TUESDAY, AUG 13, 2013 15:02:42
German Minister of Special Affairs Ronald Pofalla announced the start of talks
Germany and US to negotiate no-spying agreement
13/08/2013 - 9:37am
Germany and US will start talks on a no-spying agreement, after the revelations made by Edward Snowden concerning the NSA activities in Germany and the EU.
On 12 August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff and Minister of Special Affairs, Ronald Pofalla announced the intention of the German government to seek a no-spy agreement. Pofalla told a parliamentary committee that Germany and US will begin talks later in August. According to the German minister, the start of the negotiations shows that the US is serious about abiding by German law while in Germany. “This offer could have never been made if the Americans’ assurances that they will stick to German law in Germany wasn’t actually true.”
Pofalla gave no details about how the Germany and US agreement, might limit NSA operations such as PRISM, which compels major Internet firms to hand over detailed contents of communications such as emails, video chats and more. Moreover, the Minister said that the agreement would also cover the area of economic intelligence. According to Huffington Post, the German government also canceled a Cold War-era agreement that allowed the U.S. and Britain the authority to request German authorities to conduct surveillance operations within the country to protect their troops stationed there.
On Sunday, German magazine der Spiegel cited an NSA report leaked by Snowden, indicating that Germany and France were of middle interest for the US Security Agency. The NSA is especially interested on gathering data about Germany’s foreign policy and economic intelligence.
Still, cooperation between Germany and US intelligence agencies has been strong for decades. According to the magazine, the German Intelligence agencies were using NSA’s programs to gather intelligence information europe on line
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