A week ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to Germany, leaders are so outraged over the news of internet spying that at least one is comparing it to East German Stasi tactics.
According to Reuters, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the U.S. can access and track virtually all communications is “deeply disconcerting.”
She added: “The more a society monitors, controls, and observes its citizens, the less free it is. The suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored.”
Mark Ferber sits in the European Parliament as a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian sister party. He went even further with his criticism by likening internet spying to “American-style Stasi methods.”
Ferber said he thought such tactics ended with the fall of the German Democratic Republic.
Just last week a poll showed that 82 percent of the German people viewed Obama favorably. It will be interesting to see what happens to that number as more details of internet spying emerge.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins