U.S.- Germany relations hit new low amid NSA spying scandal, official says

[Indi Guy]

Source: NBC News

..."The current situation in transatlantic relations is worse than it was at the low-point in 2003 during the Iraq War," Philipp Missfelder, coordinator for transatlantic relations in Germany's foreign office, told NBC News.

In 2003, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke out strongly against the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq and refused German military support, causing severe political friction between the two countries. But revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on its allies, including eavesdropping on current Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cellphone, have eroded ties further still, he said.

"This is a very difficult situation; there is enormous disappointment on the German side," said Missfelder, who is the foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's conservative CDU party.
Earlier this week, several media outlets in Germany reported that an anticipated "no spy" agreement between Berlin and Washington was on the verge of collapse, which sparked denials from both sides.

...Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily newspaper quoted unnamed sources close to Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, BND, as saying the NSA has shown little flexibility in the negotiations.

"We still have hope that a no-spy agreement with the U.S. is possible," Missdelder said. "But given the high level of lost trust and the weak signals from the U.S., it will be very difficult to accomplish."



Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/17/22338261-us-germany-relations-hit-new-low-amid-nsa-spying-scandal-official-says

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Don't we all feel allot safer since the NSA began alienating our allies, and eroding our trust globally?

[davidthegnome]

1. I wonder if an NSA agent is reading this.

or will read this, at some point today. If so, I wonder what they would do with it. Save it in file somewhere... look for the most anti-establishment posts and start keeping tabs on the people who made them? You know, listening in on cell phone conversations, reading our email, browsing through our browsing history.

All of this big brother shit has made me really paranoid. Fuck the NSA.

[RC]

2. Why are we spying our friends and allies as if they were the enemy?

Why are they spying on American citizens as if we are the enemy?

Answer: Because we are. If enough people would realize what they are really up to, their web farms and data storage facilities would be stormed by people armed with sledge hammers, wire and bolt cutters.

Total information Awareness = Total Control.

People that defend the NSA are like the minimum wage worker, voting for Republicans. Neither case are in the self interest of the average voter.
The NSA needs to be ripped out by its roots. People need to be put in prison. Our government has enemies because it goes out of their way to make sure they have enemies. This has to stop.

[Indi Guy]

3. And if people think the NSA is working to guard our security...

...look at the damage it's done to our trustworthy image & credibility -- which are essential in fostering the cooperation of other nations, as we pursue the real threats internationally.

[JDPriestly]

4. I am shocked that our intelligence agencies did not forsee the damage that the NSA spying

on leaders in Germany of today would cause to our relationship with the current German government.

I lived in Germany and Austria for a number of years. My first reaction when I heard about he surveillance on democratically elected German leaders and the democratically elected German government was that they would be very angry.

We pay our intelligence agents and their bosses enough money to allow them to travel and talk to people and get the feeling of the countries on which they are supposed to report back to our government. What in the world are they doing?

If what they told the American people was what they really thought, they were either completely oblivious or willfully misinterpreted what was going on in Eastern Europe as well as the actual manufacturing quality and capacity within then Russia. I was living in Europe near the Eastern bloc at the time. Had they bothered to ask me, I could have told them that the Eastern bloc was falling apart. Hey. All you had to do was read local newspapers in Austria and Germany.

Did our government purposely "forget" to tell the American people the truth about the disintegration that was in process at that time in Eastern Europe and Russia? Or were our intelligence agents just no intelligent enough to see it?

I've wondered about this for a long time. It puzzles and distresses me and makes me wonder whether our biggest security problem is in our very own government.

As far as Eastern Europe turned out, we no longer have the Soviet Union or the Soviet bloc, and that is good. But I will always wonder whether our government was telling itself the truth about the changes that were rapidly taking place beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s or whether they really believed all the "Evil Empire" propaganda they were spewing that pictured the Soviet Union as a very strong force in the world? Did they lie to the world about the obviously failing Soviet Union's "strength" because that was strategically wise, or did they lie because they really believed their own lie?

I will always wonder. That experience makes me suspect a lot of things that our government and especially our intelligence agencies tell us.

[riderinthestorm]

5. Germany's a powerful economic competitor. The NSA exists for corporate greed

Of course it won't stop, especially on countries like Germany which actually manufactures things...

This isn't about catching terrorists, not really. Its about global economic dominance.

[Scuba]

6. It's bad, but I'm pretty sure US-Germany relations have been worse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II