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EU Parliament "Shocked" At NSA "Bugging" Diplomatic Offices; Threatens Trade Talks
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices" made in a report published Sunday by Der Spiegel. The latest round of NSA 'transparency' suggests U.S. intelligence agents bugged EU offices on both sides of the Atlantic, leaving some EU lawmakers calling for concrete sanctions against Washington - calling for an immediate investigation into the claims and suggesting that recently launched negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade treaty should be put on hold. "If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," notes one German minister, adding that, "it is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies." Schulz concludes, "It would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations."
Via The NY Post,
Senior European officials expressed concern Sunday at reports that U.S. intelligence agents bugged EU offices on both sides of the Atlantic, with some leftist lawmakers calling for concrete sanctions against Washington.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices" made in a report published Sunday by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
The magazine said the surveillance was carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency, which has recently been the subject of leaks claiming it scanned vast amounts of foreign Internet traffic.
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Schulz said that if the allegations that the NSA bugged European Union offices were confirmed "it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations."
... called for an immediate investigation into the claims and suggested that recently launched negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade treaty should be put on hold.
They also called for existing U.S.-EU agreements on the exchange of bank transfer and passenger record information to be canceled.
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"If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. "It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies."
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According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.
Der Spiegel didn't publish the alleged NSA documents it cited nor say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.
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The magazine also didn't specify how it learned of the NSA's alleged eavesdropping efforts at a key EU office in Brussels. There, the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters nearby to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior EU officials' calls and Internet traffic, the Spiegel report said.
Also Sunday, German federal prosecutors said they were examining whether the reported U.S. electronic surveillance programs broke German laws. In a statement, the Federal Prosecutors' Office said it was probing the claims so as to "achieve a reliable factual basis" before considering whether a formal investigation was warranted.
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We don't trust your lying government. Of course the NSA probably spies on various other citizens within the Euro community.
One lie with a smile deserves another one.
Not a fucking peep out of the EU when they learnt that every European pleb was being spied on, but now it's their offices, it's somehow more serious?
They were shocked that it happened to them, the EU diplomats and other EU officials. They don't give a flying fuck that it also happened to 'ordinary' Europeans, the plebs. Even worse, the EU handed data from Europeans citizens to the US. Now it happens to them, they cry foul play. But is it really a shock or are they just playing to be shocked?
It happens all the time, spying on diplomats but it is really 'bad form' in these circles. Anway, cut the bloody fibre optics to and from the US and the UK. Let them be happy in their own little private internet.
Herr Martin Schulz, unelected non-valeur, I have seen him on German TV ZDF, what a moron. His is more than happy, that it is this way. It will give him the guarantee to get at least another 50 to 60 highly paied people more to do nothing, but to get at least a 6 to 8 grands of EUR ( not USD) to do nothing. Thanks to the NSA!
Yep, I can see how it makes perfect sense to create a strong eurotrash NSA to spy on its citizens according to the EU law :-)
The EU could demand the closing of all US bases in Europe.
They will never do so: no money no honey!
Gold backed yuan, might be the honey to entice such action.
Never say Never, espcially in this upside-down, bad is good, war is peace kinda world.
Thank you Mr Snowden for turning the fan on and throwing the brown stuff to it! I wonder what he still has in store.
And this info was spread by "Der Spiegel"... is Merkel finally starting to realize the EU's sole goal is to turn each and every European country into Uncle Sam's whore? Some love it (Poland, the UK) others don't.
Who gives a shit what Merkel thinks? It's not like anyone will be better off if he becomes a euro-slave instead of US slave.
The Us declared a "War On Terror". The Us announced many times that all of its cyber-spying is part of that "War". So if a significant part of our cyber-spying is a crime, such as tapping into sovereign communications of other governments without a warrant, then has't the US government committed a "War Crime"?
You quibble at a little spying when they've bascially been caught providing sarin gas to the Syrian "rebels" rounded up in Turkey with that shit in their possession. We are war criminals. They gased civilians and tried to blame it on Assad. We've all been spattered with innocent blood. We bear responsibility for the acts of that rogue, unaccountable government acting in our name.
Btw where's Barroso? Did he phone "home" (= Washington DC) waiting for orders?
Putin must be pissing his pants laughing. Obummer caught with his pants down while the Euro serfs (Barroso Shulz) are shaking and quivering...
Since the United Stasi of Amerika see their own citizens as enemies, why would the EU parliament be surprised when they, too, are spied upon by this rogue nation? At least someone's representatives are asking questions, unlike the so-called representatives of the US CONgress - with the exception of Ron Paul - who have chosen to cede their representation to corporations instead of to their constituencies. When the Chair of the Senate (Un)Intelligence Committee is married to a war profiteer, what kind of behavior should any reasonable person expect from that legislative body? Of course the Stasi are spying on EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE! It's their job, man. They are just following orders. I think that this is the best of all possible worlds!
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The current crop of narcissists running this place are excellent examples of this, both sides of the aisle.
What is very important is that the world does not cave on this issue, and thus we become a more unipolar world. Too much power in the hands of one group of people is very dangerous, no matter who this group is or what moral grounds they feel they are standing on. All are corruptible given appropriate conditions.
Deeper than all of this, than the spying, the money printing, the market manipulation, the wars, the sovereign overeach etc. is the ongoing battle for the individual and collective human mind. This is the real battle, and all must be aware. Misinformation abounds with an agenda attached. Attacks on the mind are coming 24/7 from all directions, some intentional some not. Keep your mirror free of dust......
o please like they ( EU) didnt know abou this.
I'm waiting for the day when the NSA can reach out of my computer monitor and grab me by the balls.
Waiting for the new TV series
OBAMA KNOWS BEST
Starring Barry Soetoro as "Big Daddy"
Pretty sure I've posted this before.
In any case, the real issue here is industrial espionage & banking / tax issues (US regs to enforce compliance globally) - the idea anyone at the top cares if population monitoring goes on is rather akin to believing in unicorns. A FT opinion piece just fired the first salvo at Google [FT] using completely outdated and bizarrely 19th century economic theory, but there's clear intent to it (spoiler: won't work, look at AT&T and how it reformed after the anti-monopoly legislation; took a while, but it's essentially the same entity, if just with more subsidiary company names). There's also some excellent snark over at Market Watch stock listings if you're paying attention.
All in all, I had more faith in the 'smartest minds of their generation'; at least in the '60s it was all rocket ships and flying cars. Now people are pottering around tinkering with robots on pitiful levels, when you're all just about to unlock serious biotech. Biggest winners of the 21st Century? Those with access to the largest DNA repositories (and ffs, countries like Ecuador have been trying to sell their rainforests for ages to the West, and instead went with China / oil).
Hint ~ the largest Bond action before APPL was biotech. Quite why everyone is ignoring the elephant is beyond me. Oh well. (and if you miss the joke why your skin might one day be green, well, you're not thinking of the future).
It is a very sad future indeed, when the likes of Rockefeller, Rumsfeld, Brzezinski and von Rompuy (or their evil spawn) will be determining who will breed and with what genetic components concocted in a test tube.
Wave goodbye to mother nature and niche advances through human diversity ... and say hello to central planning of population genetics. What could possibly go wrong....
Your hoped for centrally planned Mark 3.0 android-hominid hybrid is a sick fucking joke (though, I fear, all too real). I take it that Dr Mengele still lives somewhere in your circle?
Ahh, i-dog, you judge me wrong. Your grasp of SF literature is a bit low as well, but suffice to say, I'm not a fan of the current crop and their dreams.
The 3.5s are pure biology, and we're 100% natural. Evolution, baby.
Very true ... or even lower. I have little time for such fantasy ... comprising, as it does, a choice between predictive programming or childish fear, errr, fascination with [possible] life forms residing a few thousand light years distant. [It would certainly be a long and boring return trip for them to report back on progress here ... carrying that much food would be a bitch, for a start!].
If I've judged you wrongly, I apologise ... and I'll give you another try....
Maybe Barry thought transparent and covert meant the same thing. I guess the next thing Washington will tell them is they need not worry as long as they aren't doing anything wrong.
Ex-NSA agent: Secret deals between U.S. and European governments to hand over private data to NSA have been in place for decades…
’Former NSA contractor warns of “murky” interception arrangements’
”…Wayne Madsen, a former US navy lieutenant who first worked for the NSA in 1985 and over the next 12 years held several sensitive positions within the agency, names Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy as having secret deals with the US…”
”…Although the level of co-operation provided by other European countries to the NSA is not on the same scale as that provided by the UK, the allegations are potentially embarrassing.
”I can’t understand how Angela Merkel can keep a straight face, demanding assurances from [Barack] Obama and the UK while Germany has entered into those exact relationships,” Madsen said…”
http://bit.ly/13g1Em0
While living in Europe, I'm just as worried about the NSA as I am about morons like socialist Schulz who think they can successfully regulate every country in Europe.
Both pose a great danger to the people of the US and Europe, it's only ironic when one of them get some of their own medicine.
This is very natural. American culture by definition is oppositional, and it must look at the entire world as its enemy.
Why is this the case? It's obvious. Americans are bred to believe that they will have an infinite amount of money and success. Which means that if there are some other people out there in some other country with more money, stuff, or power, they automatically become the enemies of Americans. America thinks itself as a world unto its own, and because of that, the rest of the world is simply not needed, those people might as well not even exist.
Americanism is the idealogy that the world's resources belong to it and it alone, and anybody who stands in the way must be crushed like so many bugs.
Understand that our present situation is America vs. the world, and the world vs. America, and you will understand much.
"Latin America is Ready to Defy the US over Snowden and Other Issues" @ www.4thmedia.org/
OT//: Obama's trip to Africa with every Globalist-Corporate Chiefton the US Trilateral/Foreign Policy could fit in USOne minus a few dozen msm muzzled journalist?: but, here is if interested... "Mali: US Africom Operates to Keep China out of Africa: US Colonization of the Whole Africa Continues!!!" [1/21/13]
http://www.4thmedia.org/2013/01/21/us-africom-operation-in-mali-keeping-china-out-of-africa-and-us-militaryeconomic-colonization-of-the-region/ Nav. site bar / top storiess & most popular @ sidebar
thankyou Tyler now back to the 'Simpson's' :-))
The Obama US is even worse the Bush US...the next US president must be the devil himself.
WARNING: The National Security Agency is likely recording and storing this communication as part of its unlawful spying programs on all Americans … and people worldwide.
"The Obama US is even worse the Bush US."
Therein lies the issue. There is no doubt that - after two terms of George Bush who committed war crimes, sanctioned torture, created Guantánamo and much more, thereby doing huge damage to America's image and isolated it from the civilised world - Obama's promise to all of America and the world during his election campaign was to end all the madness of the Bush years and bring America back into the world of civilised nations. It's no wonder he was greeted with open arms across the world when campaigning.
But not only has he failed to do any of this but is going flat out in the opposite direction, making matters even worse by hounding and imprisoning Americans who dare to blow the whistle on HIS violations of the Constitution, turning the spy agencies onto innocent American people, engineering revolutions in the Middle East to replace one mad Islamic despot with another, arming loony Muslims in Syria and elsewhere and slaughtering innocents across Pakistan and elsewhere with his unlawful drones. The list goes on.
Obama has broken his election promises and betrayed the very Constitution that he swore to uphold. He can only be described as a traitor of everything that America stands for.
these public statements are all so much horse manure.
they have all been snooping and buying stooped dirt
since the invention of the telephone. the u.n. bugging
scandal blew over years ago. mi5 and 6 and operation
sock puppet, gladio and who gives a crap outraged your
grand parents and millions died. oh please, officials
being offended by history does exactly what for
the existing population/s.
this surveillance stuff is
going to be curbed? the germans and the brits might investigate
and find out which of the 1.4 million persons that have top
security clearance are in their own governments and industries
and then ask them....
what the hell good is all this snooping, besides for potential
extortion, character assassination, political and industry influence
and advantage? that is the business of the day in fiat land,
more horse manure for the public.
there my two minutes of hate !
Der Spiegel,
The NSA probably knows all about your interment conversations. Even what you had to eat and what you purchased.
Plenty of ex-US military personnel keeping a close tab on you. Better be good boys and Girls.
Bundesbank may want to speed up that transfer of golf from FRBNY
The EU is shocked the our government sees them as enemies, but at least half of the American citizens are also explicitly seen and treated as enemies of the state.
"This is very natural. American culture by definition is oppositional, and it must look at the entire world as its enemy"
Nothing wrong that... everyone has their own neurosis. BUT why pretend to be the world's best friend if, after all, you're the bad neighbor of the planet?