The German government had been given information that US
intelligence was spying on the mobile phone communications of Chancellor Angela
Merkel, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
"The chancellor today telephoned President Obama"
and "made clear that she unequivocally disapproves of such practices,
should they be confirmed, and regards them as completely unacceptable,"
the chancellor's spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
Seibert also said Merkel told Obama that, if such
surveillance had taken place, it would represent a "grave breach of
trust" between close allies.
The allegations originally surfaced in the news magazine Der
Spiegel.
Responding to the news in Washington, the White House said
Obama had assured Merkel that US intelligence agencies were not spying on her.
"The US is not monitoring and will not monitor communications
of the chancellor," spokesman Jay Carney said. However, he did not say
whether she had been spied on in the past.
Carney said President Obama was reviewing the way Washington
gathers intelligence "so that we properly balance the security concerns of
our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share."
German and US intelligence agencies cooperate closely on
counter terrorism efforts as well as other matters related to espionage.
However, the issue of data protection is a particularly
sensitive one in Germany, due in part to memories of surveillance and
repression by the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany and the
Gestapo under the Nazi regime.
Recent revelations of alleged US espionage, exposed by leaks
from former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, have
angered some of Washington's closest allies.
The allegations involving Merkel come just days after the
French newspaper Le Monde published an article claiming that Washington had
monitored millions of phone calls inside France.
According to Le Monde's online article published Monday, the
NSA gathered 70.3 million French phone records between December 10, 2012 and
January 8 of this year. The article cited documents obtained from Snowden and
was co-written by Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who originally broke the
NSA story.
Washington has said many of Le Monde's claims were false,
however Obama did speak with French President Francois Hollande in a telephone
call about the claims on Monday.
On Sunday, the Mexican Foreign Ministry demanded answers
from Washington after the publication of a Spiegel article alleging the US
surveillance program had been spying on Mexico for years.
"This practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and
contrary to Mexican law and international law," a statement issued by the
Mexican Foreign Ministry said.
Last month, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a
meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington in protest of alleged
surveillance on Brazilian citizens and companies.
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