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Saturday, January 25th, 2014

Probing America: Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation

Author:    
Source:     Der Spiegel (Germany)
Publication Date:     1/20/2014 17:49
 Link: Probing America: Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation
Stephan:   The uncontrolled surveillance state inevitably over-reaches because its nature is to gather all the data that exists. It represents a form of mental illness expressed at the social level contrived by a small group of people, who live and thrive off the energy of people's fears. And like its first cousin, the military, it is proving to be incredibly profitable for the companies and individuals that build and run the system, either privately or under contract to the government. But like the wars in Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, that top a longer list, its major product is a tremendous amount of anti-Americanism. This piece gives a sense of the German version.

Germany and the US appear to be edging closer to political confrontation. The Federal Prosecutor says there is sufficient evidence to open a politically explosive investigation into NSA spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.

Last Tuesday, on the sidelines of an Social Democrat party caucus in Berlin, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas ran into Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Maas pulled his fellow SPD member aside and warned him about what could become a difficult matter. “Something may be coming our way,” Maas whispered, and noted that the foreign minister could be affected as well. Germany’s federal prosecutor, Maas intimated, is currently considering opening an investigation into the scandal surrounding the surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone by US intelligence. It’s a step that would undoubtedly be considered an affront by the Americans.

Steinmeier listened attentively and nodded several times, but he didn’t say much. At the start of his second posting as foreign minister (he previously served for four years from 2005-2009), Steinmeier is facing the extremely tricky problem of new discord in German-American relations.

The current difficulties got their start in October, when SPIEGEL reported that US intelligence services were interested in Merkel’s mobile phone. When the magazine published its […]

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