Germany: We Think NSA May Have Tapped Chancellor Merkel's Cell Phone 267
cold fjord writes "According to a report in the Miami Herald, 'Chancellor Angela Merkel has called President Barack Obama after receiving information that U.S. intelligence may have targeted her mobile phone. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel made clear in Wednesday's call that "she views such practices, if the indications are confirmed ... as completely unacceptable" and called for U.S. authorities to clarify the extent of surveillance in Germany.' Der Spiegel has some information on Germany's own "PRISM" project. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama 'assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor' her communications. He didn't mention anything about past communications. This news follows allegations of U.S. surveillance of the Presidents of Mexico, and France. Yesterday the LA Times noted, 'French authorities are shocked — shocked — to learn that the American government is spying on French citizens. The Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to the Quai D'Orsay to inform him that what's going on is "unacceptable," and President Francois Hollande claimed to have issued a stern rebuke to President Obama in a phone conversation.' Up until now, Merkel had been reluctant to say anything bad about the U.S. over the NSA leaks."
Leader of the free world (Score:2, Insightful)
Not so different from Russia and China, now are we.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Quiz: Is the NSA Watching You? (Score:5, Insightful)
- Do you use electronics to communicate?
- Do you live on Earth?
If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, then you can assume that yes, the NSA is monitoring you.
Don't get caught (Score:3, Insightful)
Call it what you want, when close allies catch you spying on their head of state, you're handing them a bag of bargaining chips.
Re:Shocking (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually it is considered unacceptable for allies to spy on each other's heads of state. Countries are not supposed to treat their friends this way.
On the subject of the French government's surprise, it isn't because French citizens are being spied on like the summary says. It is that there is mass surveillance of millions of French citizens by another friendly member of NATO.
Re:Shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
So you wouldn't mind one of your friends tapping your phones?
Re:Shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
I am shocked. Shocked! That a country--any country--would spy on a foreign head of state.
What a world we live in
Exactly, this whole thing has been standard practice for decades.
But now that the man on the street knows your elected officials can play it for political points without being the bad guy.
So what ? (Score:5, Insightful)
it is now obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder what their real understanding is (Score:5, Insightful)
The head of state of a friendly government is completely off-limits for spying. That is only permissible for enemies and even there highly problematic as it can be considered an act of war. Those responsible in the NSA must have lost their minds completely and worked themselves into a mind-set where everybody is the enemy. There also cannot have been any oversight that deserves the name.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:3, Insightful)
"The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor"
You see, we're only storing a copy of the communications [I]in case[/I] we need to go back and listen to them at some future date. Germany is acting like we have someone actively listening to her phone calls. C'mon, we're the USA; we don't listen to anyone! I don't understand why the Chancellor is so upset.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
obama is a puppet, he is owned by his handlers (military/industrial complex & wallstreet & federal reserve) and he does exactly what they want him to do
This is probably what he has the most in common with previous presidents. I'm sure that when he got into office after promising to repeal or reform the patriot act, the NSA and other people sat him down and told him the way it is, and that was that.
NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's take it one step further and identify the REAL PROBLEM.
The NSA isn't saying they want to have all information to be free and accessible to everyone uniformly -- they are saying they want to have it forever for their own purposes (whatever those might be).
But when Snowden does the same exact thing as the NSA -- according to them he must be punished as a traitor.
Laws are not therefore uniform. They apply only to some... and when that is happening there is no society. There is only the law of the insect colony and a fat queen riding the heap.
Re:Shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
He never would have gotten into office without playing ball with the elites.
Re:Shocking (Score:4, Insightful)
This is known to me. When I found out that the password for posteo.de was stored on a french server by an app to give me push notifications for posteo on iOS, I deleted the app and replaced my 32 character password which encrypts CardDAV and CalDAV immediately.
That was a pain in the ass and costed me hours. All britain and french providers must be considered compromised, their intelligence agencies are completely out of control. Both spy on us big time (wiretaping merkel herself might be a bit to stark, but yes, they spy) but have you heard of any service provider in those countries that would lure foreigners into using them? I didn't.
Google, iOS (in the beginning, while the other smart phones were laughable at best), iCloud and gmail are cool, that made us use them in the first place. We actually bought the equipment to spy on us ourselves and felt cool because we owned them. Even George Orwell did not see that coming...
Why write this article... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be silly. Any politician strong enough to have a shot at the presidency knows how the game they played their whole life works. They help a select few companies, the companies throw them some crumbs. The candidate is happy because he gets what he wants, the companies are happy because the status quo is left unchanged, and the public is happy because they know THIS TIME things will be different.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:2, Insightful)
The sad thing is Obama doesn't know sh*t from shine-ola. He's shat and fallen back into it, wallowing in it like a mudwog (see Bode').
He seems to like it, had developed gills for it and stays under longer and longer. Good Job Democrats! You reached up your nose and picked a winner! Twice!
Our lives look soooo much brighter now. What're you Repubtards giggling about? Like you ever did any better in your lifetime! Morons, I'm surrounded by self destructive MORONS!
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure that when he got into office after promising to repeal or reform the patriot act, the NSA and other people sat him down and told him the way it is, and that was that.
He voted in favor of wiretapping shortly before getting elected. If you thought he was going to repeal it, you were naive. He indicated clearly what he was going to do, and you should have known beforehand what you were getting.
I'm not saying McCain would have been better but you shouldn't fool yourself.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
obama is a puppet, he is owned by his handlers (military/industrial complex & wallstreet & federal reserve) and he does exactly what they want him to do
So, you are thinking that they wanted:
- The sequester to cut $50 billion per year out of the defense budget? (With the MIC already down to 4-5% of GDP from 9.3% in 1962? [heritage.org])
- Massive new financial regulations on loans, consumer credit, and much increased Federal government oversight?
- Massive increases to Federal regulations across most sectors of the economy which raise the cost of business and threaten uncertainty?
- The Obamacare debacle?
You think they seek their own weakening or destruction? I think you haven't thought that through all the way.
Re:are French authorities retarded? (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to justify everything with a sentence.
Can anyone honestly believe [accused] isn't [doing something wrong]? People will [do bad things] to try to get a strategic or tactical advantage .... that is what they do, some better than others, [accused] better than most.
Let's try a few examples.
Can anyone honestly believe Enron wasn't cooking the books? Companies will falsify financial information to try to push up their stock price ... that is what they do, some better than others, Enron better than most.
Can anyone honestly believe men aren't out there to rape women? Humans will use force to try to get a strategic or tactical evolutionary advantage. That is what they do, some better than others, this rapist better than most.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:2, Insightful)
There's a very large difference between legally wiretapping with a warrant and illegally wiretapping civilians and foreign governments.
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, Obama knows.
What maybe Americans don't yet realize is why this such a huge deal here in Europe, and why, in particular, Germany was "OK" with the whole NSA spying scandal, at first.
It turns out that a rather large trade deal between Europe and US was in process when the NSA spying scandal broke. The Germans had the trade pact right where they wanted it. The French did not. You perhaps noted the German hand waving that they were outraged by the NSA spying, but really weren't going to do anything to torpedo the trade deal. The French, OTOH, were prepared to back completely out.
Now it seems that the Germans found something they clearly do not like.
Think "leverage." Each country is looking for more favorable terms with the Americans.
that Obama probably doesn't know either way.
Re:I wonder what their real understanding is (Score:4, Insightful)
It also is going to fail rather spectacularly. The US was never exceptional, except in vastly overestimating its power. Today, it looks more and more like a retarded (nuclear) suicide-bomber that tries to take the world hostage.