14 DAY TRIAL // The German intelligence isn’t as oblivious to what the NSA had been doing, despite previous beliefs, says Edward Snowden.
The NSA whistleblower claims that the two agencies are “in bed together,” while also lodging fresh allegations against the British, Der Spiegel reports.
In an interview that will be published in full later this week, Edward Snowden indicates that the ties between the US and German intelligence services are tighter than what the country’s officials are trying to make everyone believe.
Many politicians and citizens in Germany have already become upset over reports of the United States’ espionage activities. And while the German politician and government figures that have already taken the stage are demanding answers from the US, Edward Snowden says they knew all along.
And the statement from Snowden wasn’t made in the past week, after news about the NSA spying on foreign embassies and EU officials, but rather a few weeks ago, before Snowden become a target for the American authorities.
The NSA whistleblower says that the agency he worked for even has a special department for international cooperation dubbed the Foreign Affairs Directorate. Furthermore, he says that the government decision-makers are protected by these programs.
According to Snowden, the partnerships are organized in a way that the political leaders of the countries NSA works with can be insulated if the truth comes out.
The NSA had also been cooperating with the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on a deeper level than what was previously thought.
Snowden says that the NSA provides “analysis tools” for the BND which helps them monitor signals from foreign data streams that travel through Germany.
This ability was also mentioned in one of the first slides published from the NSA documents, where employees were advised to use two types of collection methods – Upstream, which collects data while the information flows through and PRISM.