By SPIEGEL Staff
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.
When the United States moved into the massive embassy building in 2008,
it threw a huge party. Over 4,500 guests were invited. Former President
George H. W. Bush cut the red-white-and-blue ribbon. Chancellor
Angela Merkel
offered warm words for the occasion. Since then, when the US ambassador
receives high-ranking visitors, they often take a stroll out to the
roof terrace, which offers a breathtaking view of the Reichstag and
Tiergarten park. Even the Chancellery can be glimpsed. This is the
political heart of the republic, where billion-euro budgets are
negotiated, laws are formulated and soldiers are sent to war. It's an
ideal location for diplomats -- and for spies.
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.
Read More Here
..........
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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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.
