Germany Summons U.S. Ambassador Over NSA Allegations

BERLIN—Germany’s foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador as the fallout from whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations intensified.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government on Monday demanded clarity from the U.S. over allegations that the National Security Agency spied on European Union institutions, saying that if true they would constitute an unacceptable breach of trust between the close partners.

Germany Summons U.S. Ambassador Over NSA Allegations

Seeking clarification on the matter, the foreign ministry has called the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, for a meeting later Monday, a spokesman for the ministry said.
Chancellor Merkel will seek to speak to President Barack Obama “soon” about the allegations, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
German weekly magazine Der Spiegel magazine reported over the weekend that the U.S. placed listening devices in EU offices in Washington, D.C., infiltrated computers there and electronically spied on EU bodies elsewhere. It cited secret documents obtained by former NSA contractor Mr. Snowden as the basis for its report.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Sunday that the U.S. is responding to the EU privately about the allegations. The office’s statement didn’t address specific allegations but said, “We have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations.”
But Mr. Seibert said at a news conference Monday that the report had caused “astonishment” in Berlin. “We’re not in the Cold War anymore,” he said, adding that spying on friends is “not on.”
The German government is also talking to its European partners about the spying scandal, Mr. Seibert told journalists.
The spying allegations come at the start of trade negotiations between the U.S. and the EU. Despite the scandal, the German government still wants to pursue the planned free trade agreement, according to Mr. Seibert, “but on the basis of trust.”