New claims emerged last night over the extent that US intelligence agencies have been monitoring the mobile phone of Angela Merkel. The allegations were made after German secret service officials were already preparing to travel to Washington to seek explanations into the alleged surveillance of its chancellor.
A report in Der Spiegelsaid Merkel's mobile number had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 and may have been monitored for more than 10 years. It was still on the list – marked as "GE Chancellor Merkel" – weeks before President Barack Obama visited Berlin in June.
In an SCS document cited by the magazine, the agency said it had a "not legally registered spying branch" in the US embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to "grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government".
From there, NSA and CIA staff were tapping communication in Berlin's government district with high-tech surveillance. Quoting a secret document from 2010, Der Spiegel said such branches existed in about 80 locations around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Rome, Prague, Geneva and Frankfurt. Merkel's spokesman and the White House declined to comment on the report.
The nature of the monitoring of Merkel's mobile phone is not clear from the files,Der Spiegelsaid. It might be that the chancellor's conversations were recorded, or that her contacts were simply assessed.
Ahead of the latest claims , the German government's deputy spokesman, Georg Streiter, said a high-level delegation was heading to the White House and National Security Agency to "push forward" investigations into earlier surveillance allegations.
Meanwhile several thousand people marched to the US Capitol in Washington yesterday to protest against the NSA's spying programme and to demand a limit to the surveillance. Some of them held banners in support of Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor who revealed the extent of the NSA's activities.
The march attracted protesters from both ends of the political spectrum as liberal privacy advocates walked alongside members of the conservative Tea Party movement.
The delegation will include senior officials from the German secret service, according to German media reports.
Germany and Brazil are spearheading efforts at the UN to protect the privacy of electronic communications. Diplomats from the two countries, which have both been targeted by the NSA, are leading efforts by a coalition of nations to draft a UN general assembly resolution calling for the right to privacy on the internet. Although non-binding, the resolution would be one of the strongest condemnations of US snooping to date.
"This resolution will probably have enormous support in the GA [general assembly] since no one likes the NSA spying on them," a western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, had previously cancelled a state visit to Washington over the revelation that the NSA was scooping up large amounts of Brazilian communications data, including from the state-run oil company Petrobras. The drafting of the UN resolution was confirmed by the country's foreign ministry.
The Associated Press quoted a diplomat who said the language of the resolution would not be "offensive" to any nation, particularly the US. He added that it would expand the right to privacy guaranteed by the international covenant on civil and political rights, which went into force in 1976.
The draft would be sent next week to the general assembly subcommittee on social, humanitarian, cultural and human rights issues, and be put to the full general assembly in late November.
Germany and France demanded on Thursday that the Americans agree to new transatlantic rules on intelligence and security service behaviour by the end of the year. Merkel added that she wanted action from Obama, not just apologetic words.
British and US civil liberties groups on Saturday added their voices to the criticism of snooping by both UK and US intelligence services after the Guardian revealed that the British intelligence agency GCHQ repeatedly said it feared a "damaging public debate" on the scale of its own activities.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, and Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a joint statement, saying: "The Guardian's publication of information from Edward Snowden has uncovered a breach of trust by the US and UK governments on the grandest scale. The newspaper's principled and selective revelations demonstrate our rulers' contempt for personal rights, freedoms and the rule of law.
"Across the globe, these disclosures continue to raise fundamental questions about the lack of effective legal protection against the interception of all our communications. Yet in Britain that conversation is in danger of being lost beneath self-serving spin and scaremongering, with journalists who dare to question the secret state accused of aiding the enemy.
"A balance must of course be struck between security and transparency, but that cannot be achieved while the intelligence services and their political masters seek to avoid any scrutiny of, or debate about, their actions."
"The Guardian's decision to expose the extent to which our privacy is being violated should be applauded and not condemned."
Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said the fact GCHQ had doubts about the legality of its surveillance "reinforces the public interest in the disclosures about what has taken place in America and closer to home
"Parliament never legislated to allow the scale of interception that has been exposed, with laws written long before widespread broadband internet access or Facebook existed. There is a clear and overwhelming need for a fundamental review of our legal framework."
"If companies are handing over customer data or access to their equipment when there is no legal authority, then those businesses may well have broken the law. This should be urgently investigated by the information commissioner."
Defending the NSA's actions, the US administration has insisted that it is necessary to intercept vast amounts of electronic data to effectively fight terrorism, but the White House has said it is examining countries' concerns as part of an ongoing review of how the US gathers intelligence.
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有资讯爆料说，美国情报部门一直在对德国总理默克尔的私人电话进行监控。而在此之前，德国情报官员已准备前往华盛顿就总理电话监听事件寻求解释。
《明镜周刊》的一篇文章指出自从2002年以来，默克尔的电话已出现在美国国家安全局的特殊收集服务部门清单之上，并且可能已被监听超过10年。在美国总统奥巴马六月份出访柏林的数星期之前，默克尔的电话仍被清单之上并且被标记上“德国总理默克尔”。
这本杂志刊登了一份来自特殊情报搜集部的文件，文件指出美国驻柏林大使馆存在着“一个违法注册的间谍部门”。《明镜》的揭露，很可能使“美国政府与其他各国政府间的关系跌落冰点”。
那时起，美国国家安全局和中央情报局的职员在柏林政府所在区域设置高科技的监听设备。《明镜》2010年收集到一份秘密文件，文件透露了全世界范围内存在着80所类似的监听部门，包括巴黎，马德里，罗马，布拉格，日内瓦和法兰克福市。默克尔的发言人和白宫拒绝对此发言。
《明镜》指出，目前从文件内容看还不太清楚监听默克尔电话的真实目的。可能是监听总理对话也或许仅仅是估测总理的接触范围。
在最新丑闻曝露之前，德国政府的副发言人乔治•斯特莱特尔表示，有高层部门组成的代表团已前往白宫和美国国家安全局“督促”其尽早调查并早日公布结果。
同时，几千人昨日在华盛顿国家大楼前游行，行动旨在反对国家安全局的间谍组织并且要求降低监听次数。他们中的部分人高举旗帜，表示对前任中央情报局合作人爱德华•斯诺登的支持，因为此前他透露了国家安全局许多行动。
这次游行吸引了来自不同政治范围的反对者，而这种情景正如自由独立拥护者跟随茶党运动般一样。
根据德国媒体报道，这次代表团包括德国秘密服务部门的高级官员。
德国和巴西正在带头尝试向联合国申诉以获取电子通讯的私人性。作为美国国家安全局的目标，两国外交官通过两个间的合作正在努力向联合国常任理事国寻求办法，试图呼吁国际范围内的隐私权。尽管没有约束性，但是此决心却是对美国目前的监听案最有力的谴责之一。
“此项提议将会得到常任理事国绝大部分的支持，没有人喜欢美国国家安全局窃听他们，”一位匿名的西方外交官告诉路透社。就在美国国家安全局挖掘出巴西，包括国企巴西石油公司大量的交流资料之前，巴西总统迪尔玛•罗塞夫已经取消了前往华盛顿的拜访。
美联社引用了一位外交官所说的，指出此主意的提出没有“侵犯”任何一个国家，尤其是美国。他又说到，这会使得隐私权的范围增大并且就人权和政治权利而言，会有国际公约的保证。此权力在1976年已开始生效。
这项手稿将会在下周送至常任理事国下属处理社会，人道主义，文化和人权问题的协会。在11月份末会在全体大会上呈现。
德国与法国希望美国到年底同意新大西洋彼岸的规定，内容关于情报和安全服务行为。默克尔希望奥巴马总统能够真的采取行动，而不仅仅是道歉话。
英国、美国的公民自由组织谴责两国情报组织的窃听行为。此活动发生在《卫报》透露英国情报组织-国家通信情报局一直重复说它因其自身活动的规模而害怕引起致命的公众讨论之后。
名为自由的组织首领查克•拉巴蒂和美国国内自由联合会总裁罗梅罗发表联合声明，表示：“《卫报》从爱德华•斯诺登得到并已发布的消息揭露了美国、英国政府对于大规模民众缺乏信任。报社有原则，有选择性地选取事件，对此说明了我们的统治者对于人权、自由和法律效力存在轻视现象。”
“纵观全球，这些丑闻持续性地引起我们对于基本问题的思考，对于窃听我们的交流，生活中缺少有效的法律保护。但是在英国，与记者谈话可能处于窃听状态。那些记者为帮助敌人询问国家机密要问，因此被逮捕。不得不说这些都是因为他们自私自利。”
“当然，在安全性和透明度之间必须存在平衡点，但是这个目标不能通过情报服务或者尝试政治家试图躲避自身监视这个方法而实现。”
“对于《卫报》决心大规模地报道我们隐私性正在被侵犯这种行为，我们应该鼓掌而不是谴责。”
英国维权组织“老大哥观察”董事尼克-佩克勒斯说道，国家通信情报局对于自身监听的合法性存在怀疑，因为他们认为“这引起了公众对于公开性披露事件的兴趣，因为这些事件发生在美国和本国近邻。”
“在因特网或者脸书上大肆传播之前，国会从未认为如此大规模的窃听事件合法，也就是没有明文规定。对于法律框架，很明显我们有必要进行一次基本的回顾。”
“如果公司没有法律允许但却转交顾客信息或者接近其设备时，这些商家很可能触犯法律。这就需要信息专员紧急调查。”
为了表示对国家安全局的支持，美国当局坚持为了打击恐怖主义，窃听数目庞大的电子数据很是必要，但是白宫已经表示作为长期回顾美国如何收集情报的一部分，这是在调查国家担忧的问题。
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