All the print and TV coverage of the German PM's phone being monitored
is discussed like this is all new news.

Have none of the journalists ever heard of the diverting of the cable
telegraph traffic during the Great War in 1914, Bletchley Park, all the
spying and tapping of phone and telegraph lines from the beginning, and
the British gathering up all the Enigma machines and then giving them
to their friends and enemies and not letting on that had been cracked.
The systems to gather information have been in operation for years and
has been common knowledge. It is common knowledge that Obama uses a
secure Blackberry, so why do other heads of government not do likewise.

If Angela Merkel is dopey enough to use an insecure phone she should resign.

bazz..if you recall
we delayed digital/phones six moths..so the de decryption..software..could be installed..before any one could make a single call

there IS NO SUCH..THING AS SECRET*
where a phone is..there is someone being listened too
whether its on...or off..[ditto the latest con-puter chips..and those vidio-cameras/microphones on..ya com-puta

even snail/mail was scanned and read..from time immemorial

simply speaking..there are no..secrets
nothing known shall-be concealed
in time..all gets revealed

ps santa now really can watch us all
satan..knows if we been..good or bad

Bazz, I agree.
It just beggars belief that a head of state like Merkel would use an unsecured phone.
I don't know if any mobile phone calls or texts can ever be 'secret' though?

One undergod, I would think the last thing on anyone's mind, while dealing with this scandal, is if a fairy tale 'satan' might be worried about it.

OUG, well there are encryption methods that are just about impossible to crack.
If they are penetrable then by the time it is done you are reading history.
PGP is an example, it was cracked but it took a programmer running 50
machines overnight, if I remember correctly, 3 years to get in.

Yes, Suzie, I think if it had been me I would have shut up and not made
a fuss about it. Might have had a dig at Obama about it, or better
still feed them a lot of rubbish by that means and had a good laugh.

Dear Bazz,

Of course world leaders would be using secure
telephones. They would be well aware of the security
risks involved if they didn't. All nations spy on each
other. This is nothing new. The reaction appears to be
as a result of the media coverage that this sort of
publicity provokes. Australia is currently being accused
of spying on Indonesia by Indonesian authorities.
The reactions will be fairly predictable to that accusation
as well. It sells newspapers.

To all of you just blithely accepting this spying what would you say if it was north korea or iran spying on our leaders and tapping their phones?
After all "all countries do it" right. Would you be so accepting if it was your phone that was bugged.

The justifications from the seppoes that "we need to spy on our friends so we know they are really our friends" is just utter BS. If you use that reasoning where does it end? We will all be able to use the same logic to spy on anyone we want. Our governments already seem to be doing so.

Totalitarianism here we come.