Germany's ruling partner urges gov't to disclose U.S. spy list

The debate over the BND-NSA spy scandal is intensifying in the German coalition government, with members of ruling partner SPD calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel to disclose a list containing U.S. spy targets in Europe, German media reported on Saturday.

SPD Secretary-General Yasmin Fahimi told Tagesspiegel newspaper that the German government doesn't have to "beg Washington for permission" to release the list, warning it not to ignore the rights of the Bundestag, lower house of German parliament.

It was revealed that Germany's Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) had conducted surveillance against European interests via the so-called "selectors" provided by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

German parliamentary investigators asked the government to provide a draft of the U.S. spy list containing those selectors. But the government has not yet decided whether or not to grant the Bundestag access to the list.

Thomas Oppermann, parliamentary group leader of the SPD, also called on access to the selectors list.

"The list is important for checking whether there have been any unauthorised spy attempts," he told the newspaper Rheinische Post, adding that Merkel's office should make appropriate proposals as to how this checking could be done.

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

On basis of the "selectors" , the BND had allegedly spied on not only suspected extremists and criminals, but also European companies and government leaders as well as EU institutions. Endit