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<H1>Merkel Compared NSA To Stasi In Heated Encounter With Obama</H1></DIV>
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<DIV class=cat-date-line><SPAN class=cat-date-line2><A
title="View all posts in Educate!"
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/"
rel="category tag"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Educate!</STRONG></FONT></A></SPAN><FONT
size=3><STRONG> <SPAN class=cat-date-line3><A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/nsa-spying/" rel=tag>NSA Spying</A>,
<A href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/snowden/" rel=tag>Snowden</A>, <A
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/surveillance/"
rel=tag>Surveillance</A> </SPAN><BR></STRONG></FONT><SPAN
class=cat-date-line4><FONT size=3><STRONG>By Ian Traynor and Paul Lewis,
</STRONG></FONT><A
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/merkel-compares-nsa-stasi-obama"
target=_blank><FONT
size=3><STRONG>www.theguardian.com</STRONG></FONT></A><BR><FONT
size=3><STRONG>December 17th, 2013</STRONG></FONT></SPAN><BR></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Above photo: Angela Merkel, with Germany’s finance
minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, was enraged at hearing the NSA tapped her personal
mobile. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>**Staff note: What would the US do if we learned that
another government was listening to the President’s private
calls?**</STRONG></FONT></P>
<H2><FONT size=3>German chancellor furious after revelations US intelligence
agency listened in on her personal mobile phone</FONT></H2>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>In an angry exchange with </STRONG></FONT><A
title="More from the Guardian on Barack Obama"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/barack-obama"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Barack
Obama</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG>, </STRONG></FONT><A
title="More from the Guardian on Angela Merkel"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/angela-merkel"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>Angela Merkel</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG> has
compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the
ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in
East </STRONG></FONT><A title="More from the Guardian on Germany"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/germany"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>Germany</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG>, where she grew
up.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>The German chancellor also told the US president that
America’s National Security Agency cannot be trusted because of the volume of
material it had allowed to leak to the whistleblower Edward
Snowden,</STRONG></FONT><A title=""
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/world/europe/us-germany-intelligence-partnership-falters-over-spying.html"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>according to the New York Times</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT
size=3><STRONG>.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Livid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the
Americans were listening in to </STRONG></FONT><A title=""
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/26/nsa-surveillance-brazil-germany-un-resolution"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>her personal mobile phone</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT
size=3><STRONG>, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: “This is like the
Stasi.”</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>The newspaper also reported that Merkel was particularly
angry that, based on the disclosures, “the </STRONG></FONT><A
title="More from the Guardian on NSA"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/nsa"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>NSA</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG> clearly
couldn’t be trusted with private information, because they let Snowden clean
them out.”</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Snowden is to testify on the NSA scandal to a
European parliament inquiry next month, to the anger of Washington which is
pressuring the EU to stop the testimony.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>In Brussels, the chairman of the US House select
committee on intelligence, Mike Rogers, a Republican, said his views on the
invitation to Snowden were “not fit to print” and that it was “not a great
idea”.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Inviting someone “who is wanted in the US and has
jeopardised the lives of US soldiers” was beneath the dignity of the European
parliament, he said.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>He declined to comment on Merkel’s alleged remarks to
Obama. In comments to the Guardian, he referred to the exchange as “a
conversation that may or may not have occurred”.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Senior Brussels officials say the EU is struggling to
come up with a coherent and effective response to the revelations of mass US and
British </STRONG></FONT><A title="More from the Guardian on Surveillance"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/surveillance"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>surveillance</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG> of
electronic communication in </STRONG></FONT><A
title="More from the Guardian on Europe"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news"><FONT
size=3><STRONG>Europe</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=3><STRONG>, but that the
disclosure that Merkel’s mobile had been monitored was a decisive
moment.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>A draft report by a European parliament inquiry into the
affair, being presented on Wednesday and obtained by the Guardian, says there
has to be a discussion about the legality of the NSA’s operations and also
of the activities of European intelligence agencies.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>The report drafted by Claude Moraes, the British Labour
MEP heading the inquiry, says “we have received substantial evidence that the
operations by intelligence services in the US, UK, France and Germany are in
breach of international law and European law”.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Rather than resorting to a European response, Berlin has
been pursuing a bilateral pact with the Americans aimed at
curbing NSA activities and insisting on a “no-spying pact” between
allies.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>The NYT reported that Susan Rice, Obama’s national
security adviser, had told Berlin that there would be not be a no-espionage
agreement, although the Americans had pledged to desist from monitoring Merkel
personally.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>A high-ranking German official with knowledge of the
talks with the White House told the Guardian there had been a “useful exchange
of views”, but confirmed a final agreement was far from being
reached.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>The Germans have received assurances that the
chancellor’s phone was not being monitored and that the US spy agency is not
conducting industrial espionage.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>However the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said German and US officials
were still in the process of negotiating how any final agreement – the details
of which could remain secret between both governments – would be
formalised.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Their discussions, which include talks about so-called
confidence building measures, are also bound-up with wider discussions with the
EU regarding special privacy assurances that might be afforded to its citizens
under a future arrangement.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>“We want to be assured that not everything that is
technically possible will be done,” the German official
added.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>In Germany, the main government minister dealing with
the NSA fallout, Hans-Peter Friedrich, has fallen victim to a
reshuffle in the new coalition unveiled in Berlin at the weekend. Friedrich,
from Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, is not seen as an ally of Merkel’s and
was widely viewed to have performed less than robustly in the exchanges with the
Americans.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>His replacement as interior minister, by contrast, is a
close ally of Merkel’s – her former chief of staff and former defence minister,
Thomas de Maiziere. Additionally, Merkel has brought a former senior
intelligence official into the new coalition.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3><STRONG>Alongside De Maiziere at the interior ministry, she has
appointed Klaus-Dieter Fritsche, previously deputy head of the domestic
intelligence service, Germany’s equivalent of
MI5.</STRONG></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>