German Parliament Spy Oversight Board Sues German Government Over Data Sharing With NSA

from the uncharted-territory dept

After Edward Snowden's revelations about the extent of spying being carried out around the world by the NSA and its Five Eyes friends, there have been a number of attempts in other countries to find out what has been going on. One of the most thoroughgoing of these is in Germany, where there is a major parliamentary inquiry into NSA activities in that country. As Techdirt reported back in May, a surprising piece of information to emerge from this is that Germany's secret service has been carrying out spying on behalf of the NSA, which sent across various "selectors" -- search terms -- that it wanted investigated in the German spies' surveillance databases.

One group of people particularly shocked to hear this were the German parliamentarians who make up the G10 Commission that must approve spying operations in Germany. A post on Intellectual Property Watch explains why:

The German Foreign Intelligence Services, supported by the government, tapped the German Internet Exchange Point Decix, the largest internet exchange point globally. While the G10 Commission had approved the blanket tapping, they were unaware that some of the tapped data were forwarded to the NSA, the US National Security Agency, based on a list of so-called "selectors" -- names or numbers the NSA sent to their German colleagues.

Understandably annoyed, the G10 Commission demanded to see a complete list of those selectors so that it could check what information had been passed to the NSA, and whether any laws had been broken. The German government said that it would not disclose them. After misleading the oversight body about who would have access to information obtained from the Decix tapping, the German government's refusal to provide the selectors adds insult to injury. So much so, that it has apparently driven the G10 Commission to take unprecedented action: hauling the German government before the country's constitutional court, which decides weighty matters of this kind.

Since this is uncharted territory -- the G10 Commission had to find out whether taking legal action against the government in this way was even possible -- nobody really knows what might come of the move. But at the very least, it's yet another indication of the seismic shifts that are still occurring throughout the world of surveillance as a result of Snowden's unprecedented leaks.

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Filed Under: ed snowden, german parliament, germany, lawsuit, mass surveillance, nsa, oversight, surveillance

German Government Hires DC Law Firm To Threaten Its Own Parliament With Criminal Prosecution For Talking To Snowden

from the scandalous dept

Earlier this month, we wrote about how German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government was trying to block Ed Snowden from testifying before a German Parliamentary committee's hearings into NSA surveillance. That fight is apparently getting nasty. German lawmakers have so far ignored the pressure, and have said that they still want to question Snowden (though it's not yet clear how this will be done).

However, it seems the fight is getting nasty. It appears that Merkel's government hired a DC-based law firm to send a ridiculous letter threatening German law makers with possible criminal prosecution in the US for talking to Snowden. No joke. The German government got lawyer Jeffrey Harris of the DC-based Rubin, Winston, Diercks, Harris & Cooke to send a notice with the following: If you can't read that, it says:

“We are of the opinion that if Snowden provides classified information or documents to the Bundestag or to German diplomats who interview Snowden, such acts give rise to criminal exposure under the laws of the United States. The United States would have jurisdiction to prosecute these acts regardless of where they occur. The fact that German legislators have immunity under German laws would not shield them from prosecution in the United States."

This should be deeply offensive to pretty much everyone in the German government -- even if the letter was apparently commissioned by the German government. The idea that they might face criminal prosecution for the simple act of investigating how the US spied on the German government is insulting in the extreme.

As the FreeSnowden site points out, the implications of such claims are equally ridiculous, as it also implies that anyone who has received any of the Snowden documents faces criminal charges in the US -- which would include basically anyone who's read any of the stories based on the Snowden documents:

If accurate, the ramifications of this advice would be enormous: should the the bodies – including the European Parliament and Council of Europe – that have already received testimony from Edward Snowden fear “criminal exposure under the laws of the United States”? Should Der Spiegel and the other media outlets that have seen and reported on large numbers of documents provided by Snowden?

As Der Spiegel makes clear this is all part of a calculated effort by Merkel to both stay in the US's good graces, and to appear to be a strong unified front against Vladimir Putin's recent aggressiveness in Russia. And, yes, there may be good diplomatic reasons for Germany to want to remain on good terms with the US. But there's no reason why that should lead to completely ridiculous criminal threats against German lawmakers for wanting to talk to Ed Snowden.

Filed Under: angel merkel, criminal prosecution, ed snowden, german parliament, germany, surveillance