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German Intelligence Helped NSA Spy On EU Politicians and Companies
An anonymous reader writes: We've known for some time already that intelligence agencies operate beyond rules, laws, and regulations. Now, we learn that the NSA and the German intelligence service, BND, lied and withheld information about misuse from the German Chancellor's Office.
"The BND realized as early as 2008 that some of the selectors were not permitted according to its internal rules, or covered by a 2002 US-Germany anti-terrorism "Memorandum of Agreement" on intelligence cooperation. And yet it did nothing to check the NSA's requests systematically. It was only in the summer of 2013, after Edward Snowden's revelations of massive NSA and GCHQ surveillance, that the BND finally started an inquiry into all the selectors that had been processed. According to Der Spiegel, investigators found that the BND had provided information on around 2,000 selectors that were clearly against European and German interests. Not only were European businesses such as the giant aerospace and defense company EADS, best-known as the manufacturer of the Airbus planes, targeted, so were European politicians—including German ones.
However, the BND did not inform the German Chancellor's office, which only found out about the misuse of the selector request system in March 2015. Instead, the BND simply asked the NSA to make requests that were fully covered by the anti-terrorism agreement between the two countries. According to Die Zeit, this was because the BND was worried that the NSA might curtail the flow of its own intelligence data to the German secret services if the selector scheme became embroiled in controversy.
"The BND realized as early as 2008 that some of the selectors were not permitted according to its internal rules, or covered by a 2002 US-Germany anti-terrorism "Memorandum of Agreement" on intelligence cooperation. And yet it did nothing to check the NSA's requests systematically. It was only in the summer of 2013, after Edward Snowden's revelations of massive NSA and GCHQ surveillance, that the BND finally started an inquiry into all the selectors that had been processed. According to Der Spiegel, investigators found that the BND had provided information on around 2,000 selectors that were clearly against European and German interests. Not only were European businesses such as the giant aerospace and defense company EADS, best-known as the manufacturer of the Airbus planes, targeted, so were European politicians—including German ones.
However, the BND did not inform the German Chancellor's office, which only found out about the misuse of the selector request system in March 2015. Instead, the BND simply asked the NSA to make requests that were fully covered by the anti-terrorism agreement between the two countries. According to Die Zeit, this was because the BND was worried that the NSA might curtail the flow of its own intelligence data to the German secret services if the selector scheme became embroiled in controversy.
People think the NSA is a government organization. It's not really anymore. It's a captured entity essentially run by private security services contractors. It's in their best economic interest to undermine your freedom so they can make a buck.
They tell congress and the president that there are terrorists everywhere, in every network, and on every phone call. In turn, they get a blank check an zero oversight. No audits. Those that can lie and get away with it always do.
Economic espionage isn't just likely, it's inevitable.
Remember, Snowden was a contractor. Just a flunky hired by a company that had access to sensitive data because of lax oversight.
What if Snowden sold his info to Chinese companies instead of given it to wikileaks? Or American companies? Or Russian ones? We're lucky he did the right thing but you're stupid if you believe someone else already hasn't been using their access to make a buck.
To say NSA lied is not supported by the articles linked in the summary. We have enough to criticize NSA about without exaggerating the facts to fit our desire to believe it is a monolithically monstrous organization whose agents use the U.S. Constitution for toilet paper. And when we go beyond the facts, any legitimate criticism is diluted, because what we say is easily swept aside as a pile of prejudice from conspiracy theorists.
The BND didn't do its job of actually reviewing the selectors. Much like U.S. congressional and judicial oversight both failed to reign in controversial NSA programs. I can't help but wonder sometimes what the Americans at NSA think about all this. Call me heretical, but I bet at least some of them are motivated by a desire to thwart the next 9/11, and want to do so in the right way, too. But intelligence is a contact sport, and laws and executive orders are often ambiguous. So are they like the athletes that have to ratchet up the aggression until the officials start calling penalties before the limits are truly known?
They are traitors and should be jailed. In fact, since they believe they're involved in a "war on terror", maybe we should try them for treason under military law.
Also, I wouldn't trust the statement that the chancellors office didn't know anything.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Instead of having to spy on the EU themselves, the NSA hires BND to do it for them. Super. Actually, a satire magazine in Germany might have an answer to that why the BND spied on the EU and told the Us its findings. The job of the BND is called Auslandsaufklärung which can be misunderstood as enlighten foreign countries instead of be enlightened about foreign countries. As they have acted dumb before, it is possible that this is the correct solution and they are not a bunch of illegal, uncontrolled traitors. BTW their budget increased in recent years while all others shrunk. The bitter truth is that most likely the present German foreign minister knew about that and so did chancellor Merkel and they will get away with that treason.
" European businesses such as the giant aerospace and defense company EADS, best-known as the manufacturer of the Airbus planes, targeted, so were European politicians"
Why would you spy on private companies and your allies? The only reason that comes to my mind is economic gain... The NSA, etc serve economic interests, not safety.
Here is a question and what point does a countries espionage agents cease to be their agents and become more accurately double agents working for another country. So did German intelligence do this or did German nationals working as American espionage agents do this. The law would say, that they were not German Agents but American agents who happened to be German nationals working in German intelligence services. The exact same thing applies to most of the others in one eyed, eight blind mice group.
Those double agents are not working in the interests of their country, they are working in the interests of the corrupt US corporations that control the US government. Imagine nine countries intelligence services all managing the global fuck up that has been the 'WAR ON TERROR'. Now how many of them were actually treasonously 'in the know'.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen