Posted on 01/18/2014 2:56:25 PM PST by Olog-hai
US President Barack Obama has said he will not spy on EU leaders or conduct economic espionage, but will continue snooping on ordinary US and EU citizens.
He made the pledge in a TV speech on Friday (17 January) in reaction to the Edward Snowden leaks.
“I’ve made clear to the intelligence community that unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies,” he said.
“We do not collect intelligence to provide a competitive advantage to US companies or US commercial sectors,” he added.
He justified the mass-scale collection of information on ordinary US or foreign nationals’ telephone calls, however. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
The real problem ist that all EU countries and the US do the same. They’re all limited to spy on their own population by their constitutions, thus their solution is: “You’ll spy on mine and report to me, i’ll spy on yours and will report to you.”
It should be a no go to spy on people in the free world on each side of the pond. Therefore it should be a no go to help other countries to spy on their own population like the US and all EU countries do.
The german attorney general go stopped by Merkel to investigate in this issue. So there’s no hope some one will show Barry the limits. Merkel still lets the US spy on the german people as long as she get’s all the data she isnt allowed to gather on her own. It’s the same way the NSA is passing data of US citizens to the UK and let them do the things the NSA isn’t allowed to do either. It’s a huge moral and legal loop hole.
Well now... That settles it. obomba “promises” not to spy and we all know he’s a man of his word. HA HA HA HA HA HA H....
Another power claimed by Obama which he does not have.
no..
just a statement to everyone, especially liberals!!!
your a good guy.
What a deal! Obama won’t spy on Merkel when she might be talking to Putin, but he will keep spying on Joe Six-pack.
What a putz!
That’s quite a presumption to call the European Union “the free world”.
That’s mighty white of him...
When Progressives get a hold of power, they naturally become bullies.
IMHO
- If you like your marijuana and blow you can keep your marijuana and blow - PERIOD!
That’s quite a presumption to call the European Union “the free world”.
You’re right. There is no place that’s worth to be called “free world” in the world of today.
OK. I plomise.
Did he also say “Cross my heart and hope to die”?
I think what he said was he won’t spy on them ANYMORE. That was to let them know that he knows a lot.
Well we Europeans are not interested in missle shields to be honest. There is no political will to new or renewed US deployments. Since any Iranian or north Korean bomb can be brought anywhere with a simple pickup their missles are not our real problem. Personally I do not care about Russian fags either. The real issue would be a free trade deal between the continents. But it will not come since we have different production standarts and norms. I can not imagine to have our Greens eating genetically modified soya beans from the US.
Therefore I believe in a slow but steady estrangement on both sides of the big pond. The spy affair and Obummers handling of it made it quite clear to central Europeans that we will never belong to the “spechial relationship” of the anglophone club. Since we are still a economic core area of this world it is quite likely that we will find other friends in the long run. Anyway we have to see what the future brings.
Regards from Europe
Andreas
The EU cannot be part of the referred-to “special relationship” not due to race (it wasn’t me that said “Anglo-Saxon”), but because of ideology. The EU is socialist and imperialist at its core, seeking to destroy the identities of its member state nations. Furthermore, its claim to be a promoter of peace belies its actions, supporting the war in the Balkans when it suited their purpose and being quite content to allow relations between it and the US to be undermined.
Any estrangement between the US and “Europe” is going to lead to another war. Nothing good comes of that.
It is true that the EU countries and the US do the same. Anyway the real problem are not the pis*ed off politicians like Merkel, the real problem is the decline of Americas reputation in continental Europe. The result is a distorted image of the US. To European kids America is not better than China or Russia in example although such is ridicolous of course. This will be extremely dangerous in the long run. The next generation of politicians in Poland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Lettland, Lativa, Estland, Luxemburg, Greece, Norway, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary or France might be not as cool and controlled als Merkel is in this question. This is even worse since the economical importance of the US is also declining quite fast since the past 20 years. We could do without you guys if we would really like to. But this leads to nothing good. Therefore: If we want to keep the trans-atlantic relationsship we all have to do something for it. It could be a good beginning, if you Americans would stop spying on our industry i.e. and sign a no-spy-convention. We all know that not the “terrorists” are the most important target of the NSA, but European companys that are more competitive than their competitors in the US.
Well I do not believe into new wars in Europe. The big nations as France and Germany are those who have the real power and nobody there wants any wars. A war between the US and the EU is extremely improbable since no side would have any benefit of that.
Wars between European nations?
A few days ago my job leaded me into the French barracks of Donaueschingen, a small town in southern Germany. I had a long conversation with the commander there. The garrison will be dissolved soon, but he wants to stay in Donaueschingen since his wife is German and he has the age to retire. My own uncle married a French woman who originally came from Greece. My cousins are real and pretty mademoiselles. An aunt of me married a real British gentleman with a small manor house near Taunton in southern England. Their sons are studing in Germany. Another aunt married a dentist in New York who is jewish btw. (the rest of the family is christian). As far as I know one of my French cousins is attracted to a nice Italian and another one of them earns a doctorate in Canada. I have family in Germany, in the US, in France, in the UK, in Canada and maybe in Italy soon.
Things changed since 1939 in Europe. People are more polyglot and educated. The benefit of working and even living together is much higher than the benefit of silly wars.
There are also good reasons to work together more closely and dissolve old national structures in Europe. If the current EU is the philosopher’s stone that solves all problems is another question. In the moment it is still not democratic and a projekt of elites. Nevertheless not everything of it is wrong. The EU was inflated too fast with countries that are not suited to keep up with the industrial powerhouses of its core during the past few years. This is something that has to be corrected. If we speak about the European core (France, Benelux, Germany, Italy) we need more direct democracy, regions that are self-determined, a combined foreign policy and a combined military. Not all of the current national countries are very democratic or free (Germany i.e. is only externally a “free” country - all basic decisions of the past years were decided against the majority of the German people).
The past wars against Serbia (a very located conflict btw.) were wrong. The outcome is disastrous. But this is nothing that could devolved to the rest of Europe. Things in Europe are more colourful than most Americans might think.
:)
Regards from Europe
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