Today, we kinda learned that several countries.....not just the NSA crowd....were listening in on Chancellor Merkel's private phone calls. The Chinese, the Russians, the British, and the North Koreans.
A pause here....the North Koreans? Yeah. What's the deal? Well...it's an interesting episode.
In Berlin, there's the headquarters of the CDU folks (Merkel's political party). It's a nice building.....down at the bottom of Klingelhoferstrasse. It's just a block or two south of the big city park.
Behind the CDU building, which is a mighty impressive building (I've seen it).....about half a kilometer away to the west.....is the North Korean embassy. It's on a major street.....although there's only a handful of embassy operations in this part of Berlin.
So, its within easy reception range of the CDU party headquarters. The odds that they know that the Koreans have some fancy gadgets? It's probably better than a fifty-fifty shot that the German intelligence guys have guessed what's going on, and warned the CDU folks about this.
What does the North Korean government get? It's hard to say. Probably a number of pieces of gossip over some guy's wife getting a boob job.....maybe some French guy paying off a CDU guy with a pallet of wine.....maybe some low-level CDU involved in a relationship with a Dutch trampy gal. It's only a guess.
My humble guess is that the North Korean guys reach a point each month where there's just not much to report of substance, and they start to make up stuff.....reporting it back to North Korea. The head guy gets all peppy....finding out about some imaginary affairs of some secretary. Maybe there's some fake story made up over big scandals. And along the way.....someone hints of something big happening next year.
All this stuff....fake or real....helps keep the North Korean guys in business, and stationed in Berlin....which is paradise, when compared to North Korea. A guy sips real German beer.....eats fatty wurst....and glances at some hot lusty German gals in halter tops and short skirts. It's not a bad deal.
As for German reaction? Well....where exactly is the great fury that you had with the lousy NSA guys listening in on the Chancellor's phone? Will we have to sit for a week and hear nightly updates about the terrible North Koreans? Will someone from the German foreign office call the North Koreans over and jump over the poor guy for disrespectful listening? Will German state-run TV run a twenty minute special with classic music accompanying each scene change of a dramatic nature (like some kind of lurking theme song from the Dracula series)?
Yes, we will probably just skip all of that. It was the awful Americans a month ago.....but the Germans just can't bring themselves to get all peppy about the awful North Koreans. Tonight's news highlight? Probably a soccer game, or some dead pigs from a overturned truck, or a discussion over gimmicked discount prices at some grocery chain. Maybe that Ed Snowden guy will get peppy and talk up the evil Americans one more time.
2 comments:
Good piece. I agree. Seems to be pretty one sided around here. Hatred for the Americans is widespread and deep, regardless of what they do.
It is not hatred for America, It is the fact the Amreicas are supposed to be our allies. OF couse do they spy on other goverments. What state does not? What was shocking to me, was the extent of the Intel gathering.
And that the Koreans and Chinese and Russians are spying is just to be expectet.
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