A View From The Handbasket

Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Been there, done that
Posted by neros_fiddle at 8:52 AM
Perhaps it's that they've suffered under authoritarian regimes of both the extreme right and extreme left in the last century, but the Germans apparently have rather less tolerance for surveillance shenanigans than we do:

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government admitted on Monday that the foreign intelligence agency had spied on German journalists and said it had ordered it to stop.

Government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the surveillance by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) appeared to be "isolated past cases" and in future "such operative measures against journalists ... are not to be repeated."


Meanwhile, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, here are a couple of the comments appended to the ABC News item I noted a couple days ago, wherein it was stated that reporters are being monitored by the government:

Good! I hope they do find out who is leaking national security info to the press. I'm tired of the press helping our enemies. Maybe you guys should start trying to "FOR the USA" instead of "AGAINST the USA" ALL THE TIME. I hope the FBI nails lots of idiots who are out to destroy the intelligence agencies and cost us more soldiers and spys!


GOOD! I hope they find out who is reporting all of these leaks. And I hope you are tried and perhaps spend some time in jail for it. KEEP CALLING and I hope they track your every word!


I hope the information they gain allows them to catch the scum that leak information, and helps them arrest the communist scum who publish it.


Etc., etc..

Is it just that the US doesn't recognize creeping fascism when they see it? Or that they truly don't care and actually want less freedom in exchange for putative safety?

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