Schäuble: NSA Spy Affair No Big Deal

Poor Sascha Lobo!  Thanks to the "Evil Americans" (böse Amis) he is unable to eat or sleep. Just the thought that he wouldn't be able to text an al-Qaeda operative without the communication being intercepted by US intelligence services makes him mad - no, disgusted!  In Der Spiegel he outlines in detail the stages of grief he has gone through ever since Edward Snowden leaked information about the Prism program and other surveillance tactics.  His rage and despair spiral out of control:

man hat ein fucking Recht darauf, in einem fucking Rechtsstaat mit einer fucking beachteten Verfassung zu leben. Aber vielleicht hat Merkel auch vom Grundgesetz erst aus der Presse erfahren.

And to think he lives in a country where every citizen must possess an Identity Card (Personalausweis) with an RFID chip containing personal information.  Where every citizen has to register (Anmeldungspflicht) with the local authorities when moving to a new address - and de-register when moving out.  But I can see where monitoring communication with terrorist networks would push one over the edge.  It seems like just the other day Sascha Lobo and others were bitterly complaining about the lack of surveillance and data collection in the NSU Affair. 

Be that as it may, in Germany Edward Snowden is being compared to the anti-fascist martyr Sophie Scholl (Stern Magazin) while President Obama is excoriated as the executioner ("Obama = Hitler"). The reflexive anti-Americanism of the German Right and Left, submerged for a short time after George W. Bush left office, has resurfaced with a vengeance. 

But could it all be a tempest in a teapot?  It seems that most Germans don't feel particularly less free than before the Snowden revelations.  Angela Merkel apparently has smooth sailing to reelection.  And most of her cabinet members have not joined in the America-bashing.

Finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble doesn't understand the uproar: 

Bundesfinanzminister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) versteht die Empörung in Deutschland über die Spähaffäre nicht. «Meine europäischen Kollegen regen sich jedenfalls nicht darüber auf», sagte der frühere Innenminister dem «Schwarzwälder Boten» (Mittwoch).

(Finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble doesn't understand the uproar in Germany concerning the spying affair. "My European colleagues are in any event not at all upset about it." the former Minister for the Interior said.)

«Ich bin nie der Meinung gewesen, dass Kommunikation, die weltweit erfolgt, nicht von Nachrichtendiensten überprüft werden darf. Wie wollen Sie ansonsten den international operierenden Terrornetzwerken auf die Spur kommen?» - «Natürlich im Rahmen rechtsstaatlicher Verfahren», schränkte Schäuble ein. Er sei «überzeugt, dass wir einen Großteil unserer Sicherheit in Deutschland der Zusammenarbeit mit befreundeten Nachrichtendiensten zu verdanken haben».

(I never thought that international communication was out of bounds for the intelligence service to monitor. How else are we going to uncover terror networks that are operating abroad?  - of course, all in accordance with the rule of law."  He is "convinced that the security in Germany is in large measure the result of the cooperation with friendly intelligence agencies."

 

UPDATE; Otto Schily (Social Democrat - SPD) Agrees with Schäuble:

"Prism und Tempora, Datenspeicherung und Überwachung durch den US-Geheimdienst NSA - alles kein großes Problem für Otto Schily. Im Gespräch mit dem SPIEGEL sagte Schily, man solle nicht so tun, als ob die größte Gefahr für die Menschen in Deutschland von der National Security Agency ausgehe: "Die größte Gefahr geht vom Terrorismus und von der Organisierten Kriminalität aus. Ich finde manches Getöse, was da im Moment zu hören ist, nicht angemessen.""

Comments

[koogleschreiber]

Oh yes, our governments have to be trusted under all circumstances. They have superior knowledge and the more they know the better it is for us. We need more cameras everywhere, no car should go untracked anymore. In short, our governments must have a card blanche in regard of our privacy. Why not? Only criminals would be afraid of that. Why does it take so long to get IPV6 fully implemented? We all need to have a static life time internet adress, we should strive for the abolition of anonymity. Nothing compares to 100% security. Citizens must not have bad dreams while sleep walking, such as to answer future questions like "What did you know about the total monitoring and what did you do against it?" The planetary dredge is ready and we better not ask anymore how the meshes will be adjusted today or in future.

[Zyme]

While (most) Germans may be fine with German agencies collecting information (as they are expected to focus on our interests), I would also point out that it cannot be in our interest to allow foreign organizations collect data on our citizens.

With the exception of diplomatic representation, it should be reason enough to remove all official US institutions from Germany and Europe for that matter.

[David]

@Zyme - do you really believe the Chinese and Russian spy agencies are not collecting - or trying to collect - as much data as possible on German organizations - and individuals - as possible? Maybe they are just less successful - up to now - than the Americans.

Also, can someone explain to me what damage has been done to German civil liberties up to now - other than Sascha Lobo getting his panties in a twist? What journalists have been censored,what opposition voices suppressed, etc?

On the other hand, there is evidence that terrorist activity has been thwarted...

[koogleschreiber]

Two days after Snowden leaked PRISM, Obama's 2008 election campaign website change.gov was shut down. Why aren't we surprised?

The Obama-Biden Plan
…
Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

Too bad for Obama, the internet doesn't forget anything...
http://web.archive.org/web/20130425082834/http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/

[Hattie]

Well, if we have decided that citizens have no right to privacy, then so be it, but let's not try to find excuses for all this intrusive surveillance.

[David]

Maybe someday some people will acknowledge that America's postwar security umbrella allowed Germany to achieve unparalleled political, economic, and cultural freedom.

But America will always be the Great Satan to the German left.

[Jake]

Man kanns auch uebertreiben mit der verlaecherlichenden Lobhudelei auf Totalueberwachung. And America is one of the great Satans on this Planet.

[dz alexander]

I'm with koogleschreiber. And it is astonishing how liberals are defending the regime -- more Democrats than republicans voted not to put a ring in the NSA's nose.
Meanwhile Obama has just geared up to make preventive detention legal -- after the fact, just as the FISA ammendments did Bush's surveillance.

And I agree with Hattie. along with an American or two -- "The right to be left alone -- the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men" - Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928.

Big Brother is OK as long as he's American David?

[David]

I may have a slightly different feeling about terrorist threats.

For years I worked at 222 Broadway in New York City, directly across the street from the World Trade Center. I was knocked from my chair by the explosion of the first bombing in February 1993. I know people who died when the North Tower collapsed 8 years later.

I happened to be in Boston this year on April 15 when the Marathon bombs exploded.

We can debate how much data the NSA should be allowed to collect and how long the data should be archived. But threats in the US and elsewhere - including Germany - have been uncovered through the work of the NSA, and that's a good thing - no matter how loudly Sascha Lobo cries about the "United Stasi of America".