NSA Reportedly Spying on Hundreds of German Political and Business Leaders

The German newspaper Bild
am Sonntag is reporting that the U.S. has increased its
surveillance of German business and political leaders. The news
comes a month after President Obama
assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that America’s spying
activities would not harm the U.S.-Germany relationship.

From
Agence France Presse:

Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that 320 political and business
leaders in Germany were being monitored by the US National Security
Agency (NSA), including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

“We have the order not to allow any loss of information
whatsoever after the communication of the chancellor no longer
being able to be directly monitored,” Bild quoted an unnamed
high-ranking US intelligence employee in Germany as saying.

US-German ties soured amid revelations leaked by former CIA
contractor Edward Snowden that US intelligence agencies had
allegedly eavesdropped on Merkel and collected vast amounts of
online data and telephone records from average citizens.

The news is not going to help repair the U.S.-Germany
relationship, which a foreign policy spokesman for Merkel said last
month
was worse than it was during the most recent U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq.

More from Reason.com on the NSA and Germany here and here.