
> clear to me in talking to privacy advocates that the NSA has a very 
> unhealthy relationship with German intelligence.
>
> ​
> ​It seems that the NSA is colluding with German intelligence agencies 
> (the BND and others) to spy on German politicians, journalists, and 
> citizens.
>
> An inquiry committee of the German Parliament is in the midst of a 
> major investigation to
> ​ get to the bottom of this​
> . It’s also trying to learn whether the US is planning illegal drone 
> strikes
> ​from German soil. And tapping the Internet directly in Munich to send 
> data about Germans directly to the NSA.
> There are even allegations that German intelligence agencies are 
> exchanging citizens’ personal data for expensive surveillance 
> equipment paid for by the NSA
> ​. And the roof of the US embassy in Berlin seems to be an NSA 
> listening post (I guess that's not unusual). Then there's the undersea 
> cable.
>
> The Germans working on this investigation in Parliament are frustrated 
> that news about it isn’t really reaching the international community.  ​
>
>
> Spy agencies for the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia may also 
> be involved (FVEY). But the NSA is by far the best funded and most 
> powerful among them—Edward Snowden revealed that the US intelligence 
> budget was $52 billion in 2013.
>
> The central issue, however, is whether Germany, in bowing to the 
> requests of the NSA, could be gradually turning over its independence 
> to the United States. This is an outrageous claim—but if you let a 
> foreign government spy on your head of government, Chancellor Merkel, 
> and members of
> ​your ​
> Parliament, and you intimidate German journalists who try to cover the 
> story (two were recently investigated for treason)—at what point does 
> that cross a bright line? And if the US has co-opted Germany, one of 
> the most powerful countries in Europe—which other less powerful 
> countries does it own, right now, in secret?
>
> A tiny group of interested Germans and Americans has launched a web 
> site (GermanTransparency.org) and a
> ​Twitter account (@GermanInq) to track this investigation and share 
> information about it with English-speaking journalists, activists, and 
> technologists.
>
> Please read the blog post and news reports on the web site, and follow 
> us on Twitter. The next hearings of this inquiry committee will be 
> held in Berlin on September 2
> ​4, so you have a few days to get up to speed. Berlin is six hours 
> ahead of New York. The hashtag for the inquiry is #GermanInq.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kate Krauss
> ​for GermanTransparency.org
> @GermanInq​
>
>
>


-- 
-
TagMeNot
http://tagMeNot.info
@dontTag