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German Vice Chancellor: the US Threatened Us Over Snowden

Posted by Soulskill on from the apparently-that-works-pretty-well dept.

siddesu sends this report from The Intercept: German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said this week in Homburg that the U.S. government threatened to cease sharing intelligence with Germany if Berlin offered asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden or otherwise arranged for him to travel to that country. 'They told us they would stop notifying us of plots and other intelligence matters,' Gabriel said.

3 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. This is the cost incurred for outsourcing defense by wjhoffman1983 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Without getting into the moral implications of such a threat by the US, this is the cost Germany et. al. pay when letting the US foot the defense bill. The US defense budget pays for a large portion of the defense of the first world. If they don't want to be beholden to the whims of the US, don't depend on the US for defense.

  2. Re:This is the cost incurred for outsourcing defen by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The US imposing military will is hardly the same as countries FORCED BY INTERNATIONAL TREATY TO NOT REARM expecting defense from its allies..

    Remember that little thing with all the jewish people going to camp? well germany's not been allowed to have a military build up.

    Umm, Germany has the eighth largest military in the world. Or were you unaware of that?

    Japan has the ninth, in case you were interested.

    Aside from the Big Three (US, Russia, China), Germany is behind India, UK, France, and South Korea. Which puts them about where they were in 1939 (what, you didn't know that the Wehrmacht in 1939 was smaller than the French Army, much less the combined Anglo-French forces they faced in 1940?).

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  3. Re:This is the cost incurred for outsourcing defen by painandgreed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The only reason Germany ran wild twice was because we (the victors of WWI) botched the unholy shit out of things the first time, basically wrecking Germany and creating a power vacuum.

    I'd say it was a bit more complicated than that. The issues were not Germany's alone, nor that of the losers, nor even the occurance of the Great Depression. The entire 20's and 30's was a three way battle between the idealogies and factions of Democracy, Fascism, and Communism. Italy, Spain, Austria, and Germany fell to fasicsm before WW2 even started.Before they did, there was a see-saw battle in the streets. The foundations of the Nazi party gained prestige when they helped overthrown a communist coup in Bavaria. There was even debate in the US along those idealogical lines.