NSA still spying on hundreds of Germany's political and economic elite
23 February 2014, 12:05
Far from giving up on its habit, the US National Security Agency is reportedly still wiretapping some 320 prominent German economists and politicians. Although President Barack Obama has allegedly delivered on his promise to leave German Chancellor Angela Merkel alone, America's omnipresent spy agency is still keeping tabs on hundreds of her compatriots, the crème de la crème of the German political and economic world, including Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière. This is according to the Bild am Sonntag.
The German paper has cited an unidentified NSA agent who has his residence in Germany. This revelation comes as a second heavy blow to the US-German transatlantic friendship after it emerged in October that the NSA had bugged Merkel's phone. Washington has never officially owned up to or refuted this claim, but Obama vowed that Germany would forever stay out of the NSA crosshairs.
The NSA agent confirmed in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag that Merkel's name had indeed been wiped off the to-spy-on list, but added the agency had been since spying even more on her inner circle. Thomas de Maizière stands out as one of the most important NSA targets in Germany. He ran the country's Defense Ministry till December 2013 and is billed as Merkel's closest ally who frequently gives her advice on the most vital home issues.
According to the NSA source, the agency was surprised at how important de Maizière's opinion was to the Chancellor. He said another reason why they chose to spy on the minister was his previous reputation as a likely NATO Secretary General.
"We wanted to know if he would make a reliable partner," the US agent told the Bild am Sonntag.
The German newspaper also claims that de Maizière is just one of the country's politicians who is being wiretapped by the NSA, with the total number of targets reaching some 320 upper-crust politicians and economists.
Merkel suggests creating anti-American communications network
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for creating a European communications network. The goal is to help improve data protection and curb mass surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency and its British counterpart GCHQ.
Merkel announced the project in her weekly podcast, saying that the communication network will help avoid emails and other data automatically passing through the United States.
She said that she would discuss the issue with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday.
She also admitted the problems of preserving privacy and forging a common European policy on data protection.
She slammed the fact that companies like Google and Facebook are based in countries with the "weakest" data protection while doing business in nations that offer more reliable safeguards.
Last year, information provided by US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA agents tapped Merkel's mobile phone from a listening post on the US Embassy roof in Berlin.
Merkel's proposal comes amid Germany's unsuccessful efforts to persuade Washington to agree to a friendly "no-spy" agreement.
Meanwhile, the Der Spiegel magazine has reported plans by Germany's main domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, for an alleged "massive" surge in counter-espionage measures. These would include obtaining details about intelligence agents who were accredited as diplomats, and information about technology used within the embassies.
Merkel proposes to create European communication network that circumvents US
The European Union needs to work towards creating a regional communication network that circumvents the United States, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday. As a part of her weekly podcast, Merkel said she will talk to French President Francois Hollande during an upcoming visit to Paris about building a European communication network so that citizens' emails and other data does not pass through US servers.
The EU is currently working towards setting out a collective framework for data protection, an initiative that is proving difficult due to the widely diverging privacy standards in its 28 member states.
'Many countries have lower levels of data protection than Germany, and we do not want our privacy laws to be watered down,' said Merkel, adding that companies like Google and Facebook would base their operations in countries with the lowest safeguards.
'This is not tenable for Europe,' she added.
The government surveillance scandal based on information from NSA contractor Edward Snowden sent shock waves through Germany last year, with the revelation that Merkel's mobile phone had been monitored leading to diplomatic tensions between Berlin and Washington.
Germany's efforts to work towards an international 'no-spy' agreement have failed thus far.
Merkel said that other topics to be discussed at the Franco-German conference next week would be cooperation on climate change, as well as security policy in relation to armed conflicts in Africa.
Voice of Russia, dpa, RIA
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