Investigating a sideshow  The issue of the United States bugging Merkel and whether Germany can reach an agreement to prevent spying in the future is really a sideshow. The bugging of one person no matter how important does not matter. Much more important is the protection of the internet and internet freedom. This German Interior Minister de Maiziere [1] says is what is most important and Germany can work with the USA on it “There are organized criminals, who are interested in our transactions. There are business models that aim to sell individuals' profile images, and so on… The protection of the Internet, against whomever, that is our common purpose, and not just this fixation on the NSA.” [2] Germany should not be fixing on what the NSA has done but be looking at the broader picture.  [1] NB the German government changed on 17th December with a resulting reshuffle  [2] Deutche Welle, ‘German Interior Minister de Maiziere warns over NSA 'fixation'’, dw.de, 10 January 2014,