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Europeans, Americans Oppose Spying on Allies Opposition to Surveillance Strongest in Germany BRUSSELS: Europeans and Americans Between North America and Europe

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Europeans, Americans Oppose Spying on Allies Opposition to Surveillance Strongest in Germany BRUSSELS: Europeans and Americans Between North America and Europe WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2013 INTERNATIONAL Europeans, Americans oppose spying on allies Opposition to surveillance strongest in Germany BRUSSELS: Europeans and Americans between North America and Europe. Snowden showing that Britain’s surveil- largely oppose their governments spying Twenty-five percent of Germans disagreed. lance agency was operating a covert listen- on their citizens and those of allied coun- Germans were even more hostile to gov- ing station close to Merkel’s office. tries, a poll found yesterday, reflecting ernments collecting the telephone and In the United States, 54 percent of peo- widespread disquiet at eavesdropping dis- internet data of people from allied coun- ple opposed government surveillance of closed by former US intelligence operative tries, with 72 percent opposed and 20 per- Americans but US views on spying on allied Edward Snowden. Opposition to govern- cent in favor. About 1,000 people were citizens were more ambivalent, with 44 per- ment surveillance of private phone and polled in each country in early September. cent opposed and 33 percent saying it was internet data was strongest in Germany, That was before fresh European outrage justified. In Britain, whose GCHQ eaves- where Snowden’s allegations have caused erupted last month over allegations pub- dropping agency is alleged to have cooper- uproar and damaged relations between lished by Britain’s Guardian newspaper that ated closely with the US National Security Berlin and the United States. the United States monitored the phone Agency, 44 percent said government sur- Germany’s ex-president Christian Wulff Seventy percent of Germans said their conversations of 35 world leaders. veillance of British citizens on national government would not be justified in col- Germany summoned the US ambassador security grounds was unjustified compared Former German president lecting German citizens’ phone and inter- for the first time in living memory in to 33 percent who said it was justified. net data to protect national security, October over suspicions that Washington Forty-three percent of Britons thought gov- faces political favors trial according to the poll by the German bugged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone. ernment surveillance of allied citizens was Marshall Fund of the United States, a US Last week, Germany called in the British unjustified while 30 percent believed it to BERLIN: Germany’s former president important than conviction or acquittal is thinktank that promotes cooperation ambassador over documents leaked by be justified.— Reuters Christian Wulff faces trial tomorrow something else: That it is clear that possible accused of accepting financial favors in corruption is prosecuted not just in the office, the legal aftermath of a wider sleaze case of a minor official but also in the case scandal that saw him resign in disgrace last of a former president.” year. The charge against Wulff centers on a Wulff, who has since the scandal sepa- Russia demands apology 719-euro ($963) sum, and opinion is split rated from his wife and largely retreated on whether Germany’s youngest-ever head from public life, rejected an offer from state of state really needed to quit or fell victim prosecutors in April to settle the case with to media hounding and an overzealous a 20,000-euro fine, saying he is determined over embassy violence criminal justice apparatus. to clear his name. The accusations against Since Wulff’s downfall, prosecutors have him and the film producer David built a case with 46 witnesses, alleging part Groenewold, who also faces trial, were Moscow demands compensation from Poland of a hotel room bill, babysitting costs and a reduced from the more serious corruption restaurant meal were paid by a film pro- and bribery charges initially demanded by MOSCOW: Russia demanded an apology have been any symbol of left-wing, liberal lent committee in the upper chamber, said ducer friend whom he later helped pro- prosecutors that carry up to five years’ jail. from Poland yesterday after far-right rioters views; but for some Poles the Russian the violence had “turned Poland from an mote a movie project. Wulff, 54, is Groenewold allegedly paid the cash when threw firecrackers at the Russian embassy in embassy is a symbol of repression during influential member of the European Union Germany’s first former head of state to the two men and their partners visited Warsaw, reviving tension between countries decades of Soviet domination after World into ... a third world country,” Interfax news answer charges in court. He denies wrong- Munich to attend a movie festival and the that have long been at odds. The Polish War Two. Russian media said that in addition agency reported. Poland has been a strong doing. If found guilty he faces up to three world-famous Oktoberfest in 2008. ambassador in Moscow was summoned to to firecrackers, rioters threw bottles, stones supporter of closer EU integration with years’ jail or a fine for having accepted the Months later Wulff allegedly wrote to the Russian Foreign Ministry and told Russia and trash at the embassy and set fire to a neighboring Ukraine before a summit in favors five years ago when he was state industrial giant Siemens to ask for backing premier of Lower Saxony. for a movie project of his friend wanted an official apology and compensa- police booth nearby. Some Russian officials Lithuania on Nov 28-29, at which Kiev could “I think at the Elysee Palace or in Italy, Groenewold. Amid the wider scandal which tion for damage done to the embassy in saw the violence in the context of strains sign an association agreement and develop politicians would not have resigned over broke in late 2011, Wulff was battered by Monday’s violence, which followed a nation- between Russia and the EU over human trade ties with Brussels. Bitterness over the similar accusations,” said political scientist almost daily claims that he had also accept- alist march. rights and democracy as Ukraine prepares to past mars ties between Moscow and Warsaw Lothar Probst of Bremen University, who ed other favors from business friends, Russia also asked Poland to take steps to sign a trade pact with Brussels that would despite the collapse of communist rule in pointed to a political culture in Germany including holidays and a cheap home loan, punish those responsible, protect Russian mark a symbolic move away from Moscow’s eastern Europe and the fall of the Soviet that punishes holders of public office for when he was state premier. Wulff worsened diplomatic buildings and “prevent a repeat of orbit. One suggested the unrest showed the Union more than two decades ago. even minor offences. Viewed in hindsight, matters when he left an angry voicemail such provocations in the future”, the ministry problem of nationalist violence is more seri- Moscow and Warsaw traded blame last said Probst, “political interests and the message for the editor of Germany’s said. A Polish Foreign Ministry statement had ous in the EU than in Russia, where anti- year after Russian and Polish soccer fans media apparently worked together to bring biggest selling newspaper Bild over its cov- expressed deep regret about the incident migrant rioting rocked Moscow last month. clashed on the night of a Euro 2012 match in down a politician who, seen from a purely erage of the scandal. and said such behavior deserved “strong con- “The events in Warsaw show: Nationalism is the Polish capital. Bitterness also lingers over legal point of view, did hardly anything The conservative Christian Democrat demnation”. Polish police used rubber bullets immeasurably stronger in several EU coun- the murder of thousands of Polish prisoners wrong.” stepped down in disgrace in February 2012 to break up groups of masked far-right tries than it is in Russia,” Alexei Pushkov, the of war in 1940 in Katyn, near the then Soviet But Probst also said that at the height of after prosecutors demanded his immunity be youths when the nationalist march turned head of the international affairs committee in city of Smolensk. Mutual recriminations also the scandal in early 2012 Wulff faced multi- lifted, kicking off a state investigation in violent. The Russian ministry statement said the lower house of parliament, said on followed the crash in April 2010 of a plane ple allegations of corruption involving sev- which police searched Wulff’s home. His pub- “passivity and belated action by the police” Twitter. “The EU should not lecture us but carrying the Polish president and 95 others to eral other business friends and did himself lic humiliation intensified when the former were largely to blame. deal with its own members.” an event in Russia commemorating the mas- no favors by failing to clear them up quick- first lady Bettina Wulff revealed their marital The main target of the rioters appeared to Mikhail Margelov, the head of the equiva- sacre, killing everyone on board. — Reuters ly. News website Stern.de said that “more problems in an autobiography. —AFP CALIFORNIA: 27-year-old Iraq war veteran Jerral Hancock, sitting on an electric wheelchair, and members of Operation All The Way Home (OATH) chant their slogans after a meeting at Lancaster High School in Lancaster, Calif. — AP California town builds house for wounded GI LANCASTER: When Jerral Hancock be much higher. It’s six months later loans it writes. came home from the Iraq war missing and the students have closed escrow Even the inmates at the local one arm, with another that barely on a $264,000 property. Blueprints prison held a sale of their artwork and worked and a paralyzed body that have been drawn up for the new donated the proceeds. “It’s really just was burned all over, he was a hero to dwelling and the students plan to amazing,” says J.D.
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