The Germans are less than thrilled by the revelations about America's NSA spying, apparently facilitated and supported by their own intelligence service, the BND, even as chancellor Merkel denies having known about what was going on.
(Sumi Somaskanda's report at The Atlantic, NSA Spying Rankles Privacy-Loving Germans, provides a good overview.)
Now some forty German authors have signed and published an open letter (German) to Angela Merkel in protest, asking for clarification of the nature and extent of the violation of the privacy of German citizens, as well as what the chancellor intends to do about the situation. The letter is also open for signing at change.org, and as I write this 7,939 people have added their names to the petition.
The list of authors is a pretty solid one, with the younger generation fairly well represented (and the old guard noteworthy for their absence); among the authors who signed who have books under review at the complete review are Ilija Trojanow, Josef Haslinger, Robert Menasse, and Antje Ravic Strubel.
Meanwhile, at DeutscheWelle Petra Lambeck has a Q & A with historian Josef Foschepoth, NSA: permission to spy in Germany, in which he points out the existence of: "secret supplemental agreements which guaranteed key rights for the Western allied forces; among them, the right to monitor telephone and postal communications" since 1955 -- so that PRISM and the like should be no big surprise to anyone in Germany (especially anyone in government).
Now some forty German authors have signed and published an open letter (German) to Angela Merkel in protest, asking for clarification of the nature and extent of the violation of the privacy of German citizens, as well as what the chancellor intends to do about the situation. The letter is also open for signing at change.org, and as I write this 7,939 people have added their names to the petition.
The list of authors is a pretty solid one, with the younger generation fairly well represented (and the old guard noteworthy for their absence); among the authors who signed who have books under review at the complete review are Ilija Trojanow, Josef Haslinger, Robert Menasse, and Antje Ravic Strubel.
Meanwhile, at DeutscheWelle Petra Lambeck has a Q & A with historian Josef Foschepoth, NSA: permission to spy in Germany, in which he points out the existence of: "secret supplemental agreements which guaranteed key rights for the Western allied forces; among them, the right to monitor telephone and postal communications" since 1955 -- so that PRISM and the like should be no big surprise to anyone in Germany (especially anyone in government).