SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
WikiLeaks has published transcripts of 10 months of German Parliamentary hearings into the National Security Agency and Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). The 1,380 pages cover 34 witnesses from May 2014 to February 2015. "WikiLeaks has also written summaries of each session in German and English as the inquiry, due to its subject matter, is of international significance." For example, there is a synopsis of William Binney and Thomas Drake's appearance before the Bundestag inquiry in July. The inquiry calendar lists hearings with documents and synopses indicated by paper clips and hourglasses respectively. Some hearings are labelled "Synopsis to follow". Although the transcripts are of public hearings, WikiLeaks claims that "despite many sessions being technically public, in practice public understanding has been compromised as transcripts have been withheld, recording devices banned and reporters intrusively watched by police."
The Register reports:
The inquiry was set up in March 2014, tasked with investigating surveillance activities by the United States on German soil and to what degree German agencies have been complicit in this spying. During the inquiry it emerged that the German Chancery sent a letter to the chief exec of Deutsche Telekom calling for help with the continuous mass surveillance of German and international internet and telecommunications data at Deutsche Telekom's Frankfurt exchange point. This operation, codenamed "Eikonal", saw these intercepts then pass from the BND to the NSA.
More recently, it emerged that the NSA was passing on selectors – IP addresses, emails, and mobile phone numbers – for spying. Targets included members of the French government and European industry, including the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and Eurocopter. Airbus, another target of alleged spying, has launched a lawsuit.
The NSA also reportedly wanted the BND to spy on Siemens over its alleged business with Russian intelligence. The BND-NSA co-operation on surveillance was ostensibly about fighting international terrorism but much of what happened in practice seemed to be about harvesting geo-political intelligence, if not downright economic espionage.
Some weeks into the inquiry, a German intelligence agency staffer was arrested after allegedly being caught spying on behalf on the US.
Highlights of the leaked files include how the BND tap fibre optic cables from the German intelligence officer who does the tapping. WikiLeaks is saying it released the files in order to inform the debate.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 14 2015, @05:49PM
According what was said in radio, the transcripts had been withheld so that further witnesses cannot read what the previous witnesses said and adapt their own statements accordingly. Which actually makes sense since contradictions between witness claims is a major way to find out who is lying. And in cases like this, one can expect lots of people lying.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by CortoMaltese on Thursday May 14 2015, @07:24PM
To be honest if you expect witness cross contamination, you must interview them all the same day or same session, taking care of introducing them to the room only when the other has finished testimony, if you interview them in different days they have a thousand ways to get their story congruent (unless of course you have them in isolation)
(Score: 1) by Soybean on Thursday May 14 2015, @10:00PM
Exactly. That rationalization is one of those stories with about 5% truth (prevent testifiers from coordinating their stories) intended to distract from the 95% truth (prevent the public scrutiny of a government embarrassment).
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 14 2015, @07:39PM
Interesting, but unless someone spied on the witnesses (pulled all their telephone logs) it wasn't enough.
But TFS says:
During the inquiry it emerged that the German Chancery sent a letter to the chief exec of Deutsche Telekom calling for help with the continuous mass surveillance of German and international internet and telecommunications data at Deutsche Telekom's Frankfurt exchange point. This operation, codenamed "Eikonal", saw these intercepts then pass from the BND to the NSA.
Weren't we assured this could never happen in the EU because of its strong privacy laws and even stronger ethics? Surely the German Chancery can't simply thumb its nose at the EU privacy regulations! There was rampant criticism of the US NSA/CIA from all these EU countries (especially the Germans) when they found out about Merkel's phone.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday May 14 2015, @08:20PM
It's all just for show. The only difference is that if caught, you can embarrass and sue. But in Europe damages are low.
(if wrong, someone please correct)