Before He Gets To Zee Germans

Apparently this whole PRISM mess isn't endearing President Obama to one of the countries where he would normally be extremely welcome:  Germany.  And Zee Germans, well, they're a little miffed.

German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday, potentially casting a cloud over a visit that was designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens.

That's probably not cool, but frankly the Germans lived these tactics in the bad old days of the Iron Curtain not more than 30 years ago.  And the Stasi really were monitoring the hell out of their own citizens.

In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were "deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous.

"The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is," she said.

"The suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored. For that reason, openness and clarification by the U.S. administration itself is paramount at this point. All facts must be put on the table."

Markus Ferber, a member of Merkel's Bavarian sister party who sits in the European Parliament, went further, accusing Washington of using "American-style Stasi methods".

This is the real fallout and harm from PRISM:  our allies now know we've been watching their mail and a lot of other things.  "Trust but verify" basically turned into "verify".  No wonder they're mad at us.

If the wingers wanted their "Obama Apology Tour", well it looks like it'll start in Germany.