Germany

The Risk of a Ukraine Bloodbath | Consortiumnews
Exclusive: Pressured by neocons and the mainstream U.S. media, the Obama administration is charting a dangerous course by seeking a military solution to Ukraine’s political crisis and possibly provoking Moscow to intervene to protect ethnic Russians, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern warns. [...]
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NATO chief eyes more bases in E. Europe to confront Russia
Under the pretext of an 'overt' Russian threat, NATO is pushing for a "readiness action plan" that will bring the Cold War military bloc closer to Russian borders than ever - even despite objections from some NATO members. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the 28-nation military bloc, which meets next week in Cardiff, Wales, would attempt to overcome internal opposition and agre [...]
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Not-so NATO-ally? Germany spying on Turkey for ‘38 years’
German foreign intelligence agency has been tapping Turkey for almost four decades, reports Focus amid the ongoing spy scandal between Berlin and Ankara. Some German officials defend the practice, saying that not all NATO allies can be treated as friends. The German Federal Intelligence Service, BND, has been eavesdropping on Turkey since 1976 following the Social Democrat Chancellor Helmut Sch [...]
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Putin to Merkel: Further delays of aid delivery to Ukraine would have been unacceptable
Further delays in the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine, which is facing a humanitarian disaster, would have been unacceptable, President Vladimir Putin has said in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Given the obvious protractions by Kiev on the issue of the delivery of Russian aid to southeast regions of Ukraine, which are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe, a dec [...]
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What does CETA, the ‘Wayne Gretzky of trade deals,’ hold for Europe?
A couple of weeks ago the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed that Germany was refusing to sign off the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). The simple reason being the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regulation which I have written about here. [...]
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Russell Brand mocks Bill O’Reilly for proposing Berlin Wall against immigrants (VIDEO)
Comedian Russell Brand took to his web series The Trews to rip Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly for “getting the wrong message” from history after suggesting that the Berlin Wall is an example of how to solve the influx of immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border. [...]
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Old technology in NSA age: Typewriter sales surge in Germany
An increasing number of businesses are opting out of staying virtually connected and are reverting back to old technologies to avoid being spied on. The move has led to a surge in typewriter sales in Germany. German typewriter makers such as Bandermann and Olympia have cited climbing sales amid NSA spying revelations. [...]
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Berlin wants to prosecute US handlers of German spies
Criminal prosecution is likely to be expanded on Americans involved in recruiting and supervising activities of German officials spying for the US intelligence, Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Welt am Sonntag. If investigators find a body of evidence that alleged double agents in Germany’s federal intelligence service and Defense Ministry have been spying to the benefit of American in [...]
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Obama’s ratings tumble in Germany, Russia in wake of NSA spying, Ukraine crisis
Revelations of the National Security Agency's global spy program, together with civil strife in Ukraine has severely damaged Barack Obama's popularity among Brazilians, Germans and Russians, a major US polling agency reported. Thanks to a series of global scandals, the United States in general, and its commander-in-chief in particular, [...]
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German-American friendship at crossroads, Berlin leaning toward Moscow?
As a never-ending stream of spy scandals put Washington-Berlin relations under unprecedented strain, Germans are increasingly asking themselves whether the country should be blindly following the US. A recent poll for Der Spiegel showed that up to 57 percent of Germans would like Berlin to conduct policies more independent from the US [...]
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Over a dozen CIA-recruited spies work in German ministries – report
US secret services have recruited more than a dozen officials in various German government ministries to work as spies, with some of them working for the CIA for many years, a German tabloid reported on Sunday. Following previous espionage scandals in Germany, with several suspected US agents exposed in July, a report of more spies infiltrating German ministries was published by Bild am Sonntag, G [...]
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‘Second CIA spy in Germany’: Berlin raids Ministry of Defense
German authorities have carried out a raid on the residence of a defense ministry official suspected of passing secrets to the US, just one week after the arrest of a German intelligence officer who worked as a double agent. Officials from the Federal Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday that residential and office premises of the staff of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin were searched on [...]
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Officials admit US had recruited German spy
Two American officials have acknowledged that the Central Intelligence Agency played a part in the espionage operation involving a German man who was recently arrested for allegedly spying on behalf of the United States. In a report published on Monday, two unidentified government officials told Reuters of the CIA’s involvement in the operation [...]
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First since WWII: Germany may start spying back on US after double-agent scandal
Germany may scrap its decades-old policy of not spying on key NATO allies in response to the latest spy scandal, which exposed a German intelligence officer as a double-agent leaking secret documents to the US. After the defeat of Nazis in World War II, the new authorities of West Germany adopted a policy of turning a blind eye to the intelligence activities of some of the victors, [...]
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Germany’s failed attempts to get its gold back from the US ‘opens question of its sovereignty’
There is neither real criticism from German politicians, nor any visible efforts to return German gold held in the US, so it seems that US controls Germany, economic analyst Michael Mross told RT. In one of its recent reports Bloomberg claimed that Germany decided not to repatriate its gold reserves from the US, instead the Bundesbank issued an official statement that underscores it’s "trust" in [...]
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Merkel’s mad: German leader indignant over “serious” US spying allegations
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said allegations of a German working as a double agent for the US intelligence are "serious" and if proven correct contradict the spirit of bilateral cooperation. Merkel on Monday joined in a chorus of German politicians voicing their concern over the arrest of a German intelligence employee for allegedly spying for the US. [...]
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‘Enough is enough’: Berlin outraged by alleged US spying
The arrest of a German intelligence employee for allegedly spying for the US has caused an uproar among German politicians. The country’s foreign minister has demanded an immediate clarification of the situation from Washington. "If the reports are true, then we're not talking about trifles," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit to Mongolia, DPA reports. [...]
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Germany arrests suspected ‘double agent’ for working for US – report
A man employed by Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US. The espionage swoop is the latest of a series of embarrassing intelligence scandals straining ties between the two countries. A 31-year-old German man was been arrested Wednesday on suspicion of being a foreign spy, according to a statement released by the German Federal Prosecutors O [...]
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Groovy, baby! Magic mushrooms & LSD can cure depression – study
A new study reveals the similarity between the way our brain works while sleeping, and when we're tripping on psychedelic drugs. What's more, LSD and magic mushrooms could act as a cure from depression or boost creativity. With the help of some hallucinogenic drugs and some willing volunteers [...]
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XKeyscore exposed: How NSA tracks all German Tor users as ‘extremists’
The NSA has been revealed to mark and consider potential "extremists" all users of the internet anonymizer service Tor. Among those are hundreds of thousands of privacy concerned people like journalists, lawyers and rights activists. [...]
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NSA whistleblowers testify in Bundestag inquiry, disclose “totalitarian” surveillance
Former NSA agents-turned-whistleblowers are testifying before a German parliamentary committee as the Bundestag investigates America's wiretapping methods with one of them branding the NSA approach "totalitarian." It is hoped that evidence from the two US citizens, William Binney and Thomas Drake, will shed light on the methods of surveillance used by the American National Security Agency (NSA) [...]
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Germany gives Verizon the boot over NSA spying scandal
Citing concerns over the NSA's wiretapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials' phones, the German Interior Ministry announced Thursday that it will not renew its contract with Verizon to provide service for government ministries. As part of an effort to revamp its secure communications networks, the country will instead rely on Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Reuters reported. [...]
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