{"id":41559,"date":"2014-03-31T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=41559"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:35:08","slug":"der-spiegel-nsa-put-merkel-on-list-of-122-targeted-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/03\/der-spiegel-nsa-put-merkel-on-list-of-122-targeted-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Der Spiegel: NSA Put Merkel on List of 122 Targeted Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secret documents newly disclosed by the German newspaper Der Spiegel<\/i> on Saturday [29 Mar 2014]<\/a> shed more light on how aggressively the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have targeted Germany for surveillance.<\/p>\n

A series of classified files from the archive provided to reporters by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also seen by The Intercept<\/i>,\u00a0reveal that the NSA appears to have included Merkel in a surveillance database alongside more than 100 others foreign leaders. The documents also confirm for the first time that, in March 2013, the NSA obtained a top-secret court order against Germany as part of U.S. government efforts to monitor communications related to the country. Meanwhile, the British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters targeted three German companies in a clandestine operation that involved infiltrating the companies\u2019 computer servers and eavesdropping on the communications of their staff.<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel<\/i>, which has already sketched out over several stories the vast extent of American and British targeting of German people and institutions, broke the news<\/a> last October that Merkel\u2019s cellphone calls were being tapped by the NSA\u00a0\u2013 sparking a diplomatic backlash that strained US-Germany relations. Now a new document, dated 2009, indicates that Merkel was targeted in a broader NSA surveillance effort. She appears to have been placed in the NSA\u2019s so-called \u201cTarget Knowledge Base\u201c (TKB), which Der Spiegel<\/i> described as the central agency database of individual targets. An internal NSA description states that employees can use it to analyze \u201ccomplete profiles\u201c of targeted people.<\/p>\n

A classified file demonstrating an NSA search system named Nymrod shows Merkel listed alongside other heads of state. Only 11 names are shown on the document, including Syria\u2019s Bashar al-Assad, Belarus\u2019s Alexander Lukashenko, and Columbia\u2019s Alvaro Uribe \u2013 the list is in alphabetical order by first name\u00a0\u2013 but it indicates that the full list contains 122 names. The NSA uses the Nymrod system to \u201cfind information relating to targets that would otherwise be tough to track down,\u201d according to internal NSA documents. <\/i>Nymrod sifts through secret reports based on intercepted communications as well as full transcripts of faxes, phone calls, and communications collected from computer systems. More than 300 \u201ccites\u201d for Merkel are listed as available in intelligence reports and transcripts for NSA operatives to read.<\/p>\n

\"nsa<\/a><\/p>\n

But the NSA\u2019s surveillance of Germany has extended far beyond its leader. Der Spiegel<\/i> reporters Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark\u00a0\u2013 together with The Intercept<\/i>\u2019s Laura Poitras\u00a0\u2013 described a separate document from the NSA\u2019s Special Source Operations unit, which shows that the Obama administration obtained a top-secret court order specifically permitting it to monitor communications related to Germany. Special Source Operations is the NSA department that manages what the agency describes as its \u201ccorporate partnerships\u201d with major US companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, and Google. The order on Germany was issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on March 7, 2013. The court issues annual certifications to the NSA that authorize the agency to intercept communications related to named countries or groups; it has provided similar authorization, Der Spiegel<\/i> reported, for measures targeting China, Mexico, Japan, Venezuela, Yemen, Brazil, Sudan, Guatemala, Bosnia and Russia.<\/p>\n

The NSA on Friday declined to comment to The Intercept<\/i> about its role in conducting surveillance of Germany and deferred questions to the National Security Council and the Justice Department. The DOJ had not responded at the time of publication. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told The Intercept<\/i> that the Obama administration was \u201cnot monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel.\u201d However, Hayden did not deny that the surveillance had occurred in the past \u2013 and declined to rule out spying on other senior German officials going forward. \u201cWe have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The secret files reveal some specific German targets \u2013 none of whom appear to have been suspected of any wrongdoing. One undated document shows how British GCHQ operatives hacked into the computer servers of the German satellite communications providers Stellar<\/a> and Cetel<\/a>, and also targeted IABG<\/a>, a security contractor and communications equipment provider with close ties to the German government. The document outlines how GCHQ identified these companies\u2019 employees and customers, making lists of emails that identified network engineers and chief executives. It also suggests that IABG\u2019s networks may have been \u201clooked at\u201d by the NSA\u2019s Network Analysis Center.<\/p>\n

The ultimate aim of GCHQ was to obtain information that could help the spies infiltrate \u201cteleport\u201d satellites sold by these companies that send and receive data over the Internet. The document notes that GCHQ hoped to identify \u201caccess chokepoints\u201d as part of a wider effort alongside partner spy agencies to \u201clook at developing possible access opportunities\u201d for surveillance.<\/p>\n

In other words, infiltrating these companies was viewed as a means to an end for the British agents. Their ultimate targets were likely the customers. Cetel\u2019s customers, for instance, include governments that use its communications systems to connect to the Internet in Africa and the Middle East. Stellar provides its communications systems to a diverse range of customers that could potentially be of interest to the spies \u2013 including multinational corporations, international organizations,\u00a0refugee camps, and oil drilling platforms.<\/p>\n

The chief executives of Cetel and Stellar both told Der Spiegel<\/i> they were surprised that their companies had been targeted by GCHQ. Christian Steffen, the Stellar CEO, was himself named on GCHQ\u2019s list of targets. \u201cI am shocked,\u201d he told the newspaper. IABG did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

GCHQ issued a standard response when contacted about its targeting of the German companies, insisting that its work \u201cis carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But German authorities may take a different view on the legalities of the clandestine intrusions. Earlier this month \u2013 prior to the latest revelations \u2013 German Federal Public Prosecutor Harald Range told the newspaper Die Tageszeitung<\/i><\/a> he was already conducting a probe into possible \u201cespionage offenses\u201d related to the targeting of the country. \u201cI am currently reviewing whether reasonable suspicion exists,\u201d Range said, \u201cfor an actionable criminal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

Ryan Gallagher is a Scottish journalist whose work at <\/i>The Intercept<\/em> is focused on government surveillance, technology, and civil liberties. His journalism has appeared in publications including <\/i>Slate<\/em>, the<\/i> Guardian<\/em>, <\/i>Ars Technica<\/em>, <\/i>Huffington Post<\/em>, the <\/i>Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, the <\/i>Financial Times<\/em>, the <\/i>Independent<\/em>, and the <\/i>New Statesman<\/em>. Since 2011, Ryan has broken a series of national and international stories about controversial surveillance technologies, shining a light on spy agencies and uncovering links between Western technology firms and governments in repressive countries. He took home an award for his reporting at the 2013 Information Security Journalism Awards and he has received acclaim for his writing on a diverse range of subjects, encompassing everything from the FBI\u2019s attempted infiltration of WikiLeaks to mass protests in Madrid and homelessness in England. Most recently, Ryan has been reporting from Rio de Janerio on the cache of secret files leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secret documents newly disclosed by the German newspaper Der Spiegel on Saturday [29 Mar 2014] shed more light on how aggressively the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have targeted Germany for surveillance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}