| Title | US to Withold Intelligence on Terror-plots if Germany Grants Asylum to Snowden? | |
| Date | Thursday March 19 2015, @08:53PM | |
| Author | mrcoolbp | |
| Topic | ||
| from the ministry-of-freedom dept. | ||
From the ministry-of-freedom-department:
Yes, I know, Betteridge's law of headlines. But I couldn't find a better headline.
Many people in Germany are unhappy with their Government's decision not to grant asylum to Snowden. Now, according to this interesting story, vice-chancellor Gabriel claims that the German government was blackmailed into this decision by the US government, which threatened to withhold any information they might get in the future regarding terror-plots against Germany.
In the end, the article raises the question
Nonetheless, one of two things is true: 1) the U.S. actually threatened Germany that it would refrain from notifying them of terrorist plots against German citizens and thus deliberately leave them vulnerable to violent attacks, or 2) some combination of high officials from the U.S. and/or German governments are invoking such fictitious threats in order to manipulate and scare the German public into believing that asylum for Snowden would endanger their lives. Both are obviously noteworthy, though it’s hard to say which is worse.
Personally, I wouldn't put it past our (German) government to invoke fictitious threats for fear-mongering. But it is no excuse for them to deny asylum. Either we are an autonomous state and make our own decision, or we should stop pretending. We should grant asylum. The US-"threat" is no threat in my opinion; they didn't threaten to do something to us, they just announced they would not help. That still sucks, but calling it a "threat" is unfair to the US. If they volunteered the information until now, it's of course their decision to stop doing that. If there is an agreement for cooperation, I'd expect them to honour that agreement without telling other governments whom to grant asylum and whom not.
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printed from Dev.SN, US to Withold Intelligence on Terror-plots if Germany Grants Asylum to Snowden? on 2024-04-28 09:56:10