Showing posts with label Angela Merkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angela Merkel. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2014

NSA Spy Programs : French President Got Paid Off, German Chancellor's Worries Continue

Just days after French President François Hollande declared that France had "restored" its trust with the Obama White House after the growing N.S.A. spying scandal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a proposal to create a Europe-only Internet apparatus that would circumvent the N.S.A. backdoor taps, almost universal decryption, and data collection.

During his state visit to the United States, French President François Hollande declared that the U.S. and France had restored mutual respect between the countries, because both nations are committed to respecting the right to privacy. President Hollande's remarks appeared to contradict the N.S.A. relentless spying program on French citizens in apparent violation of Article 9 and 1382 of the French Civil Code and Articles 226-1 and following of the French Penal Code. It's unclear what side deals President Barack Obama might have made with France to induce the French president to announce a reconciliation with the U.S. government. When the data collection of the N.S.A. spy program was first reported to include the private information of millions of French, German, and Spanish citizens, amongst others, popular outrage erupted in Europe to the growing corruption of the Internet by the N.S.A.

Meanwhile, German Chanchellor Angela Merkel made an announcement after the conclusion of President Hollande's state visit to the U.S. that she would propose to France the creation of a new Web network to ensure secure communications in Europe.

No word, yet, on how the Obama administration will respond to Chancellor Merkel's proposal.

Conspicuously absent from President Hollande's agenda during his state visit was any addressing of the latest General Motors TV commercial, which engages in French-bashing.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

U.S.A. Has Been Spying On Angela Merkel Since 2002


La N.S.A. Espionnait Les Français by connaissable

Did Barack Obama Know About N.S.A. Wiretaps on Angela Merkel's Cellphone ?

"Le quotidien Bild am Sonntag cite ce dimanche des sources des services de renseignement américains selon lesquelles le chef de la NSA, Keith Alexander, avait informé Barak Obama d'une opération d'écoute des communications de la chancelière allemande dès 2010," meaning that President Obama knew of the spying on Angela Merkel since 2010.

"Le Spiegel indiquait samedi soir, au vu de documents de la NSA, que la chancelière figurait sur une liste d'écoutes depuis 2002, et l'était encore quelques semaines avant la visite du président américain à Berlin, en juin dernier," meaning that Merkel was still on the list of spy targets just a few weeks before President Obama's visit to Berlin last June.

However, the article ends in confusion, because it was reported that, " Selon Der Spiegel, le président américain lui aurait dit que s'il l'avait su, il y aurait immédiatement mis fin," meaning that Obama said that he would have ended the spying on Merkel if he had known about it, creating a contradiction between what Der Spiegel and Bild am Sonntag are reporting. If President Obama said he would have ended the spying on Merkel if he had known about it, then why are there indications that he was informed of it in 2010, but Merkel continued to appear on the spy list until this year ?

Source : Scandale de la NSA : Angela Merkel était écoutée depuis 2002 (Le Parisien)

Friday, October 25, 2013

The N.S.A. spy programme is causing a growing diplomatic crisis for Obama


La N.S.A. Espionne Les Françaises by connaissable

Did White House officials approve the N.S.A.'s spying of 35 world leaders ?

The growing scandal of the U.S. spying on our European allies is threatening to engulf the White House, and, typically, administration officials are trying to protect the president from accountability for the scandal. "Inside the administration it has touched off behind-the-scenes recriminations between the White House and the intelligence agencies over how much detail was given to White House officials about which world leaders are being monitored," The New York Times is reporting, adding, "A senior administration official declined to say what Mr. Obama knew or did not know about monitoring of Ms. Merkel’s phone, but said the president 'doesn’t think we are in the right place.' " If it is illegal to spy on Germans without proper legal authority, did the Obama administration break German law by spying on the German chancellor ? If the Republicans weren't such a joke right now, they should be leading the charge to investigate these allegations.

  • N.S.A. monitored calls of 35 world leaders after U.S. official handed over contacts ; NSA encourages departments to share their 'Rolodexes' (The Guardian)
  • Angela Merkel and François Hollande lead push at E.U. summit to reshape transatlantic spying and agree new code of conduct (The Guardian)

Angela Merkel NSA cellphone spying surveillance President Obama approval photo Angela-Merkel-smartphone_zps9b6a788d.jpg

The official U.S. response has "evolved" from accusing the N.S.A. contractor Edward Snowden of being a "spy," to denying reports that the U.S. has spied on European citizens, to trying to isolate the White House from legal and political ramifications of the unconstitutional and illegal N.S.A. surveillance programme. Since our own impotent reporters inside the Beltway appear to enable the Obama administration's expansion of the NSA espionage programme, then the only outside pressure that is going to make a real difference is going to be the foreign press, especially from our allies. Let's see if our allies have the courage to "draw a line in the sand" or to propose economic sanctions against the U.S. until President Obama dismantles the illegal surveillance state his administration steadfastly helped to build ? The N.S.A's espionage may now amount to acts of crime in the eyes of foreign nations. If American courts are not going to recognize the violations of law by the N.S.A., then surely the courts of our allies will.

Meanwhile, the political legitimacy of the N.S.A. surveillance programme continues to come under fire. President Obama's rationale for spying was that it was intended for foreigners, not Americans. Now that European leaders are complaining about the tracking of "foreigners," how legitimate is the N.S.A. surveillance programme now ?

(Updated : Friday 25 Oct 2013 8:20 a.m.)


France In The NSA Crosshairs : Phone Networks Under Surveillance

I was unable to post this information as a status update on Facebook this morning, so I am sharing it here, hoping that I can link back to it on Facebook.

Facebook NSA Spy Programme Censorship photo 2013-10-21-untitled-ScreenShot2013-10-21at092415_zpsa163c110.png

France summoned the U.S. ambassador on Monday to the French Foreign Ministry office on the Quai d'Orsay to protest allegations in Le Monde newspaper about large-scale spying on French citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency.

"If an allied country spies on France or spies on other European countries, that's totally unacceptable," French interior minister Manuel Valls told Europe 1 radio, according to a Reuters report published by The New York Times.

Meanwhile, CNN is also reporting that according to Le Monde, this is how the system worked : "When a telephone number is used in France, it activates a signal which automatically triggers the recording of the call. Apparently this surveillance system also picks up SMS (text) messages and their content using key words. Finally, the NSA apparently stores the history of the connections of each target -- or the meta-data." It wasn't immediately clear from the article if the conversations were being recorded or just the data surrounding each call. The CNN report added that the Le Monde investigation followed a separate report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which showed that the NSA "systematically" eavesdropped on the Mexican government. It hacked the public e-mail account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which was also used by Cabinet members, according to Der Spiegel.

Separately, in an article published in English this morning by Le Monde, Glenn Greenwald shared a by-line in an article questioning why France has not been as critical as Germany or Brazil of the U.S. spy programme on sovereign nations. The article concludes with indication of the global nature of the U.S. spy programme : "One of the documents which Le Monde was able to consult notes that between 8 February and 8 March 2013, the NSA collected, throughout the world, 124,8 billion telephone data items and 97,1 billion computer data items. In Europe, only Germany and the United Kingdom exceed France in terms of numbers of interceptions."

(Originally Posted : Monday 21 Oct 2013 9:15 a.m.)