"The Lives of Others" is a fictional exploration of the real-life spaying that Stasi, East Germany's secret police, conducted on the country's citizens. (Sony Pictures Classics) Sony Pictures Classics

The horrors of 'Lives' in a police state

By Peter Brunette

Globe Correspondent / February 11, 2007

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TORONTO -- The Bush Administration has taken a pounding for its unauthorized spying on American citizens in the name of national security. But imagine living in a country, the former East Germany, in which the secret police, known as the Stasi, had 100,000 employees and 200,000 informants, and whose stated goal was "to know everything." (Full article: 1354 words)