Spying Scandal: What's the Fuss about US Surveillance?

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/commentary-germany-ignores-benefits-of-us-surveillance-a-909690.html


Should Germans really be so miffed about US surveillance?

So maybe I'm not in the best position to comment on the NSA spying scandal. Ten days ago, I traveled to the United States to stay in a vacation home on the East Coast. "As a patriot, I find that traveling to America has become unacceptable," a colleague of mine texted me on Monday. In my own defense, I can only say that the scope of the scandal could not have been foreseen when I began my journey.

Since then, however, one has much to fret about. If I understand things correctly, the Americans are in the fast lane to setting up a state of hyper-surveillance in Europe ruled over by data dictator Barack Obama. And all good Germans are united in their outrage. Even Sigmar Gabriel, head of the center-left Social Democrats, is calling for prosecutors to launch an investigation into the head of the NSA.

Here in America, it's hard to come by reliable information on the scandal. I open up the New York Times every day hoping to learn something deeper. But even though it's the leading newspaper among the world's left-leaning elite, it only devoted a small side section to the biggest bugging scandal in history. On Tuesday, it broke a pattern by publishing a piece about the uproar sparked by revelations that the US had bugged the EU diplomatic representation in Washington. But, of course, it only got a slot on Page 4, behind stories about Syria, Egypt and the lax lending practices of Chinese banks. In fact, the "Gray Lady" deemed its coverage of Wimbledon more important than writing about how the US intelligence agency has violated the civil rights of millions.

Different Concepts of Privacy

It's hard to explain to Americans how Germans see this issue. Try telling someone from the US why we Germans have no problem sitting in a sauna full of naked people but get nervous when the Google camera-car rolls by and takes digital images of our houses. I gave it my best shot, but let's just say this: Our concept of the private sphere is not immediately clear to people abroad.

[peacebird]

1. He thinks NYT is a left leaning paper...?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Outside the us the NYT is the American paper of record

To the chagrin of the WAPO.

It is also seen as somewhat left of center and it's editorial pages is, when compared to other major us papers.

So there you have it.

[peacebird]

3. I got NYT free a few years back, called and told them to stop delivery as their editorial page

made my blood boil!

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Well it might make your blood boil

But that is how it is seen from abroad. When I was growing up, the NYT was a way to find out what was happening in Mexico. And trust me, it was an expensive way.

[Savannahmann]

4. I've been wondering why so little has been reported in our papers.

It's a shame that our papers aren't as interested in civil rights as the foreign news is.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Soft dictartorship

You do not need the proles learning any of this.

Information control is part of it