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Friday, June 28th, 2013

Do Costs of Hunting Terrorists Exceed Benefits?’

Author:    
Source:     Der Spiegel (Germany)
Publication Date:     June 25, 2013 - 02:56 PM
Link: Do Costs of Hunting Terrorists Exceed Benefits?’
Stephan:   If you read my essay, A Sense of Proportion. (See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephan-a-schwartz/surveillance-national-security_b_3436083.html) you know that I think this is the important unasked question. The answer though, as I have already published on this site, is that the terrorism argument is a cover for a deeper purpose, controlling society in the face of breakdown resulting from climate change. Here is a take from Germany, and you can see that other countries take considerable umbrage at the U.S.'s hubris. And have begun, as this report spells-out, to ask the right question.

In Germany, a country with a long, troubled history of state surveillance, the revelation that British and American intelligence agencies have been spying en masse on European data communications has not gone over easily.

Last Friday, London’s Guardian newspaper published the contents of leaked documents confirming that Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the American National Security Agency (NSA) have been tapping directly into fiber-optic cables to collect vast stores of information that they can then access as needed. Among these cables was the TAT-14, which carries a large share of data communication in and out of Germany, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and public radio station NDR reported on Tuesday after viewing documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

According to media reports, neither the German government nor the country’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, was apparently aware of the British surveillance operation, dubbed ‘Tempora,’ which was reportedly made possible with the cooperation of two telecommunications companies: Vodafone and British telecoms giant BT. Vodafone released a statement saying it abides by the laws of the countries in which it operates, but it declined to give further information, citing ‘national security.’ BT has refused to comment.

The ongoing surveillance controversy, which began last month […]

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