US Forbids The European Law Enforcement Agency From Releasing European Documents To European Officials
from the bloody-cheek dept
Europol is probably not very well-known outside the EU. Here's how it describes itself:Europol is the European Union's law enforcement agency whose main goal is to help achieve a safer Europe for the benefit of all EU citizens. We do this by assisting the European Union's Member States in their fight against serious international crime and terrorism.The emphasis is in the original. You may notice that it mentions Europe a few times, which underlines the fact that Europol is a European organization based in Europe, run by Europeans and serving Europeans. But the US seems to take a different view:
The head of the EU police agency Europol is taking instructions from the Americans on what EU-drafted documents he can and cannot release to EU lawmakers.The story in the EUobserver quoted above explains:
The issue came up over the summer when US ambassador to the EU Anthony Gardner told EU ombudsman Emily O'Reilly she cannot inspect an annual Europol report drafted by the agency's own internal data protection review board.And if you are thinking there might be some top-secret US information in that report, the Dutch MEP Sophie In't Veld says that isn't the case:
"There is no operational information, there is no intelligence, there is nothing in the document. So you really wonder why it is kept a secret."The problem seems to be simply that the uppity Europeans dared to write their report without asking for US permission first:
The Americans are unhappy because Europol had drafted the report "without prior written authorisation from the information owner (in this case the Treasury Department)."The fact that the Treasury Department thinks that it "owns" information about how the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) complies with European data protection laws is rather telling. No wonder that back in March, the European Parliament called for the TFTP to be suspended in the wake of revelations that the US was going outside the program, and accessing EU citizens' bank data illegally. The latest high-handed action by the US ambassador to the EU is unlikely to encourage them to change their mind.
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Filed Under: crime, data protection, documents, eu, eu parliament, europol, lawa enforcement, us
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Because reasons. And because they can. And because the people are the enemy.
Having the Europol taking orders and hints from the US Police State should set quite a few alarms into Europeans heads.
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Re:
Wait. They are not supposed to treat Americans that way?
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'Because we can, what are you going to do about it?'
If the others in the program had any dignity, self-respect, or interest in maintaining their own authority, they'd drop the program after a stunt like this, or at the very least kick the USG out of it and revoke their access to it.
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email etc at this point anything thats not encrypted has to be assumed to be under surveillance .
eg as far as the usa is concerned any eu person is fair game .
That,s why the treaty is designed for the good of the us ,
not eu citizens .
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Think I'll make popcorn and watch Team America.
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I really wonder why there is a document with nothing in it. Crazy Europeans wasting paper.
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This tinpot diktat bullshit has got to stop.
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Re: Agreed
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I see no protests about the US murdering thousands of innocents every year. All i see is "we must make facebook pages, and like all the posts and write letters to congress" so they can be rerouted to the recycling letter withour being opened.
You need to learn about democracy with the french, when the french government starts messing too much with the people, cities burn. I'm not saying start destroying your own cities but at least gather in public places, so much people in the US and no one protests, you all behave like good sheeple.
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Already been tried. It was called the Occupy Movement and it got crushed.
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Inevitable
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Re: Inevitable
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Re: Inevitable
The occupy protests themselves were very successful -- the problem was that there was no followup. Look back to the civil rights protests. Early on, they looked to be pointless, but in fact they were not. This is a long-haul game, and no single protest, action, or movement will change a thing -- but all of them are essential.
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They showed that the police can disperse a protest without reprisal.
What they demonstrated is that when a mayor or the polices or whatever gubernatorial entity wants to disperse a protest, they can with little embarrassment, let alone retaliation from the people.
I'm half convinced that was the function of Occupy, to show that wealth disparity cannot be handled peacefully, partially thanks to the propaganda engine that has made any kind of equalization regime distasteful, the presumption being that if you're a gazillionaire, you worked harder than a night-shift waitress or a front-line marine to get there.
But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt: what did Occupy succeed at doing?
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Lack of Trust
(and Wise)
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Well
You reap what you sow!
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It takes two to Tango (again)
And that's sad.
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Really this shows the insanity inherit in the very concept of intellectual property and permission culture.
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Is the information Copyrighted, That would explain the entire issue , you know because infringing behavior is bad and extremely expensive , My advise release a leaked copy online then say ...oops !
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why have it at all?
well, it SOUNDS like a govt report.
with all the things not in the report, *I* wonder why they make it at all.
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Keep It Up, Folks
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Re: Keep It Up, Folks
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Re: Keep It Up, Folks
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Atomic weapons, not nuclear.
It would be really, really stupid of anyone, including the US to do so.
And we have so many conventional alternatives.
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Re: Atomic weapons, not nuclear.
I hope, fervently, that we won't do it. I know, however, that if the US government feels threatened enough, they will, in a heartbeat. That applies to their own citizens rising up against them, also. They have a large stock of "tactical" nukes (
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I suspect we're safe because paris didn't burn.
Unlike the US vs. USSR which had amazingly sophisticated security systems (for their time, and granted, the USAF didn't really use theirs), we've seen nukes in the hands of captains, and occasionally lower ranking officers in the conflicts between India and Pakistan...both peoples with religious fanatacism amongst them, and yet not one nuke was used.
There is gravity to using nuclear weapons in hostility, even small ones such as nuclear depth charges (which we really do have), since such an even turns a key that no-one wants to see unlocked, and whoever does -- whatever nation does -- will go down in history as a traitor to the rest of the world.
I think if we were going to have madman scenarios, we'd have seen one by now. Probably one that resolved without misshap but still. Though it's possible that one did and it was very well covered up. Not likely, though.
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Wow.
I am starting to think Putin is right. It is time for the west to fall..
Not that Putin is the way to go. No way. But, the american government has gone to far, yet again.
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Re: Wow.
So far Putin is the only world leader who openly and spectacularly give zero fucks about the us whining and bullying. Kudos for that (if not for other things).
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As a network engineer, I think they could have chosen a less confusing abbreviation.
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