Barack Obama agrees to talks with Germany to "explain" spying on "allies"
Barack Obama has conceded to high-level talks between US and German security officials after Angela Merkel demanded a detailed explanation about revelations of widespread American spying on European "allies". The US president agreed to the talks during a telephone call with the German chancellor on Wednesday, in an attempt to allay the concerns of her government. Germany was furious at the revelations in Der Spiegel of US surveillance on European officials. In an interview earlier this week, Merkel said it was "not on". The European Union described the disclosures as shocking. A White House statement said Obama and Merkel had spoken by phone and agreed to the meetings. The two leaders held face-to-face talks in Berlin two weeks ago.
Slouching Towards Washington - Does the U.S. have “friends and allies”? Or does the world merely consist of targets and tools? As we learned today the U.S. National Security Agency has been spying on a series of buildings and offices of the European Union, spying on Internet communications, phone calls and more. NATO headquarters has been used to spy on the EU. Most communications in Germany, where the U.S. has military bases, have also been trawled by the NSA. Some may reduce this to an issue of trust, and that certainly is relevant, but there is more to this: a state cannot have total power without total knowledge. The very quest for total knowledge should tell everyone exactly what kind of creature we are dealing with. It is an imperial state that seeks total power, and empire is the greatest dictator of all.