These remarks are adapted from a talk at the Center for European Studies at Harvard on October 23.

I see an increased nervousness in my country about America. Even though both our countries have an eagle on their coat of arms, people currently are focused on a different bird: the chicken. And not just any old chicken, but the "Chlorhuhn" chicken. Perhaps I should translate it for you: The "Chlorhuhn" is a chicken that has been disinfected in a bath of chlorine -- as American food companies do it.

This chicken -- free from bacteria, thanks to the chlorine -- has made it into the top ten of German America clichs. It now makes appearances in our late night comedy shows, which are having a great time mocking TTIP, the transatlantic trade agreement. The "Chlorhuhn" chicken symbolizes the fears triggered by this free trade agreement. Fears that foreign products will push out local goods, and that health standards will drop.

Now there is a problem with these fears. Of course, it is always true what the writer Joseph Heller said, that:

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you."

Even chronic pessimists can be right to be afraid. But it's pretty obvious that something is wrong here: the same people who are afraid of the chicken are happy to send their kids to the pool, where they can spend the whole day swimming in chlorine.

A bit more reason, a bit more calmness, would benefit the talks on a free trade agreement between the world's two largest trading powers, the U.S. and Europe. If we had a bit more self-confidence, we could decide to use TTIP to set new standards for a good free trade agreement, which cuts red tape for business and respects special national features. We could have a free trade agreement which sets standards for technology and innovation, labor and the environment -- standards which other major trading nations in Asia could take up.

The fear we are talking about here -- the fear that is being conjured up -- is the fear of what is different. It understands commerce as a zero-sum game. As a battle over a cake of a certain size. But what we are actually talking about is creating opportunities and options: free trade not as a race to the bottom on health, environment or social security, but free trade with rules for high-value products and with competition for the best ideas. These standards could shape the progress towards fair globalization.

I think that would be a historic project which reflects the major possibilities of a new transatlantic agenda.

THE SNOWDEN IDENTITY

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How NSA Spying, Google and Chlorinated Chickens Are ...

Exclusive: To grasp the full story of Citizenfour, the documentary on Edward Snowdens decision to expose NSA spying, you must goback four decades to see how the realityslowly dawned on Americans that their privacy and freedoms were at risk, writes James DiEugenio.

By James DiEugenio

In 1974, at about the time President Richard Nixon was resigning due to the Watergate scandal, director Francis Coppola released his haunting, compelling film about electronic surveillance, The Conversation.Centered within the lives of surveillance technicians and the powerful corporate officers who employed them, Coppola depicted a nightmare world: one fraught with the invisible threat of electronic spying at almost any place, at any time including in public parks and inside private hotel rooms.

The film had a remarkable double twist at the end. The protagonist, played by Gene Hackman, has found out that, unbeknownst to him, the people who hired him used his work to stage a killing. In turn, they find out about his dangerous knowledge. The long last scene depicts Hackman literally dismantling his apartment, trying to find the microphone his murderous employers have placed in his room.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013. (From a video posted by WikiLeaks)

Coppola has said he never realized his film would play out against thebackdrop of the Watergate scandal, which also had electronic surveillance at its center, this time politically, with the Republicans spying on the Democratic campaign headquarters for the 1972 presidential race.

In the wake of the Watergate imbroglio, some of the people on the Watergate Committee, such as Sen. Howard Baker,were not satisfied with the congressional investigation led by Sen. Sam Ervin. Baker felt that the role of the CIA in the two-year long ordeal had been glossed over.

This, plus the exposure of CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angletons domestic operations, gave birth to the Church Committee, headed by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho. It was the first full-scale inquiry into the crimes of the FBI and CIA.

As a result of the publicity given to that committee (back then such events were actually covered in the U.S. news media, not mocked and ignored), some reforms in the monitoring of the intelligence agencies were enacted. After these reforms were put in place, the Senate decided that there should also be some limits and controls placed upon electronic surveillance over alleged threats from domestic enemy operatives inside the United States.

The Birth of FISA

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Filling the Blanks in Snowden’s ‘Citizenfour’