{"id":13010,"date":"2014-02-17T09:12:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T09:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13010"},"modified":"2014-02-17T09:12:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T09:12:35","slug":"germany-to-resume-counter-espionage-against-us-western-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13010","title":{"rendered":"Germany to resume counter-espionage against US, Western allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"merkelcell\"<\/a>Following decades of a heavily subdued program, Germany is planning to resume counter-espionage against both the US and other Western allies in response to ongoing revelations surrounding NSA\u2019s global surveillance practices, Der Spiegel reports.<\/p>\n

Another primary motivation for the resumption of surveillance is US reluctance to agree to a no-mutual-spying treaty desired by Germany, the reports suggests.<\/p>\n

The beefed up program will include more active tracking of US agents operating within Germany\u2019s borders. British embassies \u2013 as well as those of the US \u2013 could also be targeted, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis step would be an about-face from the decades-long practice of systematically monitoring the activities of countries such as China, Russia and North Korea but rarely the activities of Western partners,\u201d read Spiegel\u2019s assessment of the situation.<\/p>\n

One of the revelations considered to be most serious was the fact that the US was monitoring a non-governmental cell phone used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to the files leaked by Edward Snowden, the German Chancellor\u2019s mobile phone has been on an NSA target list since 2002 and was codenamed \u201cGE Chancellor Merkel.\u201d Surveillance and communication equipment installed on the roofs of both the US and British embassies in the capital was also deeply criticized.<\/p>\n

Head of the German domestic intelligence service, the Bundesamt f\u00fcr Verfassungsschutz (BfV), Hans-Georg Maassen suggested last November that active operations may be stepped up in the wake of the news. Germany was required to \u201cadjust counter-espionage and take a 360-degree view,\u201d according to Maassen.<\/p>\n

In January, Germany called for less rhetoric and more action in the wake of President Obama\u2019s pledge to stop spying on world leaders. While the announcement was greeted with optimism, politicians said it had been \u201ctoo little, from a German point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mere days afterwards, former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden chose the German ARD broadcaster to give his first TV interview, stating that: \u201cThere is no question that the US is engaged in economic spying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemens Binninger, part of Merkel’s Christian Democrats party, said that in regards to the discrepancies between countries surveilled, Germany needs to \u201ccease the differentiation and treat them all the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chancellor Merkel said on Saturday in her weekly podcast that herself and French President Francois Hollande would review plans to build up a trustworthy data protection network in Europe.<\/p>\n

She aired her disapproval of companies such as Google and Facebook, basing their operations in countries with low levels of data protection, while in reality being active in countries with high data protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, we’ll talk about European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn’t have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather, one could build up a communication network inside Europe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the revelations about US global spying activities, Merkel has become one of the biggest supporters of greater data protection making it mandatory for ministers to use encryption on their phones to secure their communications against intrusion.<\/p>\n

However, before the new counter-intelligence plan comes into effect, an agreement must be reached between Merkel\u2018s office, the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, Der Spiegel reports. – RT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following decades of a heavily subdued program, Germany is planning to resume counter-espionage against both the US and other Western allies in response to ongoing revelations surrounding NSA\u2019s global surveillance practices, Der Spiegel reports. Another primary motivation for the resumption of surveillance is US reluctance to agree to a no-mutual-spying treaty desired by Germany, the … Continue reading “Germany to resume counter-espionage against US, Western allies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[3294,8350,3053,51,8351,5801,3030,1638],"class_list":["post-13010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-angela-merkel","tag-counter-espionage","tag-ed-snowden","tag-germany","tag-global-surveillance","tag-merkel","tag-nsa","tag-us"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/merkelcell.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13012,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13010\/revisions\/13012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}