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Angela Merkel demanded an explanation from Barack Obama,
saying tapping her mobile was ‘completely unacceptable’. Photograph: Yves
Herman/Reuters Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Telemóvel de Merkel esteve sob escuta?Chanceler ligou a Obama a pedir explicações
A chanceler alemã Angela Merkel telefonou a Barack
Obama para obter explicações de viva voz: os Estados Unidos têm mantido o seu
telemóvel sob escuta? "O Presidente garantiu que os Estados Unidos não estão a
monitorizar nem vão monitorizar as comunicações" da chanceler, assegurou o
porta-voz da Casa Branca, Jay Carney.
A informação de que o telemóvel de Merkel é alvo da curiosidade dos espiões
americanos chegou ao conhecimento do Governo alemão por causa de uma
investigação da Spiegel, diz a revista no seu site. Depois de
examinada pelo do Serviço de Informação Federal e pelo Secretariado Federal de
Segurança para as Tecnologias de Informação, os dados foram considerados
suficientemente preocupantes pela chancelaria alemã para que Merkel telefonasse
a Obama. "A confirmarem-se, estas práticas são completamente inaceitáveis",
disse o porta-voz da chanceler, Steffen Seibert. "Representariam uma grave
quebra de confiança e devem ser imediatamente paradas.""Os EUA estão a examinar a forma como obtemos informações", adiantou Jay Carney", afirmando que Obama e Merkel concordaram que é preciso "intensificar a cooperação entre os serviços de informação, para melhor proteger os dois países." |
Merkel's call to Obama: are you bugging my phone?
Germany sees credible
evidence of US monitoring of chancellor as NSA surveillance row intensifies
Ian Traynor in Brussels, Philip Oltermann in Berlin, and
Paul Lewis in Washington
theguardian.com, Wednesday 23 October 2013 / http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/23/us-monitored-angela-merkel-german
The furore over the scale of American mass surveillance
revealed by Edward Snowden shifted to an incendiary new level on Wednesday
evening when Angela Merkel of Germany called Barack Obama to demand
explanations over reports that the US National Security Agency was monitoring her
mobile phone.
Merkel was said by informed sources in Germany to be
"livid" over the reports and convinced, on the basis of a German
intelligence investigation, that the reports were utterly substantiated.
The German news weekly, Der Spiegel, reported an
investigation by German intelligence, prompted by research from the magazine,
that produced plausible information that Merkel's mobile was targeted by the US
eavesdropping agency. The German chancellor found the evidence substantial
enough to call the White House and demand clarification.
The outrage in Berlin came days after President François
Hollande of France also called the White House to confront Obama with reports
that the NSA was targeting the private phone calls and text messages of
millions of French people.
While European leaders have generally been keen to play down
the impact of the whistleblowing disclosures in recent months, events in the
EU's two biggest countries this week threatened an upward spiral of lack of
trust in transatlantic relations.
Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, made plain that Merkel
upbraided Obama unusually sharply and also voiced exasperation at the slowness
of the Americans to respond to detailed questions on the NSA scandal since the
Snowden revelations first appeared in the Guardian in June.
Merkel told Obama that "she unmistakably disapproves of
and views as completely unacceptable such practices, if the indications are
authenticated," Seifert said. "This would be a serious breach of
confidence. Such practices have to be halted immediately."
The sharpness of the German complaint direct to an American
president strongly suggested that Berlin had no doubt about the grounds for
protest. Seibert voiced irritation that the Germans had waited for months for
proper answers from Washington to Berlin on the NSA operations.
Merkel told Obama she expected the Americans "to supply
information over the possible scale of such eavesdropping practices against
Germany and reply to questions that the federal government asked months
ago", Seibert said.
The White House responded that Merkel's mobile is not being
tapped. "The president assured the chancellor that the United States is
not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor,"
said a statement from Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.
But Berlin promptly signalled that the rebuttal referred to
the present and the future and did not deny that Merkel's communications had
been monitored in the past.
Asked by the Guardian if the US had monitored the German
chancellor's phone in the past, a top White House official declined to deny
that it had.
Caitlin Hayden, the White House's National Security Council
spokeswoman, said: "The United States is not monitoring and will not
monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel. Beyond that, I'm not in a
position to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence
activity."
Obama and Merkel, the White House said, "agreed to
intensify further the co-operation between our intelligence services with the
goal of protecting the security of both countries and of our partners, as well
as protecting the privacy of our citizens."
The explosive new row came on the eve of an EU summit in
Brussels opening on Thursday afternoon. Following reports by Le Monde this week
about the huge scale of US surveillance of France, Hollande insisted that the
issue be raised at a summit which, by coincidence, is largely devoted to the
"digital" economy in Europe. Hollande also phoned Obama to protest
and insist on a full explanation, but received only the stock US response that
the Americans were examining their intelligence practices and seeking to
balance security and privacy imperatives, according to the Elysee Palace.
The French demand for a summit debate had gained little
traction in Europe. On Wednesday morning, briefing privately on the business of
the summit, senior German officials made minimal mention of the surveillance
scandal. But by Wednesday evening that had shifted radically. The Germans
publicly insisted that the activities of the US intelligence services in Europe
be put on a new legal basis.
"The [German] federal government, as a close ally and
partner of the USA, expects in the future a clear contractual basis for the
activity of the services and their cooperation," Merkel told Obama.
In 2009, it was reported that Merkel had fitted her phone
with an encryption chip to stop it being bugged. As many as 5,250 other
ministers, advisers and important civil servants were supplied with similar
state-of-the-art encryption technology. Merkel is known to be a keen mobile
user and has been nicknamed "die Handy-Kanzlerin" ("Handy"
being the German word for mobile phone).
When asked how he had communicated with Merkel during an EU
summit in Brussels in 2008, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy said:
"We call each other's mobiles and write text messages."
Katrin Goring-Eckhart, parliamentary leader of the Greens,
said: "If these allegations turn out to be true, we are dealing with an
incredible scandal and an unprecedented breach of trust between the two
countries, for which there can be no justification."
On social media, a number of Germans mocked Merkel's change
of tone over the NSA affair, given her previous reluctance to talk about the
controversy. Jens König, a reporter for the news weekly Stern, tweeted that it
was "the first time that Merkel is showing some proper passion during the
NSA affair".
The European Commission has thrown its weight behind new
European Parliament proposals for rules governing the transfer of data from
Europe to America and demanded that the forthcoming summit finalise the new
regime by next spring.
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