U.S. taps half-billion German phone, internet links in month

[The Brain]

When the sun grows big and swallows us?

In the near future.  Within a year say.

Why?

[Admiral Yi]

Why?

Irate citizens giving their own governments and Obama shit.

[The Brain]

Why?

Irate citizens giving their own governments and Obama shit.

Care enough? It's the economy, stupid.

[Admiral Yi]

Care enough? It's the economy, stupid.

Friendly wager?

[The Brain]

Care enough? It's the economy, stupid.

Friendly wager?

I don't feel like we will be sure to have accurate information. Otherwise I'd love to.

[HVC]

I wonder why Germany of all European countries was singled out. More observation than Russia, same level as China...

Never trust the Germans

[OttoVonBismarck]

Logging metadata from regular EU citizens is a new thing, but I find it interested the leaders in the EU Parliament are crying foul so much about us bugging their offices. The French are doing the same thing. Maybe we should make public the literally dozens of times we've caught members of French and German intelligence bugging American offices and spying on America? It's kind of shitty for countries that spy on us all the time to act like this just because some pissant leaker spilled the beans on us, I'd be inclined to release details about their own spying to shut them up. That doesn't address the phone/internet stuff, but they really do need to shut up about the "normal" spying.

It's basically a fact that aside from a few very close countries (the U.S./U.K for example I don't believe actively spy on each other), even closely allied countries spy on one another not for strategic/military purposes but to get a leg up on understanding decision making and things of that nature. The French have a very effective spying network that is active in basically all the major democracies, and any number of books written by retired intelligence types will attest to this.

[Razgovory]

And that makes it better somehow? I don't want your or my government to have such information.

Then that's something you should take up with your government.

The Merkel regime (or any party, really) isn't the right addressee for that. They consider the interwebs as a newfangled thing that is the realm of nerds and pedophiles. "The internet is a new territory for everyone."

That's not really our problem.

[Tonitrus]

What's the expiration date on being an enemy of humanity anyway?

[Syt]

German intelligence bugging American offices and spying on America

Source?

[Valmy]

I think we will end up not doing this stuff anymore in some countries, like Germany.

Well, that would be a start.

[Iormlund]

R/C aircraft enthusiasts are weird.

Not the first time either. Last year they arrested some here with a similar plan. Can't see the appeal to them though. There are much cheaper alternatives for indiscriminate carnage.

[dps]

Why?

Irate citizens giving their own governments and Obama shit.

I think we might considerably scale back datamining of communications within the US because of voter outrage, but frankly I extremely doubt that American voters in any numbers will give a shit about us datamining foreign communications.

And the idea that we don't spy on our allies and our allies don't spy on us is incredibly naive.  Sure, the unwritten rules as to how such spying is conducted are considerably different than than the rules about how we spy on, say, Iran or North Korea, but the idea that it doesn't happen is just silly.

[The Minsky Moment]

Yi has a point; regardless of what US voters think, this is becoming a first order diplomatic fiasco, and is not only likely to have impact on government-to-government cooperation (like the trade talks) but on the ability of leading US companies to operate effectively in Europe.

[CountDeMoney]

Yi has a point; regardless of what US voters think, this is becoming a first order diplomatic fiasco, and is not only likely to have impact on government-to-government cooperation (like the trade talks) but on the ability of leading US companies to operate effectively in Europe.

Shame the German intelligence community is going to lose access to their ally's fantastic intelligence asset.