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Germany Won't Prosecute NSA, But Bloggers

tmk writes: Despite plenty of evidence that the U.S. spied on German top government officials, German Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range has declined to investigate any wrongdoings of the secret services of allied nations like the NSA or the British GCHQ. But after plans of the German secret service "Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz" to gain some cyper spy capabilities like the NSA were revealed by the blog netzpolitik.org, Hange started an official investigation against the bloggers and their sources. They are now being probed for possible treason charges.

9 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Ever heard of the Stasi prosecuting KGB? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Stasi could never gather enough guts to prosecute the KGB, what makes you think the current government of Germany - essentially a lapdog for Uncle Sam - would prosecute NSA?

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    1. Re:Ever heard of the Stasi prosecuting KGB? by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, the German BND was directly funded by Nazis under US oversight and the German Verfassungsschutz (counterintelligence agency) was pretty much directly involved in the recent right-wing radical NSU serial killings, so it's hardly surprising that they don't give a fuck about privacy (or democracy, for what it's worth).

    2. Re:Ever heard of the Stasi prosecuting KGB? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Funnily though, the stasi did prosecute the NSA, it had intelligence about it. After unification, the originals of the documents were flown to the USA.
      http://www.microsofttranslator...

      The STASI officials destroyed the proof of their crimes during their last days in office, the west german government destroyed the proof of the NSA's crimes afterwards.

  2. Re:So much stupid by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How do these writers make it to mainstream media.

    Uh, that's a skill required in mainstream media. "The Officer's pistol discharged." Obfuscate and decline to the passive voice. Don't rock the boat and always demur to power. Keep the corporation highly profitable.

    It's indy media that says, "yet another cop shot an innocent fucking black man in the head," not establishment.

    --
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  3. Re: So much stupid by ravenshrike · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which just goes to show a lot of indie media is composed of fucking retards. Using murder rate of population as a metric for danger to cops, in death by cop whites are overrepresented and latinos and blacks are underrepresented. The only reason you don't hear anything from either the whites or latinos about it is because they don't whine about it like toddlers having a tantrum for not having their favorite toy.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com...

  4. A bit of history by mseeger · · Score: 4, Informative

    The last time such accusations were leveled against the press the secretary of defense had to vacate his chair afterwards. (Spiegel-Scandal)

    The time before, it won the person publishing "state secrets" the Nobel Peace Price (Carl con Ossietzky)

    So the accusations against netzpolitik.org are rather honoring them in the eyes of those who know history.

  5. Re: So much stupid by pla · · Score: 4, Informative

    Which just goes to show a lot of indie media is composed of fucking retards

    It really doesn't fucking matter whether talking about a black or a white or a hispanic or an asian getting shot in the back by a cop, the "officer's pistol" didn't magically "discharge". The cop murdered a non-threat, plain and simple.

    And never mind the recent rash of suicides for traffic violations - I have to give them credit, that takes their disdain for the general population to a new low. They couldn't get much more blunt about how the feel about us short of literally pissing on us at every traffic stop. "Don't worry, I've marked you, the next one will pass you by".

  6. Re: So much stupid by Halo1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Using murder rate of population as a metric for danger to cops, in death by cop whites are overrepresented and latinos and blacks are underrepresented.

    Did you read the entire article till the end? It concludes with

    “The odds that a black man will be shot and killed by a police officer is about 1 in 60,000. For a white man those odds are 1 in 200,000.”

    In absolute numbers, more white people are shot by police than black people, but the former also make up a significantly larger chunk of the population (63% white vs 12% black). What I find disturbing about the guy presenting those numbers is that he thinks those are very low chances, while I think that both are way too high.

    The insets in the article pointing to "PHOTOS: 21 best guns for home protection" and "PHOTOS: Bang for your buck: Best handguns under $500" are also rather surreal to me in that context (but that's probably just me).

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  7. Re:Won't or can't? by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It depends how Germany now understands the NSA and all its help setting up West German telco systems after WW2.
    German decryption teams found gainful employment in 1945 with the UK/US TICOM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... teams.
    Generations of West Germans worked with the NSA and traveled to the US to view emerging US systems, hardware and other crypto systems.
    That kind of generational contact has allowed the US to handle elite German crypto staff and keep them away from any domestic West/German legal or political process.
    That deal with the USA gave West German total mystery over its internal and international communications networks for decades.
    So a few German elected political leaders are facing the might of decades of US/German military friendship at a top level beyond German law.
    Other US West German intelligence contacts can be understood from the Gehlen Organization years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    All German political parties know is their communications have been tasked by the USA even when declared safe by decades of expert West/German crypto officials.
    Any inter party or elected party efforts on this topic that where discussed over a secure German network of any kind would have been intercepted.
    Given the years of US/UK access to West/German political communications it would be hard to find a cleared German crypto expert who could even present the scope of what was done to German communications networks.
    The clearance levels that exist in Germany for German experts would not be of any use to any committee and no German staff with US systems access would be cleared by the US to talk to anyone in Germany at any level.
    The US and UK have that domestic legal staff aspect covered in an nation they 'help' :)
    US security work given to local German staff out rank any domestic German legal traditions or German fact finding political settings.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"