Spying Survey: German Trust in US at Lowest Level Since Bush

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-trust-in-us-lowest-level-since-bush-years-after-nsa-scandal-a-909584.html



It wasn't all that long ago that US President Barack Obama could take credit for having repaired a trans-Atlantic relationship that had taken a hit under his predecessor, George W. Bush. Early in his first term, some 78 percent of Germans saw the US as "a country that could be trusted."

This week, though, following revelations of large-scale US spying in Europe and vast Internet surveillance, that trust has taken a hit. A survey released late on Thursday found that only 49 percent of Germans now view the United States as trustworthy, the lowest level since Bush was in the White House. It also marks a plunge of 16 points relative to a survey taken in December 2011.

The survey is based on interviews with 1,500 people conducted from Monday to Wednesday of this week, just as news was breaking that the US had bugged European Union diplomatic representations in Washington and New York and spent years closely watching digital communications to, from and within Germany. SPIEGEL broke the story in this week's issue, published on Monday.


The reaction has been one of outrage, with top German politicians demanding that the spying cease immediately. And the survey, undertaken by pollsters infratest-dimap for the public television station ARD, would seem to indicate that many in the country share that indignation. Fully 78 percent agreed with the statement that German Chancellor Angela Merkel "must protest more unequivocally to the US."

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Kolesar]

2. Where Mohammed Atta came of age...eom

[Fumesucker]

3. Mission Accomplished!