-> While your situation in Germany is frightening in that it is openly published, showing a government abandoning even the pretense of privacy, you should know that it is certainly not an isolated plan. The entire system itself is surveilled by the member nations of UKUSA Agreement. Germany is a "third party member" of the UKUSA SIGINT operation. From a site regarding UKUSA SIGINT operations as they apply to Canada, we find the following (followed by the hyperlink itself):

"The member agencies of the UKUSA community include the Communications Security Establishment, the United States' National Security Agency (NSA), the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), and New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). A number of other countries' SIGINT agencies also participate in the UKUSA community, including those of Germany, Japan, Norway, South Korea, and Turkey. These countries are sometimes described as "Third Party" members of the agreement. In addition, some countries, such as China, host UKUSA SIGINT stations or share SIGINT on a more limited basis."

( from http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~brobinso/cseukusa.html )

-> While Germany may be taking somewhat of a lead in implementing such policies openly, there is every reason to think that all such telephony/internet data transfer may already be recorded, covertly. The very existence of the DICTIONARY obviates such recording. It was a few years ago when No Such Agency bragged to visitors that every bit that flows in the internet is recorded in the acres of computers operated by No Such Agency. Whether or not this was completely true is open to debate.

-> Last September's unprecedented terrorism in New York and near the District of Columbia have been used here in the USA to pass all sorts of nasty legislation. For instance, the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) has had its scope amended to be able to conduct black-bag searches on US citizens for OTHER THAN FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE/SECURITY reasons. Its power was greatly expanded already when President Clinton signed Executive Order 12949, to authorize Department of Justice (DoJ) requests to conduct physical as well as electronic searches, without obtaining a warrant in open court.

-> So you see, the power is expanding incrementally, and has been for years, here in the USA and obviously there, in Germany. A quick perusal of Australian, Canadian, and even NZ news shows that such measures are proceeding roughly in time with each other. There is no reason to assume the rest of the world won't follow. Hell, half the planet is yet to be wired, and when it is the eyes and ears will surely be in place. Using legitimate concerns like child pornography, identity/online fund theft, 911-style terrorism, and even the endless stream of malware that issues forth, the authorities have little real opposition anymore. Dissent is portrayed as protection of criminality.

-> As with any and all of this crap, your job it to educate as many as you can. Don't be wild or alarmist (you don't seem so) or else others can label you any way they wish. Demonstrate the facts. Some will listen to you. Many won't. A vast sea of humanity is so hopelessly dependent on the system (or so they have been taught to believe), that many will rather call you a crank/wacko rather than deal with hard truths.

-> Don't make the mistake in thinking this country or that country is any better or worse. There is only a gradient on which you can plot the varying stages of STATIST IMPLEMENTATION. In the new interconnected world, nation-states and their policies are becoming less of distinct entities and more like different flavors of a public relations machine for the same trans-national superstate. Look not to the national governments. Read the works and plans of the Tri-Lateralists, and you will see that there is no "conspiracy" to run the world, for a conspiracy is something hidden, while the plans of the Tri-Lateralists and their CFR-parent organs are openly printed and published, albeit in smaller circles. For example: the entire US/UK energy geo-strategic energy gambit in the Caspian basin, implemented through ENRON and UnoCal to replace Persian Gulf oil sources with Russian reserves, has brought us the very pipeline through Pakistan/Afghanistan, and its resulting terrorist bombing of NY and DC, that was predicted in the book "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD", written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor and current Tri-Lateral Commission member. (In fact, he's Trustee and a founder of the Trilateral Commission). He obviously knows what he's talking about. The point is, these folks plan alot farther out than your average family who works for paychecks. Government are but an apparatus for implementing such policies and goals. In this light, surveilling your email and phone calls seems an obvious step for such a global architecture to take as it consolidates its authority.

-> FISA court article: http://mediafilter.org/caq/Caq53.court.html

-> an interesting link from a German/European perspective on "The Grand Chessboard" by Brzezinski: http://utenti.lycos.it/ArchivEurasia...er_gc_eng.html

-> a counterSpin review of Brzezinski's book: http://counterspin.tv/comments.pl?sid=166&cid=1060

-> more: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI207A.html

-> FAS Echelon/UKUSA book excerpt showing interlocking SIGINT directorates and abilities of the system: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/sp/sp_c2.htm

-> an of course, a million more sources, waiting for you to do the data mining...read, read, read, fellow users, for we may find ourselves someday holding keys to the kingdom whether we like it or not... (didn't i read something about life sentences for hacking?)