Spooks are not gods, it's public's attitude towards them that makes them god-like. German gov't could have started investigation and at least informed Spiegel. They might have found some leads. If not, at least security audit would have made them more aware of threats. Surely the same (hypothetical) entrypoints that NSA/CIA used, could have been used by other organizations or governments. Spiegel covers a lot of international news and certainly has a lot of sources around the world to protect.
I posted paper to answer blatant "according to Constitution foreigners don't have any rights at all". Regarding other countries - they obviously have their own bills, laws and regulations. The idea that US citizens residing in other countries are exempt from local laws just on the basis that they are doing service to US is ridiculous.
>You have fewer rights at border crossings than living your life within the confines of the border, unfortunately.
Now you'll say that location of Guantanamo Bay prison outside of US jurisdiction is an 'unfortunate accident' as well. Both seem quite purposeful decisions to me.
And yes, the fact that two probably most important journalists of modern times have both chosen to go into exile just to do their job, even though both love their country, - I think this actually says quite a bit about the freedom of press in the said country.
>no one interfered with their ability to publish any story
How do you know it? What sort of interference would you expect these days anyway? The secret order signed by Angela Merkel herself ordering to stop the story or face lifetime in prison?
FOIA records on FBI and CIA show again and again that western governments are not ashamed to use misinformation, defamation, subversion and provocations. In fact, they have become extremely skillful at these hard-to-prove-yet-so-effective-against-civilian tactics.
Whether allied or not, foreign intelligence agencies spying on German citizens in Germany are unlawful and occasional "help" in the form of informal tips should not make them above the law. NSA should not get preferential treatment over CIA in EU courts and US agencies in general should not get preferential treatment over say China.
They might not have feared for their lives, but they obviously are afraid to have any information on them when crossing the borders and they are simply afraid to do their job as a journalists in US.
>I don't know what rules are in place as to what's OK in spying/sabotage and what isn't, but I imagine it's something not super unreasonable
Yeah, but you see, when it comes to regular blood-and-flesh people, we (as a society, through courts) don't judge them based on whether their actions have been reasonable or not. We could, but the world would be very different. Having different standards for different people/organizations is plain hypocritical, undermines democracy and weakens civil society.
They both live outside of US now and have mentioned their reasons countless times. Laura Poitras explained why she's staying in Germany and how she does not take any materials with her during her trips to US, for example, at the last CCC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKqdMDastM
>If you don't want to answer about the chance of conviction, what do you wager the chances of a prosecutor simply bringing a case to a German court are?
Regardless of what US laws might or might not say about spying overseas, people and organizations that are operating there are expected to follow local laws. Since Germany doesn't have any provisions that would allow (some) foreigners to spy on German journalists, it's obvious that CIA spying on them is illegal.
>American filmmaker Linda Poitras introduced the person responsible for the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history (Snowden) to an American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who previously wrote opinion pieces for various American newspapers, including the Cato Institute.
Now both Poitras and Greenwald are afraid to go back to US, though. I wonder why would they avoid the most journalist-friendly country on Earth?
> Getting around of not being able to spay on your own soil buy letting some other nation state collect all the things does not make it legal
Not preventing someone from spying on your citizens, possibly encouraging them, and not prosecuting that entity once the matters become known, - looks certainly illegal to me.
>try turning up at ha hospital with a bag of blood
I have Rhnull and that is the only way I would donate my blood, ever. My mom (who also has this type) has been looked down as a emergency bag of blood on a few occasions and living with that is terrible experience.
I see a lot of talent getting wasted in the name of FriendFeed. I believe Paul is much more capable of building a billion dollar business :) I hope friendfeed succeeds !!
Take it easy dude...It's always easy to bash on any product..what is important is whether you are making money out of it or not and whether it's reaching a wider audience or not. Have fun making software :)