German Prosecutors Investigate U.S. Espionage of Merkel

Seven months after the scandal that has damaged in recent years diplomatic relations between Washington and Berlin, a German court has decided to take action on the matter. The federal prosecutor Harald Range, announced yesterday an investigation into surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel phone by the intelligence services of the United States. The decision came within hours of the German leader and President Barack Obama had met to sit down to dinner together on the occasion of the G-7 summit held in Brussels.

This is the first formal step that Germany has taken since the scandal broke in the activities of the intelligence services of the United States. The summary addresses only tracking of German chancellor. The prosecution had also used the espionage practiced massively million German citizens by the British or U.S. secret services, but these practices are not investigated in the teaser that opens now.

The controversy centered in Berlin yesterday in this double standard when judging activities affecting leaders or ordinary citizens. The Range prosecutor said that there is ” sufficient verifiable evidence” that ” unknown ” agents of U.S. intelligence spied mobile of Chancellor. “Our penal code defines these practices as a crime, whether incurred them a citizen, organization or not entitled Secret Service,” he said in an appearance before the media in Karlsruhe after the closed session in which he participated in the Bundestag. The evidence which the prosecutor speaks not exist, he said, for the millions of German citizens whose messages or calls were inspected. In this case it is mere ” abstract assumptions,” he added.

Berlin, already showed its displeasure on Merkel mobile tracking performed by the National Security Agency, does not care too deeply into a matter that may deteriorate its relations with Washington; especially in a time when the German Chancellor has become a privileged interlocutor both Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Ukrainian crisis.

U.S. officials have made clear their discomfort with findings that could damage relations between the two allies. Ben Rhodes, National Security Advisor to Obama, said that the U.S. believes that direct dialogue is the appropriate way to address the problems between the two countries; and not a judicial inquiry. ” We believe we have an open line and good communication,” Rhodes said aboard the presidential plane headed to Brussels, told the AP.

Merkel spokesman yesterday denied any interference in the German Government ‘s decision independently by the prosecution. Earlier, the Minister of Justice, the Social Heiko Maas, had assured that investigators will have to decide if it is shown that the practices revealed by the Edward Snowden violated the law.

“Spying on people is totally unacceptable,” Merkel said last October. In an unusual gesture that was to heal the wounds, Obama promised last January that, while he is president, Merkel ‘s cell phone will never be spied.

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on Jun 9 2014. Filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.