Wikileaks bombshell could DESTROY Merkel's plans for EU domination, Julian Assange warns
A
TROVE of WikiLeaks documents revealing the true scale of cooperation
between the German and US spy agencies risks derailing Angela
Merkel's hopes of dominating the EU, Julian Assange has warned.
2
December, 2016
A
90GB cache containing almost 2,500 top-secret documents, now made
public by the whistleblowing website, sheds light on the murky
relationship between Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and
America's National Security Agency (NSA).
Amongst them are administrative documents, correspondence, agreements and press reactions, WikiLeaks said.
The
leaked files were submitted to a German parliamentary inquiry into
the surveillance activities of the BND foreign intelligence agency
and its US counterpart last year.
WikiLeaks
said its revelations of NSA spying on Angela Merkel and other top
German, French and EU officials helped bring about the inquiry.
Commenting
on the latest release of classified papers, Assange claimed they
could derail Germany's ascendancy within the EU.
He
said: "This substantial body of evidence proves that the inquiry
has been using documents from Mr [Edward] Snowden and yet it has been
too cowardly to permit him to testify.
"Germany
can not take a leadership role within the EU if it's own
parliamentary processes are subservient to the wishes of a non EU
state."
WikiLeaks
is funded by donations, it received more than $200,000 after the
release of the Apache helicopter video
Julian
Paul Assange studied at the University of Melbourne where he studied
programming, mathematics, and physics, but he did not complete the
degree
According
to US reports, Julian Assange was not seen as a 'journalist', but as
a 'spy' and a 'terrorist'
In
1991, Julian Assange hacked into the computer system of the Canadian
telecom powerhouse Nortel, he was arrested and convicted of hacking
but did not go to jail
In
November 2010, Julian Assange was alleged t
o have committed several
crimes against woman during a visit to Sweden
WikiLeaks
revealed in 2015 how the NSA had spied on Germany, and how Germany's
own BND intelligence agency had cooperated with the NSA to spy on
officials and companies elsewhere in Europe.
Subsequent
revelations alleged to show how the US spy agency was also snooping
on former French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy as
well as incumbent Francois Hollande.
WikiLeaks'
latest statement added: "Whilst a number of facts have already
come to light as a result of the inquiry including WikiLeaks'
publication of inquiry transcripts last year this substantial new
collection of primary source documents provides significant new
evidence.
"The
collection contains early agreements between the BND and the NSA and
internal processes at the BND, but also more recent details on the
close collaboration between the two agencies.
"For
example, one document from the BND states that a BND employee will be
tasked to use and write software for XKeyscore, an NSA system for
searching and analysing data collected through mass surveillance.
"A
number of the documents show how intelligence agencies find ways to
work around their own government."
In 2013 the former
US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Snowden, revealed that
the agency widely spied on own citizens as well as international
leaders and officials, while getting significant help from German
intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).
A CDU MP and a
chairman of the parliamentary NSA committee, Patrick Sensburg, is now
mulling an appeal to the Germany’s Highest Constitutional Court,
should his party’s appeal be rejected by the Supreme Court.
‘Fear
of testimony’: Ruling parties try to block Snowden’s questioning
on German soil – media
RT,
3
December, 2016
Germany’s
ruling CDU and SPD parties have filed an appeal to the Federal
Supreme Court to revise its earlier decision that allowed the US
whistleblower Edward Snowden to testify before the German parliament
on the NSA scandal and Berlin’s ties to it.
The
respective document was sent by the Christian Democratic Party (CDU)
and the Social Democrats (SPD) to the Supreme Court on Thursday,
Berliner Zeitung reports.
Martina Renner from the opposition Left Party (Die Linke) has slammed
the move, saying the government has “fear
of the witness testimony,” the
outlet notes.
In
2014 the German parliament launched a parliamentary inquiry and set
up a special committee to investigate the matter. Snowden, who is
currently living in exile in Moscow, is wanted by the US on espionage
charges following his disclosures.
The
CDU and SPD have staunchly opposed the questioning of the
whistleblower in Germany, fearing that might lead to tensions with
Washington. In order to avoid any “adverse” publicity
for Merkel, the government simply “violated
the rights of the minority,” the
Green MP and parliamentary chief in the Bundestag, Konstantin von
Notz reacted to Thursday’s BGH appeal, as quoted by the BZ.
In
November the Supreme Court ruled that the German Parliament (the
Bundestag) had to “establish
the preconditions” for
Snowden’s testimony before a parliamentary committee investigating
NSA surveillance in Germany.
The
ruling followed a request by Die Linke and the Green Party (Bundnis
90/Die Grunen), who wanted to initiate a vote in the Bundestag on
whether to invite Snowden for the testimony. Among the conditions
demanded by the opposition for his questioning was that he would not
be extradited to the US.
According
to Berliner Zeitung, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the CDU
and SPD appeal in March next year. Yet the NSA parliamentary
committee is expected to be done with the witness hearings already in
February, in order to present its final report. However, a potential
extension of the time frame for the witness hearings till April is
also possible.
Berliner
Zeitung notes that any potential decision on the constitutional
appeal would be made only after the legislation period of the current
government and also the end of the current NSA parliamentary
committee’s inquiry in September 2017. To invite Snowden to give
later testimony before the German lawmakers would require the
Bundestag to set up a new committee.
On
December 1, the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks released a fresh
batch of secret documents regarding the work of the German NSA
parliamentary committee and the ties between the BND and US
intelligence. The 2,420 documents also contained information
regarding other key ministries and facilities linked to the
investigation.
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