Germany should adopt more realistic, transparent approach to cooperation between US and German intelligence

The recent revelations about cooperation between the NSA and Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, BND, have exposed the hypocrisy of leading German politicians’ stance on global surveillance post-Snowden, argued Thorsten Benner in a statement to the Christian Science Monitor. While officials protested the NSA’s practices in public, they privately favor close cooperation between the two agencies. Germany, Benner said, will hopefully adopt a more realistic approach, involving better accountability of German intelligence services and transparency about cooperation with US intelligence.