WikiLeaks has just published new documents about U.S. spy targets in Germany, according to which the NSA has been conducting comprehensive surveillance on the BRD government for decades. The eavesdropping is said to have gone as far back as the Kohl administration.
The federal government has apparently been under surveillance longer and more systematically than has hitherto been assumed. Yesterday evening the leak-disseminating website WikiLeaks published a list of telephone numbers that are said to have been targeted by the NSA. Among the 56 numbers are dozens belonging to high-ranking officials in the Chancellor's Office -- both during the Bonn era as well as after the Government's move to Berlin.
In addition to elected officials, non-elected officials responsible in the foreign ministry and intelligence services were targeted. The list is quite impressive: among the 56 numbers targeted were high-ranking officials from the administrations of Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder on up through Angela Merkel. Around two dozen numbers are still active today, some of them dating to the time before unification, when the Government was still located in Bonn.
That's not it. Cigarettes also bring a large amount of pleasure to people. ...
Of course things are more nuanced, when it comes down to the matter of lifestyle and individual choice.
But it's kind of beside the main point. Which is: when it comes to their tireless efforts to tear down nearly any reasonable safeguards (whether in the form of health warnings on packaging, or access to minors) -- and especially the extent to which they resort to FUD and blatant anti-intellectualism to achieve these ends -- the tobacco lobby simply has no case.
Except that Varoufakis was referring the Troika (or rather, their actions: he used the word "terrorism", not the more loaded term "terrorist") when he said that, not to the Germans as a people (or even to German banks, or their politicians).
At no point in the El Mundo article did he call the Germans "terrorists", and -- worse than hyperbolic -- it's irresponsible for you to suggest that he did.
The reason you're "astounded" by all these comments may have to do with the fact that you seem to rather limited awareness of the basic history regarding Greece's current situation.
For example, there's no mention at all in your remarks about the well-known shenanigans that led to Greece joining the Eurozone (and camouflaging its debts) in the first place (with the connivance of certain large foreign banks). Or of the naked arrogance and condescending, hoof-in-mouth verbiage we've been treated to by certain foreign leaders (like Angela Merkel) in recent months.
Just simply: "look at those Greeks -- they're irresponsible, they're overspending, and now they're looking for another handout", basically.
The worst thing about burnout is that it's really hard not to carry into interviews or other discussions about actually finding new work. Especially with all the invasive questions they keep piling on, and on, and on.
It's as if there's just no room to be human -- even though all you want to do is turn a new leaf, put the nightmare of your previous failed working relationship behind you.
WikiLeaks has just published new documents about U.S. spy targets in Germany, according to which the NSA has been conducting comprehensive surveillance on the BRD government for decades. The eavesdropping is said to have gone as far back as the Kohl administration.
The federal government has apparently been under surveillance longer and more systematically than has hitherto been assumed. Yesterday evening the leak-disseminating website WikiLeaks published a list of telephone numbers that are said to have been targeted by the NSA. Among the 56 numbers are dozens belonging to high-ranking officials in the Chancellor's Office -- both during the Bonn era as well as after the Government's move to Berlin.
In addition to elected officials, non-elected officials responsible in the foreign ministry and intelligence services were targeted. The list is quite impressive: among the 56 numbers targeted were high-ranking officials from the administrations of Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder on up through Angela Merkel. Around two dozen numbers are still active today, some of them dating to the time before unification, when the Government was still located in Bonn.