Germany Opens Inquiry into Claims NSA Tapped Angela Merkel's Phone

THE GUARDIAN: Unexpected inquiry, announced by federal prosecutor, will determine if US actively listened in to calls

Germany's federal prosecutor has defied public expectations by opening an investigation into the alleged tapping of Angela Merkel's mobile phone by the US's National Security Agency (NSA).

Federal prosecutor Harald Range announced on Wednesday: "I informed parliament's legal affairs committee that I have started a preliminary investigation over tapping of a mobile phone of the chancellor."

Merkel had complained to Barack Obama in person about the alleged tapping of her phone last October, but the federal court's investigation, which will be against unnamed persons, would constitute the first formal response to the affair. The German government has reportedly announced its support for the investigation.

The Karlsruhe-based court's decision comes as a surprise, not least since it appeared that both the German and the US governments had over recent months successfully calmed the waves stirred up by the revelations. » | Philip Oltermann in Berlin | Wednesdat, June 04, 2014

Germany Presses for 'Complete Information' on U.S. Spying Allegations

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Germany’s interior minister is pressing for “complete information” from Washington on the alleged U.S. surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone and any other snooping.

Merkel complained to President Barack Obama on Wednesday after receiving information her phone may have been monitored. German spy chiefs plan to travel to Washington for talks.

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich was quoted Sunday as telling newspaper Bild am Sonntag he wants “complete information on all accusations” and that “if the Americans intercepted cellphones in Germany, they broke German law on German soil.” He added wiretapping is a crime and “those responsible must be held accountable.”

News magazine Der Spiegel, whose research prompted the government’s response, reported that a document apparently from an NSA database indicates Merkel’s cellphone was first listed as a target in 2002.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry lands in Rome and Paris to talk about Mideast issues but is confronted by outrage over U.S. spying abroad. President Barack Obama has defended surveillance activities to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany. » | The Associated Press | Washington | Sunday, October 27, 2013

Barack Obama 'Approved Tapping Angela Merkel's Phone 3 Years Ago'

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama was told about monitoring of German Chancellor in 2010 and allowed it to continue, says German newspaper

President Barack Obama was personally informed about secret US monitoring of Angela Merkel three years ago, according to latest reports on the eavesdropping affair.

The President allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to continue spying on the German chancellor, it was claimed.

Mr Obama was told of the secret monitoring of Mrs Merkel by General Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA, in 2010, according to Bild am Sonntag, a German newspaper.

“Obama did not stop the action at that time but allowed it to continue,” a US intelligence source close to the NSA operation told the Sunday newspaper.

The White House later commissioned an extensive NSA dossier about Mrs Merkel, according to Bild. » | Louise Barnett, Berlin and Philip Sherwell, New York | Sunday, October 27, 2013

My comment:

Obama's presidency is falling apart. He has p***** off so many of his friends and allies in a matter of weeks: France, Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Brazil. He is leading America down a road that will both impoverish the country and destroy its reputation in the world. I see that respectable German newspapers are already talking of a post-American era. Obama talked so much of "hope and change" before his first election victory. What he should have talked of is 'despair and destruction'. Americans beware: It takes a long time to build a wonderful nation, but it can be destroyed in short order. – © Mark

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