The German intelligence service, BND, is apparently pretty cosy with the USA’s NSA if Edward Snowden is to be believed. Der Spiegel reports Edward Snowden as saying that the NSA and the BND are “in bed together”. He says ties between the BND and NSA are much tighter than either government will lead you to believe.
While public backlash in Germany has been strong, rhetoric from government has been too. Yet Edward Snowden claims it is absurd the German government would demand to know the truth when they already know exactly what’s been going on for years.
Furthermore, Snowden claims the NSA has a dedicated “Foreign Affairs Directorate” which works directly with the intelligence services of other nations like the BND. The NSA also provides the “analysis tools” for the BND to monitor their surveillance collections. Finally he states that all government decision makers are protected by these programs, and so it is not surprising they lie about them in public forums.
Image courtesy of BND
Shouldn’t he be safe under some governments protection before stepping on more toes?