EUROPE has an odd relationship with foreign powers in north America or with corporations that are based there and subsidise the politicians. Rather than seek autonomy, there seems to be a collusion which, among some things, leads to back doors in computer systems in France, Britain, and Ireland (to name just a few examples from western Europe). These back doors are controlled by and made accessible to the United States. This is an absurd situation which we wrote about several times in past years. There is no real sovereignty, not in the digital sense anyway. Only Free software with local companies to maintain and support it can ever guarantee self determination, which is why Europe should really have moved to Free software (entirely) a long time ago.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has hit back at claims that Cabinet Office policy was responsible for recent IT problems at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).
In recent posts, I've looked at the increasing use of open source software by governments in countries as diverse as China, Russia, India and Germany. Here I want to contrast those moves with the continuing failure of the European Commission to embrace free software - with huge costs for European citizens as a result, to say nothing of lost sovereignty.
The arrest of at least one American agent infiltrated the secret services in Germany, one of the closest allies of the United States, hinders the relationship between the two countries and reveals ignorance, by President Barack Obama, the actions of their own spies.
Germany's expulsion of the CIA station chief in Berlin in a spy row with the United States has found widespread support in the country.
When President Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Ukraine last week, there could have been an awkward moment prompted by the arrest the day before of a double agent allegedly working secretly for the CIA within German intelligence. At least there likely would have been, had Obama known about the arrest or the undercover spy to begin with.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Germany and the U.S. had different ideas on intelligence and that Germany will be "persistent" in delivering the message that U.S. espionage against a close ally is unacceptable. Her comments, in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF to be aired Sunday, came two days after Germany told the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country amid a German investigation of two government employees suspected of spying for the U.S.
A few years before he died in 2006, the former East German spy chief Markus Wolf, known as “the man without a face”, told me about the qualities he looked for in the agents his spies recruited in the West. Status was a poor indicator of effectiveness, he said, and secretaries and doormen were among the most valuable recruits. Political ideology was the best reason for passing secrets to another country but money and vengeance were good motivators too.
On the sidelines of the talks, Kerry will also meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss recent spying allegations.
Berlin has recently asked the CIA station chief to leave the country over snooping charges.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has recruited more than a dozen spies in several German government ministries, according to the Bild am Sonntag tabloid paper.
The discovery of US spies in Germany's intelligence service and Defense Ministry has sparked outrage. Now German spies are calling for a boost in funds and staff directed toward counterintelligence.
Angela Merkel made her feelings toward Washington clear in an interview on German broadcaster ZDF today, reports Reuters.
"We are not living in the Cold War anymore," Merkel said. "We should concentrate on what is essential."
Germany's government told Berlin's CIA station chief to leave the country on Thursday, in the wake of new allegations of U.S. spying in the country. Of two suspected spies discovered by German officials, one reportedly worked for German foreign intelligence, while the other operated within the country's defense ministry.
BND president orders analysis of agency's communications for irregularities, and foreign minister to meet John Kerry
Germany, after all, has a powerful economy — one that, driven as it is by a strong manufacturing sector and a solid trade surplus, including with the US, in many ways is much stronger than the US economy. Germany has no need to worry about any risk of US trade sanctions, the way most countries do that consider trying to stand up to the US. Nor does Germany need to rely on the US military for protection. The country faces no threat from any direction. (As anti-war activist David Swanson puts it in his column US out of Germany, “Protection from Russia? If the Russian government weren’t demonstrating a level of restraint that dwarfs even that of the Brazilian soccer team’s defense there would be full-scale war in Ukraine right now. Russia is no more threatening Germany than Iran is preparing to nuke Washington or the U.N. is confiscating guns in Montana.”)
The spy scandal that has burst out in Germany jeopardizes negotiations on creating a free trade area between the EU and the USA, Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany Heiko Maas believes.
In an unprecedented move between allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country or be forced out, reports the Washington Post.
German politicians on Friday called on the United States to stop all spying activities against Germany and to work together to revive bilateral ties on the basis of honesty.
This latest German plea follows Thursday's expulsion of the U.S. intelligence chief in Berlin.
German defense official under investigation for alleged spying was in contact with a US State Department officer rather than American intelligence agencies, raising questions about whether any espionage occurred, US officials familiar with the case told Reuters yesterday.
Mainstream Chinese Media has termed Apple’s iPhone as a national security threat. The state owned CCTV has reported that the location tracking feature in iPhone could collect data about location of the users.
After blocking Google and its services in China in June, China's internet censors blocked the popular networking app Line and Yahoo's photo-sharing platform Flickr on July 1, the day of massive democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong on the 17th anniversary of the territory's return to China. Instagram, the online photo and video sharing platform owned by Facebook, has now undergone a similar fate, reports Duowei, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.