U.S. now bugging German ministers in place of Merkel: report

[n2doc]

Source: Reuters

The National Security Agency (NSA) has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday.

Revelations last year about mass U.S. surveillance in Germany, in particular of Merkel's mobile phone, shocked Germans and sparked the most serious dispute between the transatlantic allies in a decade.

Bild am Sonntag said its information stemmed from a high-ranking NSA employee in Germany and that those being spied on included Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel.

"We have had the order not to miss out on any information now that we are no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communication directly," it quoted the NSA employee as saying.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/23/us-germany-usa-spying-idUSBREA1M0IK20140223

[2naSalit]

1. appears to be

AN ADDICTION. Just can't help themselves. Is being a sociopath qualified as addictive behavior?

[bemildred]

2. I sure hope this is not true.

i still see only one source for it.

[quadrature]

3. cell phones are bugged.

what about that,
is so hard for Germans to understand?

[SoapBox]

4. Ehhhh....

Something seems really weird about this story...lots missing about dates and this "high ranking" NSA person IN Germany...really?

Sounds like another breathless dramatic story.

[bemildred]

5. It is one source hearsay at the moment. nt

[George II]

6. How do we know it's true? Even the government of Germany is skeptical.

From the "article":

A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry said it would not comment on the "allegations of unnamed individuals".

[Kelvin Mace]

7. If memory servces

Der Spiegel had an article this week that stated German counter-intelligence would now go after U.S. spies the same way they go after Russian, Chinese or any other hostile spy agencies.

Given the NSA and CIA penchant for assassination, I wonder how they will react to a dose of their own medicine?

[George II]

8. NSA penchant for assassination?

[cprise]

13. You're not aware they're also mercenaries? n/t

[Cryptoad]

9. do da, do da.....do da ,,,,,,,

[jsr]

10. There is nothing against bugging her husband either

[blkmusclmachine]

11. "Nothing is beyond our reach" ~>

What has a shadowy US government spy agency just shot into space? Top-secret group that boasts 'nothing is beyond our reach' blasts classified rocket into orbit

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2519703/Top-secret-government-spy-satellite-launched-space-sinister-cartoon-octopus-logo-boast-Nothing-Is-Beyond-Our-Reach.html#ixzz2uCSsS943

[George II]

14. Guess it wasn't so "top secret", was it?

[struggle4progress]

12. ... Bild has been described as "notorious for its mix of gossip, inflammatory language, and

sensationalism" and as having a huge influence on German politicians. Its nearest English-language stylistic and journalistic equivalent is often considered to be the British national newspaper The Sun, the second highest selling European tabloid newspaper, with which it shares a degree of rivalry. According to Der Spiegel, Bild is a newspaper that flies just under the nonsense threshold of American and British tabloids ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild