America and Germany: Longstanding Espionage PartnersStephen Lendman Its infamous reputation speaks for itself. Its reincarnated in new form. Given todays state-of-the-art technology. Its worse now than then. The previous article said the following: On July 7,Der Spiegel headlined Snowden claims: NSA Ties Put German Intelligence in Tight Spot. Theyre in bed together, said Snowden. NSA partners with foreign intelligence in other countries. Its Foreign Affairs Directorate (BND) does so. Its done in ways to insulate their political leaders from the backlash. Its precautionary in case people learn how grievously theyre violating global privacy. BND/NSA cooperation is far greater than previously known. At issue are serious violations of Germanys privacy laws. According to Der Spiegel, NSA provides analysis tools. Theyre for BNDs signals monitoring of foreign data streams that travel through Germany. Besides other areas, BND focuses on the Middle East route through which data packets from crisis regions travel. Der Spiegel said BND pulls data from five different nodes that are then analyzed at the foreign intelligence services headquarters in Pullach near Munich. Gerhard Schindler heads it. He confirmed the partnership during a meeting with members of the German parliaments control committee for intelligence issues. Current operations far exceed Stasis. Theyre conducted with technological ease. Decades earlier spying was crude compared to todays. Modern methods operate in unprecedented ways. Virtually everyone can be monitored everywhere at all times. Nearly everything about targets is known. Almost nothings too secret to escape scrutiny. Theres no way to hide. Theres no place to do it. On July 20, Der Spiegel headlined Prolific Partner: German Intelligence Used NSA Spying Program, saying: Chancellor Merkel lied. It didnt surprise. She does it repeatedly. She and her ministers claim they first learned about the US governments comprehensive spying programs from press reports. But SPIEGEL has learned that German intelligence services themselves use one of the NSAs most valuable tools. BND and its Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) intelligence agency collaborated with NSA. Secret documents reveal it. They show BfV was equipped with a program called XKeyScore intended to expand their ability to support NSA as we jointly prosecute CT (counterterrorism) targets. The BND is tasked with instructing the domestic intelligence agency on how to use the program, the documents say. Its a productive espionage tool. Its able to retroactively reveal any terms targeted persons type into search engines. Its able to receive full takeunfiltered dataincluding communications content. It can do so over a period of days. Documents show up to 500 million (monthly) data connections from Germany accessed by the NSA. XKeyScore collects much of it. German/NSA cooperation recently intensified. BNDs Schindler expressed an eagerness and desire to do so. According to NSA: The BND has been working to influence the German government to relax interpretation of the privacy laws to provide greater opportunities of intelligence sharing. In 2012, Germany showed a willingness to take risks and to pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the US. In Afghanistan, BND was NSAs most prolific partner. The relationship is longstanding. Its hard-wired. Merkel lied. Anger expressed over US spying was fake. She knows whats going on. Shes involved. On September 22, German federal elections are scheduled. Voters will choose Bundestag representatives. Merkels coalition needs up to 300 or more seats to retain power. Until NSA spying and Germanys involvement were revealed, easy reelection was expected. Shes seeking a third term. Perhaps she wont get it. Earlier polls showed her ahead. Voters may have second thoughts. Theyll decide if shes a spent force. In weeks well know. In the meantime, expect more revelations. On July 19, Der Spiegel headlined Greenwald: Explosive NSA Spying Reports Are Imminent, saying: Expect them in a few days. Theyll be the next shoe to drop. Theyll be more explosive in Germany than previous reports. Theyll tell more about BND/NSA cooperation. Greenwald said hes got around 9,000 to 10,000 top secret documents. Hes had them for weeks. Hes been analyzing them. Some documents are extremely complicated. Hes living in Rio de Janeiro. CIA has a robust presence there. Hes worried about his safety. He feels threatened in the sense that there are very prominent American politicians and even American journalists who have called for (his) arrest, who have called (him) a criminal. Possession of top secret US documents jeopardizes his safety. Hes got multiple copies. He maintains regular contact with Snowden. They use encrypted chat technologies. German/NSA cooperation isnt at the same level as Britain, Australia, Canada or New Zealand. Its the next tier where they exchange information all the time. Its intensifying. BNDs Schindlers eager to do so. Perhaps Germanys heading for joint NSA cooperation matching any other country. A Final Comment On July 18, the Electronic Frontier Foundation headlined House Judiciary Committee Rails Against Domestic Spying, saying: House Judiciary Committee members grilled government witnesses. It was more show than tell. Obama officials hid behind secrecy. Grilling belies congressional sincerity. Congress, the courts, Obama, and administration officials are co-conspirators. It shows in legislation enacted. It shows in court decisions. It shows Americas current state. Washingtons criminal class is bipartisan. It includes High Court justices. Police state lawlessness replaced constitutional law. Full-blown tyrannys a hairs breadth away. Americas no longer safe to live in. Universal monitoring persists. Its official policy. Corporate bosses are complicit. Democracys a convenient illusion. So is freedom. Its on the chopping block for elimination. Its practically gone already. Doing the right thing is criminalized. Press freedoms up for grabs. On July 19, The New York Times headlined Court Tells Reporter to Testify in Case of Leaked CIA Data, saying: The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Times writer James Risen must do so. It said First Amendment protections dont cover unauthorized leaks. Federal District court Judge Leonie Brinkema held otherwise. She got it right. She supported press freedom. She called it First Amendment reporters privilege. Obamas DOJ claims it doesnt exist. Appeals Court Chief Judge William Byrd Traxler wrote the majority (two/one) ruling, saying: Clearly, Risens direct, firsthand account of the criminal conduct indicted by the grand jury cannot be obtained by alternative means, as Risen is without dispute the only witness who can offer this critical testimony. There is no First Amendment testimonial privilege, absolute or qualified, that protects a reporter from being compelled to testify by the prosecution or the defense in criminal proceedings about criminal conduct that the reporter personally witnessed or participated in, absent a showing of bad faith, harassment, or other such non-legitimate motive, even though the reporter promised confidentiality to his source. Risen vowed to go to prison rather than testify. He may end up there. Hell appeal to the Supreme Court. Odds of winning are slim. The Courts stacked with right wing extremists. Theyre largely comfortable with police state lawlessness. It shows in their rulings. Risen may first ask for a full Fourth Circuit ruling. His lawyer Joel Kurtzberg said: We are disappointed by and disagree with the courts decision. We are currently evaluating our next steps. Fourth Circuits Judge Roger Gregory vigorous(ly) dissent(ed). He called the ruling a threat to investigative journalism, saying: Under the majoritys articulation of the reporters privilege, or lack thereof, absent a showing of bad faith by the government, a reporter can always be compelled against her will to reveal her confidential sources in a criminal trial. Whatever the limits of who may claim reporters privilege, it is clear that Risen a full-time reporter for a national news publication, The New York Times falls into the category of people who should be eligible to invoke the privilege. The majority exalts the interests of the government while unduly trampling those of the press, and in doing so, severely impinges on the press and the free flow of information in our society. Fridays ruling set a precedent. It applies only to the Fourth Circuit. Its important. It includes Maryland and Virginia. Its Pentagon, CIA and NSA headquarters. Risens case pertains to information in his 2006 book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. Its about Bush era CIA tactics. Clinton also. It involves trick(ing) Iranian scientists by having a Russian defector give them blueprints for a nuclear triggering device that had been altered with an error. It portrays the operation as reckless and botched in a way that could have helped the Iranians gain accurate information. In December 2010, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was called Risens source. He was indicted on Espionage Act charges. According to Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, since 1984, 17 journalists were jailed for refusing to testify or disclose sources. Police states operate this way. Americas by far the worst. For sure its the most reckless, outlandish and dangerous. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/ linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 