Germany spied on Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA companies, French minister

The latest report, by Berlin public radio, adds to the list of targets the BND has allegedly spied on, citing the BND’s “selectors” – phone numbers, email and IP addresses – for surveillance which has been handed over to a parliamentary oversight panel.

The BND’s work is being investigated by lawmakers concerned the agency may have overstepped its legal boundaries.

German diplomats are trained to take precautions against spying, but “do not expect to be spied on by the BND”, Martin Schaefer, a foreign ministry spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

The BND is prohibited from spying on German citizens by the country’s constitution.

Mr Haber was head of the European Union observer mission to Georgia and then a senior diplomat in Brussels at the time of the alleged surveillance.

The allegations are particularly awkward for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose office oversees the country’s intelligence operations.

Surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany, because of Germany’s history of domestic surveillance under Nazi and East German Communist rule.

RBB Inforadio did not identify any sources for its claims, and German officials declined to comment on the report.

Other BND targets have included France’s Laurent Fabius and individuals at the global Criminal Court in the Hague, the World Health Organisation, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and firms in the United States, rbb – which stands for Radio Berlin-Brandenburg – reported. The Bundestag committee was set up to probe the spying scandal, including eavesdropping on millions of Germans by various foreign intelligence agencies.

Last month, Justice Minister Heiko Maas called for tighter controls on the BND after reports that its spies had targeted embassies of allied countries without the government’s express permission.

The relationship between the USA and Germany’s intelligence agencies further deteriorated in April 2014 after Snowden documents revealed that NSA spying on Germany was more aggressive than at first believed.