US surveillance or Merkel’s phone prompts angry German reaction

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org
News of an invasive intelligence-gathering operation by the United States, which allegedly targeted the official communications of German chancellor Angela Merkel, has prompted angry responses from the European Union. The news prompted the French government to request that US surveillance of European heads of state be discussed during an upcoming EU summit, while The New York Times warned yesterday that “invasive American intelligence gathering” against Europe could “severely damage […] decades of hard-won trans-Atlantic trust”. The latest row between Washington and Brussels was sparked by a report aired on ARD, Germany’s state television station. It said that the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s foremost communications interception agency, had monitored the official cellular telephone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A spokesperson for the German government told journalists yesterday that the German leader had “angrily” called US President Barack Obama and demanded assurances that her communications were “not the target of an American intelligence tap”. The German leader reportedly told Mr. Obama that there should be “no such surveillance of the communications of a head of government” belonging to a “friend and partner of the US”. The Times reported that Washington’s responded by assuring Chancellor Merkel that her communications were “not the target of current surveillance and would not be in the future”. But the White House is said to have refused to enter into a discussion of past interception activities. Mrs. Merkel’s telephone call was the second time in less than two days that Mr. Obama had to provide assurances of privacy to a European head of state. On Tuesday, the US President received a call from French President François Hollande, following reports that the NSA had spied on 70 million telephone calls in France between December 2012 and January 2013. Last month, Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff, cancelled an official state visit to the US after it emerged that the NSA had accessed her communications. On Wednesday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a statement disputing the accuracy of reports that the NSA had targeted communications in France. But Brussels described US communications surveillance in Europe as “completely unacceptable” and called on US officials to explain the range and scope of American surveillance on European soil.