Reports: German Secret Service 'Spied on' Hillary, Kerry
Saturday, 16 Aug 2014 07:55 AM
The Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) daily and regional public broadcasters NDR and WDR said Friday that documents passed to the CIA by one of its moles inside German intelligence show it eavesdropped on Clinton while she was on a US government plane.
A German government source told the three outlets that the intercept happened by accident, and only once.
John Kerry, Clinton's successor, was also subjected to the electronic spying, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday. The magazine said German intelligence agency BND intercepted a satellite phone conversation Kerry made in 2013 .
Berlin and Washington have been at loggerheads over alleged US snooping, with the head of the CIA in Germany expelled last month as revelations of double agents and the bugging of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone soured relations between the allies.
The reports did not reveal when the eavesdropped Clinton conversation took place, but they said Kerry may have brought the matter up with his German opposite number, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Der Spiegel said the Clinton incident involved a conversation she had with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2012.
According to the Friday reports, the Clinton intercept was "not an isolated case," with the German government apparently giving permission for "spying on a NATO partner," although it was unclear which of its allies was the target.
Der Spiegel says the calls were collected accidentally and the three officials weren't directly targeted.
The magazine also cites a confidential 2009 BND document listing NATO member Turkey as a target for German intelligence gathering.
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