This report is about the world's largest internet exchange challenging intelligence agencies that are ALREADY capturing all traffic, in a bid to kick them out via court order. That bid failed. This PressTV report has a "reporting glitch" (probably because it is Iranian) which confirms intelligence agencies are capturing EVERYTHING by default. UPDATE: Yahoo covered this also. Here is the key quote:

"It said the BND, a partner of the US National Security Agency (NSA), has placed so-called Y-piece prisms into its data-carrying fibre optic cables that give it an unfiltered and complete copy of the data flow.

Ok, so there it is. They are capturing EVERYTHING, and it is not only the NSA doing it.

The entire text of the report follows:

Germany's spy agency can monitor major internet hubs if Berlin deems it necessary for strategic security interests, a federal court has ruled.

My comment: That's the soft ball lead in, because the court case was to stop the intelligence agencies who are already there, fully in place, from continuing - the internet exchange was trying to kick them out.

In a ruling late on Wednesday, the Federal Administrative Court threw out a challenge by the world's largest internet hub, the De-Cix exchange, against the tapping of its data flows by the BND foreign intelligence service.

The operator had argued the agency was breaking the law by capturing German domestic communications along with international data.

However, the court in the eastern city of Leipzig ruled that internet hubs "can be required by the federal interior ministry to assist with strategic communications surveillance by the BND."

De-Cix says its Frankfurt hub is the world's biggest internet exchange, bundling data flows from as far as China, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, which handles more than six terabytes per second at peak traffic.

It said the BND, a partner of the US National Security Agency (NSA), has placed so-called Y-piece prisms into its data-carrying fibre optic cables that give it an unfiltered and complete copy of the data flow.

Given the mass of daily phone calls, emails, chats, internet searches, streamed videos and other online communications, an effective fire-walling of purely German communications is unrealistic, activists argue.

Germany had reacted with outrage when information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that US agents were carrying out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany where state spying on citizens was rampant, declared repeatedly that "spying among friends is not on" while acknowledging Germany's reliance on the US in security matters.

But to the great embarrassment of Germany, it later emerged that the BND helped the NSA spy on European allies.

My comment: How many times have I said they are capturing everything? Yes, we already knew, but this report from PressTV is the first MSM report that actually puts it in print, unfiltered. The NSA is going to be doing backflips, this type of report proves relations are anything but friendly, and our worst suspicions have been confirmed and correct for god knows how long. All we know is that the exchange is trying to kick them out and failed which means the issue is not a new one.

Jim Stone