Last year, Germany had considered accepting Guantanamo prisoners but later backed off amid concerns that the men could prove to be dangerous. Duh?
This year, Germany is doing the same thing.
Auch in Zukunft will Deutschland die Aufnahme von Guantanamo-Häftlingen im Einzelfall prüfen.
Everybody’s out to get me these days, or my data. Out to get them I mean, actually, over here in Germany.
It’s bad enough that Google is googling the very streets they live on. Now, if a German wants to open up a McDonald’s or a Subway franchise, he or she has to let these potential employers know shockingly private and even intimate matters about him or her selves.
You know, private and intimate stuff like “were you ever directly or indirectly involved in terrorist activities.”
Needless to say, everybody over here is totally empört (shocked) about the matter. No, not so much about such indiscrete questioning like this, they’re shocked that a German would actually sink as low as to want to open up a McDonald’s or a Subway franchise.
Die Bewerber haben sogar Auskunft zu erteilen, ob sie “jemals direkt oder indirekt an terroristischen Aktivitäten beteiligt” gewesen seien.
Sicher ist sicher (better safe than sorry). At least when it comes to deleting data saved in Germany to combat terrorism and serious crime. Delete the stuff, in other words – can we delete the Street View stuff while we’re at it?
Germany’s highest court overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities save data on telephone calls and e-mails for a limited time. Now the big delete button has to get pressed – or maybe just the regular delete button, but lots and lots and lots of times.
This law is a “grave intrusion” into personal privacy rights or something and must be revised. Most likely because grave terrorism and serious crime never take place here, right? It’s nice living in Wunderland.
The ruling did not overturn the European Union anti-terrorism directive on which the law is based, but may lead to its reassessment later this year.
Observing Hermann 