German Government Concerned Over US Data Protecion: OOPS – They Were Right!
“Cablegate” at wikileaks is going to make a lot of people very unhappy. After all what we have now is just a start. How are the German Government feeling, I wonder? Vindicated, probably – the Cablegate releases so far include their “concerns” over US Data Protection measures:
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10BERLIN128.html
.... However, in these meetings, our German counterparts consistently raise concerns about U.S. data protection measures and policy. Furthermore, the German views often distort and misrepresent U.S. policy. For example, current Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) - who has considerable influence - is particularly outspoken and does not appear to have (or perhaps want) an informed view of USG data privacy practices. It is critical that we aggressively and vocally counter these misrepresentations of U.S. policy. ....
However “aggressively” the “misrepresentations” were countered, you cannot counter the fact that many thousands of highly embarrassing documents, including the one linked above are coming to the public domain. And therefore it does not look like misrepresentation of US policy but rightly justified concern.
No wonder America has been playing a game of smooth-talk-politicking in advance of these documents coming to light, on the one hand, whilst demonising Wikileaks on the other. They talk down on their friends and enemies alike in the cables – and no one likes getting caught with their pants down.
