SurveillanceU.S. refuses a bilateral no-spy agreement with Germany

The United States has refused to enter into a bilateral no-spy agreement with Germany, and has refused to rule out eavesdropping on calls of German political leaders in the immediate future, according to reports in the German press.

The Guardian reports that last October there was outrage in Germany over revelations that the NSA had been monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. Washington apologized, and there were reports that President Barack Obama had assured Merkel that the United States “is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of chancellor Merkel.”

It now appears that hopes in Germany that the United States would agree to a bilateral non-spying pact — similar to agreements between the United States and Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — have been dashed, according to information obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“We are not getting anything,” the newspaper quotes a source from within the German foreign intelligence agency. “The Americans have lied to us,” said another source.

SZ also reports that in addition to refusing to inform German authorities about the start date of the NSA’s bugging of the German chancellor’s mobile phone, the United States has declined to comment on plans for current or future surveillance activities involving German politicians.

The German government has told the Obama administration it would consider such a “nest of spies” a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

In August 2013 In August 2013, the German government answered said there had already been a verbal agreement and that a pact had been suggested by the United States. Officials who spoke with the Guardian said the German government is still hoping for an agreement with the United States in the next few months.