Germany targets European interests for surveillance on behalf of NSA: media

Germany's Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) has targeted European interests for surveillance on behalf of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for years, a German media report revealed on Thursday.

According to the report in Spiegel Online, the U.S. spy agency has sent the BND large numbers of so-called "selectors" -- internet IP addresses, mobile phone numbers and other identifying information -- which were simply plugged into the BND's own monitoring systems.

BND employees, said the report, had noticed several times since 2008 that some of those personal details contradicted the rules on how the agency is supposed to work, and are not covered by the German-U.S. counter-terrorism cooperation agreement negotiated in 2002.

The NSA reportedly was looking specifically for information on arms manufacturer EADS, helicopter supplier Eurocopter and French authorities. But this was not seen by the BND as a reason to systematically check the lists of selectors.

It was only after leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden over the NSA's surveillance scandal in the summer of 2013 that the BND began checking in detail.

A fresh check showed that 40,000 of the selectors supplied by the NSA were targeted at Western European and German targets, the report further revealed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, to which the BND is directly responsible, was not informed about the spying on European interests until March this year.

The latest revelation has prompted Germany's opposition politicians to call for an end to the German-U.S. intelligence collaboration.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Thursday in a statement that the BND had been asked to "thoroughly clarify this complex matter" and to "correct its technical and organizational shortcomings."

Seibert also noted that there was no evidence of "massive eavesdropping against German and European citizens." Endit