News / Germany

Germany spied on 1000s of NATO, EU targets: Bundestag report

Tuesday, 12 July 2016 5:45 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 July 2016 5:53 AM ]

Aerial view taken on May 8, 2015 shows radar domes on the grounds of the German intelligence service BND’s post in Bad Aibling, southern Germany. ©AFP

Germany’s foreign intelligence service spied on hundreds of NATO and European Union diplomatic missions until late 2013, a parliamentary report reveals.

The diplomatic representations of EU and NATO states account for two-thirds of a total of 3,300 targets monitored by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), according to a Bundestag document seen by the DPA news agency.

A “low two-digit number of people,” including heads of state and government as well as ministers, were spied on until October 2013, said the document, which did not clarify when exactly the snooping started.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in several sectors, including the aviation and space industries, as well as the arms trade, transport and media were also among the BND targets.

The report further revealed that the intelligence service has also “unjustifiably” snooped on a German citizen in violation of the law that protects German citizens from being the subject of espionage both at home and abroad.

“The most serious problem is that the BND has knowingly and willingly steered at least one German citizen,” the report said, referring to the surveillance of the unidentified individual.

Last year, Der Spiegel said Germany’s spying missions had targeted interior ministries in Poland, Denmark and Croatia, US diplomatic missions at the EU and UN, the US Treasury Department and Department of the Interior in Washington.

The BND also stands accused of eavesdropping on senior French officials and the European Commission.

In 2013, Edward Snowden, an ex-employee of US National Security Agency, blew the lid off mass surveillance by the agency, including a tap on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone.

The revelations angered Merkel, who said at the time that “spying on friends is not acceptable.”

However, more revelations later said the BND, which is subordinated to Merkel’s office, along with the domestic intelligence service BfV, were helping the NSA in its global espionage missions.

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