Goodbye freedom, goodbye privacy II

Here comes an update on the scary news about police/secret service crackers. There have been two major developments since my last post.

First, Mr. Wolf, minister of the interior of North-Rhine Westfalia (NRW) and member of the so-called "liberal" party FDP, managed to get a law through parliament that allows the Verfassungsschutz, the secret service of the interior, to attack private computers and conduct covert online searches. The FDP and the Christian Democrats form the NRW government and have a comfortable majority in the NRW parliament. The opposition parties, social democrats and the green party, did vote against the law but it seems that the only way to stop it is a constitutional complaint filed by civil rights activist and journalist Twister.

Fortunately, there is not only bad news about privacy rights. A judge of the Bundesgerichtshof, the second highest court in Germany, rejected to sign a request to conduct exactly what I have described above. Apparently there already have been four cases in which law enforcement agencies got judicial approval for internet-based cracking attacks on private computers (they all failed for technical reasons) before Judge Ulrich Hebenstreit realized that these measures have no legal foundation. The attorney general has challenged this decision and thus we have to wait and see how the story will turn out. Even if Hebenstreit's decision will hold this is no big relief. As stated in my previous post, federal minister of the interior Schäuble is very eager to create the legal foundation for what is now only a nightmare. And even if law enforcement agencies at the moment might not have the technical means to intrude on your computer this is only a question of time—a few weeks ago Schäuble managed to get 132 million Euros (174 million USD) for measure to improve on- and offline surveillance.

I must say that I am really scared.

Denk ich an Deutschland

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht,
dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht.
(“When I think of Germany at night, I can no longer sleep”; Heinrich Heine 1843)

Why do I always have to write about bad news here? Is it my German angst, is it only natural that I, a German student, am "usually not "begeistert"? Or is it maybe the state of the world in general and of Doitschland in particular? Judge for yourself:

On April 16, an Afro-German citizen was attacked by two men and one woman in the East-German city of Potsdam. Prior to the attack, the man tried to call his wife from his cell phone, got only her mailbox, and somehow he didn't hang up. Thus we have a recording of the racist insults (e.g. "Dirty nigger") that preceded the attack. The attack left the man severly wounded and he was put in an artificial coma, now still struggling for his life. So far, so terrible.

Immediately after the racist attempted murder became public there was a large outcry of concern and politicians from all over the spectrum condemned the attack. However, several observers suspected that some people might have been more concerned with Germany's reputation than with the racist crime itself, especially only a few weeks before the soccer world-cup will begin (slogan: "The world hosted by friends"). Attacks on foreigners (or those who are believed to be non-German) are not uncommon and this case is by no means unique.

The suspicion about the motives of politicians is furthered by the disgusting remarks of the German minister of the interior, Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democrats). In an interview with the public broadcaster Deutschlandradio Kultur four days after the attack he proclaimed: "We don't know about the motives, we don't know the offenders. We should be a bit careful." As if this was not enough, he then fantasized about poor Aryan victims: "Blond, blue-eyed people are also victims of violent crimes, partly even by offenders that possibly don't have the German citizenship. That is no better."

I am so sick!