German spy chief defends co-operation with US intelligence

Germany's spy chief on Monday defended his agency's record in co-operating with the American intelligence services in his first public intervention in a widening row over allegations that Germany helped the US spy on European targets.

Gerhard Schindler denied that the BND - Germany's external intelligence service - had acted as "the submissive tool" of the US or had been guilty of "treason" in its dealings with the NSA, the US electronic surveillance network.

"I want to reject the charge of treason with utmost clarity and utmost decisiveness," the BND head told a Berlin security conference, warning that "media's bit-by-bit dissection" of the agency would damage morale and international co-operation.

Germany's spy storm shows no sign of abating, with MPs due to call interior minister Thomas de Maiziere to give evidence before the parliamentary intelligence control committee on Wednesday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who until this week kept silent on the affair, said on Monday that it was clear that spying on allies was "something which should not have happened".

The scandal erupted late last month when German media reported that the BND had aided the NSA in spying on west European targets, including the French presidency, the French foreign ministry and the European Commission. Businesses were also put under surveillance, notably Airbus, the pan-European aerospace group, which has since filed a criminal complaint.

Germany's top public prosecutor has launched a preliminary investigation into the alleged espionage, which media outlets say began in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks in the US, and continued for 10 years.

Spying is particular sensitive in Germany, where many people remember the extent of espionage under Nazi and east German communist rule. The latest scandal echoes the fury that greeted the 2013 allegations by US whistleblower Edward Snowden of American global surveillance, including the tapping of Ms Merkel's mobile phone.

Mr Schindler said that international co-operation was "absolutely indispensable" to the BND, but he insisted that it operated only in Germany's interests. "The BND is therefore no submissive tool of the US."

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Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere is under fire because he ran the chancellery as Ms Merkel's chief of staff during her first term in office, in 2005-9.

He is one of only three cabinet ministers - along with finance minister Wolfgang Schauble and defence minister Ursula von der Leyen - to have been in government with Ms Merkel during her entire time in office.

German media have highlighted a secret BND 2008 report to the chancellery about its international co-operation with the NSA. Linke leaders have claimed this document shows Mr de Maiziere has been lying about the extent his knowledge about spying on European targets.

But Mr de Maiziere has insisted he has done nothing wrong and that the 2008 report did not give details. The report was not about "concrete reliable findings about NSA abuses, but about not deepening a certain form of co-operation with the NSA so as to avoid abuses", he said on Monday.

The chancellery said in a statement when the scandal first broke nearly two weeks ago that it had already been working with the BND to clarify issues "for several weeks".

"In the framework of its official and professional supervision the chancellery identified technical and organisational deficits in the BND. Without delay, the chancellery gave notice that these must be addressed. As before there is no evidence of massive surveillance of German and European citizens," said the statement Steffen Seibert, the chancellor's spokesman.

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