Germany’s foreign intelligence service is in the dock in the country’s highest court in an unprecedented legal challenge to its surveillance of communication abroad. The two-day hearing at the constitutional court in Karlsruhe comes nearly seven years after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed mass spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA). The subsequent outrage in Germany was muted somewhat at news of close NSA co-operation with Germany’s foreign intelligence, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). A key proviso is that the BND filter out and delete all communications involving German citizens. BND critics claim there is now no effective parliamentary or political oversight of German intelligence – a serious charge in a country where history has made people wary of over-zealous security services.

Source: The Irish Times January 15, 2020 19:07 UTC