Media report reveals Germany also spied on ‘friends’ and allies

Two years after Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "spying on friends just isn't done", Germany's Der Spiegel reports that German intelligence did just that: spying on friends, partners and allies – even the pope.

The news magazine reported at the weekend that the foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) engaged in systematic, wide-range spying of the US state department, including its travel warning hotline, along with the interior ministries of Poland, Austria, Denmark and Croatia.

In addition it allegedly tapped communications lines of embassies in Germany, US diplomatic missions in Brussels and the UN in New York.

The BND also reportedly eavesdropped on communications of non-governmental organisations including Oxfam, the Red Cross and Care International.

‘Selector list’

On a so-called “selector list” of phone numbers and email addresses to be monitored,

Der Spiegel

discovered communication lines from the Berlin embassies of the US, France, Britain, Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and even the representation of the Holy See.

The magazine pointed out that diplomatic missions are excluded from article 10 of Germany’s postwar constitution, which forbids widespread eavesdropping on domestic communications.

The first indications of the scale of BND spying emerged in documents given in mid-October by the chancellery, which oversees the intelligences services, to a parliamentary inquiry into US spying on Germany. The chancellery insisted the eavesdropping practices ended in 2013.

In July 2013, amid revelations of National Intelligence Agency (NSA) mass-spying by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, a spokesman for the federal interior ministry said Germany did not spy on foreign "partners" and "expected the same" from them.

In October 2013 it emerged that the NSA had intercepted communications of EU representations, German government ministries and even the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the heated days that followed, Dr Merkel said such eavesdropping “just wasn’t done”.

The then interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich flew to Washington, demanding explanations for the practice, but returned empty-handed.

It later emerged that the NSA was not only spying on Germany, but training the BND in electronic eavesdropping. In return, the BND was sharing with the NSA information it collected.