Member of German Parliament (Bundestag) Hans-Christian Ströbele of the Green Party has met with Edward Snowden in Moskow and discussed whether there is a possibility to testify in the Merkel NSA tapping case which has been a wake up call for Germany’s lawmakers. The ever increasing NSA total surveillance scandal had been largely downplayed, even declared finished, by campaigning leading members of bigger parties CDU/CSU and SPD during the summer. That Merkel responds now when her not encrypted mobile phone had been intercepted by the American spy organization for more than ten years (German-American friendship is at its low currently) is a welcome turn but misleading. She certainly knows that the American interest in what our leaders plan or do (concealing from the public) may be at the same level as in what terrorists hatch.

The real scandal is that NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ seem to monitor communications of 99.9999% or more of the innocent (neither nation leader nor terrorist) world population. So why should serious whistle-blower Edward Snowden engage in what has to be considered a blunt distraction, risking his limited freedom and maybe even his life when traveling to Germany? Who actually cares about Merkel who had irresponsibly used technically inferior mobile phones for years?

Whether the German Parliament is willing to set up an inquiry board is not even certain. Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft might have been an illusion in post-WWII Germany. The U.S. administration may have means to bring it under the heel.

1 November 2013 @ 8:50 am.

Last modified November 1, 2013.