Der Spiegel - UK & US Should Not Be Allowed To Spy On Germany

After futher public revelations of the scale of US/UK interest in intercepting German communications (for obvious reasons), Der Spiegel regular Jakob Augstein has written an article which is very funny. And it really smells strongly of propaganda.

He says;

"Overzealous data collectors in the US and Great Britain have no right to investigate German citizens. The German government must protect people from unauthorized access by foreign intelligence agencies, and it must act now. This is a matter of national security."

"Since Friday, we have known that the British intelligence agency GCHQ is "worse than the United States." Those are the words of Edward Snowden, the IT expert who uncovered the most serious surveillance scandal of all time....
We have Edward Snowden to thank for this insight into the interaction of an uncanny club, the Alliance of Five Eyes. Since World War II, the five Anglo-Saxon countries of Great Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have maintained close intelligence cooperation, which apparently has gotten completely out of control. (out of German control you mean, Jakob??)
It may be up to the Americans and the British to decide how they handle questions of freedom and the protection of their citizens from government intrusion. But they have no right to subject the citizens of other countries to their control. (Its called spying Jakob, Germany does a lot of it too)"

"Thus the data scandal doesn't pertain just to our legal principles, but to our security as well. We were lucky that Edward Snowden, who revealed the spying to the entire world, is not a criminal, but an idealist (propagandist). He wanted to warn the world, not blackmail it. But he could have used his information for criminal purposes, as well (actually that's exactly what he did). His case proves that no agency in the world can guarantee the security of the data it collects -- which is why no agency should collect data in such abundance in the first place."  Maybe Jakob should tell the BND and Siemens this nugget of wisdom - don't collect intelligence because someone might release it!? Or is it only because its the Yanks and Brits spying on poor innocent Germany?

"So what should happen now? European institutions must take control of the data infrastructure and ensure its protection. The freedom of data traffic is just as important as the European freedom of exchange in goods, services and money. But above all, the practices of the Americans and British must come to an end. Immediately." (By force, if neccessary Jakob?)

"It is the responsibility of the German government to see to it that the programs of the NSA and GCHQ no longer process the data of German citizens and companies (is it?) without giving them the opportunity for legal defense. A government that cannot make that assurance is failing in one of its fundamental obligations: to protect its own citizens from the grasp of foreign powers.
Germans should closely observe how Angela Merkel now behaves. And if the opposition Social Democrats and Green Party are still looking for a campaign issue, they need look no further."

So, as we mentioned in our previous posting, this whole leak issue has been a German propaganda operation for German/EU citizen's consumption. Germany needs to make the US and UK look like the bad guys, and Germany the protector of morality and freedom (hahaha).

The goal after that propaganda, seems to be to use the EU in an attempt to prevent GCHQ from listening to German intelligence arranging their Jihadi assets to bomb people or hijack planes and fly them into buildings. Jakob even talks of turning the upcoming German elections into an anti-UK/US vote!

Germany is attempting to make a diplomatic incident out of these leaks.

Berlin officials have since been invited by the British government to participate in a video conference on Monday at 4 p.m. in the British Embassy in Berlin.

The German government will be represented by senior officials from the Interior Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND.
German government sources said that in light of the revelations, tough questions are likely to be posed at the meeting.

 

Its not that big a step from this sort of propaganda, where the German population could be encouraged to cheer for a military strike against GCHQ/Menwith Hill in the name of "freedom".
The UK and US are being painted as an Axis of Evil by Germany. That next war may be closer than many care to accept, and this sort of German propaganda is very important in preparing the population to accept it.

Germany Sends Stroppy Letter Over UK's Intelligence Capability

The latest leaks to come from former CIA man Mr Snowden about GCHQ and PRISM, appear to have caused a faux outrage from the German political class.

But what is this really about?

Back in 2011, we wrote a post about Germany's upset over Facebook and spying (covered up with complaints of "data protection" issues)  german-govt-office-bans-facebook-likes

This move by the German government against Facebook in 2011, was pure media propaganda to scare the German population away from American email and social networks due to spying.

 

Of course the latest letters from Germany to the Home Secretary (the only country to do so, itself betraying that the leaks are linked to Germany), are pointless because Germany has known for years how GCHQ works. This is all an anti-American and anti-British show for EU citizen's consumption.

 

 

The latest leaks are really German propaganda for Europe's consumption, in order to take a moral high ground. Germany knows (as evidenced by various European protests, with people disgusted at Germany's behaviour, displaying images of Merkel dressed as a Nazi), that European people are seeing Germany as the enemy and main player in the destruction of their countries and economies. Germany wants to make the US and UK the bad guys, whilst using the EU to moan about, debate, and then obfuscate British and American intelligence efforts, whilst Germany helps herself to continue building her empire with the public looking the wrong way.
 

The Germans really don't like the fact that they are more spied on by GCHQ than we spy on Russia! It is very telling. Its difficult for Germany to run an intelligence state and control and organise their terrorist friends (like the Hamburg Cell), their disinfo friends (like Alwan al Janabi), or their  subversive NGOs/fascist-rooted terrorist friends in the middle-east (FES/FNS/Muslim Brotherhood) when they know GCHQ/Menwith Hill etc are listening to their phone calls and reading their emails. Pretty much the only way for Germany to operate in secret is face-to-face, which is very resource intensive and slow.

 

Mr Snowden has links to US and Swedish neo-Nazis, hence they look to be German assets/useful idiots in the bigger German propaganda game. Nazi isolationist anti-Semite Ron Paul appears to be linked to the same group.

 

What is funny with Germany's faux horror at GCHQ's ability, is that Siemens is just as capable and busy spying in Britain via everything from passport supply, to traffic systems and the BBC, but its one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

 

But then GCHQ and Menwith Hill are ancestors of Bletchley Park, one of the main reasons we beat Germany militarily in WW2. German intelligence and leaders know that very well, and so would love to remove GCHQ's ability to know what Germans are up to at any given point.

 

Keep it up Germany. The more you behave the way you do currently - the MORE reason we have to spy on your suspicious behaviour and links to terrorism - meaning it will all come out in the wash.


UPDATE 30/06/2013

"EU offices in Washington and New York were bugged and that data on half a billion telephone calls, emails and text messages were harvested from Germany and France every month.

NSA officials were said to describe Germany as a �third-class partner� and boast that US spies �attack the signals� of Germans as extensively as they monitor states such as China and Saudi Arabia.

The documents claim that the NSA typically monitored about 20 million German phone connections and 10 million internet communications per day."

Good to know the Americans are showing Germany the due concern required.

WW1 Centenary - Historical Revision In British Government Circles

German Annexation Plans 1914

News articles over the last few days have been talking about the WW1 centenary, and the British government's attitude towards it.

It seems plenty of MPs have bought the German propaganda line revising the fact that WW1 was a war Germany wanted as an act of expansion. Apparently, official British comments and teachings of WW1 for the centenary will not lay the blame on the poor misunderstood Germans, who are now officially victims of WW1 - which itself has been renamed along with WW2 by the EU, as the European Civil War.

So, just to counter these ludicrous assertions of Germany's innocent intentions during WW1, we will let German Chancellor (1914) Bethmann-Hollweg tell us in his own words.

This is a direct translation of Bethman-Hollweg's internal memo on Germany's war aims, from September 1914;


"France. The military to decide whether we should demand cession of Belfort and western slopes of the Vosges, razing of fortresses and cession of coastal strip from Dunkirk to Boulogne. The ore-field of Briey, which is necessary for the supply of ore for our industry, to be ceded in any case. Further, a war indemnity, to be paid in instalments; it must be high enough to prevent France from spending any considerable sums on armaments in the next 15�20 years. Further, a commercial treaty which makes France economically dependent on Germany, secures the French market for our exports, and makes it possible to exclude British commerce from France. This treaty must secure for us financial and industrial freedom of movement in France in such a fashion that German enterprises can no longer receive different treatment from French.

Belgium. Li�ge and Verviers to be attached to Prussia, a frontier strip of the province of Luxembourg. The question of whether Antwerp, with a corridor to Li�ge, should also be annexed remains open. At any rate Belgium, even if allowed to continue to exist as a state, must be reduced to a vassal state, must allow us to occupy any militarily important ports, must place her coast at our disposal in military respects, must become economically a German province�

Luxembourg. Will become a German federal state and will receive a strip of the present Belgian province of Luxembourg and perhaps the corner of Longwy. We must create a central European economic association through common customs treaties, to include France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Poland and perhaps Italy, Sweden and Norway. This association will not have any common constitutional supreme authority and all its members will be formally equal, but in practice will be under German leadership and must stabilize Germany�s economic dominance over �Middle Europe�

Colonies. The question of colonial acquisitions, where the first aim is the creation of a continuous Central African colonial empire, will be considered later, as will that of the aims to be realized vis-�-vis Russia.

Holland. It will have to be considered by what means and methods Holland can be brought into closer relationship with the German Empire. In view of the Dutch character, this closer relationship must leave them free of any feeling of compulsion, must alter nothing in the Dutch way of life, and must also subject them to no new military obligations. Holland, then, must be left independent in externals, but be made internally dependent on us. Possibly one might consider an offensive and defensive alliance, to cover the colonies; in any case a close customs association, perhaps the cession of Antwerp to Holland in return for the right to keep a German garrison in the fortress of Antwerp and at the mouth of the Scheldt."


Much of this has been achieved via German control of the EU.