'The Americans Lied': Trans-Atlantic 'No-Spy' Deal on the Rocks

Der Spiegel ^ | January 15, 2014 | Veit Medick and Annett Meiritz

[MarkBsnr]

Berlin wants a deal with the US that prohibits trans-Atlantic spying, but Washington seems uninterested. Last summer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised her citizens a pact which would prohibit US spying on German citizens. But since then, Washington has shown little interest in pursuing such a treaty. Now, officials in Germany fear the deal is dead...

But the statements coming out of Berlin and Pullach, where the BND is headquartered, reek of forced optimism. Nobody wants it to look as though efforts have been abandoned toward a deal which would see the US agree to swear off spying operations in Germany. Yet despite the assertions, most of those involved are slowly coming to the realization that a surveillance deal between Washington and Berlin isn't likely to become reality. The US government is still digging in its heels...

The current gloominess is a stark shift from the confidence on display in the middle of last year. To be sure, Germany was in the middle of a general election campaign. But in the summer of 2013, National Security Agency head Keith Alexander had told his German counterpart, BND chief Gerhard Schindler, that a far-reaching deal was possible, though he also acknowledged that it was ultimately up to the White House to give the green light. German officials began speaking of the treaty as though it were a done deal. Legal Action?

Since then, however, news broke that the US had monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone and that the US undertakes far-reaching surveillance activities from the roof of its embassy in Berlin.

[MarkBsnr]

Edward Snowden has done all of us a great service.

[Gen.Blather]

Was there anyone who believed that our phone calls were private? A few years ago an employee where I work was murdered in his house. The cops caught the perps hours after the body was discovered. Apparently they asked the phone company what cell phones were in the house at the time of the murder. Then they got copies of a text sent by one of the perps saying, essentially, the guy was naked and unarmed. (Two under-age prostitutes set him up for their pimps to take down.)

[moovova]

Maybe if Germany captured and executed a few American spies...it might get Obama’s attention.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"Was there anyone who believed that our phone calls were private? "

Until Snowden, most people believed that their phone calls were private. Furthermore, they believed that anyone claiming that the government monitored all telecommunications was a delusional paranoid. Most still believe that if you have "nothing to hide", you have nothing to fear from government spying on you.