Electronic surveillance

Merkel ‘presumed’ Berlin didn’t spy on allies, she tells investigators of German surveillance

Chancellor Angela Merkel was the last witness questioned by the parliamentary commission investigating US surveillance in Germany and cooperation with local intelligence. She denied knowing the program’s scale when declaring “friends don’t spy on friends.”

The now-infamous statement was given by Merkel in 2013 after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden made public the global program of electronic surveillance conducted by American intelligence. She was speaking after it was revealed that German citizens, and she personally, were subject to this collection of data.

The words came back to haunt her when it was revealed two years later that the German intelligence service BND was closely engaged with America’s NSA to survey on various targets, including allies of Berlin.

At the questioning session on Thursday, Merkel said she was not aware of this in 2013 when she delivered the “friends don’t spy on friends” rebuke to Washington.