Berlin's NSA Fears: Treason Investigation Reveals Anxiety at the Top

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-treason-investigation-reveals-anxiety-among-leaders-a-1047256.html



Netzpolitik.org was investigated for treason, but the case speaks volumes about uncertainties in the German government.

Berlin's NSA Fears: Treason Investigation Reveals Anxiety at the Top
A Commentary by Klaus Brinkbäumer
August 10, 2015 – 05:05 PM

~snip~

Such a debate is necessary because, just like in 1962, we find ourselves in a period when our political leaders are anxious and uncertain in the face of change. In 1962, Germany's political leadership and its military had authority, men decided if their wives would work or not and the enemy was in the East. But SPIEGEL was different, intent on asking uncomfortable questions and criticizing those in power. Strauss hated SPIEGEL and he hated Augstein. "The pigs, we finally got them," he said, after Spanish police, at Strauss' behest, arrested Conrad Ahlers, who was vacationing in Spain. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer believed that SPIEGEL was an "abyss of treason." Both sensed that something new and threateningly free was spreading throughout the republic. "1968 began in 1962," says Franziska Augstein, Rudolf Augstein's daughter.

Today, the German government knows that it has become involved in an affair of which it was originally a victim. It knows that it is unable to protect its own citizens from (nominally) allied intelligence services. The German government doesn't have the courage -- still doesn't have the courage -- to stand up to the NSA and the USA. It doesn't acknowledge any mistakes, it explains nothing, it keeps silent and doesn't govern. Chancellor Angela Merkel probably knew nothing about the attack on Netzpolitik.org. But the incident fits well with her term: Never go after the big fish like NSA, always go after the small ones like Netzpolitik.org instead.

Meanwhile, the intelligence services are watching the erosion of their most important tool -- secrecy. Everything can be revealed, if it has left behind digital tracks -- and everything leaves behind digital tracks.

But how can the new uncertainty be dealt with? One possible answer is that of welcoming change as an adventure. Strauss was unable to do so. And it is astounding that, 53 years later, the current government and its agencies are unable to do so either. Indeed, both scandals were the result of blatant anger and a desire for revenge on the behalf of an insecure old man: That is the pitiful element that binds the two affairs together.