Probing America: Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/nsa-syping-scandal-a-944415.html



Germany and the US appear to be edging closer to political confrontation. The Federal Prosecutor says there is sufficient evidence to open a politically explosive investigation into NSA spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

Probing America: Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation
By SPIEGEL Staff
January 20, 2014 – 05:49 PM

Last Tuesday, on the sidelines of an Social Democrat party caucus in Berlin, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas ran into Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Maas pulled his fellow SPD member aside and warned him about what could become a difficult matter. "Something may be coming our way," Maas whispered, and noted that the foreign minister could be affected as well. Germany's federal prosecutor, Maas intimated, is currently considering opening an investigation into the scandal surrounding the surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone by US intelligence. It's a step that would undoubtedly be considered an affront by the Americans.

Steinmeier listened attentively and nodded several times, but he didn't say much. At the start of his second posting as foreign minister (he previously served for four years from 2005-2009), Steinmeier is facing the extremely tricky problem of new discord in German-American relations.

The current difficulties got their start in October, when SPIEGEL reported that US intelligence services were interested in Merkel's mobile phone. When the magazine published its report, the National Security Agency's curiosity suddenly became an open act of provocation.

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In the close to eight months that have passed since the first reports were published about the National Security Agency's massive spying operations, the only things Germany has been given by the US are well-meaning assurances. Last summer, the German government sent a list of questions about their surveillance programs to the Americans and the British, whose GCHQ intelligence agency has likewise been accused of conducting espionage against European Union member countries. To this day, neither has provided complete answers. Instead, ever more threads are becoming visible in the global spying network. It is also slowly dawning on the Germans that the parameters of a No-Spy Agreement announced by the NSA will never become a reality. German government representatives last week denied media reports claiming that negotiations were close to collapsing. At the same time, hopes are no longer high.