The Geopolitics of Spying

I am no fan of Hans-Christian Stroebele.  His approach to environmentalism is to assume that the democratic capitalist system is the root of all evil.  There is much that is evil in that system, but to only see the "dark" side of is is perhaps acceptable for a university professor but not what I expect from a member of Parliament.

But then again Mr Stroebele does come from a generation which is still stuck somewhat in the 60's and a priori is convinced that everything the US does is bad.

No.  I am not going to go all out and support the activities of the NSA.  That would be equally ideologically narrow-minded as to assume that everything they do is wrong.

I do wish however that people like Mr Stroebele had a weaker voice within he Green movement as I believe that for environmentalism to work a balance has to be struck that combines  economic prerogatives with environmental needs- and I don't believe he will ever be able to accept that premise.

Despite my view of Mr Stroeble I was still somewhat taken aback that he actually went to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden.  Like it or not Snowden is wanted by the US and is essentially accused of treason.  For Stroeble, a member of Parliament to provide Snowden a platform is an international act pitting the US against Germany.  As if that weren't enough Stroeble came back waving a letter suggesting that the US drop its' case against Snowden so he could come to Germany and give (his) evidence in the NSA case. 

This would be amusing if it weren't so obvious that Mr Stroeble's ego has gotten ahead of him and allowed him to be manipulated into a geopolitical maelstrom that he will never appreciate.

I was therefore very pleased to see that both the CDU/CSU and the SPD both came out with statements highlighting the importance of the relationship with the US.  That was not to say that there were not some hard discussions to be had between the two nations, but they are not going to be orchestrated by an accused traitor on the run.

The plot did get a little thicker today as the British equivalent of the NSA, MI6 has now been accused of carrying out eavesdropping in Germany extremely similar to the activities of their American colleagues. 

It is the nature of intelligence agencies to snoop on everyone, everywhere.  They are data miners of the highest degree.  Everyone in the space knows this.  Even during wartime the sharing of information between agencies is anything but perfect so it should not be surprising that during peacetime the data gathers cast their nets as far and as wide as possible to see what they can find.

I think there will be some hand slapping and some agreements worked out as to what is and isn't acceptable between friends.....

And then they will all start doing it again- but this time a little more subtly.



The reason for my dislike is that he has managed to create a position which I think damages the constructive element of having a Green Party by combining it with an anti-democratic and indeed anti-capitalist agenda.

He also seems unable to appreciate the adage that politics is the art of the possible as opposed to thinking it is the realm of ivory tower thinking.

For that idealism can be the only reason that I conceive of to have motivated him to go and visit Edward Snowden in Moscow and come back brandishing a letter