SPIEGEL Interview Assange - Drowning in Material

ARTICLE SPIEGEL Interview with Julian Assange:  'We Are Drowning in Material' Interview Conducted By Michael Sontheimer SOURCE http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-wikileaks-head-julian-assange-a-1044399.html ------------------------------------ PARTIAL SUMMARY Attacks on WikiLeaks legal cases blockades PR attacks attacks on technical infrastructure staff had to take 40% pay cut  Extrajudicial Banking Blockade WikiLeaks cut off from more than 90% of its finances Donations new infrastructure / updated, secure submission system Drowning in Material challenge is whether WikiLeaks can scale up income in proportion to volume of material Transparency education / understanding preferred term Publication *publish both secret documents & accompanying analyses *over 10 million documents and associated analyses Taboo / McCarthyism *US government employees & US Army blocked *federal government employees / contractors  must remove WL data from computer & self-report Readers Largest number from:  India Closely followed:  USA Media Collaboration over 100 contracts with media orgs  around world Edward Snowden Only org that cared about him:  WikiLeaks Snowden abandoned in Hong Kong, esp. by Guardian Journalists Activists for the way things are / status quo. Protection of sources:  extreme diligence & professionalism is required. Book:  "The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to the US Empire" Lack explanation:  media economics / short-term news cycles > Academia failing  - geopolitical / technical intersection Where are the academics? / Not explaining how modern power is exercised Noam Chomski, 86, still at forefront Younger academics not keen to risk career Academia WikiLeaks: has published over 2 million diplomatic cables. single largest searchable repository for international relations of primary source materials. cannon for international relations [***] Some research published in Spanish & in Asian languages. American &  English journals silent. Academia:  acts as feeder schools for the US State Dept. ISA - US association controlling big 5 international relations journals: has quiet, official policy of not accepting any paper that is derived from WikiLeaks' materials. [  ISA - International Studies Association  ] NSA Spying on European Govts US intelligence info very valuable for German intelligence, BND. NSA Throw Crumbs to Keep Control Americans probably share/trade info obtained by spying, to keep German spying agency puppet from complaining. Likewise, Americans probably provide info re such spy partners to the targets of NSA spying, when targets complain about being spied on. Germans play down the intelligence issue, so as not to expose themselves as weak. German govt vulnerable to take-down by USA, who have been spying intensively at top level for decade - all it takes is US leaking info to journalists, in terms of pointing journalists in the right direction. NSA-obtained spy info re politicians can be used for blackmail of politicians. UK - JTRIG MO blackmail fabricating videos fabricating SMS texts in bulk creating fake businesses with the same name selling inferior products, so that the business gets a bad reputation Concretely documented in Snowden docs. Manning / Snowden 35 years in prison = some deterrent effect. but it erodes perception of US govt as legitimate authority just authority perception is the key to legitimacy USG Assange Charges Five Types: espionage conspiracy to commit espionage computer fraud & abuse theft of secrets general conspiracy Were the above x1 charge each = 45 yrs But they're multiples of each type of charge. Also:  Espionage Act has life imprisonment & death penalty provisions. WikiLeaks - Library built from courage & sweat of many during 5-year confrontation with a superpower What is more powerful than USG & its military & secret services? Assange: Physics. Mathematics. The underpinnings of physical reality are harsh and could do with adjustment but it is not clear how. USA Investigation - Unprecedented Scale & Nature 120 - US Intelligence & FBI officers Moved from Pentagon to Dept of Justice FBI continuing to provide "boots on the ground" Over  dozen US agencies - ranging from US State Dept to NSA - involved WikiLeaks Proceedings dozen various proceedings, incl: largest international espionage case against a publisher in history bogus 'sex case' role of WikiLeaks in Edward Snowden's asylum Anti-Terror Act (UK) - Sarah Harrison, investigations editor, Berlin.  criminal investigation / gag order used to cover up a major international bribery Australia Sweden "preliminary investigation," initiated during heat of the US conflict dormant for almost 5 years  NO charges "In 40 other cases, Swedish prosecutors have interviewed people in Britain during those five years. They have not done that in my case and they placed me under a gruelling bail situation." Assange had to report each day for 600 days: "I had to wear a monitoring unit around my ankle. Alleged war criminals from the former Yugoslavia being held on bail here in Britain don't have such conditions. " Lawyers WikiLeaks received advice from: abt 150 lawyers across cases. [ SKIP FORWARD ] German Leak / BNDNSA Focus of NSA spying: Global Signals Intelligence Highlights (Executive) USG very interested in idea that Germany would propose a greater role for China in IMF. German initiative nipped in the bud:  b/c China helping Europe = threat to US dominance. Google Mass Surveillance Free services disarming / non-corporate or civic seeming exporting a specific mindset of culture "cultural imperialism" / "Disneylandization" of the Internet ie Google "digital colonization" new societal rules re activities are permitted and what info can be transmitted from nipples to:  function of public debate & parliamentary lawmaking "Once something becomes sufficiently controversial, it's banned by these organizations. Or, even if it is not so controversial, but it affects the interests that they're close to, then it's banned or partially banned or just not promoted. SPIEGEL: So in the long run, cultural diversity is endangered?  Assange: The long-term effect is a tendency towards conformity, because controversy is eliminated. An American mindset is being fostered and spread to the rest of the world because they find this mindset to be uncontroversial among themselves. That is literally a type of digital colonialism; non-US cultures are being colonized by a mindset of what is tolerable to the staff and investors of a few Silicon Valley companies. The cultural standard of what is a taboo and what is not becomes a US standard, where US exceptionalism is uncontroversial." WikiLeaks Source Re Trade Secret Agreements Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TP) FTAs ASSANGE "package that the US is using to reposition itself in the world against China by constructing a new grand enclosure." "tighter economic and legal integration with the United States, which draws Western Europe's center of gravity away from Eurasia and towards the United States, when the greatest chance for long-term peace in Eurasia is its economic integration" PHOTO: Julian Assange (right) speaks to SPIEGEL journalist Michael Sontheimer inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. SOURCE http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-wikileaks-head-julian-assange-a-1044399.html ------------------------------------ COMMENT Michael Sontheimer does great interviews. Really enjoyed this article. Skipped summary in the middle, as I was running out of steam. Lengthy article, but really worthwhile having a read. As to, 'cannon for international relations," not sure if he meant 'cannon', as in weapon, or 'canon' as in standard/criterion or maybe benchmark.  But doubt he meant 'holy scripture' ... LOL. Was surprised there's such a big WikiLeaks readership in India, but I guess it makes sense.  Large population.  English speaking, I think. ------------------------------------ LOOK-UPS ISA - International Studies Association

German BND Spying for NSA - Airbus (Boeing rival) Taking Legal Action - Politicians Putting On A Show

1ST LEAD Newspaper:  German intelligence also spied on Austria for the US By dpa correspondents Europe 01.05.2015 By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online    auf Facebook posten  Auf Twitter posten  Berlin (dpa) - The US National Security Agency (NSA) used Germany‘s foreign intelligence service to spy on Austria, according to a report due to be published in Sunday‘s edition of Bild newspaper. German media had previously reported that the NSA used the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, to spy on high-ranking officials in the European Commission and in France‘s Foreign Ministry and presidential palace. After an investigation into the search terms given by the NSA to the BND to use at its monitoring station in the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling, words like "gov," "diplo" and the German equivalent of "federal office" were discovered. These search terms resulted in 12,000 hits, according to an internal BND email from August 14, 2013. The hits included material from the government of Austria, which like Germany is a federation and, therefore, covered by the same search term. The Bild article, an advance copy of which was seen by dpa, said Austria then appeared in more than 10 requests from the NSA. The affair has led to a split in Germany‘s governing coalition as the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has attacked its partners in the centre-right Christian Democratic and Christian Social unions (CDU and CSU). "The supervision by the chancellery over the BND seems to have failed miserably," SPD general secretary Ysmin Fahimi was quoted by Friday‘s edition of the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper as saying in a direct attack on Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the CDU. "The chancellery, which has been led by the CDU for 10 years, bears the responsibility for the German secret service behaving properly," she said. Fahimi also raised questions about Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who is accused of lying to parliament over the affair. "If the accusations are true, I do not rule out personal consequences [for de Maiziere]," she said. The opposition Greens have called for a parliamentary committee to investigate the affair. Government sources told dpa Friday that the spying scandal had taken on great political dimensions and resignations at the BND or within the government could not be ruled out. A former government insider sharply criticized how the affair has been handled so far in a report in Focus magazine Friday. "Everyone is beating up the BND at the moment, mostly for ideological reasons," the chancellor‘s former secret service coordinator Bernd Schmidbauer was reported as saying. "This is how we will destroy our security in this country," he said. Referring to BND president Gerhard Schindler, he said: "It is a disgrace how he has been deserted by these men in the chancellery when really it should be their most noble duty to give him encouragement at this time." He said Germany‘s cooperation with US intelligence services was essential. "We are nothing without the intelligence service insight of the Americans," said Schindler, who coordinated the secret service in the 1990s. "We are like headless chickens." The first accusations came to light last week that the NSA had used the German intelligence agency to spy on European firms and politicians on its behalf. The NSA asked the BND to use its huge computer servers to monitor web traffic and look for keywords, IP addresses of computers and names. The BND told the chancellery years ago that the searches were probably illegal under German law. The magnitude of the scandal, the biggest to hit the BND in its 59-year history, remains unclear. All of the search terms requested by the United States since the beginning of the cooperation in 2002 were checked only once. Even that task was enormous. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR reported that alone in 2013, 690,000 telephone numbers and 7.8 million IP searches were requested. http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/1st-leadnewspaper-german-intelligence-also-spied-on-austria-for-the-usby-dpa-correspondents_389986.html COMMENT The US spies on Germany but it also gets Germany to do its spying. The former secret service coordinator Bernd Schmidbauer is using the "we will destroy our security in this country" line of attack. Much noise is made by politicians, but this is likely to go the way of the previous NSA spy scandals:  it will be swept under a rug. Most appalling of all, Schmidbauer says: "We are nothing without the intelligence service insight of the Americans." On the contrary, it sounds like the US spy agency would be nothing without getting everyone around the world to do their spying for them. .............................................. Capping off: On behalf of NSA and, apparently, in violation of German law, German BND spied on: European Commission France Austria Interior Minister accused of lying to parliament cover up. .............................................. Airbus’ legal step targets spying on it By The Associated Press Posted: May 2, 2015 at 1 a.m. BERLIN — European aviation company Airbus said Friday that it’s taking legal action after reports that it was targeted by German and U.S. intelligence agencies. The company, which makes civilian and military aircraft and is a fierce rival of U.S. manufacturer Boeing, said it will file a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Germany against “persons unknown.” That’s a common procedure in Germany which requires authorities to investigate. “We are aware that as a major player in this industry we are a target for intelligence activities,” the company said in a statement. “In this particular case there appears to be a reasonable suspicion of alleged industrial espionage. We are alarmed by this and have therefore asked the German government for information and we are in dialogue with them.” Airbus said it was made aware of the allegations by press reports and didn’t have any information of its own on the matter. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE - here

GERMANY: Is Merkel a CIA Asset?

Is Merkel a CIA Asset? 17:54 30.04.2015 (updated 18:22 30.04.2015) Finian Cunningham The claims that Merkel’s government knew about German state intelligence spying on behalf of the Americans against the country's own industrial interests raise disturbing questions about the integrity of German government leaders. The apparent betrayal of German national interests by Chancellor Angela Merkel is not only evident over the recent industrial spying scandal on behalf of America. The slavish pursuit by Merkel of Washington's anti-Russian policy over Ukraine — in contradistinction to her country's national interests — also cogently suggests that the chancellor is serving a foreign master. Recent reports that German state intelligence was spying on behalf of the Americans against the country's own industrial interests are bad enough. But then added to that are claims that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel knew about the espionage — and turned a blind eye. This raises disturbing questions about the integrity of German government leaders, and primarily Angela Merkel. Is Merkel an asset for American intelligence, serving the geopolitical interests of Washington rather than the good of her own nation, or the wider good of Europe? The news story in question refers to reports in the German media last week of how Germany's Federal Intelligence (BND) collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on multinational European defence companies, including EADS and Eurocopter. The specific eavesdropping on these firms — in which Germany has major national economic interests — reportedly dates back to 2008. It is inconceivable that the highest levels of German government, including Chancellor Merkel — did not know about the industrial espionage. Yet Merkel appears to have countenanced the illegal activity, even though such activity would have vitiated German national interests, affording advantage to American competitors. First of all, the idea that German state intelligence is thoroughly penetrated by American secret agencies is not an outlandish theory. Far from it. The functioning of the BND as part of the American intelligence apparatus has been going on for decades, since the US oversaw the postwar rehabilitation of defeated Nazi Germany. The Americans and the British wove German intelligence — much of it inherited from the Nazi war machine — into their European-wide operations. German historian Josef Foschepoth and expert on postwar allied intelligence operations says that the West German government signed a secret pact with Washington and London, in 1968, known as the NATO Status of Forces Agreement. That pact mandates "intensive collaboration" and continues to this day — more than two decades since the reunification of Germany. In essence, the American secret services like the NSA and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), have a free hand to carry out massive surveillance in Germany against whomever they want, whether private citizens or industrial companies. And all with the help of German state intelligence and the federal government. The tip of this iceberg in espionage and snooping was further revealed with the disclosures in 2013 by former American NSA operative Edward Snowden. Among the trove of revelations made by Snowden was the finding that American intelligence had been tapping the personal communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The eavesdropping dated back to 2002 — three years before the leader of the Christian Democrat Union first became chancellor. The telling thing is how puny and pusillanimous was the reaction from the German authorities to this disclosure of illicit spying by Washington. Apart from an initial bout of handwringing by Merkel and other Berlin figures, the whole scandal was quickly swept under the carpet as if it never happened. That suggests that the German government was already well aware of its compromised, subservient relation to Washington, as manifested by intrusive access to communications at the highest level. As noted above such a master-servant relationship between the US and Germany was a fundamental tenet of the postwar American reconstitution of that country, and the predominant role devolved to NATO by Washington over European security affairs. The German government was apprised of, indeed was a willing party to, its subservient role to American intelligence and the free hand given to the latter. So, when the rest of the world learnt of American government spying on Merkel back in 2013 from the Edward Snowden's leaks, perhaps the least surprised person would have been Merkel and her administration. Hence the meek response from Berlin towards Washington and, to any objective observer, its shockingly invasive conduct against German "allies". Further explosive testimony on the systematic penetration of American intelligence of German institutions came in recent months from former senior newspaper editor, Udo Ulfkotte. In several media interviews and in a best-selling book, Ulfkotte tells how German journalists and politicians are routinely recruited as CIA assets to spin stories or promulgate policies that are aimed at serving the geopolitical interests of Washington, not the interests of the German people. The former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung — one of Germany's best-known newspapers — confessed that he was one of the CIA's assets for many years, publishing stories that he knew to be false and which were damaging to international relations, and in particular antagonistic towards Russia. [  .  .  .  ] EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE - here COMMENT pusillanimous = timid Lengthy article.  Rest of it is at link provided. Thought this was cool.  Haven't caught up with the German industrial spying scandal.  Must have been too lazy to check links. Germany, Nazis and CIA / USA links go all the way back to the Gehlen Organisation - established 1946 by the US occupational forces.  So, basically, German intelligence is an offshoot of Nazi intelligence under the control of the CIA/USA 'Daddy'. "The American secret service works closely with the BND. The BND founder's Nazi background did not disturb the CIA. Reinhard Gehlen, a high-ranking intelligence officer in Hitler's Wehrmacht, brought extensive files about the Russian military with him.  The BND has recently been attracting more public attention than ever before, not because of its anniversary but because of revelations that its agents in Iraq have been working with American intelligence. Such collaboration has caused a huge stir in Ger­many's parliament, the Bundestag, where opposition to America's war in Iraq remains strong.  Close working relations between German and American spy services are anything but new. Cooperation began as far back as 1946, before the Federal Republic even existed. Indeed, it constituted the first institutional relationship between the two countries after World War II." "As Richard Helms, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who was in the early postwar period responsible for Central and Eastern Europe, makes clear in his memoirs, Gehlen's deal with first the U.S. Army and later the CIA did not foresee his spy organization working for the Americans but in a joint operation with them.  At first, the army funded the organization by selling gasoline, cigarettes and other American goodies on the black market. Soon after the German currency reform in 1948, the CIA assumed funding. The CIA sponsored the Gehlen organization until April 1956, when it was taken over by the German government in Bonn, becoming the Bundesnachrichtendienst [BND]". [Source - 2006 - here]  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Iraq stands out. All this sneaky intelligence stuff keeps surprising me, but it shouldn't be surprising.  It's not really sneaky; it's just how it is.  The front end is a lie.  The back end is the truth. It doesn't matter who appears to be in government or what kind of opposition there is to anything; what appears at the front end is fake.  Those that hold the real power behind the scenes do what they want. I'd wager that's the rule rather than the exception. Don't understand why the Germans would undermine their own interests, unless there's a bigger prize for German interests ... or German interest are no longer 'German interests' because Germany is owned by foreign interests?

CIA & US-Allied Intelligence - Lies, Propaganda, in-house plants & push to war

Editor of major newspaper says he planted stories for CIA By Ralph Lopez     Jan 26, 2015 in World  Becoming the first credentialed, well-known media insider to step forward and state publicly that he was secretly a "propagandist," an editor of a major German daily has said that he personally planted stories for the CIA.  Saying he believes a medical condition gives him only a few years to live, and that he is filled with remorse, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers, said in an interview that he accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA and published them under his own name. Ulfkotte said the aim of much of the deception was to drive nations toward war.  Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western media, and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.  Dr. Ulfkotte is the author of a book currently available only in German, "Bought Journalists" (Kopp 2014.) Aged 55, he was also once an advisor to the government of German Chancellor Helmet Kohl.  The book has become a bestseller in Germany but, in a bizarre twist which Ulfkotte says characterizes the disconnect caused by CIA control of the western media, the book cannot be reported on.  Ulfkotte says: ""No German mainstream journalist is allowed to report about [my] book. Otherwise he or she will be sacked. So we have a bestseller now that no German journalist is allowed to write or talk about."" Among the stories Ulfkotte says he was ordered to plant in his newspaper over the years was a story that Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi was building poison gas factories in 2011. Ulfkotte also says he was an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against Iranians in the war between Iran and Iraq, but that the editors he worked for at the time were not interested, because Iraq was a US ally at the time.  Ulfkotte says he is better positioned to come forward than many journalists because he does not have children who could be threatened. Ulfkotte told the Russian newspaper Russian Insider (RI):  ""When I told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Ulfkotte's nwspaper) that I would publish the book, their lawyers sent me a letter threatening with all legal consequences if I would publish any names or secrets – but I don’t mind. You see, I don’t have children to take care of. And you must know I was severely injured during the gas attack I witnessed in Iran in 1988. I'm the sole German survivor from a German poison gas attack. I’m still suffering from this. I’ve had three heart attacks. I don’t expect to live for more than a few years."" Ulfkotte says that remorse of having "lied" to mass audiences over the years drove him to come forward. He told RI that he was:  ""taught to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public."" Ulfkotte says:  ""I'm ashamed I was part of it. Unfortunately I cannot reverse this.""  Among the admissions that Ulfkotte makes in the interview are putting his own name to articles completely written by intelligence agencies. He said:  ""I ended up publishing articles under my own name written by agents of the CIA and other intelligence services, especially the German secret service.""  Ulfkotte detailed the pattern of cajolery and outright bribery used by the CIA and other US-allied intelligence agencies, for the purpose of advancing political agendas. Ulfkotte said:  ""once you're connected, you make friends with selected Americans. You think they are your friends and you start cooperating. They work on your ego, make you feel like you're important. And one day one of them will ask you 'Will you do me this favor'...""  Ulfkotte noted that a journalists on international press trips paid for by organizations close to the government are unlikely to submit a storyline not favorable to the sponsor.  Of the gassing of Iranians he had witnessed in the Eighties, Ulfkoppe said:  ""they asked me to hand over the photo's that I had made to the German association of chemical companies in Frankfurt, Verband der Chemischen Industrie. This poison gas that had killed so many Iranians was made in Germany.""  In an interview with Russia Today, Ulfkotte said that it was "not right" what he had done, and that his fear was that politicians were actively driving the world toward war:  ""it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe. … I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don’t like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. … We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war. … I don’t want this anymore, I’m fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic, and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom...""  In his book "The CIA and the Media," Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein quotes William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Baeder said:  ""There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don’t need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level.""  Bernstein writes:  ""The Agency’s relationship with the Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. From 1950 to 1966, about ten CIA employees were provided Times cover under arrangements approved by the newspaper’s late publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. The cover arrangements were part of a general Times policy—set by Sulzberger—to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible.""  Ulfkotte was on the staff of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1999 to 2003, according to his Wikipedia entry. He won the civic prize from the Annette Barthelt Foundation in 2003. http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/editor-of-major-german-newspaper-says-he-planted-stories-for-cia/article/424470 COMMENT So much for the 'free press'. The world's a corrupt cesspit ... and we're all doomed.  Look-Ups Arthur Hays Sulzberger publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961 anti Zionism & anti Jewish state supporter of the American Council for Judaism, founded in June 1942 to oppose Zionism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hays_Sulzberger Operation Mockingbird commencing 1950s, CIA campaign to influence media CIA "recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA's views, and funded some student and cultural organizations, and magazines as fronts. As it developed, it also worked to influence foreign media and political campaigns, in addition to activities by other operating units of the CIA." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird Udo Ulfkotte German journalist formerly an editor for one of Germany's main dailies, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) an advisor to the Kohl government 1986-1998 [Disclosed that]   CIA and German intelligence (BND) bribe journalists in Germany to write pro-NATO propaganda articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_Ulfkotte Looks like Operation Mockingbird has never really ended.

CIA & GERMANY'S BND - SPYING AMONG FRIENDS

Spying Among Friends: The Troubled Waters of the CIA and BND By Jefferson Adams Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 9:19 AM The rapid erosion of US-German relations continues to prompt much attention and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic. The new era urged by presidential candidate Barack Obama in Berlin in 2008— one based on “allies who will listen to one another, learn from one another and, most of all, trust each other”— has conspicuously failed to materialize. With the enthralled crowds that had gathered at the Victory Column now a distant memory, recent German public opinion polls reflect a widespread disillusionment; only 29% regard the United States as a trustworthy partner, while 57% feel their country should be more independent of their longtime ally in matters of foreign policy. No one appears more aggrieved about this development than German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Not only was her cell phone tapped by the CIA from the rooftop of the US embassy in Berlin, causing her to break her normally low-key demeanor and object personally to Obama, but upon receiving the report that two German citizens—a midlevel staffer in the Bundesnachrichtendient (Federal Intelligence Serivice; BND) and a civilian employee in the Defense Ministry—were suspected of having been recruited by the CIA, she promptly expelled the US chief-of-station in Berlin. Moreover, according to secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden (who enjoys a decidedly favorable reputation among Germans), the National Security Agency maintains more than 150 listening posts in the country. [...] http://justsecurity.org/13995/spying-friends-troubled-waters-cia-bnd-jefferson-adams/

The article continues and goes into some of the history of US and German spy organisations.

Goes over my head, but it could be interesting for spy buffs.

I just like the current stuff.

US sprung spying on Merkel is especially gratifying.   LMAO