‘German secret service BND assisted NSA with large-scale espionage in Europe’

The German Bundesnachrichtendienst is said to have extensively assisted the NSA for years in spying on European politicians and companies without informing the governments concerned. German politicians demand an immediate end to this cooperation.

The German secret service BND is said to have received more than 40,000 so-called selectors from the NSA for at least ten years, consisting of mobile numbers and IP addresses, among other things, Zeit Online reports. The NSA would like to use this information to target about 800,000 targets. According to the German magazine, the targets included Western European and German politicians, while information about Eurocopter, arms manufacturer EADS and French politicians was also given to the American secret service.

When carrying out the wiretapping orders from the NSA, the BND is said to have repeatedly found that certain selectors violated the legal frameworks within which the secret service is allowed to operate, but lower BND employees did not raise the alarm. It was only after the initial Snowden revelations that the BND would have taken a closer look at the selectors nominated by the NSA. In addition, the German secret service is said to have failed to inform the government and regulators about the controversial cooperation program. Several politicians are now demanding that the cooperation program with the NSA be stopped immediately. There is also a considerable chance that the boss of the BND will have to leave the field.