14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the United States promised to stop listening in on Angela Merkel’s phone, the NSA has shifted focus on government officials.
According to a report from German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the NSA hasn’t given up its spying practices targeting German politicians. In fact, it has added more people to its lists.
In the past months, since the NSA scandal broke out, the relationship between the United States and Germany has been tense due to reports that Angela Merkel, the country’s Chancellor, was spied upon. While the White House assured the German officials that the operations stopped, the NSA has sought other solutions.
Bild am Sonntag is quoting a top NSA employee in Germany as saying that they were given the order not to miss out on any information now that the chancellor’s communications could not be monitored directly.
The 297 employees that the NSA has stationed in Germany are apparently surveying 320 key individuals, most of which are either politicians or businessmen.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is at the top of the NSA’s list, it seems, since he’s a close aide of Angela Merkel.
Germany has taken a clear stance against the NSA mass surveillance in the past months and has accused the United States of using its surveillance powers beyond the obvious need of protecting national security. Surely, spying on business people can only serve to gain a commercial advantage for American companies.
It was recently revealed that the Australian intelligence agency had been spying on Indonesia’s preparations for a trade deal with the United States, sharing the info with the NSA. This operation, as in the case of the NSA spying on Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, has been dubbed economic espionage.