AP
According to SPIEGEL research,
United States intelligence agencies have not only targeted Chancellor
Angela Merkel's cellphone, but they have also used the American Embassy
in Berlin as a listening station. The revelations now pose a serious
threat to German-American relations.
It's a prime site, a diplomat's dream. Is there any better location for an embassy than Berlin's Pariser Platz? It's just a few paces from here to the Reichstag. When the American ambassador steps out the door, he looks directly onto the Brandenburg Gate.
ANZEIGE
Research by SPIEGEL reporters in Berlin and Washington, talks with intelligence officials and the evaluation of internal documents of the US' National Security Agency and other information, most of which comes from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, lead to the conclusion that the US diplomatic mission in the German capital has not merely been promoting German-American friendship. On the contrary, it is a nest of espionage. From the roof of the embassy, a special unit of the CIA and NSA can apparently monitor a large part of cellphone communication in the government quarter. And there is evidence that agents based at Pariser Platz recently targeted the cellphone that Merkel uses the most.
The NSA spying scandal has thus reached a new level, becoming a serious threat to the trans-Atlantic partnership. The mere suspicion that one of Merkel's cellphones was being monitored by the NSA has led in the past week to serious tensions between Berlin and Washington.
Hardly anything is as sensitive a subject to Merkel as the surveillance of her cellphone. It is her instrument of power. She uses it not only to lead her party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but also to conduct a large portion of government business. Merkel uses the device so frequently that there was even debate earlier this year over whether her text-messaging activity should be archived as part of executive action.
'That's Just Not Done'
Merkel has often said -- half in earnest, half in jest -- that she operates under the assumption that her phone calls are being monitored. But she apparently had in mind countries like China and Russia, where data protection is not taken very seriously, and not Germany's friends in Washington.
Last Wednesday Merkel placed a strongly worded phone call to US President Barack Obama. Sixty-two percent of Germans approve of her harsh reaction, according to a survey by polling institute YouGov. A quarter think it was too mild. In a gesture of displeasure usually reserved for rogue states, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle summoned the new US ambassador, John Emerson, for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry.
The NSA affair has shaken the certainties of German politics. Even Merkel's CDU, long a loyal friend of Washington, is now openly questioning the trans-Atlantic free trade agreement. At the Chancellery it's now being said that if the US government doesn't take greater pains to clarify the situation, certain conclusions will be drawn and talks over the agreement could potentially be put on hold.
"Spying between friends, that's just not done," said Merkel on Thursday at a European Union summit in Brussels. "Now trust has to be rebuilt." But until recently it sounded as if the government had faith in its ally's intelligence agencies.
In mid-August Merkel's chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, offhandedly described the NSA scandal as over. German authorities offered none of their own findings -- just a dry statement from the NSA leadership saying the agency adhered to all agreements between the countries.
Now it is not just Pofalla who stands disgraced, but Merkel as well. She looks like a head of government who only stands up to Obama when she herself is a target of the US intelligence services. The German website Der Postillon published a satirical version last Thursday of the statement given by Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert: "The chancellor considers it a slap in the face that she has most likely been monitored over the years just like some mangy resident of Germany."
Merkel has nothing to fear domestically from the recent turn of affairs. The election is over, the conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats are already in official negotiations toward forming a new government. No one wants to poison the atmosphere with mutual accusation.
Nevertheless, Merkel must now answer the question of how much she is willing to tolerate from her American allies.
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Irish Times News
Obama under pressure over Merkel phone tap allegations
German magazine claims US has been spying on chancellor’s mobile phone since 2002
Barack Obama standing in front of a window with a view of the
Reichstag during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in
Berlin in 2008. Photograph: Reuters.
The White House was under intense pressure yesterday to reveal the extent to which Barack Obama knew about US surveillance operations targeting the leaders of allied countries.
Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was reportedly spied on since 2002 from a
secret listening post inside the US embassy in Berlin that monitors all
mobile phone, satellite and wireless internet traffic in the German
capital.
Der Spiegel claims the
surveillance took place via a special antennae dubbed “Einstein” and
concealed in a windowless room on the roof of the embassy adjacent to
the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag.
The White House refused to comment on that
report – or others that emerged in Germany, raising questions about how
much Barack Obama knew about the spying operation.
Caitlin
Hayden, the White House national security council spokeswoman, said:
“We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged
intelligence activity.”
‘Special Collection Service’Drawing on information provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the magazine reports that US intelligence operates 80 such listening posts around the world, dubbed “Special Collection Service”.
The
magazine said the posts are operated jointly by the NSA and CIA, the US
foreign intelligence service, in 80 locations worldwide. Two stations
operate in Germany – Berlin and Frankfurt – and, in total, some 19
operate in Europe including Paris, Prague and Madrid. The US embassy in Dublin is not listed as a listening post.
Eavesdropping“The SCS teams work mostly undercover in shielded areas of American embassies and consulates where, officially, they are accredited as diplomats and enjoy the related privileges,” the magazine writes. “From the protection of the embassy they can eavesdrop and look. They just are not allowed to be caught.”
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