German foreign minister urges quick clarification of reports on U.S. spying

Later, the chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that Altmaier had stressed to the ambassador that German law must be respected – even by United States officials.

“The government has already strengthened its anti-espionage operations since a year ago”, Mr. Seibert, the government spokesman, said, “and feels itself validated by the latest disclosures”.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that WikiLeaks’ revelation is likely to rekindle concerns in Germany that the NSA was engaged in widespread surveillance of its close ally.

Partly in collaboration with British secret services, the NSA reportedly targeted 69 phone numbers of the German government and showed particular interest in activities of the ministries of finance, economy and agriculture.

The chancellery proposed that the investigator be allowed to inspect the list of targets, including the IP addresses of individual computers, and report back to the committee. The target selectors also include Werner Muller, German Federal Minister for Economics 1998-2002; Barbara Hendricks, ex- Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Finance and current Federal Minister for the Environment; and Ida-Maria Aschenbrenner, Head of Office of Minister of Finance Theo Waigel from 1989 to 1998.

Some numbers are still active after the ministers quit office.

Since Gerhard Schröder was chancellor, it has become evident that German intelligence has grown dependent on U.S. spy agencies.

However, Germany’s top public prosecutor last month closed a year-long investigation into the suspected tapping of Merkel’s cell phone by USA spies, saying evidence that would stand up in court was lacking.

“We’re not going to comment on specific intelligence allegations or the voracity of leaked documents”, he said.

The U.S, however, denied spying on the German chancellor.

Merkel, who polls show is enormously popular in Germany, has faced fervent criticism from the opposition for failing to hold Obama’s feet to the fire for a full reckoning and a formal U.S. pledge to exempt Germany from espionage.

Sensburg told reporters at the parliament Thursday that the telephones of German government members were likely tapped directly by the NSA, outside the scope of the BND-NSA cooperation.

The latest scandal also drew criticism from the lawmakers of Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc CDU/CSU and its coalition partner Social Democratic Party.