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GERMANY CANCELS SPYING PACT WITH US, UK
09:52 03.08.13
Germany has canceled a Cold War-era surveillance pact with the US
and Britain on Friday in response to revelations by National Security
Agency leakerEdward Snowden about those countries' alleged electronic
eavesdropping operations, Ya Lybnan reported.
The move appeared largely symbolic, designed to show that the German
government was taking action to stop unwarranted surveillance directed
against its citizens without actually jeopardizing relations with
Washington and London. With weeks to go before national elections,
opposition parties had seized on Snowden's claim that Germany was
complicit in the NSA's intelligence-gathering operations.
Government officials have insisted that US and British intelligence
were never given permission to break Germany's strict privacy laws.
But they conceded last month that an agreement dating back to the late
1960s gave the US, Britain and France the right to request German
authorities to conduct surveillance operations within Germany to
protect their troops stationed there.
"The cancellation of the administrative agreements, which we have
pushed for in recent weeks, is a necessary and proper consequence
of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy," Germany's
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.
British Foreign Office brushed off the significance of the German
move. "It's a loose end from a previous era which is right to tie up,"
the Foreign Office said in a statement, noting that the agreement
had not been used since 1990.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Berlin, Ruth Bennett, confirmed
that the agreement had been canceled but declined to comment further
on the issue.
A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the
cancellation would have little practical consequences.
He said the agreement had not been invoked since the end of the
Cold War and would have no impact on current intelligence cooperation
between Germany and its NATO allies. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the issue.
Germany is currently in talks with France to cancel its part of the
agreement as well.
Public reaction in Germany to Snowden's revelations was particularly
strong, with civil rights campaigners recalling the mass
surveillancecarried out by secret police in communist East Germany
and during the Nazi era. Chancellor Angela Merkel went so far as to
raise the issue of alleged NSA spying with President Barack Obama
when he visited Berlin in June.
"The government needs to do something to show voters it's taking the
issue seriously," saidHenning Riecke of the German Council on Foreign
Relations, a Berlin-based think tank. "Ending an agreement made in
the pre-Internet age gives the Germans a chance to show they're doing
something, and at the same time the Americans know it's not going to
hurt them. Given the good relations between the intelligence agencies,
they'll get the information they need anyway."
According to Snowden, Germany has been a particular focus on U.S.
intelligence gathering operations in recent years. Several of those
who plotted and carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in
the United States had lived in Germany.
In March 2011, two U.S. Air Force members were killed and two wounded
when a gunman from Kosovo fired on a military bus at Frankfurt
International Airport. The gunman told police he was motivated by
anger over the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Armenian News - Tert.am
09:52 03.08.13
Germany has canceled a Cold War-era surveillance pact with the US
and Britain on Friday in response to revelations by National Security
Agency leakerEdward Snowden about those countries' alleged electronic
eavesdropping operations, Ya Lybnan reported.
The move appeared largely symbolic, designed to show that the German
government was taking action to stop unwarranted surveillance directed
against its citizens without actually jeopardizing relations with
Washington and London. With weeks to go before national elections,
opposition parties had seized on Snowden's claim that Germany was
complicit in the NSA's intelligence-gathering operations.
Government officials have insisted that US and British intelligence
were never given permission to break Germany's strict privacy laws.
But they conceded last month that an agreement dating back to the late
1960s gave the US, Britain and France the right to request German
authorities to conduct surveillance operations within Germany to
protect their troops stationed there.
"The cancellation of the administrative agreements, which we have
pushed for in recent weeks, is a necessary and proper consequence
of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy," Germany's
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.
British Foreign Office brushed off the significance of the German
move. "It's a loose end from a previous era which is right to tie up,"
the Foreign Office said in a statement, noting that the agreement
had not been used since 1990.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Berlin, Ruth Bennett, confirmed
that the agreement had been canceled but declined to comment further
on the issue.
A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the
cancellation would have little practical consequences.
He said the agreement had not been invoked since the end of the
Cold War and would have no impact on current intelligence cooperation
between Germany and its NATO allies. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the issue.
Germany is currently in talks with France to cancel its part of the
agreement as well.
Public reaction in Germany to Snowden's revelations was particularly
strong, with civil rights campaigners recalling the mass
surveillancecarried out by secret police in communist East Germany
and during the Nazi era. Chancellor Angela Merkel went so far as to
raise the issue of alleged NSA spying with President Barack Obama
when he visited Berlin in June.
"The government needs to do something to show voters it's taking the
issue seriously," saidHenning Riecke of the German Council on Foreign
Relations, a Berlin-based think tank. "Ending an agreement made in
the pre-Internet age gives the Germans a chance to show they're doing
something, and at the same time the Americans know it's not going to
hurt them. Given the good relations between the intelligence agencies,
they'll get the information they need anyway."
According to Snowden, Germany has been a particular focus on U.S.
intelligence gathering operations in recent years. Several of those
who plotted and carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in
the United States had lived in Germany.
In March 2011, two U.S. Air Force members were killed and two wounded
when a gunman from Kosovo fired on a military bus at Frankfurt
International Airport. The gunman told police he was motivated by
anger over the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Armenian News - Tert.am