America has not trusted any other nation with its research into anti-terrorism technology—until now. On March 16, the United States and Germany signed a treaty on scientific and technological cooperation in the field of civil security. The two countries will spend €10-20 million on four major projects by 2012. More importantly, German scientists will gain access to America’s top-secret laboratories, where America tests its latest counterterrorism technology, and vice versa.

“Such openness would have been previously unimaginable,” Spiegel Online wrote.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and German Research Minister Annette Schavan signed the treaty over breakfast last Monday.

“The mere fact that Napolitano and Schaven were meeting to talk about using technology to fight terrorism was unusual,” wrote Spiegel Online. “Until now, the Americans have kept their efforts to develop new security technologies secret.”

America kept these technologies secret for a reason. “Security technologies” are a matter of national security.

The four main areas in which Germany and America will cooperate are:

These programs are about protecting civilian life, the first duty of any government. Now the U.S. administration is sharing its technology with the nation it fought against in its last major war.

But, 64 years on, World War ii is viewed as ancient history by most. The general consensus is that Germany is a changed nation.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote on this subject in May 1999:

Are we so vain that we have failed to learn from the history of our forefathers? Have our leaders become so proud that they fail to learn from the precious lessons of history? Have we forgotten that Germany plunged this planet into two world wars which killed between 60 and 70 million people?

At the time of writing, Mr. Flurry was addressing the decision to allow Germany to establish an air base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This applies equally to Washington letting Berlin into labs where it tests some of its latest technology. “And what if our gamble with Germany today is dead wrong?” Mr. Flurry wrote. “As Churchill said, it is a mistake you make only once! All Americans will pay the deadly price! It gives us the potential to be attacked from within.”

Mr. Flurry continued:

Germany had a history of striking down nations with little or no warning before World War i! Churchill knew their history. “The wars of Frederick and of Bismarck had shown with what extraordinary rapidity and suddenness the Prussian nation was accustomed to fall upon its enemy …. Obviously, therefore, the danger of a ‘bolt from the blue’ was by no means fantastic” [Winston Churchill, World Crisis].

The Germans had a history before World War i of attacking enemies with “rapidity and suddenness”—like a “bolt from the blue.” That is why what America is doing is so dangerous. History proves that Germany cannot be trusted in this vital area of national security. For more on why this is so, read “Alamogordo: A Mistake You Only Make Once.”