Is Europe, is Germany, more threatened today than it was during the Cold War, when the continent and country was divided, the Soviet Union and its allies poised to attack and hundreds of thousands of hostile troops stationed just across the border in the middle of Europe? It seems (it is!) an absurd claim. Yet if national security risks have gone down dramatically since 1989, how to justify a surveyance regime incomparably more extensive, where the only constraint appears to be what is technologically (not yet) possible? If it becomes possible one day soon to survey every street with cameras/satellites, linked to better face recognition technology plus the already existing current total monitoring of all electronic and other communication of every individual: would such a regime also be justified in the name of national security? What happened to the core liberal idea that freedom (incuding from surveyance by the state) was a good in itself, a precious value, even if freedom always comes with some risks? (This debate is not going to end soon. As background, good interview in German: "Gemessen an dem Umfang der Überwachung, haben wir heute nach Ansicht der Geheimdienste offenbar eine x-mal größere Bedrohungslage als zu Zeiten des Kalten Krieges." "Im Prinzip keine. Die NSA darf in Deutschland alles machen. Nicht nur aufgrund der Rechtslage, sondern vor allem aufgrund der intensiven Zusammenarbeit der Dienste, die schließlich immer gewollt war und in welchen Ausmaßen auch immer politisch hingenommen wurde.") sueddeutsche.de/politik/historiker-foschepoth-ueber-us-ueberwachung-die-nsa-darf-in-deutschland-alles-machen-1.1717216
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 22:30:40 +0000