The German Bundestag wants to know who was involved

Mar 21, 2014 14:33 GMT  ·  By

The German parliament will start investigating the surveillance activities of the National Security Agency and the members of the Five Eyes, among which the United Kingdom plays a big role.

The investigation will also cover additional topics such as whether any German officials were aware of the spying practices that were directed at the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The decision was taken on Thursday by the governing coalition, as well as opposition lawmakers. The Bundestag will put together a parliamentary inquiry into the scope of surveillance performed by the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The probe will be launched next month.

“The panel will seek to discover the extent to which government agencies, intelligence agencies or the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology were aware, were involved or took advantage of such practices,” the announcement reads.

ABC News reports that opposition lawmaker Hans-Christian Ströbele went as far as to propose to question Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked the documents that exposed NSA’s mass surveillance practices.

Edward Snowden has already offered his support in national investigations regarding the NSA leaks, although he promised not to reveal more information that has already been covered by the media since he claimed it was not his place to make such a decision about which piece of information was worthy of reaching the public.

He has already made an appearance in front of several countries, as well as the European Union. More investigations are certainly going to take place from here on out.

Data from Snowden’s files have revealed thus far a lot of the National Intelligence Agency’s questionable practices, including some involving Germany.

Back in October, it was reported that the NSA had been monitoring the chancellor’s personal cell phone. Later, it was revealed that Merkel wasn’t the only chancellor that the United States had its eyes on, but also Gerhard Schröder, her predecessor (1998 – 2005).

Another report indicated that the NSA was using its Berlin embassy as a platform to monitor cell phone communications of other high-ranking German politicians. After the spying on Merkel stopped last year following the media reports, her closest allies ended up on the list instead.

Der Spiegel wrote last year that the NSA went through half a billion German phone calls, emails and text messages each month.

Germany demanded immediate answers, but barely got any reaction from the White House or an apology from the National Security Agency.