Overcoming NSA?

I'm generally suspicious of British newspapers.  Some stories are absolutely correct, and some are generally bogus with no facts.

So, today's Telegraph brings us up to date on what the Germans are considering as actions to counter the NSA, and the spy apparatus.

First, a return to classical music played during sensitive meeting to drown out someone who might be listening in on the conversation.  This was apparently announced by the head of the Bundestag committee (a CDU guy) at yesterday's meeting.  The choice of music?  Edvard Grieg's piano concerto, in A-minor.

Nothing was said from the Greens or SPD.  I'm guessing they played along with this.  It would suggest that some German intellectuals are in charge of the music choices....because Led Zeppelin, Heino, German country and western and Michael Jackson music were not used.

How long will the concerto music be used?  I'm guessing until some guy gets really frazzled or whacked-out from the music stuff, and goes nuts in front of his committee peers.  Another committee will then start up.....trying to determine if excessive music while in government business could cause you to go crazy.

Second?  There is serious talk of dumping computers for all highly classified work, and returning to typewriters.  This has only been started in the last couple of days, and it's hard to say where it'll go.

There's only a dozen-odd companies left in the world who manufacture typewriters.  Most are in the Mexico, South America or Asia (China).  The odds of the US and China having installed a bugging device into each typewriter imported into Germany?  It'd take a couple of hours to start such a practice and you could buy them as they get put into the boxes.

A German company manufacturing typewriters?  There are none.  That line of business kinda ended by the mid-1990s, with most brands exiting Germany for production because they couldn't make a cheap German-manufactured typewriter.  To make a top quality electric typewriter in today's environment, for expected German standards?  I'd take a humble guess at the pricing to run a minimum of 1,000 Euro, and maybe even go up to 1,400 Euro. A Mexican-made low-quality typewriter (one that would last three years and does just the minimum stuff)?  It'll run you around $150. I know because I had to buy one for our HR office gals at my old job.

What this leads onto?  Well....you could imagine a whole new market in white-out and correction tape, along with ribbon-manufacturing.

Of course, the German typing enthusiasts working in these secure jobs will balk at the regular old-fashion typewriters, and demand the memory storage unit type that you can type and store your product.  Then the security guy will stand up and say that's how we got into all this mess in the first place....so....NO, you can't have the memory storage unit typewriters.

What then occurs....is limited papers and notes on some issue of classified nature.   Instead of the typical forty-page documents on something.....German ministers will start to note that the memo-production level has gone down to two pages.  The Chancellor will ask questions....if there's something wrong here, and the response will be that people don't want to use the typewriters.

What the British press suggests....might be somewhat true....although somewhat comical in nature.

I'm guessing another step or two will occur, with a whole division of new employees created....to continually check out German government employees and their bank accounts or purchases.  Another division might be created to continually spy on American embassy personnel and their private lives.  Another division will likely be created on Washington DC.  Of course, all of this will lead to more personnel, more cost, and more taxation.

Perhaps the question should be....what exactly is the German government doing....of such significance....of a classified nature....that the US government would waste tons of man-hours and cash on instead of jihad-players?  Maybe after you answer this.....you'd start to think about creating tons of bogus German classified information, and make the US waste twice as much time on collecting worthless data and using precious US tax revenue on worthless German information.