German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected the growing comparisons between the NSA’s surveillance apparatus and that of the former East German state, the Stasi, saying it was unfair to compare the two since the NSA is from a “democratic” state.
Merkel went on to defend the concept of surveillance in general as “essential” for a democratic state, insisting that security needs will mean that spying on citizens will always be a vital aspect of any democratic state.
The chancellor seems to be treading into dangerous water with that position, as past examples of surveillance state abuses have left Germans particularly sensitive about giving up their privacy, and even if Merkel doesn’t appreciate the Stasi parallel, many Germans do.
Moreover as a point of fact the NSA’s PRISM and other schemes are at least as far-reaching as anything attempted by the Stasi, and technological developments have allowed them to spread it world-wide to boot.
There seems to be little doubt that German voters broadly oppose the NSA surveillance, and Merkel’s refusal to address it in any serious way is likely to hurt her ruling Christian Democratic Union party in the September elections.
Interesting. This may the chance the opposition was hoping for. Could this absurd position by Merkel be the cause of her undoing?
Well, maybe the NSA knows something more damaging. Anyway, if the pirate party wins in Germany, I am going to learn the language.
Or I'd rather see the pirate party develop in the US. And then into an international movement. Pirates International.
Remember that "spying" by the government, per Merkel, is never verboten, but your spying on them somehow always is.
Wow… and she’s German, you say? I would never have expected an attitude like that from them!
We must keep in mind Mss Merkel came from East Germany. In all likelihood she herself was a Stazi.
It seems any kind of crime is tolerated in the minds of bureaucrats like Merkel as long as it comes from a "democratic state." What drivel. It's not as if the citizens of this "Democratic State" voted or had any say whatsoever in the eradication of their privacy and the demolition of habeas corpus. The whole "Democratic State" meme is nothing but a smokescreen.
Yes spying, loss of medical privacy, cops kicking the S$## out of people with impunity and illusion of choice in the voting booth are all important for a "democracy". Please Germans, kick her out of office now>
I'm more inclined to suspect a clever political manoeuvre. Since Germany has always spied on everybody and the whole world knows that, she can't really complain too loudly about the NSA. By claiming that it cannot be compared to the Stasi, she actually draws attention to the Stasi's activities and thereby damages the Linke, the principal component of which is the old East German communist party, the SED. and which has acted as a sort of trade union for the ex-Stasi people for the last 20 years. That would tend to strengthen her likely coalition partner, the SPD, whereas right-wing voters are generally not hostile to surveillance and have nowhere to go even if they were. Merkel would no doubt like to see the Linke fall below the 5% barrier in the 22 September election (it currently stands at between 6 and 8%) and splinter into its various factions (there are at least four!), with the moderate faction joining the SPD. A three-party Bundestag, with the CDU and SPD in government and the Greens in opposition would probably suit her very well.
> Since Germany has always spied on everybody and the whole world knows that
Wait, what?
Once a Marxist, always a Marxist.
There is always this word "democracy" used and abused by Neo or Old fascism and there is always a new tactics to hide the real agendas and face of these people. Angela not so Angel Markell is no democrat nor she would know what democracy is about or what or where the functionality of democracy starts, being from a right wing christian "democratic" party she thinks the world started with Vatican abusive method and their investment in war machinery, she simply a business women. The other side of Muslim brotherhood, to start the process they need to watch everyone bed room and how people walk.