The U.S. National Security Agency tapped phone calls involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her closest advisers for years and spied on the staff of her predecessors, according to WikiLeaks.
A report released by the group suggested NSA spying on Merkel and her staff had gone on far longer and more widely than previously realized. WikiLeaks said the NSA targeted for long-term surveillance 125 phone numbers of top German officials.
The release risks renewing tensions between Germany and the United States a month after they sought to put a row over spying behind them, with U.S. President Barack Obama declaring in Bavaria that the two nations were “inseparable allies”.
A German government spokesman said on Thursday Berlin was looking into the latest report and reiterated that such events strained German and American intelligence cooperation.
The United States repeated its position that it did not undertake foreign intelligence unless there was “a specific and validated national security purpose.”
State Department Spokesman John Kirby said in an email :
This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike. Germany is a close friend and partner on a range of issues, and we look forward to continuing and deepening this important relationship
Friends and associates of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have denied he is the source of the latest WikiLeaks revelations, suggesting that they likely came from a different and still unidentified leaker deep inside U.S. intelligence.
