Peter Schwarz

Germany Defends Its Cooperation with NSA: Angela Merkel's
government said on Monday that its cooperation with American
intelligence was fully regulated by strict legal guidelines after
a magazine reported that the U.S. National Security Agency was
in close cahoots with German spies. (Voice of America)

The claim by European governments that they were unaware of the extensive wiretapping undertaken by the US intelligence agency NSA is simply a lie. In fact, various European intelligence agencies, and in particular Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), work closely with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the surveillance of electronic communications.

This is clear from an interview with former NSA sub-contractor Edward Snowden published in the latest issue of the news magazine Der Spiegel.

To the question: “Are the German authorities and German politicians involved in the monitoring system”, Snowden answered: “Yes, of course. They [NSA people–Ed.] are in cahoots with the Germans, as with most other Western countries.”

The interview is based on written questions submitted by encryption specialist Jacob Appelbaum and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in mid-May to Snowden, before he went to Hong Kong and began revealing the comprehensive monitoring activities of the NSA and Britain's GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).

In the responses from Snowden, now published for the first time, he suggests that such international intelligence cooperation also serves to bypass national legal restrictions and shield political leaders. Intelligence agencies that exchange information never ask where it originates, he explains. “In this way, they can protect their political leaders from the backlash, if it should come out how massively people's privacy is being violated worldwide.”

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Stephen Lendman

Stasi was East Germany's secret police. It suppressed opposition to Stalinist power. It was one of the most repressive state apparatuses in modern times. When East Germany collapsed in 1989, Stasi had over 90,000 full-time employees. Another 300,000 were paid informants. They spied on East German citizens. Thousands of West German collaborators did so on theirs. Stasi infiltrated NATO headquarters.

Legendary spymaster Markus (Mischa) Wolf ran things. He did so for 34 years. He had Jewish roots. In the early 1930s, his family fled Germany. It did so to escape nazi persecution. Wolf was educated at Moscow's Comintern Academy. He worked as a journalist. He observed Nuremberg trial proceedings. Post-WW II, he returned to Germany. He was part of a communist Berlin delegation. He showed leadership qualities. He rose rapidly in the ranks. Stalinists trusted him. In 1953, he was among others in charge of foreign intelligence. He and Erich Mielke ran East Germany's Ministry of State Security (Stasi). It was justifiably feared. Historian John Koehler called it "an instrument for the ruthless oppression of East Germany's population as well as one of the world's most effective intelligence services." Wolf became known as "the man without a face." For years, Western intelligence agencies had no photos. He was lucky. In November 2006, he died peacefully in his sleep. Mielke was convicted of murder in absentia. After reunification, he was arrested. In 1993, he was convicted. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment. After less than two, he was paroled. In May 2000, he died in a Berlin nursing home. He was aged 92. He's buried in an unmarked grave. Stasi's infamous history represents the worst of police state repression.

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Jim Stone

If you [are] part of America's main core, they have ONE objective for you - to burn you to ashes or bury you in a pit somewhere.

When I worked for the NSA prior to 9/11, the NSA only looked outward, not inward. And I never thought the NSA ever would look inward and spy on the American people. I knew that if that ever happened the result would be catastrophic. After 9/11 I knew the NSA was looking inward to some degree, and had suspected they might be recording everything before Snowden blew the whistle, but I was not certain. Now we all can be. And I would like to go into a few things here to explain to people how grave this situation really is.

When an agency like the NSA looks outward into other countries, it cannot be a tool that is used by the governments of the countries being spied on to oppress the people in that country. When used to spy on foreigners the NSA and other similar agencies are not part of the policy making for that which they are observing. So the purpose for any spying by agencies such as the NSA will be limited to key elements of the observed nation, such as the government agencies and major companies that could present a problem to the whole of America in the future. The NSA will not pay attention to Joe the bar-b-q chef or Moe the mechanic, because on an individual level ordinary people in foreign countries are a waste of time to observe.

It is very different when such an intelligence agency looks inward at it's host population

With the NSA looking inward, especially with them recording every phone conversation and e-mail and not just the meta data, the people who understand what America really is supposed to be are now fully identified. These people, which are referred to as "the main core" represent what remains of the backbone of this once great nation, the core of which numbers 8 million with 30 or so million close enough to the main core for any psychopath to be able to justify taking out along with it. If America is to become the totally transformed Communist society that the Zionists want it to be, the main core has got to be ripped out, and the NSA has made this future event possible to accomplish with minimal effort and pin point precision.

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