Indignation Over U.S. Spying Spreads in Europe

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/world/europe/indignation-over-us-spying-spreads-in-europe.html

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BERLIN — Fury over reports that American intelligence had monitored the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel spread from Germany to much of Europe on Thursday, plunging trans-Atlantic relations to a low and threatening to recast the United States and President Obama from friend and ally to cyberbully.

The subject of American spying dominated a summit meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels. Some European officials suggested stopping or slowing talks aimed at a broad trade agreement with the United States. The German foreign minister summoned the American ambassador in Berlin — a reproach possibly without precedent since the German-American alliance was forged after World War II.

The reports related to Ms. Merkel were only the latest in days of disclosures about the extent of the National Security Agency’s surveillance of American allies. This week they have included revelations of American electronic surveillance in France, and a new report due to be published on Friday by the Italian weekly L’Espresso that American and British intelligence services have monitored and are probably still monitoring Italian telecommunication networks.

Reactions from European leaders, especially Ms. Merkel and other top German officials, indicated that trust between the allies had been shattered, and would have to be rebuilt nearly from the foundations.

“We need the truth now,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany said in English after summoning the American ambassador, John Emerson, on Thursday. Just beforehand, Mr. Westerwelle had noted tartly in German that people who trust each other do not listen in on each other. “Anybody who does it anyway really damages the friendship,” he said.

The reports, which originated with documents that Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, had harvested and shared with the journalist Glenn Greenwald, have coincided uncomfortably with visits by American officials to European capitals, sowing discord amid American diplomacy.

They have also threatened to further color European views of the United States at a time when Mr. Obama has been having trouble asserting a global agenda. The intensifying diplomatic fallout from the situation has hurt America’s bonds with friendly nations from France and Germany to Mexico and Brazil.

At least part of the strong response by European leaders seemed aimed at containing the damage the reports have caused to their own standing at home. In her first statement on the issue, Ms. Merkel told reporters just before the European summit meeting in Brussels that “spying on friends — that just doesn’t work.” Apparently mindful of criticism in Germany accusing her of a lackluster response to earlier disclosures of the large scale of the American surveillance, she insisted that she had always had the interests of citizens, and not herself, in mind.

She said nothing about what exactly had convinced her to place an angry call to Mr. Obama on Wednesday night seeking reassurance that her cellphone was not tapped or monitored. The newsmagazine Der Spiegel, which since June has made several disclosures from documents it received from Mr. Snowden, said that a routine inquiry it placed with the government last week had apparently prompted German security officials to investigate.

Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green Party lawmaker and member of the German Parliament’s security committee, said that what he had heard in a meeting of that committee on Thursday afternoon convinced him that the chancellor’s phone had been monitored. In a telephone interview, he declined to discuss details, but noted that the Americans’ hasty pledge that her phone was not being monitored, and would not be, conspicuously lacked a reference to the past.

Mr. Ströbele and many commentators said Ms. Merkel should have pursued disclosures of American spying in the summer.

The chancellor is often seen in public texting or calling on a cellphone. “It is really revealing that Merkel reacts energetically only now, when she is presumably directly affected,” wrote Ludwig Greven in an online editorial for the weekly Die Zeit. “That should have been her duty when it was a matter of millions of N.S.A. intrusions into the private sphere of German citizens.”

Politicians across the spectrum in Europe were indignant at the apparent violation of trust and some urged at least a temporary halt in negotiations on a new trans-Atlantic deal that would create a trading area of 800 million people and that has been touted as a guarantor of future prosperity.

“For us, a limit has been reached,” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament. Talks could not be conducted, he said, when you suspect that the other side has spied on you in advance to know your position.

Ordinary citizens shared the elected officials’ conclusion that the already tarnished image of the United States had suffered anew because of the spying, which cuts deeply in a country with a Nazi and Communist past. “I have rights guaranteed by our Constitution that are being trampled by the Americans,” said Alexander Müller, 37, a sales manager in Berlin.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy commented in Brussels on Thursday evening on the report in L’Espresso that British and American intelligence agencies had both monitored Italians’ phone calls and e-mails.

“It is inconceivable and unacceptable that there should be acts of espionage of this type,” he said.

<NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>James Kanter contributed reporting from Brussels.