‘German secret service used European data collected by NSA’

The German secret service BND is said not only to have helped the NSA to wiretap European targets, but also to have analyzed the collected data itself. This further embarrasses the German government.

Earlier this week it was announced that the Bundesnachrichtendienst has helped the American secret service NSA to spy on European politicians and companies such as arms manufacturer EADS. According to the German Bild, however, this went further than just providing assistance: the BND would also have analyzed the data collected by the Americans itself. They would have done so to take advantage of the knowledge gained.

Following Bild not only retrieves metadata, but also complete phone calls, emails, audio and text files. The findings come from a committee investigating the BND’s practices. However, that information has not yet been made public: according to the German magazine, that will be done at a later stage. According to Zeit Online, which reported on the case earlier this week, the NSA and BND wanted to monitor about 800,000 targets with their spy program. According to Bild, however, it went beyond European targets, but also involved espionage in conflict zones, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The disclosure of Bild puts further pressure on the German government. After the earlier revelations, there was a lot of criticism. Among other things, it was demanded that the espionage program with the NSA be stopped immediately. That call will likely only increase with the most recent revelations. The BND is accused, among other things, of not having properly informed the regulators about the cooperation with the NSA.