Obama's got some explaining to do. German law protects the privacy

[JDPriestly]

of German citizens, and he is headed to Germany and a discussion with Angela Merkel about this issue very soon.

The NSA affair threatens to overshadow what was meant to be a pleasant visit for both Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel following the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. Obama plans to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s historic “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, while Merkel is looking for a presidential photo-op just three months before an election.

. . . .

“Data protection is a basic right in Germany, unlike in the USA,” Peter Schaar, the German government’s data protection commissioner, told Yahoo News. “It’s not really surprising what the NSA was doing—but the scope is astonishing.”

. . . .

“The excessive American need for control clearly goes too far if the privacy of internet users around the world is so deeply infringed upon,” Ferber, a member of the European Parliament, told the Reuters news agency, adding the NSA was guilty of using “American-style Stasi methods.”

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/edward-snowden-hiding-wrong-country-120521507.html

There is a strange content and stylistic inconsistency between most of the article and the last paragraphs which defend the U.S. surveillance program. I wonder whether someone at Yahoo's right to a free press was chilled by the need to please the watchmen at NSA.

[delrem]

1. Merkel will work out a deal.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Given that Germany's Federal elections are in 3 months time

I would doubt that.

[DetlefK]

6. But she can't cede that argument to the liberals, greens and socialists either.

She has to do something that would prevent her from being attacked for sympathizing with such behavior.

[DFW]

3. A lot of posturing

Western European countries, including Germany, spy on their citizens all the time, and in great detail.

[JDPriestly]

12. How do you know that? Did you read the article?

I think that the German people would vote against any government that did this massive spying on them. They lived through the NAZIs and then the STASI. No way. Any government that would do that would not last long. The Green Party is strong in Germany, at least strong enough to get a voice in government if the other parties fail the people.

[DFW]

16. Any government lasts long if they keep silent about it

Yes, I read the article. I also have friends here in Germany who are with the BKA (German FBI) and one is a judge on the tax court. Sure they people would vote them out if they KNEW everything that is going on. But they don't. Sound familiar?

[ReRe]

4. He jumps the track in the last couple lines

K&R

I do know from reading the stories on here that Germans are none too happy about being surveilled by NSA and can't believe that US citizens are sitting still for it. They recognize the signs of what they themselves lived through under Hitler: Fascism. The young man that wrote this article is a couple generations out of the Hitler years and perhaps is a little "political". Hey, and besides, it's coming out of Yahoo News. Aren't we aware that Yahoo leans right? Thanks for the OP, JD.

[malaise]

5. What I'd like to know is when did the rest of the planet become American

colonies?

[sibelian]

8. When America said so.

What are the rest of us going to do, declare war on America?

#UKres

[malaise]

10. We need a balance of power on this planet

This is madness

[FarCenter]

7. Any data that comes across the US border is fair game.

[sibelian]

9. Well there's data across the Chinese border now.

Is that "fair game"?

[FarCenter]

11. It has to be assumed to be compromised

[JDPriestly]

13. You, obviously, have no family in other countries.

I want privacy in my communications with our family members overseas. We are innocent citizens. We don't deserve to have the government snooping on our family discussions.

Besides, the money spent on this could fund a lot of food stamps. Taking care of people IN THE US should be the priority. We need a government that puts the interests and security of the American people first.

The governments we have had since Kennedy's assassination in 1963 have put the interests of the rest of the world before that of Americans.

Our kids cannot afford to go to the university, but we invite all kinds of foreign students in to attend our land grant and publicly established universities. What is that about? And that is just one example.

[FarCenter]

14. If you send your overseas family member a package, is it not inspected by customs?

Same thing goes for cross border information transfer.

[JDPriestly]

15. Actually, years ago I moved back from living overseas

for a number of years.

When I packed, I did not think about it, but I had bought two items in other countries (not East Germany -- never been there) that had been manufactured in East Germany. When I unpacked, I discovered that both were broken.

My metronome (something for musicians), which I had carefully packed in cloth so that the pendulum on it could not move, was broken. (Maybe it ticked en route and scared someone? That would, in my view, constitute probable cause.) And the case to my East German binoculars was torn up and unusable. The binoculars, made by Germans, were indestructible. Solid workmanship and indestructible products are the hallmarks of German workmanship. Maybe solid enough to foil customs?

Of course, when I bought the products, I had not thought about where they were made. They were just good quality, and I wanted or needed them.

It might have been a coincidence that the only products in my many, many boxes that were broken en route were made in East Germany. But I remember it clearl.

So, yes, my intercontinental packages were checked. And that was long ago.

But I will admit that, while I am very law abiding -- to the point my children laugh at me about following rules, I was known to smuggle a Hungarian salami in my luggage back in the 1960s. America was a freer country back then -- not so paranoid. And Hungarian salami seemed yummy enough to me then to justify being embarrassed and perhaps delayed at customs.

[reformist2]

17. My bet - the US will pay a financial price for this spying.