Europe Must
Protect Itself
from America
AFP
People around the world were shocked to
learn of the
extent of US
People around the world were shocked to
learn of the
extent of US
snooping. This anti-Obama poster comes
from Hong Kong.
from Hong Kong.
Is Barack Obama a friend? Revelations a
bout his government's
vast spying program
bout his government's
vast spying program
call that assumption into doubt.
The European Union
must protect the Continent
The European Union
must protect the Continent
from America's reach for omnipotence.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama is coming to Germany.
But who, really, will be visiting? He is the 44th
president of the United States. He is the first African
American to hold the office. He is an intelligent lawyer.
And he is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
But is he a friend? The revelations brought to us by
IT expert Edward Snowden have made certain what
paranoid computer geeks and left-wing conspiracy
theorists have long claimed: that we are being watched.
All the time and everywhere. And it is the Americans
who are doing the watching.On Tuesday, the head of
the largest and most all-encompassing surveillance
system ever invented is coming for a visit. If Barack
Obama is our friend, then we really don't need to be
terribly worried about our enemies.
It is embarrassing: Barack Obama will be arriving in
Berlin for only the second time, but his visit is coming
just as we are learning that the US president is a snoop
on a colossal scale. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
has said that she will speak to the president about the
surveillance program run by the National Security Agency,
and the Berlin Interior Ministry has sent a set of 16
questions to the US Embassy. But Obama need not be
afraid. German Interior Minister Hans Peter Friedrich,
to be sure, did say: "That's not how you treat friends."
But he wasn't referring to the fact that our trans-Atlantic
friends were spying on us. Rather, he meant the criticism
of that spying.
Friedrich's reaction is only paradoxical on the surface and
can be explained by looking at geopolitical realities. The
US is, for the time being, the only global power -- and
as such it is the only truly sovereign state in existence.
All others are dependent -- either as enemies or allies.
And because most prefer to be allies, politicians --
Germany's included -- prefer to grin and bear it.
'It's Legal'
German citizens should be able to expect that their
government will protect them from spying by foreign
governments. But the German interior minister says
instead: "We are grateful for the excellent cooperation
with US secret services." Friedrich didn't even try to
cover up his own incompetence on the surveillance issue.
"Everything we know about it, we have learned from the
media," he said. The head of the country's domestic
intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, was not any
more enlightened. "I didn't know anything about it," he
said. And Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-
Schnarrenberger was also apparently in the dark. "These
reports are extremely unsettling," she said.
With all due respect: These are the people who are
supposed
to be protecting our rights? If it wasn't so frightening,
it would be absurd.
Friedrich's quote from the weekend was particularly
quaint: "I have no reason to doubt that the US respects
rights and the law." Yet in a way, he is right. The problem
is not the violation of certain laws. Rather, in the US the
laws themselves are the problem. The NSA, in fact, didn't
even overreach its own authority when it sucked up 97
billion pieces of data in one single 30-day period last
March. Rather, it was acting on the orders of the entire
US government, including the executive, legislative
and judicial branches, the Democrats, the Republicans,
the House of Representatives, the Senate and the
Supreme Court. They are all in favor. Democratic
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, merely shrugged her shoulders and said:
"It's legal."
A Monitored Human Being Is Not a Free One
What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security
Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter
in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human
being is not a free human being. And every state that
systematically contravenes human rights, even in the
alleged service of security, is acting criminally.
Those who believed that drone attacks in Pakistan or
the camp at Guantanamo were merely regrettable
events at the end of the world should stop to reflect.
Those who still believed that the torture at Abu Ghraib
or that the waterboarding in CIA prisons had nothing
to do with them, are now changing their views. Those
who thought that we are on the good side and that it is
others who are stomping all over human rights are now
opening their eyes. A regime is ruling in the United
States today that acts in totalitarian ways when it
comes to its claim to total control. Soft totalitarianism
is still totalitarianism.
We're currently in the midst of a European crisis. But
this unexpected flare-up of American imperialism
serves as a reminder of the necessity for Europe.
Does anyone seriously believe that Obama will ensure
the chancellor and her interior minister that the American
authorities will respect the rights of German citizens in
the future? Only Europe can break the American fantasy
of omnipotence. One option would be for Europe to build
its own system of networks to prevent American
surveillance.
Journalist Frank Schirrmacher of the respected
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper recommended
that over the weekend. "It would require subsidies and a
vision as big as the moon landing," he argues.A simpler
approach would be to just force American firms to respect
European laws. The European Commission has the ability
to do that. The draft for a new data privacy directive has
already been presented.
It just has to be implemented. Once that happens,
American secret services might still be able to walk all
over European law, but if US Internet giants like Google,
Apple, Microsoft and Facebook want to continue making
money off of a half-billion Europeans, then they will have
to abide by our laws. Under the new law, companies
caught passing on data in ways not permitted
are forced to pay fines. You can be sure that these
companies would in turn apply pressure to their own
government. The proposal envisions setting that fine at
2 percent of a company's worldwide revenues.
That's a lot of money -- and also a language that
America understands.
But who, really, will be visiting? He is the 44th
president of the United States. He is the first African
American to hold the office. He is an intelligent lawyer.
And he is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
IT expert Edward Snowden have made certain what
paranoid computer geeks and left-wing conspiracy
theorists have long claimed: that we are being watched.
All the time and everywhere. And it is the Americans
who are doing the watching.On Tuesday, the head of
the largest and most all-encompassing surveillance
system ever invented is coming for a visit. If Barack
Obama is our friend, then we really don't need to be
terribly worried about our enemies.
It is embarrassing: Barack Obama will be arriving in
Berlin for only the second time, but his visit is coming
just as we are learning that the US president is a snoop
on a colossal scale. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
has said that she will speak to the president about the
surveillance program run by the National Security Agency,
and the Berlin Interior Ministry has sent a set of 16
questions to the US Embassy. But Obama need not be
afraid. German Interior Minister Hans Peter Friedrich,
to be sure, did say: "That's not how you treat friends."
But he wasn't referring to the fact that our trans-Atlantic
friends were spying on us. Rather, he meant the criticism
of that spying.
Friedrich's reaction is only paradoxical on the surface and
can be explained by looking at geopolitical realities. The
US is, for the time being, the only global power -- and
as such it is the only truly sovereign state in existence.
All others are dependent -- either as enemies or allies.
And because most prefer to be allies, politicians --
Germany's included -- prefer to grin and bear it.
'It's Legal'
German citizens should be able to expect that their
government will protect them from spying by foreign
governments. But the German interior minister says
instead: "We are grateful for the excellent cooperation
with US secret services." Friedrich didn't even try to
cover up his own incompetence on the surveillance issue.
"Everything we know about it, we have learned from the
media," he said. The head of the country's domestic
intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, was not any
more enlightened. "I didn't know anything about it," he
said. And Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-
Schnarrenberger was also apparently in the dark. "These
reports are extremely unsettling," she said.
With all due respect: These are the people who are
supposed
to be protecting our rights? If it wasn't so frightening,
it would be absurd.
Friedrich's quote from the weekend was particularly
quaint: "I have no reason to doubt that the US respects
rights and the law." Yet in a way, he is right. The problem
is not the violation of certain laws. Rather, in the US the
laws themselves are the problem. The NSA, in fact, didn't
even overreach its own authority when it sucked up 97
billion pieces of data in one single 30-day period last
March. Rather, it was acting on the orders of the entire
US government, including the executive, legislative
and judicial branches, the Democrats, the Republicans,
the House of Representatives, the Senate and the
Supreme Court. They are all in favor. Democratic
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, merely shrugged her shoulders and said:
"It's legal."
A Monitored Human Being Is Not a Free One
What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security
Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter
in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human
being is not a free human being. And every state that
systematically contravenes human rights, even in the
alleged service of security, is acting criminally.
Those who believed that drone attacks in Pakistan or
the camp at Guantanamo were merely regrettable
events at the end of the world should stop to reflect.
Those who still believed that the torture at Abu Ghraib
or that the waterboarding in CIA prisons had nothing
to do with them, are now changing their views. Those
who thought that we are on the good side and that it is
others who are stomping all over human rights are now
opening their eyes. A regime is ruling in the United
States today that acts in totalitarian ways when it
comes to its claim to total control. Soft totalitarianism
is still totalitarianism.
this unexpected flare-up of American imperialism
serves as a reminder of the necessity for Europe.
Does anyone seriously believe that Obama will ensure
the chancellor and her interior minister that the American
authorities will respect the rights of German citizens in
the future? Only Europe can break the American fantasy
of omnipotence. One option would be for Europe to build
its own system of networks to prevent American
surveillance.
Journalist Frank Schirrmacher of the respected
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper recommended
that over the weekend. "It would require subsidies and a
vision as big as the moon landing," he argues.A simpler
approach would be to just force American firms to respect
European laws. The European Commission has the ability
to do that. The draft for a new data privacy directive has
already been presented.
It just has to be implemented. Once that happens,
American secret services might still be able to walk all
over European law, but if US Internet giants like Google,
Apple, Microsoft and Facebook want to continue making
money off of a half-billion Europeans, then they will have
to abide by our laws. Under the new law, companies
caught passing on data in ways not permitted
are forced to pay fines. You can be sure that these
companies would in turn apply pressure to their own
government. The proposal envisions setting that fine at
2 percent of a company's worldwide revenues.
That's a lot of money -- and also a language that
America understands.
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