Friday, August 2, 2013

Germany Cancels Surveillance Pact With US And Britain Over NSA Leaks

Broken antenna covers of Former National Security Agency (NSA) listening station are seen at the Teufelsberg hill (German for Devil's Mountain) in Berlin (Reuters / Pawel Kopczynski)

Germany Scraps Old Surveillance Pact With US, Britain Over NSA Leaks -- RT

Germany has dissolved a fifty-years-old surveillance pact with the United States and Britain in response to a “debate about protecting personal privacy” in the country, which was sparked by revelations of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The agreement that dated back to the late 1960s gave the US, Britain and France the right to request German authorities carry out surveillance operations so as to protect their troops stationed within the country.

“The cancellation of the administrative agreements, which we have pushed for in recent weeks, is a necessary and proper consequence of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement on Friday.

Germany was currently in talks with France to cancel its part of the agreement as well, a German official told AP on condition of anonymity.

Read more ....

Update: Germany nixes surveillance pact with US, Britain -- AP

My Comment: I am not surprised by this German decision .... I am only surprised that it took them this long to do it.

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