U.S. says relationship with Germany remains strong despite spy reports

Neither Range’s office nor the National Security Council immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment.

The recent documents uncovering NSA spying on Germany and France have prompted outrage in Europe and created major headaches for the Obama administration.

The whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, released new documents Wednesday about NSA’s alleged mass surveillance activities, which included a top secret report on the wiretapped telephone conversations between Merkel and her aide in 2011 on the Greek economic crisis. Emerson, to the Prime Ministry, to convey Berlin’s protest.

Mr. Altmaier “made clear that compliance with German law is indispensable and that confirmed violations will be prosecuted”, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

Last month, German Chief Prosecutor Harald Range said that there was insufficient evidence of criminal activity that would hold up in a German court and that the government’s inquiry would end. And this spring, Germany’s own foreign intelligence agency has been forced to respond to allegations that it helped the NSA snoop on European allies.

He wouldn’t disclose details of the American ambassador’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff.

The cooperation agreement, signed between the two agencies in 2002, was aimed at surveillance of conflict regions, such as Afghanistan and Somalia, from the Bad Aibling station, located in southern Germany.

“Merkel’s fear was that Athens would be unable to overcome its problems even with an additional haircut, since it would not be able to handle the remaining debt”, said a summary of the phone call, forwarded by the USA to its “Five-Eyes” intelligence co-operation partners: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“We must investigate whether this is still ongoing, and we must proceed on the assumption that other countries are doing the same thing”, Patrick Sensburg, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, said in an interview on broadcaster ARD’s Morgenmagazin talkshow.

In the conversation Merkel also stressses the urgency of enacting the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) and of putting pressure on the United States and British governments to bring it about.

Two years ago reports came out that the Chancellor’s mobile phone was being monitored, causing diplomatic tension between Berlin and Washington. The list includes fax numbers, showing that the agency targeted the now-outdated communications technology.