U.S. mimics fmr E. German Stasi repression

 State surveillance: U.S.’s “DDR,” world’s most repressive intell., secret pol. agencies

Germans react to reports ahead of U.S. president's visit

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian sister party and member of the European Parliament Markus Ferber:

Washington is using ‘American-style Stasi methods… I thought this era had ended when the DDR fell.

Stasi seal
1950-1990

Stasi: once “one of the most repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world.”

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger:

The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is… The suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored. For that reason, openness and clarification by the U.S. administration itself is paramount at this point.

 

A

fter 1990, several Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes 

Wikipedia note: Described as one of the most repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world, the Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtɑːziː]) (abbreviation German: Staatssicherheit, literally State Security) was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic or GDR, colloquially known as East Germany.

 The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. Several Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990.

 Deutsche Demokratische Republik (or DDR German), the German Democratic Republic (English), i.e., the former East Germany, a state in Europe, 1949–90 

U

.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to hold talks and a news conference today with Chancellor Merkel then give a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate. When the president visits in Berlin on June 18, the chancellor reportedly will question him about the NSA surveillance program.

 

A National Security Agency map showing secret surveillance activities raking Germany as the United States’ “most-spied-on EU country” and details of a U.S. internet spy program revealed by a former CIA employee-turned-whistleblower came to light as the president was setting off for Germany. And in advance of the visit, Germans are expressing their outrage, comparing U.S. surveillance with former East Germany’s Ministry for State Security: the DDR’s Stasi, described as one of the most repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world, whose officials after 1990 were prosecuted for their crimes.

Sources and notes

“Germany slams US for ‘Stasi methods’ ahead of Obama visit, Published time: June 12, 2013 11:07, Edited time: June 12, 2013 14:15, http://rt.com/news/germany-obama-nsa-stasi-spying-573/

Wikipedia note: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German), the German Democratic Republic (English), i.e., the former East Germany, a state in Europe, 1949–90

The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), informally known in English as East Germany, was a state within the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War period. From 1949 to 1990 it governed a region of Germany which was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of the Second World War—the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder-Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the control of the GDR.

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