German foreign intelligence service BND allegedly allowed the US National Security Agency to use its monitoring station in southern Bavaria.
These revelations come after reports that the BND also spied on European companies such as defence companies EADS and Eurocopter and that the Chancellor’s office was aware of the situation since at least 2008.
Thursday’s revelations are likely to be the most damaging on a diplomatic level, in so far as they affect relations with one of the Federal Republic’s most vital allies.
In Paris, a French foreign ministry spokesman said, “We are in close contact with our German partners, who have publicly said they would proceed with an internal clarification on these elements reported by the press”.
According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, spying on companies could only have taken place in isolated cases as the United States searched for “information on illegal exports”.
“The core of the issue is the political espionage of our European neighbours and of the EU institutions, ” a German official is quoted as saying by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“I stand by my responsibility and want very much to help clarify the entire matter, ” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement.De Maiziere was Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff between 2005 and 2009, a role that includes oversight of the BND.
However, the opposition has already accused the government of lying for saying in writing April 14th that it knew nothing about any economic espionage by the NSA. But he told reporters that the entire government “always informs Parliament to the best of its knowledge and in good faith”.
In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, blew the whistle on the NSA, suggesting Washington had been conducting massive Internet and phone data spying on “friendly countries and their leaders, ” including Germany.
In an ironic twist, the scale of German-US intelligence cooperation came to light because the Bundestag’s intelligence committee has been investigating claims that the NSA had wiretapped Merkel’s mobile phone.
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