Snowdenwald Fizzle: Germany to drop probe into US spying on Merkel

[Cali_Democrat]

Berlin (AFP) - Germany is dropping a probe into the alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone by US spies, due to a lack of evidence, magazine Focus said Saturday.

Six months after the investigation began, the experts have failed to find any solid proof to back the case, and have therefore recommended that it be dropped, the magazine reported, quoting sources close to the German justice ministry.

"The result (of the probe) is almost zilch. A lot of hot air, but nothing done," one source was quoted as saying.

According to sources close to the judiciary, the federal prosecutor will heed the experts' recommendation to drop the probe.

http://news.yahoo.com/germany-drop-probe-us-spying-merkel-report-140630619.html

[Thinkingabout]

1. Yes a lot of hot air but did not catch a cross wind to sail.

[Cha]

2. Fizzled.

[JI7]

3. hahah, poor putin, didn't he try to get merkel to side with him on ukraine during the recent

gathering ?

[jakeXT]

4. “The Americans are taking good care of our gold,”

Germany has decided its gold is safe in American hands.

Surging mistrust of the euro during Europe’s debt crisis fed a campaign to bring Germany’s entire $141 billion gold reserve home from New York and London. Now, after politics shifted in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, the government has concluded that stashing half its bullion abroad is prudent after all.
“The Americans are taking good care of our gold,” Norbert Barthle, the budget spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc in parliament, said in an interview. “Objectively, there’s absolutely no reason for mistrust.”

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-23/german-gold-stays-in-new-york-in-rebuff-to-euro-doubters.html

[Cali_Democrat]

5. .

.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

6. I note that you didn't claim the leaked documents are untrue.

Are those leaked documents accurate, or aren't they?

[20score]

7. The joy felt by so many at the continuing, ubiquitous, fascist

spying makes me ill.

It's destroyed any illusion that the right has a monopoly on magical thinking or harmful policies.

[UTUSN]

8. R#4 & K for, "Oops there goes another rubber tree plant"!1 n/t

[Andy823]

9. Does that mean

Greenwalds claim that he was going to release the names of those in the US who had been spied on, and from I am told here by the loyal Greenwald-Snowden followers that is "everybody", may also be a "lot of hot air"?

[Luminous Animal]

10. He did publish names but because those American citizens who where spied are "Mooslims..."

nobody cared.

[Andy823]

12. So does this mean

That they only spied on Muslims? Do you have a link to his list of names?

[Luminous Animal]

17. If it were only Muslims citizens that they were spying on then would it be okay?

I'd like an answer before I provide the link.

[randome]

14. But as usual, Greenwald left out key information.

Were these individuals communicating with foreign suspects, making them legitimate subjects for monitoring?

He never seems to approach that very basic journalistic question. He simply wants everyone to be afraid because that means he gets the attention he craves as our tireless 'savior'.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Luminous Animal]

16. The issue is secret warrantless monitoring. Against US citizens. But...

you don't care a whit to whether these human beings deserve our support in regards to the Constitution and as fellow citizens who are currently under attack by "concerned" citizens like Pam Geller, who is taking out ads on city buses to slam muslims.

Yep. Like I said, no white privilege people care because it is Muslims who have had their Constitutional rights violated.

[Blue_Tires]

11. Well, we all knew this eventual outcome (well, at least *I* did)

There was a lot of sensationalized shock among the people at first so the German government had to at least pretend to do something until enough time passed for them to quietly drop the matter...

First of all, what 90% of the initial stories failed to mention (including Greenwald, who had spoken about this revelation extensively, and never mentioned it) was that Merkel was talking on a unsecured phone against the DIRECT advice of her staffers, and a number of countries were listening in addition to the U.S...http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sorry-angela-but-berlin-does-it-too/story-fnb64oi6-1226747832259?nk=81807c0e6a2629d43510f8b653256a06


Secondly, as we've seen in other subsequent stories, Germany secretly listens in to other world leaders, too (and there was an appalling lack of discussion and outrage at this story on DU compared to the original Snow-Wald revelation...I know, because I'm the one who posted it): http://www.newsweek.com/germany-spied-turkey-eavesdropped-top-us-diplomats-media-reports-say-265213


And there are arguably other legit reasons for those who want to dive into them:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10407282/Barack-Obama-approved-tapping-Angela-Merkels-phone-3-years-ago.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/oh-by-the-way-germany-spi_b_4184047.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/09/why-we-need-to-spy-on-the-germans.html


So like I said at the start: when everybody spies on everybody, just who has the moral high ground?

And now that the Merkel cellphone story which made global headlines has been so thoroughly exposed as sensationalist bullshit to the point where even the German government doesn't give a shit anymore, who has the stones to call Glenn Greenwald on the carpet?? He should have some tough questions to answer from his readers and the media but he won't because you can't un-ring a bell and he accomplished his mission of getting maximum mileage out of it...Any of Glenn's fans on DU care to explain this to me? The Merkel cellphone revelation is an undisputed, beautifully illustrated, point-by-point textbook example of yellow journalism, and more people should be paying attention and speaking out about this...Or are you folks still in the "ends justifies the means" mindset??


(As an aside, if there has been one good thing about my Greenwald vendetta, it's that I've stockpiled a least a thousand bookmarked links highlighting his lies, contradictions, half-truths and deception...I've saved a few tweets from his account, but if I ever wanted to take the time to really pick apart his TL, I could write a phone book's worth of GG duplicity...Once I get it somewhat organized, I've been debating whether to start my own blog or just dump it here on DU...We'll see)

[SidDithers]

13. DU rec...nt

Sid

[Number23]

15. But he just won the Shake and Bake Humanitarian of the Year Award!

Doesn't that mean ANYTHING to you people??