NSA Reportedly Spying on Hundreds of German Political and Business Leaders

Credit: Lawrence Jackson, White House photographer

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag is reporting that the U.S. has increased its surveillance of German business and political leaders. The news comes a month after President Obama assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that America's spying activities would not harm the U.S.-Germany relationship.

From Agence France Presse:

Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that 320 political and business leaders in Germany were being monitored by the US National Security Agency (NSA), including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

"We have the order not to allow any loss of information whatsoever after the communication of the chancellor no longer being able to be directly monitored," Bild quoted an unnamed high-ranking US intelligence employee in Germany as saying.

US-German ties soured amid revelations leaked by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden that US intelligence agencies had allegedly eavesdropped on Merkel and collected vast amounts of online data and telephone records from average citizens.

The news is not going to help repair the U.S.-Germany relationship, which a foreign policy spokesman for Merkel said last month was worse than it was during the most recent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

More from Reason.com on the NSA and Germany here and here.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

That's good. At least Obama lies to Europeans as much as he does to us.

[Tim]

That's fairness.

[Pro Libertate]

And transparency.

[Lord Humungus]

Equal protection under the law.

[MJGreen]

He just wasn't as clear to them as he needed to be. He finds it frustrating that he can't explain the situation adequately to Merkel.

[Pro Libertate]

See, and she thought it was bad that Bush gave her a little backrub. Obama has likely seen her naked, the way the U.S. seems to be spying on them more than anyone else. Well, more than anyone else than the U.S. itself, that is.

[LynchPin1477]

Well, more than anyone else than the U.S. itself, that is.

I chuckled when I read this. Then I got real angry, because it may be true.

[Pro Libertate]

I was under the impression that the NSA spying on Americans was illegal and stuff, too. Just goes to show what I know.

[Kaptious Kristen]

The issue that's way more important is the NSA spying on Americans. Couldn't care less about the krauts.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, sure, but at least they aren't playing nicer with the Nazis than they are us. I mean, the Germans.

Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

[hamilton]

You started it!

[Sal Paradise]

You started it. You invaded Poland!

[Episiarch]

DON'T TALK ABOUT THE WAR

[John]

I agree. Even devoting coverage to this is counter productive since it allows the NSA's defenders to lump spying on Americans with legitimate intelligence work.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who else didn't like the US spying on them?

[Winston]

Hitler?

[Tim]

The Kardashians?

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Ernest Hemingway?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Sacco and Vanzetti

[Pro Libertate]

The fucking U.S.?

[Lady Bertrum]

Me?

[Hugh Akston]

Lady Bertr--oh, uh nevermind.

[Lord Humungus]

your mom? and by that I mean Epi.

[hamilton]

Epi is Fist's Mom? That explains an awful lot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

No. Meine Mutter kannte wie Deutsch zu sprechen.

[Episiarch]

Wenn ist das Nunst?ck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

[Tim]

Terrible!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We're still waiting for you to fall dead.

[SugarFree]

What is dead may never die.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I curse all of you assholes for getting me to watch that damned show. What little life I had is now consumed streaming medieval fantasy flicks with extra tits.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And the promise of dragons and zombies.

[Fist of Etiquette]

(Uh, hopefully you're that far in the series.)

[SugarFree]

Well, the zombies are in the first scene.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I didn't get the zombie thing from the first episode, but the dragons I just assumed were coming. I'm into season three now.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Others/White Walkers are mystical beings that have the power to resurrect any dead human to fight for them. The Wall is the magical border fence that keeps the horde of ice Mexicans from crossing into Westeros proper and TERKIN DEY JERBS as hired killers and serfs.

[Episiarch]

I can't wait for when Jon Snow gets knifed in the next season.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I pay no attention to you anyway, Epi.

[Episiarch]

Valar morghulis, dude. Valar morghulis.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Valar morghulis, dude. Valar morghulis.

The man does not care.

[Brett L]

Speaking of shows, has anyone else seen Black Sails on Starz? It seems to be mostly set scenes with lots of beefcake and cheesecake for everyone through the first three episodes (I think there have been five now, but I'm behind). Not sure yet about whether it is any good. I watch it on demand while sitting up with the kid. Because there are some hot actresses nekkid. But there appears to be a well-built man in just about every category for the ladies and men who like men, too. I think John is the only one getting shorted here.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

John always has Girls to fall back on.

[Episiarch]

I've been watching it, but it's a little forced. I'm hoping it will smooth out after a few more episodes.

[Brett L]

I like all of the characters of the Walrus. But whoever conceived of the Ranger's peculiar arrangement of captain, mate, and quartermaster seems to have written them in after the concept was sold. They seem to just be setup so that Vane can walk around without a shirt for the ladies.

[lap83]

I'm generally suspicious of shows that feature tons of attractive people. There are a lot of hot actors and there are a lot of talented actors, but there are very few actors that are both hot and talented.

[John]

The formula seems to have worked for Vikings.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yep. Vikings is awesome and the cast is hubba-hubba. And the addition of Donal Logue is even better!

[Brett L]

You take that back about Megan Fox!

[lap83]

Heh. Actually I was thinking more about male performers. It's pretty status quo for at least one generic hot woman character to be in any given show and it can be kind of amusing when they're co-starring with a man with decent acting skills because they usually seem to be under the impression that their acting skills are relevant to them being there. ("Now if I act angry or vaguely constipated all the time that will make me look intelligent and serious right?" "Sure, sweetheart")

What's really hard to watch even for ironic humor value is a show exclusively consisting of hot characters: male and female. I see that as serious overcompensation.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else spied on Hundreds of German political and business leaders?

[Hugh Akston]

Roosevelt?

[Brett L]

Stalin?

[neoteny]

The Stasi?

[Dr. Frankenstien]

damn, too slow.

[hamilton]

Caesar?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Hasselhoff?

[Dr. Frankenstien]

The Stasi?

[The Late P Brooks]

You gotta know who your real enemies are.

[Jerry on the boat]

Das Leben der Anderen nicht mit Namen Merkel.

[Brett L]

This actually is their job, along with spying on the other 190-225 countries in the world, plus various foreign multinational groups with whom the American government may have to officially interact. Like the UN and ISIS (Syria, not Archer).

[Dr. Frankenstien]

Yes, But why so much on the Germans? Is that where the light is better?

[Pro Libertate]

They did start the last two world wars. I mean, I'm over it, but maybe our experts aren't.

[Episiarch]

DON'T TALK ABOUT THE WAR

[Pro Libertate]

Fuck, I did it again. In my defense, a moose head fell on my head earlier today.

[tarran]

Japanese, was it?

[Pro Libertate]

Canadian, I think, Major.

[Brett L]

Because nobody in Russia or China are going to is going to get butthurt about us spying on their government.

The Brits are also pissed. Like they don't spend the vast majority of their budget spying on the US and the Germans, too.

[Pro Libertate]

O/T: Egon just passed away. RIP.

[John]

I can't believe it. It is just terrible.

[Pro Libertate]

His contributions to comedy are amazing, and I'm sad that we'll see no more. As an actor and especially as a director and as a writer, Ramis is up there with the very best in comedy.

[John]

His writing credits are pretty much the top ten list of comedies made between 1977 and 1993.

National Lampoon's Animal House (with Doug Kenney and Chris Miller) (1978)

Delta House (1979) (TV)

Meatballs (with Dan Goldberg and Len Blum) (1979)

Caddyshack (with Doug Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray) (1980)

Stripes (with Dan Goldberg and Len Blum) (1981)

The Rodney Dangerfield Show: It's Not
Easy Bein' Me (1982) (TV)

Ghostbusters (with Dan Aykroyd) (1984)

Back to School (with Steven Kampmann,

Will Porter and Peter Torokvei) (1986)

Club Paradise (with Brian Doyle-Murray and Chris Miller) (1986)

Armed and Dangerous (with Peter Torokvei) (1986)

Caddyshack II (with Peter Torokvei) (1988)

Ghostbusters II (with Dan Aykroyd) (1989)

Rover Dangerfield (with Rodney Dangerfield) (1991)

Groundhog Day (with Danny Rubin) (1993)

There are some duds in there. But my God, Animal House, Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghost Busters, Back the School and Groundhog Day. Any one of those exceeds the entire career of pretty much every current comedy writer or actor.

[Pro Libertate]

No one can be funny every single time. But his hits are among the best ever in film.

[John]

And some of those he probably was paid to try and fix someone else' idea. I am sure the two sequels he wrote for a paycheck. Can't say I blame him for doing that.

[Episiarch]

Meatballs is terrible, but I wouldn't hold that against him, considering the genius shit he came up with otherwise.

[Pro Libertate]

Way too much good in his resume to dwell much on the less than stellar. Comedy is hard.

There goes any chance of a Ghostbusters III, I'd say.

[John]

Caddy shack II is worse. Armed and Dangerous is not bad. But he would have had to have made 10 Meatballs to even begin to take away from the fact that he co wrote Animal House and Caddyshack and wrote Groundhog Day.

I think Groundhog Day is one of better American movies ever made.

[Pro Libertate]

Some of the crap sequels may be credited to him because he created the characters, etc. in the originals, too.

[Episiarch]

Amusingly, I have never gotten why people love Groundhog Day so much. Maybe the fact that I intensely dislike Andie McDowell factors into it.

Ghostbusters is a fantastic film. It's sort of like the Jaws of comedy. Just perfect.

[Winston]

I intensely dislike Andie McDowell factors into it.

Who could possibly think that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQMEOp04Iw

[John]

I love Andie McDowell. God you really are the monster people tell me you are.

[Pro Libertate]

I quite like Groundhog Day, though it's different in kind from his other comedies.

I was thinking he was involved in the Blues Brothers, but I guess that was all Landis (a comedic director of note himself) and the stars.

[Citizen Nothing]

An intense dislike for Andie McDowell seems...odd.

[Episiarch]

McDowell--to me--is incredibly asexual. She's a very good looking woman, she just has no...presence for me. Call me crazy if you want.

[Citizen Nothing]

I can get that. But do have an intense dislike for everyone who fails to stir sexual feelings within you? That would explain a lot.

[Episiarch]

Look, my relationship with your mom is...complicated.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm afraid that... gag... I have to agree with Epi here. McDowell has the sex appeal of your average JCPenny's mannequin.

[Pro Libertate]

She's not slutty enough for your tastes.

I completely forgot this, but it just popped in my head--she was Jane in Greystoke. Which was thirty years ago. Ye gods.

[Mad Scientist]

Say what you want about Andie McDowell, but she's got one thing going for her: she's not Molly Ringwald.

[John]

Hey Molly was kind of cute and had a great rack once she grew up.

[Citizen Nothing]

Molly is a torch singer now. She just did a four-night gig in town with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. She looks pretty good in her photos.

[Winston]

I completely forgot this, but it just popped in my head--she was Jane in Greystoke. Which was thirty years ago. Ye gods.

And was dubbed by Glenn Close.

[Pro Libertate]

No kidding, really? It's funny you say that, because I was trying to remember whether she butchered the accent (been years since I saw the film).

[Episiarch]

Who is slutty enough for my tastes?

[John]

I can see that. For me that works. She is so damned attractive and classy looking. She is the least trashy woman on earth. I could see where she could go too far in that direction for some. But it still works for me.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Jesus christ, I hate to agree with Epi, but Andie McDowell is loathsome. She is just a shit actress with ZERO spark or personality.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Consider "It's raining? I hadn't noticed". I mean, what the sweet fuck?

And the way she says "poetry" is Groundhog Day. Po-er-try? Fuck.

[waffles]

I think Groundhog Day may be the most timeless and important comedy I will ever watch repeatedly.

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

According to Wiki, he only did Caddyshack II because Rodney talked him into it. Then Rodney dropped out, so Ramis did too. They finished writing it without him.

Hard to say how much of the blame was his.

[BakedPenguin]

I saw that. I just saw Stripes last night, too.

[Pro Libertate]

So it's your fault. KILL!

[Pro Libertate]

Here are just some of the movies he wrote: Groundhog Day, Back to School, Ghostbusters, Stripes, Caddyshack, Meatballs, Animal House.

[Lord Humungus]

Caddyshack is my go-to American comedy.

[Lord Humungus]

And I just watched Ghostbusters 2-3 weeks ago. My son had never seen it - so I can torture him with my childhood memories.

Side note - when I was 13, I got to go on a tour of Burbank studios. We visited the recording studio and got to hear the Ghostbusters soundtrack on a pair of UREI studio monitor speakers (with the blue horn). Now I own a pair of UREI speakers. Weird.

[Episiarch]

Now I need to go watch some SCTV.

[Pro Libertate]

Just so everyone knows, he wasn't one of those funny Canadians. He, like the Murrays and Belushis, came from Chicago. Not sure what was in the water decades ago, but whatever it was, it was funny.

[Episiarch]

Just what we need, your racist anti-Canadian diatribes. They're sort of people! Why must you be so hateful? How can you hate Erica Durance?

[Pro Libertate]

Ha! I love Canada. It gave us the Shat and Dan Aykroyd.

[Wandering Texan]

And Justin Beiber.

[Pro Libertate]

Allowances must be made.

[Invisible Finger]

Not sure what was in the water decades ago,

I believe it was fecal grease balls from Northwest Indiana.

[Pro Libertate]

Whatever it was, it was comedy genius.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Au revoir, Egon

[SugarFree]

If the Germans don't like it, maybe they should have choose to be born American.

Er... waitaminute...

[SugarFree]

Fuck it...

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[John]

Maybe they should write Mexico a not complaining.

[Lord Humungus]

the next amnesty law will make everyone American, whether they are white, black, or other.

[Hugh Akston]

Tapping the phones and computers of German politicians and business leaders I can understand, but why was President Obama so insistent on installing the camera in Angela Merkel's shower?

[BakedPenguin]

It was the one by the toilet that disturbed me.

[Lord Humungus]

We could monitor their every movement.

[Hugh Akston]

I just assumed those were standard in all German toilets, like dash-cams in Russia.

[Pro Libertate]

I bet he calls her late at night and breathes heavy.

[creech]

Be very cool if they told us and our military to get the heck out of
their country.

[Winston]

You Know Which other German wanted the US out of Germany?

[Almanian!]

Sgt. Schultz?

[Pulseguy]

They won't. The US spends something like $2 billion a year there. It would kill too many local economies if the US closed the bases.

[SugarFree]

And to pile on even more bad news: Snooki is pregnant again.

[John]

In other news, pro choice is looking like a more compelling option.

[Winston]

So is she an employee of Planned Parenthood?

[John]

No idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

Buck v. Bell has never been overturned.

Just sayin'.

[Ted S.]

Disappointed that you won't get to have sex with her for nine months? :-p

[SugarFree]

Har-de-har-har.

But seriously, she had no idea that she could get pregnant by reusing an enema as a douche.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that 320 political and business leaders in Germany were being monitored by the US National Security Agency (NSA), including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

The NSA wouldn't monitor you unless were terrorist enemies of America.

Stop being terrorists, you damn Germans!

[Death Rock and Skull]

At some point I have to start thinking that the Krauts might just be up to some shady shit again.

[Mad Scientist]

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag is reporting that the U.S. has increased its surveillance of German business and political leaders.

Is that one of the papers Obama reads? If not, he still hasn't heard about this.

[John]

The funny thing is, listening to other governments' phone calls is what the NSA was created to do. It was never intended to deal with terrorism.

[Tim]

Fifty bucks the Smails kid picks his nose.

[AD-RtR/OS!]

Something they should have been doing 90-years ago.

[Pulseguy]

Does anyone even remotely think the business info is not being passed on to administration insiders?

[AmericanPrivacy]

Americans shouldn't have to choose between new technology and keeping their personal information private. Protections for online privacy are justified and necessary, and the government must help draw boundaries to ensure that Americans' privacy stays intact in the Digital Age. Americansrighttoprivacy.com DOES NOT collect your personal information. Regarding online privacy, we have heard people say they have nothing to hide and don't care if their privacy is violated. Sadly, they are missing the point. As Americans, it is about standing up for our privacy rights as a law abiding citizen per the Constitution. Our Fourth Amendment protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures which is being violated everyday by many Email providers, hackers and Government agencies through unwarranted searches. One only needs to just read the U.S. Patriot Act or the latest CISPA legislation to verify this disturbing trend.
Until Congress takes his advice....
http://www.americansrighttoprivacy.com