WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US National Security Agency (NSA) provided spy software to Germany that is likely being used by both governments to monitor and control entire domestic populations, NSA whistleblower J. Kirk Wiebe told Sputnik.
The software has the functionality, Wiebe explained, to allow end users in Washington and Berlin to filter out data to avoid intruding on the privacy of innocent citizens, but they have failed to do that.
“Perhaps our governments want to know what we are doing independent of any criminal or terrorist activities,” Wiebe suggested. “Perhaps they want to do what every tyrannical government in history has done – control the population.”
In the absence of good oversight, Wiebe warned, all that is needed for governments to control populations using these technologies is “the intent and will to carry it through.”
Germany’s domestic security agency has argued that information obtained with the help of XKeyscore could be transferred to the NSA without violating German law.
In 2013, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden made available documents detailing long-term US intelligence data collection in Europe and many other targets around the world.
The German Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal was set up in March 2014 to examine the extent of the US intelligence agency's surveillance activities revealed in documents published by Snowden.
