By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 30 --
Days after a
watered down
German draft
resolution on
spying was
adopted
without
objection in
the UN General
Assembly's
Third
Committee,
it's reported
that a
loophole in
German law
allows it to
spy on their
own citizens.
The loophole
involves
German
nationals
working abroad
for foreign
corporations -
in that
capacity, they
lose
protection, as
the
communications
are viewed as
non-German. The
Guardian:
"a
former BND
lawyer told
parliament
this week that
citizens
working abroad
for foreign
companies were
not protected.
The German
government
confirmed on
Saturday that
work-related
calls or
emails were
attributed to
the employer.
As a result,
if the
employer is
foreign, the
BND could
legally
intercept
them."
In this
loophole, it
appears, would
for example be
German
journalists
working for
other than
Germany media.
While the
positions of
the US, Canada
and others
were blamed
for watering
down the UNGA
resolution,
this too may
be relevant.
When this
"Right to
Privacy in the
Internet Age"
resolution
came to the
floor in the
UN's Third
(Human Rights)
Committee on
November 25,
German
Ambassador
Harald Braun summarized
its new
elements:
the inclusion
of metadata,
obligations by
the private
sector,
effective
remedies for
violations and
an invitation
to the UN
Human Rights
Council to
establish a
special
procedure on
the right to
privacy.
He did not
mention the
loophole,
which would be
reported days
later.
While Braun
cited US
National
Security
Agency
whistleblower
Edward
Snowden, the
resolution was
adopted by
consensus -
that is, no
country,
including the
United States,
objected.
International
law, if it
exists, is
incremental.
And is subject
to undisclosed
conflicts.
Back
on July 9,
First Look's "The
Intercept"
revealed
that the US
NSA and FBI
spied on at
least five
Americans, all
Muslims, and
used
place-holder
code names
like "Raghead,"
click here for
that.
Those spied on
included a
Republican
candidate for
the Virginia
legislature,
Faisal Gill;
Hooshang
Amirahmadi, an
Iranian-American
professor;
lawyer Asim
Ghafoor; Nihad
Awad of CAIR;
and "Agha
Saeed, a
former
political
science
professor at
California
State
University who
champions
Muslim civil
liberties and
Palestinian
rights."
The United
Nations'
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
already said
he thinks
Snowden
"misused"
information,
as Inner City
Press reported
here.
Back on March
14 when the US
delegation to
the UN Human
Rights
Committee in
Geneva took
the floor, it
was a full
court press.
Of the
elephant in
the room, NSA
spying, the
speaker from
the Civil
Rights
Division of
the US
Department of
Justice used a
single line:
DOJ is
"monitoring" a
number of
private
actions. You
don't say.
The
head of the US
delegation,
Mary McLeod,
said but did
not explain
why the US
Administration
has "no
current
expectation to
become a party
to the
optional
protocol" to
the
International
Covenant on
Civil and
Political
Rights --
which the US
says does not
apply to its
actions
outside of its
borders.
The
session closed
with a slew of
questions:
Walter Kalin
asked why the
US deports
people to
Haiti even
amid the
cholera
epidemic --
for which,
Inner City
Press notes, the
US has said
the UN should
be immune. Watch
this site.
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