posted June 30, 2013 04:33 PM            

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Sunday the EU contacted U.S. authorities in Washington and Brussels about a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. secret service had tapped EU offices in Washington and Brussels and at the United Nations.

"We have immediately been in contact with the U.S. authorities in Washington D.C. and in Brussels and have confronted them with the press reports," the spokeswoman said.

"They have told us they are checking on the accuracy of the information released yesterday and will come back to us," she added in a statement.

Der Spiegel reported on its website on Saturday that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks in the latest revelation of alleged U.S. spying that has prompted outrage from EU politicians.

The magazine followed up on Sunday with a report that the U.S. secret service taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month and has classed its biggest European ally as a target similar to China.

Revelations about the alleged U.S. spying programme, which became public through documents taken by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have raised a furore in the United States and abroad over the balance between privacy rights and national security.

The extent to which Washington's EU allies are being monitored has emerged as an issue of particular concern.

"If the media reports are correct, this brings to memory actions among enemies during the Cold War. It goes beyond any imagination that our friends in the United States view the Europeans as enemies," said German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.

"If it is true that EU representations in Brussels and Washington were indeed tapped by the American secret service, it can hardly be explained with the argument of fighting terrorism," she said in a statement.

GERMANY TAPPED

Germans are particularly sensitive about government monitoring, having lived through the Stasi secret police in the former communist East Germany and with lingering memories of the Gestapo of Hitler's Nazi regime.

On Saturday, Martin Schulz, president of the EU Parliament and also a German, said that if the report was correct, it would have a "severe impact" on relations between the EU and the United States.

"On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the U.S. authorities with regard to these allegations," he said in an emailed statement.

Some policymakers said talks for a free trade agreement between Washington and the EU should be put on ice until further clarification from the United States.

"Partners do not spy on each other," the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, Viviane Reding, said at a public event in Luxembourg on Sunday.

"We cannot negotiate over a big transatlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators," Reding said in comments passed on to reporters by her spokeswoman.

The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee head Elmar Brok, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. echoed those views.

"The spying has taken on dimensions that I would never have thought possible from a democratic state," he told Der Spiegel.

posted July 01, 2013 09:57 AM            

quote:

---

Der Spiegel reported on its website on Saturday that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks in the latest revelation of alleged U.S. spying that has prompted outrage from EU politicians.

---

posted July 01, 2013 10:51 AM            

------------------
Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted July 01, 2013 01:02 PM            

Literally nothing that this man could do would surprise me.

Except perhaps be a decent human being.

That would be surprising.

posted July 01, 2013 02:23 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by mockingbird:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-stories-about-donald-trump-you-wont-believe-are-true/

Literally nothing that this man could do would surprise me.

Except perhaps be a decent human being.

That would be surprising.

---

Amen sister

posted July 03, 2013 07:16 AM            

but back to the subject here, all am going to say is "yes right."

European 'leaders ' are just trying to save face with their citizens by acting 'oh so surprised' by this....

on another level am starting to feel, the real reason ES leaked all that has nothing to do with 'country vs country' but what he saw happening on a personal level

posted July 14, 2013 10:20 AM            

I seriously wonder what dirty deals a computer analyst could share of this magnitude.. A bit dramatic here?

quote:

---

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States' "worst nightmare" if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.

"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.

"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."

---

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-documents-could-worst-nightmare-u-journalist-154809713.html

posted July 14, 2013 12:12 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by juniperb:
Rather than starting a new thread...

I seriously wonder what dirty deals a computer analyst could share of this magnitude.. A bit dramatic here?

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-documents-could-worst-nightmare-u-journalist-154809713. html

---

it makes sense.

the biggest parts of our lives these days are on computers and phones...it's so scary how they've almost become another organ in our bodies...and so a computer geek, may well have all the damaging information in the world in their hands in comparison to others, specially if they are familiar with encryption and such, and worked for a company whose job it was to see what everyone is having for lunch today.