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German Authorities Lack Evidence To Prosecute Anyone For NSA Spying
jfruh (300774) writes "The revelations about the NSA's surveillance program caused particular outrage in Germany, a country that is closely allied with the United States but nevertheless found that its leader's cell phone was being snooped on. Nevertheless, the German federal prosecutor's office will not be bringing any charges against anyone, mostly because they lack enough evidence (Google translation). The decision is sparking anger among German privacy advocates."
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People in power should have to prove their innocence.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I would advise Germany to mind its own business unless they want America to make an example of them similar to what America did to Japan at the end of WWII. Why people should act surprised that countries spy on each other is beyond me. They need to spend more time securing their communications rather than crying about how unfair it is that they are being spied on. This is something the Nazi's understood quite well, and something that the current crop of Germans apparently does not.
Translation: The NSA has some information about their politicians that would be... Unfortunate if it was accidentally revealed in a trial.
We have treaties left over from WW2 that interestingly were put in place. There is a Professor at Freiburg University who says what the NSA is doing in Germany is basically legal. He even claims that the German secret service can legally assist the NSA.
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/historiker-foschepoth-ueber-us-ueberwachung-die-nsa-darf-in-deutschland-alles-machen-1.1717216
We also have a quite unspecific exception clause in Artikel 10 (section 10) of our Grundgesetz (constituiton), that restricts applicability of telecommunications secrecy.
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_10.html
"Ja, Ve investigated but der Amerikans undt Birtish vouldn't answer zee question and zee others vent all Sgt Schulz on uns"
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, leaders realized such a prosecution would open a can of worms that could lead to very embarrassing disclosures about German activities and complicity in the spying. No politician wants to be caught in that mess, and the spymasters are quite happy to keep working together while the politicians publicly denounce the spying for their own political ends. I would not be surprised if sone of the professionals are going "We have too get some of that stuff for ourselves" and "Holy crap. They can do that?"
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
The NSA couldn't spy and monitor in Germany without the close and widespread collaboration of the German government and German corporations.
What they are really saying is that they couldn't find someone to shift the blame to outside the government or the corporations close to the government.
Coward, corrupt scum. Paid from our tax monies. I'd fire them if I could.
If you want the power, you must pay the price.
This attitude ensures that we are governed by people that love power.
That's why I think we should have lotteries for political service. Once you hit voting age and legally able to vote, you are automatically entered into the service lottery and you serve one term and one term only in that office.
Once you do one mandatory service period, one can choose to volunteer to be placed back into the lottery pool for another office other than the one you served in.
This will take a bit of the money out of politics, end career politicians and I really think it would lead to a much fairer democracy and republic.
Good. The Germans have earned their 1,000 year bitch status. In 2945 they can ask the USA to stop spying.
It was probably like this.
If you try that shit we'll fucking nuke you!
"follow the money" has gotten trite, but I have to wonder if the German federal government's decision not to pursue this is in any way tied to the large amount of German gold we are holding for them. As I recall, they asked for it back a couple years ago and the US declined to ship it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Good. The Germans have earned their 1,000 year bitch status. In 2945 they can ask the USA to stop spying.
How has asking the fox to guard the henhouse worked out historically? Good for the hens?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Considering how some European countries are so protective of their language, I bet they refused to accept the evidence at hand, because it was in English instead of German.
We know the NSA eavesdropped on Merkel, it's been admitted, essentially. The more interesting thing to ponder is, was it just one instance of listening to a single call, or has the NSA been listening in on pretty much ALL her calls? I think we know the answer to that. And, is Merkel the only world leader, person of importance, etc., being monitored? I think we know the answer to that, too. Pretty much EVERY world leader, and person of importance is being monitored as long as they are able to, and there's little doubt anyone they can't listen in on is particularly interesting just for that reason alone and gets extra attention. In any event, those who can't be monitored are few and far between.
When a new US President enters office, he's briefed by the intelligence community about all the interesting things known around the world that are not common knowledge. Of course, some of those things are probably bogus because anyone with any brains figures they're being spied upon and the best way to deal with that is to make use of it by feeding it with disinformation. Be that as it may, any President thinks he knows far more about the goings on in this world than the American public (and he probably does, that's not really saying much). The President undoubtedly knows enough to have a jump on the stock market, if he wants it, by knowing what moves world leaders are about to make. And the American public is then expected to be knowledgeable enough to vote intelligently? No, this excess information has turned the American government into a cynical paternalistic and tyrannical force, that more accessible health care, a little bit of social security, lower taxes, television and ready access to guns is supposed to fix. Sorry, but that's just not enough to make it any less cynical, less paternalistic, or less tyrannical.
Of course, supposedly no hard evidence or witnesses.
The general attorney is part of the ministry of justice ... Merkel and other leading politicians have made it clear they do not see any reason to prosecute the U.S. for the privacy invasion the NSA has committed ... now, the general attorney decides there's not enough evidence. Go figure.
All lying bastards ... too bad the general public does not understand (or care) what most politicians are doing ...
Interestingly or not; anti-American-spying sentiment in various countries on the European continent were at their highest a week before the Maidan Square protests. Same time, the Russian Navy was the only thing stopping a full-on Israeli backed assault on Syria (the Russian ships were to receive Syrian chemweapons for disposal in line with Oslo).
Over the last two decades or so, the americans window into European policy (in terms of the war on weed) was through Sweden. America, through that window, prevented legalisation efforts on numerous occasions over the years. The same window is being used to attack Snowdon and wikileaks, in turn, attacking the freedoms of all Peoples on (and off) the European continent.
So the Israelis want a war with Syria or Iran, and to that end, we all have to be considered "turd errists", because then they can justify their AMDOCS phonetaps, their AKAMAI packet-exchange filtering, and all the other data-hoards they amassed. When the public realise we`re all getting shafted, and bring contention against their data-misdeeds, they foment a "crisis" in the Ukraine.
Germany is an old dog, been beaten, bled within an inch of it`s life, but not put down; the hardworking nature of the German folk has been conducive to savings rather than debt, and they buy cars and homes outright, rather than take loans. That's why the subprime didn't hit them; but the "eurocrisis", that hits out like when the proverbial hits the fan. For the yankees to NOT SPY ON EVERYONE would be akin to letting the countries` Peoples be FREE. So they had to do it, and cover it up.
If the French right wing, or the BNP ever found out that the Israelis have been touting them as "tud errists" to be eternally spied on, well then, the Ukrainians would never wanna join the jEUROCRAZY CLUB.
If you wanna learn about the all-intrusive surveillance-state, ask the Palestinians.
There are so very many responses available. Just off the top of my head --
- Call the US ambassador and make a formal request for the names of individuals involved in the spying.
- Bar US companies from selling products and services to the German government or any German company involved with critical infrastructure (e.g. telecoms).
- Bring lawsuits in the US court system.
- Bring suits in the appropriate international forums for trade violations and violations of basic human rights.
- Issue warrants against key US individuals. Detain them upon entry anywhere in the EU.
Point is, if they wanted to make a real stink they could. Since they aren't, they must privately be fine with what the NSA and Obama's court jesters are doing.
The fact that Snowden claimed it happened isn't proof.
... and so is the NSA... see the conflict of interest?
I wonder why the poor, hard done by Jews were so desperate to go and live in GERMANY, after the German people have voted Hitler into power, so he could rid Germany of the Jews in the first place? Can't they stand living among their own kind? I wonder why...
Suing for spying? I would expect that type of thing to be an American invention.
Table-ized A.I.
sNOwden confessed already to spying. Start with him.