Deutsche Welle, 23 October 2013
Chancellor Angela Merkel has telephoned US President Barack Obama over allegations that her cellphone has been monitored. Recent revelations of alleged US espionage have angered some of Washington’s closest allies.
The German government had been given information that US intelligence was spying on the mobile phone communications of Chancellor Angela Merkel, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has telephoned US President Barack Obama over allegations that her cellphone has been monitored. Recent revelations of alleged US espionage have angered some of Washington’s closest allies.
The German government had been given information that US intelligence was spying on the mobile phone communications of Chancellor Angela Merkel, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
"The
chancellor today telephoned President Obama" and "made clear that she
unequivocally disapproves of such practices, should they be confirmed, and
regards them as completely unacceptable," the chancellor's spokesman
Steffen Seibert said.
Seibert
also said Merkel told Obama that, if such surveillance had taken place, it
would represent a "grave breach of trust" between close allies.
The
allegations originally surfaced in the news magazine Der Spiegel.
Responding
to the news in Washington, the White House said Obama had assured Merkel that
US intelligence agencies were not spying on her.
"The
US is not monitoring and will not monitor communications of the
chancellor," spokesman Jay Carney said. However, he did not say whether
she had been spied on in the past.
Carney said
President Obama was reviewing the way Washington gathers intelligence "so
that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies with
the privacy concerns that all people share."
German and
US intelligence agencies cooperate closely on counter terrorism efforts as well
as other matters related to espionage.
However,
the issue of data protection is a particularly sensitive one in Germany, due in
part to memories of surveillance and repression by the Stasi secret police in
the former East Germany and the Gestapo under the Nazi regime.
NSA
revelations continue
Recent
revelations of alleged US espionage, exposed by leaks from former National
Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, have angered some of
Washington's closest allies.
The
allegations involving Merkel come just days after the French newspaper Le Monde
published an article claiming that Washington had monitored millions of phone
calls inside France.
According
to Le Monde's online article published Monday, the NSA gathered 70.3 million
French phone records between December 10, 2012 and January 8 of this year. The
article cited documents obtained from Snowden and was co-written by Guardian
journalist Glenn Greenwald, who originally broke the NSA story.
Washington
has said many of Le Monde's claims were false, however Obama did speak with
French President Francois Hollande in a telephone call about the claims on
Monday.
On Sunday,
the Mexican Foreign Ministry demanded answers from Washington after the
publication of a Spiegel article alleging the US surveillance program had been
spying on Mexico for years.
"This
practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and contrary to Mexican law and
international law," a statement issued by the Mexican Foreign Ministry
said.
Last month,
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a meeting with President Barack
Obama in Washington in protest of alleged surveillance on Brazilian citizens
and companies.
hc/rc (Reuters, AFP,dpa)
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