German intelligence service BND in the last eight years spying on American agencies, writes the magazine Der Spiegel, citing documents were in his possession.
According to the publication, over the period 1998 to 2006 was formulated about 4 thousand reconnaissance missions against targets in the United States.
In particular, there have been tracking phone and Fax numbers and email accounts owned by American companies such as Lockheed Martin, the Agency is NASA, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, universities in several US States and military facilities such as U.S. air force, marine Corps and Intelligence Agency U.S. Department of defense.
In addition, agents of the BND have access to data more than 100 foreign embassies in Washington, as well as organizations such as the international monetary Fund and the Washington office of the League of Arab States.
It remains unclear how extensive was the data obtained by the Germans, as well as what they contained. But, as the magazine notes, helps to explain why the German government maintained restraint when first came revelations about the American NSA spying against Germany. “People either knew, or probably knew, that their own service was equally unprincipled in the surveillance of its closest partners,” — says the publication.
In October of 2013 as a result of the revelations of the former employee of U.S. intelligence Edward Snowden it became known that the NSA and the CIA worked in Germany and, in particular, bugged the phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In the summer of 2014 in Germany were opened two American spy, one of whom served in the BND, and the second in Ministry of defence. Against this background, Merkel said that the United States is unlikely to ever be able to abandon the surveillance of Germany. She also questioned the prospects of partnership cooperation between Berlin and Washington.
In April 2015, it was reported that before 2013 the BND without the knowledge of the Chancellor of the NSA provided secret information on the activities of diplomatic missions of European countries. According to Der Spiegel, the BND has met 40 percent of the NSA, contrary to the national interests of Germany and the European Union.