Pressure rises in Germany any over Snowden leaks

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff was called before parliament to answer questions about what the government knew about US spying as the opposition Social Democrats stepped up pressure on her.

Less than nine weeks before elections, Dr Merkel's government is weathering a torrent of criticism about how much German intelligence co-operated with the US National Security Agency in mass surveillance of German citizens.

"We are very dissatisfied with the state of clarity," Thomas Oppermann, the Social Democrat who chairs the Parliamentary Control Panel, said on Thursday. "The government has made very contradictory statements."

Meeting behind closed doors, the committee queried Merkel's top aide, Ronald Pofalla, about how much he knew about US-German co-operation, Mr Oppermann said. It was also due to question the head of Germany's BND Federal Intelligence Service, Gerhard Schindler, about a report in Der Spiegel that he pushed for a looser interpretation of German privacy laws.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/pressure-rises-in-germany-over-snowden-leaks-20130725-2qnog.html