Pressure Mounts on Merkel to Explain German Role in N.S.A. Espionage

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/world/europe/germany-angela-merkel-us-nsa-espionage.html

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BERLIN — Tensions between Germany and the United States over intelligence cooperation intensified on Wednesday, amid a domestic controversy swirling around Chancellor Angela Merkel and her allies over the scope and oversight of Germany’s role in European spying.

German politicians accused the United States of breaking a 2002 accord on sharing intelligence by pushing to expand its boundaries. Such moves, some said, jeopardize broader trans-Atlantic projects like a trade pact now under negotiation.

The agreement is a cornerstone of security arrangements put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which were plotted partly in Germany. But it is coming under strain after two weeks of controversy over whether the German foreign intelligence service, known as the B.N.D., spied on firms and individuals in Germany and Europe at the behest of the National Security Agency.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her chief of staff from 2005 to 2009, denied accusations from opposition politicians and some members of the news media that he and other members of the government broke German law by failing to supervise the intelligence agencies or ask tough questions about what the United States seeks from Germany.

In 2008, he said, instead of allowing the N.S.A. broader access to information gathered by the German B.N.D., he blocked it, citing fears of a “problematic cooperation” that would have violated German law. The government then unanimously rejected such a move, he said.

The German public has been fiercely suspicious of American programs, especially since the summer of 2013, when Edward J. Snowden, a former contractor for the N.S.A., revealed the extent to which American intelligence had amassed data on Europeans, including the chancellor’s mobile phone number.

Ms. Merkel and other members of her conservative bloc have argued that the intelligence agreement is vital to protecting Germany’s 80 million or so citizens against Islamic terrorism and other threats. They have continued to defend the trans-Atlantic cooperation since the latest controversy erupted.

But even conservatives have begun to express their weariness over what they characterize as repeated American attempts to use intelligence cooperation to spy on European institutions or firms in a way they say jeopardizes joint projects.

Elmar Brok, a 35-year veteran of the European Parliament and one of Ms. Merkel’s fellow Christian Democrats, on Wednesday cited the trans-Atlantic trade pact now under negotiation as one project that could fail as a result of the frayed relations.

“I am not the anti-American,” Mr. Brok said in a telephone interview. But the current feud is “a further blow for all those who want closer relations with America.”

He blamed both the N.S.A. for continually seeking to snoop on European institutions and “the stupid German intelligence services, which always notice everything too late.”

Asked why the Germans failed to spot American violations of the pact, he suggested that too many Germans working in the B.N.D. had “a blind loyalty” to their trans-Atlantic partners.

The head of the parliamentary committee responsible for monitoring Germany’s intelligence agencies, André Hahn, a member of the opposition Left party, accused the N.S.A. of “permanently” breaching the 2002 agreement with the B.N.D.

“The Americans repeatedly followed their own interests,” Mr. Hahn said. “Time and again they circumvented the agreement.”

He insisted that Ms. Merkel and Mr. de Maizière should have confronted Washington about the breaching of the agreement when it became known that the United States was involved in electronic spying in the country.

The exact nature of the breach remains unclear, clouded by Germany’s strict privacy rules and the secretive nature of intelligence gathering.

Also not clear is the extent to which the controversy is being stoked by center-leftists who perceive Ms. Merkel as politically vulnerable since the controversy began.