German-US Relations Rattled by NSA Controversy;
Sullivan Calls for Removal of Home Sec'y
This article just up at the New York Times is the first time I
have seen a major US publication take serious notice of the damage the NSA
scandal is doing abroad. It's a very modest effort that doesn't get much
into the detail (for instance, the evening news in Germany led with a report
that the Attorney General of Hesse had sent an angry letter to the US
Consul-General in Frankfurt demanding a detailed accounting for the NSA
surveillance operations which were disclosed to be conducted out of the
consulate, pointing out that no consular privilege exists for such
operations. The Hessian AG is a Free Democrat (that is, from one of the
parties that currently forms the government in Berlin). This shows how
eager the government parties are to demonstrate that they are committed to doing
something to check NSA surveillance on German soil.
Also, in the Sunday Times in London, Tory columnist
Andrew Sullivan drags David Cameron over the embers based on the decision to
authorized his top civil servant to threaten The Guardian and force
destruction of hard drives in the newspaper's London offices, and then to detain
David Miranda at Heathrow. He says Cameron's conduct and that of British
intelligence perfectly mimics Vladimir Putin on a bad day. And he demands
the removal of Theresa May, the Home Secretary, in whose name, and with whose
express consent, all of this occurred.
August
25, 2013
Surveillance Revelations Shake U.S.-German
Ties
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