NSA Spying: Some German officials now use disposable phones over eavesdropping fears

The so-called "burner" phones have been used not only in countries such as Russia and China, which continue to be at loggerheads with the West over a number of issues, including the Ukraine conflict - but also during visits to close allies such as the Britain and the United States, "Der Spiegel" news magazine reported on Saturday.

The magazine said politicians had been advised by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security to use disposable phones and only download essential data on it.

"There are clear signals that people are getting more sensible," the report quoted one security source as saying.

For years, security agencies have warned their leaders of the dangers of mobile phones and eavesdropping. During their visits abroad, officials run a particularly high risk when leaving phones unattended in order to hold secret talks as this opens a window of opportunity for spy agencies to manipulate the phones or even upload surveillance programs.

Following a year of revelations that the US National Security Agency had allegedly been listening on phones belonging to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other key German politicians, these fears have become a reality for Germany. A WikiLeaks report published last week suggested that NSA spying had gone on for much longer than previously thought.

Despite the advice from Germany's security authorities the "burners" have not been introduced universally across the cabinet. Both Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel reportedly went on their recent respective trips to Cuba and China with their normal phones.

 Read more: German officials use disposable phones over eavesdropping fears | News | DW.COM | 18.07.2015

NSA Spying on EU Industries: Airbus to file complaint over US-Germany spying allegations

Airbus says it plans to complain to German authorities over reports of spying.

The aviation giant claims Berlin’s foreign intelligence agency helped America to spy on it and other European companies.

Der Spiegel reports that officials of Germany’s BND service indirectly helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) over a 10 year period.

It is claimed that BND officials passed internet addresses and mobile phone numbers to the NSA.
“We’ve asked the government for more information,” said an Airbus spokesman in Germany.
“We will launch a complaint against an unknown person on suspicion of industrial espionage.”

The reports have caused alarm in Germany, where security is a sensitive issue.

The country’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has denied that he lied to parliament about intelligence cooperation with US spy agencies.

When allegations emerged in 2013 that America had bugged Merkel’s mobile phone, she said that spying among “friends” was not acceptable.

Read more: Airbus to file complaint over US-Germany spying allegations | euronews, world news

Washington Post wins Pulitzer Prize for NSA spying revelations; by Paul Farhi

A team of 28 Post journalists, led by reporter Barton Gellman, won the public service award, as did Guardian US, which also reported extensively about the NSA’s secret programs. Gellman and Glenn Greenwald, then the Guardian’s lead reporter on the NSA pieces, based their articles on classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who has fled to exile in Russia, lending a controversial edge to this year’s awards.

The Post’s Eli Saslow also won a Pulitzer — newspaper journalism’s highest award — for a series of stories about the challenges of people living on food stamps. Saslow, 31, was cited in the explanatory-journalism category by the 19-member Pulitzer board in an announcement at Columbia University in New York, which administers the prizes.

The Boston Globe won in the breaking-news category for its extensive coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings last April.

The New York Times swept the two photography categories. The award in breaking photography went to Tyler Hicks for his photos of a terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, and the feature-photography prize went to Josh Haner for his photos of a Boston Marathon bombing victim who lost most of both legs.

Read more: Washington Post wins Pulitzer Prize for NSA spying revelations; Guardian also honored - The Washington Post

Germany - EU Privacy Protection Laws: 'I expect Merkel's actions to follow her words'- needs to support European data law reform

DW Question to Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht: "John Kerry said during his visit to Berlin, "Let's turn a page and open a new chapter." He has had enough of the NSA spying scandal and the ensuing diplomatic difficulties - with Germany in particular. But Angela Merkel now said in her weekly podcast that she wants to promote a European communications network. That's seen as a direct reaction to the NSA spying allegations. How useful is this proposal?"
 
Jan Philipp Albrecht:" I think it's a good sign that we see movement towards a European initiative to better protect our data and the information infrastructure in Europe. Yes, we need that. But on the other hand, it's also clear that we cannot just build borders which would give us some sort of a German or a Schengen zone internet. Instead, we need to have a legal framework which secures our fundamental rights in the European market."

"We need to implement the European data protection reform. Angela Merkel has called that a priority. Now she should follow through with it. It's not just about investing in infrastructure - even though that's a good first step in giving Europeans a choice, so they can choose a European data processer instead of a US firm."

DW: "Even if we did have European data processers - what would that change? Whistleblower Edward Snowden has said, "It doesn't matter where your servers are. The NSA will go where the data is."

Jan Philipp Albrecht: "That's true. We can't just cut the cables. People do want to communicate, and we don't want to stop them. But that's why we need better data protection in terms of services. It has to be made clear that if somebody offers services to European citizens and consumers, these services need to comply with the rules of our market: data security and protection, better encryption, and more control for users. That's what Angela Merkel should safeguard."

Read more: 'I expect Merkel's actions to follow her words' | Europe | DW.DE | 17.02.2014

NSA Spying on Europeans: Specter of US spying looms large in Germany

NSA is always present

When the German version of the FBI needs to share sensitive information these days, it types it up and has it hand-delivered.

This time last year, it would have trusted in the security of email. But last year was before Edward Snowden and the public revelations of the scope of the National Security Agency's PRISM electronic intelligence-gathering program. After Snowden, or post-PRISM, is a new digital world.

"We're now carrying our information to our allies on foot," said Peter Henzler, the vice president of the Bundeskriminalamt, known as the BKA. He was speaking recently at a German Interior Ministry panel on the country's digital future. The focus of the panel was how to counter U.S. surveillance measures and what it will take for Germans to be safe again on the Web. "We're no longer using the open Internet."

The message is clear: The United States no longer can be trusted not to spy on any and every facet of German life and policy. Henzler's concerns might sound extreme, but he was hardly alone on his panel, and the worries appear to be an accurate reflection of the wider German, and even European, concern about the reach of the NSA's surveillance program.

Hardly a week passes here without some new revelation about the dastardly depths to which the American spy program invaded German privacy, or at least a new way in which to react to the scandal.

Last week, for instance, the news broke that the United States had tapped the cellphone of Gerhard Schroeder when he was the German chancellor from 1998 to 2005. Given that it's been four months since news broke that the same American surveillance program was tapping the cellphone of the current chancellor, Angela Merkel, and had been tapping her phone for several years before she was chancellor, the revelation could hardly have been surprising.

Merkel, after all, was seen as an American ally. Schroeder, who sharply criticized U.S. intentions and efforts in Iraq and was visibly uncomfortable in the presence of then-President George W. Bush, was seen as something less than an American booster.

But there are many more examples, beyond the news stories: Thirty-two percent of Germans tell pollsters they've either left or reduced their time on Facebook for fear of spying. German television ads note the peace of mind and freedom that come with email that doesn't leave European servers. Providers very publicly say that they now encrypt all email. Anti-surveillance NSA protests are common in Berlin.

Such thoughts aren't limited to Germany. A $900 million French deal with the United Arab Emirates for two new intelligence satellites appears to be in doubt after the buyers noticed U.S. components in the French satellites that they feared could compromise their data.

Florian Glatzner, a policy officer with the German Federal Consumer Protection Agency, said they were fielding a lot of consumer questions about how to ensure that their communications and data were safe from the electronic spying of the NSA.

"A lot of the trust in the big Internet companies is gone," he said. "And most of the big Internet companies were based in the United States."

Read more at msn news

France-USA: What's a Little Spying Between Friends? - Alexis Simendinger

Does intelligence capability means the National Security Agency will continue to spy on allied governments, but has ceased its snooping on the personal communications of certain heads of state, Obama said during a Jan. 17 speech about policy changes made in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks.

Whether Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameron, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, feel more secure while conversing on their private cellphones since Obama announced his changes is unclear, considering the NSA still snoops on the aides, dignitaries and perhaps the close friends who may be on the other end.

Hollande who was in Washington, with Obama at the one hour long press conference -- leaving behind a messy private life before this state visit to the United States -- insisted the flap over America’s intelligence gathering in France was “in the past,” smoothed over, he said, after the two men “clarified things.”

With a quip that he’s a parent to four children (among whom he, too, could never play favorites), Hollande said the point, after ironing things out, was that the two countries “endeavored towards cooperation.”

“Mutual trust has been restored,” he said in French, “and that mutual trust must be based on respect for each other's country, but also based on protection -- protection of private life, of personal data, the fact that any individual, in spite of technological progress, can be sure that he's not being spied on. These are principles that unite us.”

Obama let Hollande’s remarks hang in the air, calling next on National Public Radio for a question about the embattled Affordable Care Act and the latest implementation fixes issued Monday. I

In the space of a second, Obama pivoted from tamping down international contretemps to ironing wrinkles in a signature domestic achievement. That quickly, the larger challenges of his second term were there.

“This was an example of, administratively, us making sure that we're smoothing out this transition,” he said of the effort to give employers more time to adjust to the health law. “There are going to be circumstances in which people are trying to do the right thing, and it may take a little bit of time.”

Note EU-Digest: as the children rhyme  goes:" I see England, I see France. I see someone’s underpants". It seems to be business as usual.

Read more: What's a Little Spying Between Friends? | RealClearPolitic

NSA Spy Program: Obama Team: "Help Us Spy On You Better" - by Brendan Sasso

The Obama administration is spitballing ideas for surveillance reform

President Obama has given his advisers a seemingly impossible challenge, and with the deadline fast approaching, they're now turning to the private sector for help.

In a speech last month outlining changes to the controversial surveillance programs, Obama said he wants the National Security Agency to continue mining through phone records for possible terrorists, but he doesn't want the government to hold the call data anymore.

No one is really sure how the government can achieve both goals, but Obama gave Attorney General Eric Holder and top intelligence officials until March 28 to figure it out.

Read more: Obama Team: Help Us Spy On You Better - NationalJournal.com

Switzerland: Swiss govt tightens tech security over NSA spying

The Swiss government has ordered tighter security for its own computer and telephone systems that could block foreign companies from key technology and communications contracts.

The governing Federal Council’s decision Wednesday cited concerns about foreign spies targeting Switzerland.

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who worked for the CIA at the U.S. mission to the U.N. in Geneva from 2007 to 2009, has released documents indicating that large American and British IT companies cooperated with those countries’ intelligence services.

According to a Swiss government statement, contracts for critical IT infrastructure will ‘‘where possible, only be given to companies that act exclusively according to Swiss law, where a majority of the ownership is in Switzerland and which provides all of its services from within Switzerland’s borders.’’

Read more: Swiss govt tightens tech security over NSA spying - Europe news - Boston.com

NSA also Spied on Climate Talks - by Kate Sheppard and Ryan Grim

The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden.
 
The document, with portions marked "top secret," indicates that the NSA was monitoring the communications of other countries ahead of the conference, and intended to continue doing so throughout the meeting. Posted on an internal NSA website on Dec. 7, 2009, the first day of the Copenhagen summit, it states that "analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries' preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies."

"Second Party partners" refers to the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with which the U.S. has an intelligence-sharing relationship. "While the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference remains uncertain, signals intelligence will undoubtedly play a significant role in keeping our negotiators as well informed as possible throughout the 2-week event," the document says.

The Huffington Post published the documents Wednesday night in coordination with the Danish daily newspaper Information, which worked with American journalist Laura Poitras.

Read more: NSA Spied on Climate Talks

USA - State of the Union : Full Text of Obama’s Positive State of the Union Address

Obama2014 State of the Union address

For the complete text of President Obama's State of the Union address  click here

First reactions to President Obama's 2014 address were positive and reactions included the adjectives: Optimistic, Forceful, Feisty, Bipartisan and Patriotic.

His proposal to increase the minimum wage to $10.10  received a tumultuous applause.

Among one of the less favorable comments was the fact that the President barely mentioned the hot 2013 issue of "Gun Control", regardless of all the tragedy caused by guns also in 2013 resulting in numerous casualties, either accidentally or criminally, for lack of effective gun control laws in America.

Europeans hoping to hear more about what was going to be done about the NSA spy issue in relation to privacy rights of European Citizens also did not come away totally satisfied by the speech.

In general, however, it was one of President  Obama's better speeches, which like the winter weather Washington was experiencing on the evening of the speech, basically left the Republican opposition in the cold, with very few new ground breaking proposals they could bring to the table in their rebuttal.

EU-Digest

NSA Surveillance Divides the US Republican Party - by Conor Friedersdorf

A Republican Party resolution that renounces NSA spying is an extraordinary document. For over a decade, the GOP dismissed civil-libertarian complaints about the War on Terror. The RNC stood behind Team Bush through the war crime of torture and a secret, illegal program of warrantless surveillance on U.S. citizens.

Circa 2009, the Tea Party began vying for control of the Republican Party. But even then, mass surveillance on innocents wasn't among its complaints.

President Obama's first term would play out with the GOP opposing him on virtually every issue except his embrace of his predecessor's War on Terror approach.

But Obama's second term has been different.

Rand Paul's filibuster against lethal drone strikes drew support from Senate colleagues Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee. Representative Justin Amash has distinguished himself as a leading civil libertarian in the House. 

And is if to signify that the GOP establishment is changing along with its elected officials, the RNC voted in a winter meeting to literally renounce NSA domestic surveillance. "It was passed by a voice vote as part of a package of RNC proposals," Benjy Sarlin reports. "Not a single member rose to object or call for further debate, as occurred for other resolutions." That's incredible, because it's almost impossible to exaggerate how unequivocally the resolution condemns the NSA.

Read more: NSA Surveillance Divides the US  Republican Party - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

US Trojan horse: NSA scandal shows Europe would be better off without Britain - by Neil Clark

Like the curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark in the nighttime in the classic Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze, the most revealing thing about the latest NSA spying revelations which made world headlines last week was the non-barking of the UK.

While leading politicians of other European countries and officers of the EU itself were keen to express their concern over the latest revelations of US spying on its allies – the President of the European Parliament 

Martin Schulz said that US secret services were ‘out of control’ – British Prime Minister David Cameron has only said that he thought that the EU statement on the matter was ‘good and sensible’ and that he agreed with it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Cameron ‘silently acquiesced” to the statement. At a press conference, Cameron refused to comment about the recent NSA revelations. 

The muted British reaction to what is a truly outrageous scandal, is proof, if indeed any further proof were needed, of what Britain's main role in the EU is: to act as a Trojan horse to defend and further the interests of the government of the United States of America.

The great French leader Charles de Gaulle twice vetoed Britain's application to join the EEC (European Economic Community), (the forerunner to today’s EU) not because he was anti-British but because he feared that allowing Britain to join would tantamount to letting America in. In January 1963, he famously declared that allowing Britain to join would lead to a “colossal Atlantic community dependent on and led by America, which would soon absorb the European Community.”
 
The irony is that the UK political elite today is far more slavishly pro-US than our leaders were in the 1960s. Back then British Prime Ministers did stand up to America from time to time, even though we were still paying back war-debt to the US. Labour’s Harold Wilson refused to send British troops to Vietnam.

The Conservative Edward Heath defied pressure from the US to stay neutral during the 1973 Yom Kippur War between the Arab states and Israel and imposed an arms embargo on all combatants. In sharp contrast with today’s Conservative party leadership, Heath refused to allow US intelligence gathering from British bases in Cyprus.

Today, however, Britain’s leaders are totally subservient to Washington.

In fact loyalty to the American Empire and an unquestioning commitment to Atlanticism has become a necessary condition for anyone wanting to climb to the top of the greasy pole in British politics or gain entry into the UK establishment. Stated support for the US’s closest Middle East ally, Israel, is a big help too.

Read more: US Trojan horse: NSA scandal shows Europe would be better off without Britain  — RT Op-Edge

European Youth Parliament Poll: "Fight against Terrorism Does not Justify Mass Surveillance" - says youth

The recently disclosed mass surveillance programmes of the NSA and other intelligence services step over the line. That is at least the opinion of 62.3% of participants in the recent European Youth Poll.

Still, differences in attitude exist between countres: In Sweden and Germany, less than a fourth of all participants think surveillance is justified by the fight against terrorism, while in Russia and Ukraine, more than half of all participants speak out in favour of surveillance.

59% of all participants also think they have to restrain their communication over the Internet, because it is being watched.

For the complete survey report click here.

Read more: European Youth Parliament - Parlement Européen des Jeunes

NSA turns "Get Smart" TV comedy into a reality show - Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices - by Jacob Appelbaum, Judith Horchert and Christian Stöcker

Get Smart Comedy Show

When it comes to modern firewalls for corporate computer networks, the world's second largest network equipment manufacturer doesn't skimp on praising its own work. According to Juniper Networks' online PR copy, the company's products are "ideal" for protecting large companies and computing centers from unwanted access from outside. They claim the performance of the company's special computers is "unmatched" and their firewalls are the "best-in-class." Despite these assurances, though, there is one attacker none of these products can fend off -- the United States' National Security Agency.

Specialists at the intelligence organization succeeded years ago in penetrating the company's digital firewalls.

A document viewed by SPIEGEL resembling a product catalog reveals that an NSA division called ANT has burrowed its way into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry -- including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such as US computer-maker Dell.

These NSA agents, who specialize in secret back doors, are able to keep an eye on all levels of our digital lives -- from computing centers to individual computers, and from laptops to mobile phones. For nearly every lock, ANT seems to have a key in its toolbox. And no matter what walls companies erect, the NSA's specialists seem already to have gotten past them.

This, at least, is the impression gained from flipping through the 50-page document. The list reads like a mail-order catalog, one from which other NSA employees can order technologies from the ANT division for tapping their targets' data. The catalog even lists the prices for these electronic break-in tools, with costs ranging from free to $250,000.

In the case of Juniper, the name of this particular digital lock pick is "FEEDTROUGH." This malware burrows into Juniper firewalls and makes it possible to smuggle other NSA programs into mainframe computers. Thanks to FEEDTROUGH, these implants can, by design, even survive "across reboots and software upgrades." In this way, US government spies can secure themselves a permanent presence in computer networks. The catalog states that FEEDTROUGH "has been deployed on many target platforms."

The ANT division doesn't just manufacture surveillance hardware. It also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software located on a computer's motherboard that is the first thing to load when a computer is turned on.

Another program attacks the firmware in hard drives manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung, all of which, with the exception of the latter, are American companies. Here, too, it appears the US intelligence agency is compromising the technology and products of American companies.

Other ANT programs target Internet routers meant for professional use or hardware firewalls intended to protect company networks from online attacks. Many digital attack weapons are "remotely installable" -- in other words, over the Internet. Others require a direct attack on an end-user device -- an "interdiction," as it is known in NSA jargon -- in order to install malware or bugging equipment.

Note EU-Digest : NSA turns "Get Smart" TV comedy into a reality show. Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry,^[1] the show stars Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Chief). Henry said they created the show by request of Daniel Melnick, who was a partner, along with Leonard Stern and David Susskind, of the show's production company, Talent Associates, to capitalize on "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today"—James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.^[2] Brooks said: "It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy."

Read more: Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices - SPIEGEL ONLINE

NSA 'spying on Europe-Asia undersea telecom cables'

The US National Security Agency has collected sensitive data on key telecommunications cables between Europe, north Africa and Asia, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday citing classified documents.

Spiegel quoted NSA papers dating from February and labelled "top secret" and "not for foreigners" describing the agency's success in spying on the so-called Sea-Me-We 4 undersea cable system.

The massive bundle of fibre optic cables originates near the southern French city of Marseille and links Europe with north Africa and the Gulf states, continuing through Pakistan and India to Malaysia and Thailand.

"Among the companies that hold ownership stakes in it are France Telecom, now known as Orange and still partly government-owned, and Telecom Italia Sparkle," Spiegel said.

It said NSA specialists had hacked an internal website belonging to the operator consortium to mine documents about technical infrastructure including circuit mapping and network management information.
"More operations are planned in the future to collect more information about this and other cable systems," Spiegel quoted the NSA documents as saying.

Der Spiegel has over the last several months reported on mass NSA spying on targets in the United States and abroad using documents provided by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

A White House-picked panel this month recommended curbing the secretive powers of the NSA, warning that its spying sweeps in the "war on terror" had gone too far.
US President Barack Obama plans to address the report in January.

Read more: NSA 'spying on Europe-Asia undersea telecom cables' | Bangkok Post: news

NSA Spying Germany: Germany should ban U.S. contracting companies passing data to NSA: report

U.S. contracting companies such as Cisco, which manages much of the German armed forces' data, should be contractually barred from passing sensitive information to the U.S. security services, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives was quoted saying.

German news magazine Focus on Saturday cited Hans-Peter Uhl, parliamentary spokesman on interior policy for the conservatives, as saying Cisco needed to be required by contract not to pass sensitive material to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

He said the German government wanted to monitor U.S. contracting companies more closely in future.
A spokeswoman for the German government declined to comment on the Focus magazine report.


Read more: Germany should ban U.S. contracting companies passing data to NSA: report | Reuters

NSA Spying Program: Federal Judge Rules Against N.S.A. Phone Data Program - b y Charlie Savage

In a 68-page ruling, Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia called the program’s technology “almost Orwellian” and suggested that James Madison, the author of the Constitution, would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way. 

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” Judge Leon wrote. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.” 

Judge Leon stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” allowing the government time to appeal it, a matter that he said could take some six months. 

Vanee Vines, a spokeswoman for the N.S.A., had no immediate comment on the ruling by Judge Leon, a 2002 appointee of President George W. Bush. 

The ruling is the first successful legal challenge brought against the program since it was revealed in June after leaks by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden. It was brought by several plaintiffs led by Larry Klayman, a conservative public-interest lawyer. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a similar lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.

Read more: NSA Spying Program: Federal Judge Rules Against N.S.A. Phone Data Program - b y Charlie Savage

NSA Spying On Europe: No EU action only talk and more talk as US Patriot Act Author Sensenbrenner defends NSA - by Monika Ermert

US Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner at a hearing today of the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Committee (LIBE) on mass surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence services asked the EU politicians “to work pragmatically with the United States to continue balanced efforts to protection our nations” and “rebuild trust while defending civil liberties and national security on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Sensenbrenner’s prepared statement is here. The full archived meeting will be up later.
An author of both the US Patriot Act and new draft legislation to abolish bulk collection of data, the Freedom Act (together with Senator Patrick Leahy), Sensenbrenner was the first US politician to participate in the series of hearings expected to result in recommendations for how the EU can address the mass surveillance revelations.

Sensenbrenner has said that to push the Freedom Act to the Senate and House floors, he and his partners would have to fight in both chambers against the leaders of both parties and the intelligence community. The draft legislation passed recently in the Intelligence Committee would only make legal all the NSA had done legal, he warned.

The Congressman, on the other hand, was evasive with regard to reiterated questions about the double standard with regard to protection of US and EU citizens’ fundamental rights and the lack of redress.

With regard to a long pending negotiation on a transatlantic framework agreement on data protection, he pointed to an upcoming meeting of US Attorney General Eric Holder and European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding next weekend.

The chair of the inquiry meeting, Dutch Liberal Sophie In’t Veld, said in closing that despite the different legal systems there should be ways for the protection of civil liberties. “This will be a precondition for the trans-Atlantic trade negotiations,” she said.

In a related action, the Swiss Privacy Foundation (Digitale Gesellschaft) is pushing for legal charges to be pressed against foreign intelligence services violating Swiss law following the revelations of former National Security Agency (NSA) employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden. At the same time, a US judge ruled today that a case against the NSA by the Electronic Frontier Foundation can proceed. And the European Union raised the issue in Washington this week, while Brazil has opened an investigation of US spying in that country.


In a 7 July letter [pdf, in German] to the Office of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor General, the foundation reported potential violations of Swiss Federal law by illegal intelligence services.

According to recent press reports on surveillance programmes like Prism (from the US services) and Tempora (from British services), there are good reasons to suspect violations of articles 271, 272, 273 of Swiss Penal Code about political, economic and military espionage by a foreign country, the letter to the Federal Prosecutor General reads.

The foundation, of which the Digital Allmend, Swiss Pirates and Swiss Chaos Computer Club are members, also want to see an investigation on the grounds of illegal information-gathering and intrusion of computer systems (Articles 143 and 143bis of the Penal Code, respectively).

So far, Swiss authorities and politicians had not reacted, the activists, said in press statements with regard to the motive for their move. The Swiss activists’ action is not the only legal challenge. The German Prosecutor General has been confirmed to be looking into the issue of potential espionage with regard to the alleged tapping of internet communication from US companies peering at the Frankfurt internet exchange DeCIX.


Note EU-Digest: So far all the European public have heard is" talk and more tal" - no concrete action whatsoever has been taken.

Read more: US Patriot Act Author Sensenbrenner Warns EU Parliament On NSA | Intellectual Property Watch

Europe’s reaction to NSA spying ‘totally inadequate, no action, nothing more than words’

EU reaction to NSA spying inadequate

So far European governments reactions to the people’s anger about NSA spying on European Citizens has been totally inadequate, says Paul Murphy, Irish Member of the European Parliament from the Socialist Party in an interview with Russian TV station RT. He says this mainly is the result of the fact that most governments have put a lid on it, as the interests of big businesses prevails.

"What it illustrates", said Murphy,  "is the deep-rooted hypocrisy of the leaders of all countries of Europe and really around the world. Whereby they are happy to criticize other people spying on themselves, but they are all engaged in this, all of the major powers in the world are engaged in massive spying against each other. But also most importantly, states are involved in spying against their own people and other peoples around the world. I think what should come out from ordinary people across Europe is a clear message that we are opposed to the building of a security state, which is what’s happening, we are opposed to this massive surveillance of people and of elective representatives, and we demand people’s right to privacy".

"I think the response of the EU has been entirely inadequate", says Murphy, "and it’s being words and nothing more than words, while they continue, for example, with the negotiations on the EU-US free-trade agreement. I think it’s because they know the whole thing is full of hypocrisy and they know they are guilty probably as much as their technical capacities allows relative to the US. And I think it’s only through developing a movement and big pressure from below that the most important issue here – people’s, individuals’ rights of privacy, individual rights not to be spied upon, that that can prevail and can become a factor in the situation"

Basically the EU Commission and the EU parliament are sitting on their hands when it comes to properly handling the NSA spying affair on EU Citizens. It is  another example of why the confidence in the political establishment of the Europe Union has reached an all-time low.

EU-Digest

NSA surveillance: Europe threatens to freeze US data-sharing arrangements - by Ian Traynor

The EU executive is threatening to freeze crucial data-sharing arrangements with the US because of the Edward Snowden revelations about the mass surveillance of the National Security Agency.

The US will have to adjust their surveillance activities to comply with EU law and enable legal redress in the US courts for Europeans whose rights may have been infringed, said Viviane Reding, the EU's justice and rights commissioner who is negotiating with the US on the fallout from the NSA scandal.

European businesses need to compete on a level playing field with US rivals, Reding told the Guardian.

The EU commissioner said there was little she or Brussels could do about the activities of the NSA's main partner in mass surveillance, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ, since secret services in the EU were the strict remit of national governments.

The commission has demanded but failed to obtain detailed information from the British government on how UK surveillance practices are affecting other EU citizens.

"I have direct competence in law enforcement but not in secret services. That remains with the member states. In general, secret services are national," said the commissioner, from Luxembourg.

As a result of the Snowden disclosures, the EU has reviewed existing data-sharing agreements with the Americans concerning commercial swaps between US and European companies, information traded aimed at suppressing international terrorist funding, and the supply of information on transatlantic air passengers.

It is also rethinking ongoing negotiations over exchanging data with the Americans on judicial and police co-operation. And it is drafting new Europe-wide data protection rules requiring US internet companies operating in the EU to obtain permission to transfer data to the US and to restrict US intelligence access to it.

Read more: NSA surveillance: Europe threatens to freeze US data-sharing arrangements | World news | The Guardian