Spying on the White House, Hacking Phones and Flying the Flag

The German Intelligence Service Spied on the White House

Germany has been spying on the White House, other United States government and military institutions, and U.S. embassies for years.

This is a big embarrassment for Germany after it made such a big fuss about America spying on it back in 2013.

It’s also yet another deeply worrying story from the German intelligence service, the bnd. The organization was founded by ex-Nazis after the war—including war criminals. It helped people like Adolf Eichmann flee from justice. As recently as 2007 it destroyed the files on the Nazi past of its personnel.

It broke German and international law to smuggle weapons to Croats and Bosnians during the 1990s and has been hit by repeated scandals since then. And now we find it deep in spying on the U.S.

Parliament Allows Law Enforcement to Hack Phones

Also this week it was announced that Germany is giving more power to its national intelligence community and police. The government passed a new law allowing law enforcement to use spyware on the phones of suspected criminals. The law gives the government much more power to snoop on its citizens.

The German Flag Gets Pride of Place in This Year’s Election

Last Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union launched its advertising campaign for the upcoming election. The star of the campaign is the German flag.

The flag takes pride of place in all its advertising, and Angela Merkel published an open letter in Germany’s most popular newspaper, the Bild, on the A to Z of being German. The Local wrote:

The deployment of the German flag is unusual in a country that has largely shied away from outward displays of patriotism after Nazism.

This is a big shift in tone for Ms. Merkel’s party, and it shows the growing role of German patriotism and national identity in this election.

Germany Could Legalize Homosexual ‘Marriage’ This Week

Germany’s parliament will vote on a bill to legalize same-sex “marriage” on Friday—the last day before the parliament breaks up for the summer. On Monday, Ms. Merkel suddenly changed her position on the issue—allowing M.P.s to vote with their conscious, rather than following the party line.