New media report suggests Obama knew NSA spied on Merkel

There are new questions over how much President Obama knew about US spying on Angela Merkel. A newspaper report says that the US leader has been aware of NSA eavesdropping on the German chancellor since 2010.

On Saturday, Spiegel magazine reported that the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) had listed Merkel's mobile telephone since 2002, beginning under the George W. Bush administration, and that it had remained on the list weeks before Obama visited Berlin in June.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Obama had told Merkel during a phone conversation on Wednesday that he had not known of the bugging. However, a report in Bild am Sonntag published Sunday cites an unnamed NSA official who said that the US leader instead ordered the program be escalated.

The newspaper reports that Obama knew that the NSA had been spying on Merkel's mobile phone since at least 2010, when NSA chief Keith Alexander personally informed him of the operation.

Messages, calls accessed

In addition to her party mobile phone, the NSA also listened in on an allegedly secure phone that Merkel received during the summer, according to Bild am Sonntag. Only a special, secure landline phone in her office was reportedly not accessible.

The NSA's findings, including the contents of SMS messages and phone calls, were reported directly to the White House and evidence indicates the operation continued until the "immediate past", according to Bild am Sonntag.

Bild am Sonntag also reported that the NSA eavesdropped on Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, after then-President George W. Bush launched a spying program in 2002. The newspaper suggested a key reason for the operation was Schröder's refusal to support the Iraq War, and it was simply extended after Merkel took office in 2005.

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http://www.dw.de/new-media-report-suggests-obama-knew-nsa-spied-on-merkel/a-17185662