Snowdon is a dummy

You (singular you, or you and Frank) make my very point that rather than screaming for our government to stop bombing innocent people you openly state that you don't mind what they do so long as it's ostensibly done in the name of your safety.

targets[end of quote].

Then it's a good thing none of this happened in Germany.

joefromchicago wrote:

Then it's a good thing none of this happened in Germany.

How do you know? The NSA has every incentive to collect whatever information it can. And Germans, being foreigners living in foreignerland, have no 4th-Amendment rights which the American man is bound to respect. Hence, your notion that "none of this happened in Germany" seems odd at best. What evidence do you have to back it up?

My question is, how did the NSA gather German data without their knowledge?

Right now, though, he's just another guy who thinks he's above the law. I have trouble finding that particularly noble or praiseworthy.

Well, spying on governmental wasn't know, neither in Berlin nor in the EU-embassies - that's what I'm rather sure about.

I wonder how long this kind of thing has been going on?

Terrorism: The European Union Response
Posted: June, 2004

When Islamic extremist terrorism hit European soil with the March 2004 Madrid rail bombings, a new sense of urgency prompted greater Europe-wide cooperative counterterrorism efforts.

The European Union in fact had already begun to tackle seriously the issue of international terrorism after the September 11th World Trade Center attacks and passed several significant anti-terrorism measures. Many of these new provisions, however, were not implemented by individual EU nations. Meanwhile, the ongoing discovery of diffuse and multilayered Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda-linked terror cells across Europe made enhanced intra-European and European-U.S. cooperation an increasing necessity.

The recently expanded 25-nation European Union faces formidable challenges on the counterterrorism front. The porous borders among EU member states, for example, impede law enforcement authorities trying terrorist goods across Europe. In addition, political issues and the practical problems of diverse legal and bureaucratic regulations and differing languages and cultures make it difficult for the EU to streamline the law enforcement and domestic and foreign intelligence agencies of all member states into an efficient, cohesive and effective counterterrorist instrument.

Counterterrorism Post-September 11th

Following September 11th, the EU took a number of steps to increase its counterterrorism capabilities. Most significantly, the EU adopted a common definition of terrorism, a European Arrest Warrant and a list of terrorist organizations.

The EU “Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism” seeks to ensure that the definition of terrorist crimes is similar across the Union and sets common minimum and maximum penalties for terrorist crimes. Before the framework decision was adopted, only seven EU countries had specific laws to fight terrorism and those laws varied from country to country.

According to the framework, a “terrorist act” is one that “may seriously damage a country or an international organization” when the objective is: “(1) seriously intimidating a population, or (2) unduly compelling a Government or international organization to perform or abstain from performing any act, or (3) seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or international organization.”

Acts that are deemed terrorist offenses include: killing and wounding people, kidnapping, hostage-taking, attacks on government and public facilities and infrastructure, hijacking aircraft, ships or other means of public or goods transport, acquiring or using explosives or weapons of mass destruction, interfering with fundamental natural resources, and threatening to commit any of the above acts. Directing a terrorist group and participating in the activities of a terrorist group “with knowledge of the fact that such participation will contribute to the criminal activities of the group” are also punishable offenses.

The European Arrest Warrant provides for simplified surrender procedures between judicial authorities of member states, based upon the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions. An arrest warrant issued in one country is now valid in all other EU nations. The measure was adopted in order to ensure that individuals wanted for terrorism in one country could not continue to operate in other European countries.

Regarding terrorist organizations, at this writing, the EU has a list of 25 designated foreign terrorist organizations. Member states are required to freeze assets of the organizations and members of the banned groups are subject to prosecution on terrorism charges. The list includes several Palestinian groups, Greek organizations, Irish groups, and the Basque separatist group ETA. Recent additions to the list include the political wing of Hamas and Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN). Noticeably absent from the list of terrorist organizations is the south Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

In the area of law enforcement cooperation, the EU created joint police investigation teams across the bloc, a special Europol (Europe’s police agency) anti-terrorism unit charged with collecting, sharing and analyzing information concerning international terrorism and Eurojust, a coordinating body between member states’ law enforcement agencies. The EU’s Terrorist Working Group (TWG) assesses the terrorist threat every six months, keeps an updated common list identifying the most significant terrorist organizations, and defines new cooperation instruments. The EU Police Chiefs Task Force and the heads of the EU Counter Terrorist Units meet regularly to exchange information and experiences.

Quote:

I wonder how long this kind of thing has been going on?

Since before the time the bible was written?