German Intelligence Employee Arrested On Suspicion of Spying For US On Bundestag 74
New submitter Plumpaquatsch writes: Deutsche Welle reports: "A member of Germany's foreign intelligence agency has been detained for possibly spying for the U.S. The 31-year-old is suspected of giving a U.S. spy agency information about a parliamentary inquiry of NSA activities. During questioning, the suspect reportedly told investigators that he had gathered information on an investigative committee from Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. The panel is conducting an inquiry into NSA surveillance on German officials and citizens; yesterday an ex-staffer told it the NSA was 'totalitarian' mass collector of data."
Before (Score:5, Interesting)
What the article gets wrong and EVERYONE forgets is that the spying did not start AFTER 9/11 but BEFORE new york was attacked.
This was not in response to the twin towers, this was well under way before then.
Re:In Soviet Germany... (Score:4, Interesting)
He was arrested on suspicion of being a Russian spy. He told investigators that he was actually spying for the Americans. Would he have been arrested if that had been the initial suspicion?
Re:There is some history here (Score:5, Interesting)
If it predates the CIA, the CIA was not born, so how could there be a relationship between the BND and CIA?
German and allied intelligence agencies cooperated DURING ww2. In 1943, the leader of the Abwehr, Wilhelm Canaris [wikipedia.org], offered to assassinate Hitler, announce an immediate ceasefire, and negotiate a German surrender. Winston Churchill turned him down flat out, and said there would be no ceasefire, and the allies would accept no terms other than unconditional surrender.. So the war continued. In 1944, another group of German leaders again offered to negotiate a surrender, but they botched the assassination of Hitler, and, again, the allies refused to negotiate, dooming the coup. 90% of America's casualties in WW2 occurred after Germany offered to surrender the first time, and 75% occurred after Germany offered to surrender the second time.
Re: Wait a minute! (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not wrong to spy on other countries. But it is wrong to spy on friends, allies and their heads of states, the entire world population, subverting encryption standards, undermining and ultimately destroying any trust into US companies by knowingly and unknowingly bugging services and devices (like the Cisco stuff), bypassing conventional laws and democracy by using FISA and national security letters, destroying every single bit of privacy, etcetera
There is a difference between normal intelligence work and the bullshit the NSA perpetrates.