UPDATED: N.S.A. "Treason" German Chancellor Merkel Accused For N.S.A. Command Of Rogue B.N.D. Spying Since 2008 On Germans Other Europeans

     Thursday, 7 May 2015, BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been charged with "treason" by at least one politician heading the German Left party after Der Speigel reported recently that since at least 2008 a "rogue" division of the B.N.D. German foreign intelligence service working for the N.S.A. has engaged in spying including on friendly German and European "interests" believed to include individuals and businesses perhaps most notably the French-German enterprise European Aeronautic Defense and Space, now known as the Airbus Group about which the B.N.D. "failed to fully inform the Chancellery or Parliament" but apparently did inform Ms. Merkel's government to the extent German Chancellor Merkel "failed in her constitutional duty to supervise the intelligence services and inform Parliament of the services' activities".
     Although not raised as an issue as with United States executive branch "intelligence" services which often on their face lack legal jurisdiction over and authority to engage in any domestic spying and related unconstitutional activities given that the B.N.D. is identified as a "foreign" intelligence service it would appear to have overstepped its ostensible authority by committing domestic spying on German "individuals and businesses" at home. Germans moreover are particularly sensitive to "intelligence" service domestic surveillance given "their memory of the Nazi and Communist regimes that spied on their citizens" (as the New York Times puts it rather blithely omitting Germans' doubtless intense memory also of what outrages, horrors and atrocities those regimes inflicted upon German citizens as a result of their spying on the German people).
     Moreover unlike in the United States where the N.S.A. is warmly embraced by all (at least by all at the N.S.A. and apparently in France) for its indiscriminate domestic and foreign mass surveillance, sweeping metadata collection activities (based on which metadata alone former N.S.A. Director Hayden stated "we kill people") and other N.S.A. other revealed and doubtless unrevealed myriad other unconstitutional abuses nevertheless overseas in Germany "anti-N.S.A. sentiment remains high" including German "revulsion" with the N.S.A. in the wake particularly of the revelations of Edward J. Snowden (a "popular hero" in Germany) of the scope of the N.S.A.'s criminal indiscriminate domestic and foreign surveillance.
     German Chancellor Merkel herself when running for re-election which she won for a third term in 2013 loudly cast herself as "the wronged American ally whose cellphone number was among data sucked up by American intelligence as it kept watch on Europeans" proclaiming that "[s]pying among friends -- that is simply not done". In fact such spying among friends "simply was done" right at that time by her own government B.N.D. intelligence service moreover under the control of the N.S.A. apparently since at least 2008. In any case Ms. Merkel managed to capitalize on her own cellphone privacy invasion exploiting German "outrage" over Snowden revelations but managed to "tamp down" what has become known among Germans as the growing "N.S.A. scandal". The truth of the recent allegations would tend to suggest that Chancellor Merkel is a dishonest hypocrite
     Even as opposition Left party leader Gregor Gysi called Chancellor Merkel's actions "treason" that accusation on Monday unsurprisingly was "angrily rebutted" by B.N.D. spy agency chief Gerhard Schindler (compare former Ninth Amendment post with photo of N.S.A. chief Admiral Michael "Mike" Rogers also "angrily rebutting" an unwelcome suggestion) dismissing with the Cheneyesque response that it was "absolutely absurd" to suggest his agency was "a compliant tool" of the N.S.A. However Schindler apparently still is experiencing technological communication challenges with Chancellor Merkel who on the same day reportedly at the same time stated that in order to best "protect the lives and bodies of 80 million Germans" cooperation with the National Security Agency came "first and foremost".
     Previous to last Monday after the 23 April 2015 Der Speigel reports government spokesman Steffen Seibert attributed the reportedly at least seven year lapse in Chancellor Merkel's government oversight and Chancellery and Parliamentary reporting of the actions of the rogue G.N.D. spy division working for the N.S.A. to "'[t]echnological and organizational deficiencies at the B.N.D." which seemingly in response to the recent Der Speigel reports now had been quickly identified as Mr. Seibert gave assurance the Merkel government had issued "immediate orders that they be rectified". Based on B.N.D. chief Schindler's and Chancellor Merkel's contemporaneous statements arguably implying significantly inconsistent degrees of the scope of the N.S.A. role in controlling German intelligence it would appear the B.N.D. had not as of Monday yet rectified at least technological deficiencies as to communication with the Chancellery in response to its "immediate orders".
     In any case the standing parliamentary committee with oversight responsibility for all  German intelligence services as well as a special parliamentary inquiry specifically into the N.S.A. have been conducting ongoing investigations into the details of the matter and questioning "key officials" including former U.S. intelligence officials which unsurprisingly is revealing a "damning picture of American surveillance practices". Although the specifics of German intelligence collusion with the N.S.A. remain "murky" given the innate unreliability of intelligence officials in providing comprehensible information to the public the German federal prosecutor is considering launching a formal investigation.
     The the substance of the recent allegations of N.S.A. control over the B.N.D. is consistent with a complaint filed by Austria on Tuesday against German and American intelligence agencies grounded on suspicions that the agencies have been spying on Austria according to Reuters. Moreover also last week the French-German enterprise Airbus Group filed a legal complaint leveling charges against "unnamed persons" of economic espionage including requests for more information from the German government. A related "indication that espionage might have occurred" is that "[m]embers of the German Parliament have suggested that Washington may influence how much the German government can reveal to Airbus" the New York Times reports.
     The Ninth Amendment editorial board would suggest that put more bluntly this is to say that the German government cannot disclose B.N.D. intelligence information regarding even economic and/or industrial espionage conducted who knows for what reason concerning an offended German party even of a joint venture German company unless it has permission from its N.S.A. handlers. It is hard to imagine how the B.N.D. could become more of a "complaint tool" of the N.S.A. than that. Furthermore the Airbus complaint highlights the issue of the N.S.A.-B.N.D. reportedly not only spying on individuals but on businesses including very large ones which raises the question of when and why the N.S.A. has "diversified" into business including major industrial espionage in friendly countries and if so given the technology has the N.S.A. been corrupted to the point that it has determined that legal interpretations of its authority can always be contorted to conform to an N.S.A. perception that given the cash its mission and mandate to "suck up" information is infinite?
     Finally as to this matter it appears significant that Germany's No. 2 in power after Chancellor Merkel who is German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and the leader of the center-left Social Democrats disclosed to reporters that Merkel told him there was "nothing" to the allegations and furthermore said that he believed Merkel. However he reportedly followed this immediately by a statement that "what we are witnessing now is an affair, a secret service scandal, which could set off a very grave tremor." A rather ominous sounding warning compared to what preceded it especially coming from the German Vice-Chancellor, Germans particularly high officials generally not being known for lightly tossing off references to such events as "grave tremors".
     Those readers interested in more information concerning the above can go to link to the above-referenced New York Times article below. [UPDATE] Readers interested in further more recently developed information related to the above also can go to the second link added below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/world/europe/scandal-over-spying-shakes-german-government.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Updated link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/world/europe/intelligence-spying-germany-us.html

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

REIN IN NSA! CREDO Action (Working Assets Mobile) Urges Readers Please Sign Petition Below That Congress Pass Pending Bipartisan USA FREEDOM ACT Co-Sponsored Even By "PATRIOT" ACT Co-Author Sensenbrenner

                                                A  Brief Digression Before The Petition At Hand

       Friday, 1 November 2013, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The secret fact for the day is that in much of the world Halloween although officially over is still being "partied". With even lucky New York Wall Streeters still able to get in a $100 steak and a few good hours or so trick-or-treating in the hottest club restrooms "for the good old days" while the kids hit friends' penthouses under the watchful eyes of the au pairs. Plus some of that world-famous next phase New York late night partying once your significant "whatother" goes home with a headache.
       Just imagine how good it must feel to stay up all night drinking $1,000 bottles of champagne and going straight via your $200 breakfast into your skyscraper corner office in a genuine office tower built for the ages (such as the Empire State Building where a B-17 could REALLY hit it in the fog and just BOUNCE OFF IT). Where they really are not yet ALL now designed by the architects to be faux corner offices so the CORNER PARTNERS really still do have the CORNER OFFICES. Have your fresh shirt put on and into your private bathroom with your next day's shoes shined while you read the funnies. You are shaved with a super-sharp straight edge by an escort you once dated whom you trust with your life (so long as you keep hinting her those tips "you would play yourself were you still working the trading down the ladder ha! ha! where it made any difference at all whether you came out ahead or behind because now it is all the same it IS ALL AHEAD).

                                                            Lickbacks For Order Flow
                                                       
       Oh what fun it is to ride where every day is a winning day. However one bets and whether one loses or wins numberswise you always win moneyswise. As we saw with "litttle shrub" Bush and yes again President Obama once Goldman, Sachs shared the imminent (as in at the close of business) evidence of its collapse and thus of its cronies, the Country's and inconsequentially must-not-forget least of all its clients to its former and future bosses through the federal government banking revolving door, that Federal Government sure could move fast for once, as in fat hands reaching for hundreds of billions of dollars in pockets as fast as they could ("the paperwork could be worked out later").
       Candidly this meaning everyone else's money, including the whole Country's, by the way being sold to their fine clients that garbage you would not even take out for the stink and look at that, what did your clients do but go and BEAT YOU with your own ROTTEN ADVICE WHICH HOW DARE THEY SINCE EVEN YOU BET AGAINST THEM. Oh well, as we said, you are where EVERY DAY is a winning day, especially a losing day and a "conflict of interest" is just another trading technique kind of like "lickbacks for order flow"       
       And presto! chango! look at that just as we were taught in school. "How A Bill Is Made." And, boy, it sure is made fast! (Government's not closed that day!) And slipped right there (along with everything else) right in Uncle Sam's pocket and look out comes a fresh new shiny "bill", only this one is straight from the mint, and this one is a WINNER! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! There we go what we intended to say a bit more concisely. About as good odds (for BlackJack our very favorite) as in our TOTALLY UNINFORMED opinion one might expect on an Indian Lands (owned not "managed" please), say eight-deck continuously shuffling shoe where we can only split tens and double down on twenties. . . .

                                                 Sign Credo's Petition For The USA Freedom Act

        All kidding aside the truth is this post has been drafted and lost and pummeled and back again. Speaking of our lead heading NSA CREDO Petition post title readers actually may be interested to learn that the Ninth Amendment's recent informational CREDO Working Assets mobile telephone service apparently has generated a significant amount of interest amongst Ninth Amendment readers as evidenced by an originally strong reader "pageview" showing followed by sustained higher levels than average of return readers to that post in particular.
       Readers may recall that "CREDO Action from Working Assets" apparently follows in the tradition of Working Assets which we recall as originating at the time of the advent of fierce long distance "landline" telephone service competition. Working Assets set itself apart by characterizing itself as socially active (like CREDO today) at that time allowing customers monthly opportunities to make free calls for allotted time periods to designated numbers choosing from a selection of causes to support by volume of mostly "personal" directed telephone calls.
       In any case we do NOT ourselves currently have any staff members whom we can consult personally as to the quality and reliability of CREDO service which apparently follows in the Working Assets tradition of setting itself apart by social activism such as demonstrated here in "Reining In The NSA" along with incentives such as assurances of the refunding of "contract service charges" for readers who decide they wish to try a CREDO telephone contract mid-stream in another but not suffer a financial setback (being held hostage) for doing so.
       In any case we received the below e-mail from CREDO Action which is pertinent to news covered and/or followed here in that it links to a Congressional petition signature drive in SUPPORT of the "USA FREEDOM ACT" to reverse portions of the "USA PATRIOT ACT" and its ilk.  Apparently the sponsors of this Bipartisan Bill (which even INCLUDES one of the Patriot Act's co-authors) could not resist the temptation in the naming of the new bill of flaunting what we can only hope HERE is a like-minded name directed in response to the very widely remarked cynicism in the naming of the Patriot Act. Only one one learns here that in this case the name truly a sincere step in the slow processing step in the process of restoring our constitutional rights.
       Hopefully the urged passage of the USA Freedom Act is but one component in many pieces of legislation, judicial opinions and myriad other steps needed not a moment later to help clean up the detritus of the U.S. Constitution with enough left intact to continue to cleanup the United States Constitution with enough of that great document intact to enable the American people to reclaim it to its original glory consistent with legitimate amendment. Readers please find below the petition circulated to the American people for their signature in support of the USA Freedom Act and more generally to express their support of these great efforts to save our Country from anything but change by legitimate peaceful process as set out in the U.S.Constitution itself.
       The editorial board of the Ninth Amendment log reminds readers that any suggestion, endorsement, recommendation or like support of whether it be a product, candidate, idea, position or whatever, the Ninth Amendment log accepts, receives, discusses nor in any other way communicates with the subject of the body of a post nor receives any of the above nor any remuneration, money, payment or whatever for what the Ninth Amendment posts here.
       The Ninth Amendment is not responsible nor does it have any communication likewise with any such material which may appear outside the body of a post as these materials are arranged and displayed solely by Google, Google's Adsense or some affiliated Google advertisers. To date in several materials appearing in the Google's arrangements the Ninth Amendment to date has not received any money nor remuneration whatsoever.                      


CREDO Petition For Circulation To Members Of Congress Linked Below For Signature:

The NSA has become a rogue agency and Congress needs to rein it in.

The petition to the House and Senate reads: "The NSA has become a rogue agency and Congress needs to rein it in. The USA Freedom Act is a much needed first step that would stop the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records and provide some needed transparency about National Security Letters and other forms of warrantless spying. Please support this important legislation, and oppose the competing bill proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that is reform in name only and would do nothing to stop the rampant and unconstitutional abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies." Automatically add your name:

Dear martin, The NSA has far too much power to spy on innocent Americans without any meaningful oversight. It's gotten so bad that even one of the original ultra-conservative authors of the Patriot Act, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, joined with progressive stalwart Rep. John Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy in introducing a bipartisan NSA reform bill. This bill, which they named the USA Freedom Act, would end the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records and provide a modest measure of needed transparency to the use of National Security Letters and other forms of warrantless wiretapping. It's a good first step, and we need to show the House and the Senate that there’s popular support for Congress starting the process of restoring our constitutional rights. Tell Congress: Rein in the NSA to stop its unconstitutional spying. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Let's be clear. We support the full repeal of the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act. The only legislative vehicle for that is Rep. Rush Holt’s Surveillance State Repeal Act, which we will continue to fight for. But until we succeed in repealing the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, we should support anything that will start the process of reining in the NSA without making anything worse. The Sensenbrenner-Leahy bill is a good move in that direction. It will at the very least stop the kind of bulk surveillance dragnets that allows the government to spy on millions of Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. And it will take a minor step toward transparency by allowing companies to disclose the number of requests they get from the government that force them to turn over the private information of their users and customers without a court order and under a gag. It's important to note that this is far less than what we truly need to rein in the NSA. But it's a good start. The bill preserves much of the status quo. Let's remember, the problem of overbroad and unconstitutionally intrusive government surveillance is so vast that even the president didn't know that the U.S. was tapping the phones of allied world leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But while the Sensenbrenner-Leahy bill is a good first step, the same cannot be said for the bill proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein, which in the name of reform would simply codify the ability of the government to spy on innocent Americans without doing anything to prevent the rampant abuses that have become routine practices of a rogue NSA and other intelligence agencies. That's why we’re asking Congress to support Rep. Sensenbrenner and Sen. Leahy’s USA Freedom Act, and oppose Senator Feinstein’s sham bill which is meant to make the public think oversight is being strengthened over the NSA when there will be no meaningful reform established in the legislation. Tell Congress: Rein in the NSA to stop its unconstitutional spying. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition: http://act.credoaction.com/go/2449?t=5&akid=9307.5397176.GtsyYU Thank you for taking a stand against unconstitutional government spying. Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Automatically add your name: Learn more about this campaign

Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter

© 2013 CREDO. All rights reserved. Copyright 2013 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved, No Claim As To CREEDO Materials