Berlin is taking seriously indications that Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone might have been tapped by US intelligence, according to SPIEGEL information. Merkel spoke with President Barack Obama on Wednesday about her concerns.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday to discuss suspicions that she may have been targeted by US intelligence agencies for years, SPIEGEL has learned.

The chancellor asked for a thorough explanation of serious indications that US intelligence agencies had declared her private mobile phone to be a target in their operations.

Merkel made it clear that, should these indications turn out to be true, she "unequivocally disapproves" of such methods and finds them "totally unacceptable," her spokesman Steffen Seibert said. "This would be a grave breach of trust," he added. "Such practices must immediately be put to a stop."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/merkel-calls-obama-over-suspicions-us-tapped-her-mobile-phone-a-929642.html

In a comment piece in the German broadsheet, Robert Rossmann wrote that during his last visit to Germany, "the American president had flamboyantly promised more trusting collaboration between the countries. Even Merkel seems to have lost faith in that promise by now. One doesn't dare imagine how Obama's secret services deal with enemy states, when we see how they treat their closest allies."

Die Zeit wrote that Obama's "half-hearted denial" of the allegations raised more questions that it answered. "Was Merkel's mobile the target of NSA surveillance in the past? … It is time for Obama and the US Congress to be ruthlessly transparent about the macabre practices of the NSA and restrain them strongly. They promised it months ago, but until recently very little has happened. With each revelation trust is eroded further. If America wants to stop annoying its friends and allies, it only has one option. Get on the front foot and be open".

Criticism was not focused only on the US president, but has extended to the German chancellor, whose chief-of-staff had only recently declared the NSA scandal as "finished". Many feel Merkel had failed to react appropriately to the Snowden revelations, and was only stepping up the rhetoric now that she had been personally affected.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/germany-summons-us-ambassador-nsa-merkel-phone

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.

The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls

But the White House bristled. The president didn't want to do that -- that was the word in Washington. He reportedly placed little value on such photo ops, and he had to leave as quickly as possible, to get to an appearance at the Buchenwald concentration camp. The haggling went back and forth for weeks, and in the end the White House gave in, but only a little. Obama raced through Dresden. After their visit inside the church, Merkel had to shake hands with visitors by herself. The president had already disappeared.

On this day, at the latest, it must have dawned on diplomats that this US president was different from his predecessors. He was someone who did not attach value to diplomatic niceties nor to the sensitivities of his close friends, which he already had proven as a presidential candidate. At that time he put Chancellor Merkel in an awkward position by wanting to make a campaign speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate. This site was traditionally set aside for sitting presidents, which Obama also knew.

The Democrat, who prefers to spend his evenings with his family or alone in front of his computer, has made it no secret in Washington that he does not want to make new friends. That maxim especially applies to his foreign diplomacy. Unlike his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama is loved by the people of the world, but much less by their heads of government. On the heels of recent revelations that US spy agencies might have monitored Chancellor Merkel's cell phone, the complaints about Merkel's "lost friend" Obama are misplaced. Obama doesn't want to be a friend...

read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/merkel-cell-phone-affair-fits-obama-neglect-of-personal-diplomacy-a-929871.html

The US has been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone since 2002, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine.

The German publication claims to have seen secret documents from the National Security Agency which show Mrs Merkel's number on a list dating from 2002 - before she became chancellor.

Her number was still on a surveillance list in 2013.

Meanwhile Washington has seen a protest against the NSA's spying programme.

Several thousand protesters marched to the US Capitol to demand a limit to the surveillance. Some of them held banners in support of the fugitive former contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent of the NSA's activities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24690055

The rapprochement between Paris and Berlin

by Thierry Meyssan

This is an extremely serious matter – under the appearance of uniting their efforts to work for peace, Paris and Berlin are linking their foreign policies, and will soon be linking their Defence policies. In reality, this evolution is proceeding from the top down, without consulting the population, and is destroying their democratic acquisitions.

One of the founding principles of the UNO is that all states and all people are free, equal and independent. This is the major difference with the League of Nations which preceded it The League always refused to recognise the equality of peoples in order to allow the system of colonisation to continue.

Each state has a voice equal to all the others. Consequently, it was not possible for the United States to acquire membership for its 50 federal states, nor for the USSR to acquire membership of their 15 united Republics - only the two federal states were valid. It would have been unfair for the United States to have 50 votes and the USSR 15 when the other members had only one.

Thus, France and Germany, who are to preside the Security Council respectively in March and April, have just announced that they intend to exercise their mandates together. Although this is not clear, it would seem to imply that the two delegations will hold the same position on all the subjects presented to them. The foreign policy of the two states will no longer be free and independent from one another.

No organisation founded on the equality of its members can survive this type of coalition.

This subject has already been raised since 1949 and the creation of NATO. The member states agreed to react collectively to any aggression against one of them. But to do so, they have accepted a form of organisation placed under the authority of the United States, which systematically occupies the important functions, such as those of the Supreme Commander (of the Chief of Staff).

At that time, the Soviet Union denounced the creation of a bloc whose member states were no longer free and independent. And yet this is exactly what the USSR did in 1968 by invading Czechoslovakia on the principle that members of the Warsaw Pact should not distance themselves from the common doctrine of Communism. Today, Soviet totalitarianism no longer exists, but that of the United States is still present.

It was precisely because he was opposed to the idea that French armed forces would be submitted to US authority that President Charles De Gaulle left the integrated command of NATO, while nonetheless remaining in the North Atlantic Treaty. This wise decision was repealed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who re–incorporated the integrated command in 2009.

France claims that the joint exercise of the presidency of the Security Council with Germany does not mean that the two countries are preparing to unite their seats at the UNO. However, it is since the mandate of Nicolas Sarkozy that the Quai d’Orsay and the Wilhelmstrasse (in other words the French and German Ministries for Foreign Affairs) have begun to reduce their personnel and to task their embassies with sharing certain functions.

This rapprochement was interrupted by Presidents François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron, with a view to creating a military alliance with the United Kingdom, first envisaged by Jacques Chirac. But it was re-activated when it became clear that London was going to validate the Brexit, and was preparing new alliances.

The eventual fusion of French and German foreign policies poses several problems – first of all, it is only possible if the two armies also unite, without which the fusion would not be credible - Alain Juppé expressed this opinion in 1995. In this case, Germany would occupy a position of co-decider for the French strike force. This was considered by the Bundestag in 2017, and it is now the position of the director of the Security Conference in Munich, Wolfgang Ischinger [1]. This explains why Emmanuel Macron spoke of a European army in terms different from those of the European Defence Community (1954), in order that he might conclude in fine with a fusion of the French and German armies. Secondly, having the same Foreign and Defence policy supposes that the parties concerned are pursuing the same interests. This is what Paris and Berlin attempted by deploying joint forces, legally in the Sahel and illegally in Syria.

Far from creating a new state, the French-German rapprochement will seal the dependency of this new entity on Washington – today, the two armies are members of the integrated command of NATO, and obey the same Supreme Commander, chosen by the President of the United States. In fact, it is precisely this war-lord who achieved peace between France and Germany. Thus, not so long ago, the special forces of both sides were secretly fighting one another in ex-Yugoslavia, with the Serbs for one and with the Croatians for the other. The combat only ended when Washington imposed its point of view.

By hoping to unite Germany and France in the long run, their leaders are ignoring the human realities of their respective countries. Confusing the reconciliation of their people, realised by their predecessors, with the fusing of their interests and world view, they hope to create a new political system, without obeying any democratic control. In fact, why bother with these procedures since no-one is in charge?

Translation 
Pete Kimberley

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article205177.html

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