American spies tracked German chancellors phone since 2002 Publication time: 27 October 2013, 12:42 America has bugged German chancellor Merkels phone for more than 10 years, according to a news report on Saturday that also said Obama lied the German leader he would have stopped it happening had he known about it. Germanys outrage over reports of bugging of Merkels phone by the US National Security Agency (NSA) prompted it to summon the US ambassador this week for the first time in living memory, an unprecedented post-war diplomatic rift. Der Spiegel said Merkels mobile telephone had been listed by the NSAs Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 - marked as GE Chancellor Merkel - and was still on the list weeks before Obama visited Berlin in June. In an SCS document cited by the magazine, the agency said it had a not legally registered spying branch in the US embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government. From there, NSA and CIA staff were tapping communication in the Berlins government district with high-tech surveillance. Quoting a secret document from 2010, Der Spiegel said such branches existed in about 80 locations around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Rome, Prague, Geneva and Frankfurt. The magazine said it was not clear whether the SCS had recorded conversations or just connection data. Obama apologized to Merkel when she called him on Wednesday to seek clarification on the issue, Der Spiegel wrote, citing a source in Merkels office. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung also said Obama had told Merkel he had not known of the bugging. Merkels spokesman and the White House declined comment. Were not going to comment on the details of our diplomatic discussions, said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House. The rift over US surveillance activities first emerged earlier this year after reports that Washington had bugged European Union offices and had tapped half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month. But it appeared close to resolution after Merkels government said in August - just weeks before a parliamentary election - the United States had given sufficient assurances they were upholding German law. Germany will send intelligence chiefs to Washington next week to seek answers on the allegations around Merkels phone. Meanwhile, a major German mainstream paper Die Welt reported on Sunday that Obama had lied to Merkel. It was he personally who ordered the eavesdropping of Merkels phone conversations, and the print-outs of them are delivered directly to the White House, and not to the NSA headquarters, as usual. The same way, Bush earlier ordered tapping of phone talk of a previous German chancellor, Schroeder, after Germany refused to participate in the 2002 American-led invasion of Iraq. It turned out that Bush was right after all because Schroeder was a Moscow man, and he got a high-paid job with KGB-controlled Gazprom after he quit his job as the German chancellor. Department of Monitoring
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 18:25:33 +0000
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