The American spy agency NSA, which was heavily criticized for spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, among other things, continues to monitor 320 influential political and economic figures in Germany, including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, according to a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper today.
“We have been ordered to avoid any loss of information since we no longer have the right to directly monitor the Chancellor’s communications,” a “high-ranking US intelligence official” reportedly told Bild.
According to information from the weekly edition of the newspaper with the largest circulation in Germany, 297 US National Security Agency (NSA) officers are on German soil and their missions include monitoring 320 people, "mainly people who make decisions in the field of politics and economics.".
They include Interior Minister and close ally of the Chancellor, Thomas de Maiziere. “We want to be sure that he is a reliable ally,” the unnamed US official cited by Bild reportedly said.
Bild's revelation comes at the same time as the publication of an interview with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the issue of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which is published tomorrow, in which he appears confident that "the US is not continuing its practices" in terms of surveillance and expresses the hope that Washington "has realized that spying on its allies can have a political price.".
According to him, the espionage case caused a "deep wound" in US relations with Europe.
Source: planet-greece.blogspot.com
