It wasn't Trumps administration that openly spied on Merkel... and she didn't do anything.
Five Eyes will be never a friend of continental Europe, no matter what administration.
Five Eyes will be never a friend of continental Europe, no matter what administration.
"Between 1999 and 2006, Germany’s federal intelligence service BND spied on around 2,000 targets at political institutions, international organizations, banks, companies and weapons producers in Austria, said daily Der Standard and weekly Profil."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-germany-spying/au...
"A number of US businesses and government entities were being monitored by the German foreign intelligence agency, according to documents received by the German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Between 1998 and 2006, several White House emails, phone, and fax numbers were reportedly tracked using a set of 4,000 keywords."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
Rule of thumb - never trust spy agencies.
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Ken: Mr. Wimmer, can you imagine headlines "Vladimir Putin has listened to cellphone of the German chancellor for ten years"?
Wimmer: That would lead to revolutionary situation in Germany.
Ken: And if they would say "China runs a flat spy operation in Germany"?
Wimmer: They are accused of that anyway.
Ken: But why nothing happened after NSA affair? At first they said "we don't do such thing", then "we do it a will do it further".
Wimmer: That's a question of national dignity.
Ken: Do we still have it?
Wimmer: You already answered that.
Ken: Did I?
Wimmer: By asking the question. If it happened anywhere else, we would definitely cut the contact. But the reality is, as you just described. Business as usual.
---
Based on information from interviews like this, I think that nothing has happened, and no action was taken. US (correctly) assessed, that Germany can do nothing, and did what they wanted/needed/whatever. Germany can't do anything from it's position of weakness.
If Germany wants to change that, the steps necessary do not take into account the past, current or future US administration. Only German interests.
Both he and Willy Wimmer toe the Kremlin line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KenFM
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/juergen-elsaesser-und-sei...
See how easy is to label someone? Address the points, do not ad-hominem the messenger.
Wimmer spent decades in CDU, with results to show. He "toes the Kremlin line" because he disagreed with the wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we cannot have that.
My translation from the introduction of “Rechte Hetze im Netz - eine unterschätzte Gefahr” by Patrick Gensing: “This heated atmosphere is fired by pro-Russian strategists who propagate a close alliance with Putins Russia. The result is a cross-front that wants to impose an authoritarian-nationalist system.”
I assume Jebsen and Wimmer try to suggest that Germany is not a sovereign state. Points like that are often made in their circles and link to the “Reichsbürgerbewegung”.
It's not just about Trump anymore. He could be kicked out of office at the next election, sure. But the elected republican leadership, who have their own democratic mandate, are just rolling over and letting all this happen. If they can't be relied on now, they can't be relied on after Trump either. As a conservative Brit, that grew up politically during the titanic partnership between Reagan and Maggie, this is all bewilderingly horrible.
I still remember the Falkland war and the way that, while it took the US a while to realise what was happening, in the end here was never any real question over here that we would be able to rely on the US in the end. I don't think that would have been substantially different under any subsequent US president even right up to Obama. But now? I don't think there is any such confidence. Can you imagine a British Prime Minister worrying about what Trump might tweet after we sank the Belgrano?
Trumps criticism is against the EU, Trump is a nationalist, something he is scolded for by the left, but everyone wants to forget his nationalism when it fits the argument that he is anti-UK (or any other European country)
And not to mention, Trumps "foe" comment was in regard to trading with EU, not a military conflict.
Trump's trade actions against the EU, including Britain, and other allies were on national security grounds. He's publicly sided with Putin against his own national security agencies. None of this is encouraging from a European perspective.
Nobody is anticipating military conflict between the EU and US, but hostile acts via security agencies? Especially targeting trade and economic activities? Operations on that front that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago cannot be discounted.
Is this a factual statement? What is the source?
And I don't mean this in a snarky way, I mean it in a literal, epistemological sense.
I regularly read, both in forums and in the headlines, that "everyone" believes certain "things", but whenever I did just a little into the details I almost inevitably find that in reality, there is an extremely wide variety of opinions. After all, life is extremely complicated. So, likewise, I am interested interested in reading a bit deeper into this particular fact so I can be a more informed voter.
Are these statements factual? What are your sources? In a literal, epistemological sense, by what means did you obtain the information you have written in your comment?
EDIT: And it appears I have once again deviated from the acceptable narrative and had my commenting privileges suspended for the day. This is how perceptions are managed.
We are having a conversation, not posting peer reviewed fact checked academic papers. If you doubt or disagree with a post then it's much more effective and useful to others to provide reasons for your disagreement or counter-arguments and evidence. Again, I'm not trying to be argumentative, this thread is off the home screen and effectively dead. We're just communicating with each other at this point, so I'm just trying to explain how the commenting culture works, as I understand it. Best regards.