Sorry, Angela, But Berlin Does It Too -- Toby Harnden and Bojan Pancevski, The Australian/Times
WHEN Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was told last week that her trusty Nokia 6210 Slide had been monitored by the US National Security Agency from Fort Meade, Maryland, her reaction seemed to be one of genuine outrage.
What she might have paused to consider, however, was that if the phone, which she had for four years before swapping to a BlackBerry Z10 in July, was so insecure then the Chinese and the Russians were probably also listening in.
It is highly likely as well, according to US intelligence sources, that officers at Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, along with French spies, were eavesdropping too.
If the Nokia had been fitted with a conference call function, one former US official joked, then everyone could have joined in on an interesting discussion about just who was spying on whom.
Ironically, the GSM phone network in Europe is so easy to penetrate largely because it was designed on the advice of continental spy agencies eager to monitor conversations.
Read more ....
Update #1: Europe Anger at U.S. Spying Ignores Fact Everyone Does It -- Nicole Gaouette & Allan Holmes, Bloomberg
Update #2: NSA spying allegations: Are US allies really shocked? -- Jonathan Marcus, BBC
My Comment: In the world of realpolitik .... this "overreaction" is probably true.
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