Merkel had secret briefing from UK spies
German chancellor was visiting a British prime minister at his country home, but also there were the heads of top intelligence services.
Angela Merkel sought secret intelligence on terrorist threats to Germany from British spy chiefs above the heads of her own security services on at least two occasions, according to reports.
The German chancellor personally swapped a dossier on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the situation in Crimea with the head of MI6 at Chequers in exchange for information about terrorist activity on the Continent, the German magazine Focus claimed yesterday.
Merkel’s apparent regard for UK intelligence has angered some in her own Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Focus added, especially as she allegedly handed over a file of its reports as a thank you for the British data. Merkel’s office did not comment on the reports nor the claim that she passed over BND material without its knowledge.
‘‘In the past 12 years Merkel has not come to one weekly briefing with the heads of the German security authorities for her government,’’ an unnamed government official told the magazine. ‘‘Why does she travel to England – does she not trust her own people any more?’’
Merkel was reportedly interested in information gathered by GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping centre, possibly using methods which are prohibited in Germany.
The latest of her two meetings with British intelligence chiefs occurred in October 2015, at the prime minister’s countryside retreat in Buckinghamshire.
Among those present were David Cameron and the three most senior British spies: Andrew Parker of MI5, Alex Younger of MI6 and Robert Hannigan, director of GCHQ.
Sources with knowledge of the meeting said that the presentations given by Britain’s security services were the highlight of Merkel’s visit.
Such a meeting would be regarded with suspicion by many in Germany given the role of GCHQ in assisting the US National Security Agency to gather data in Germany, as revealed by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. This has become part of a Bundestag inquiry which has strained relations between Berlin and London after GCHQ allegedly declined to assist German MPs. Relations were also said to be frosty over fears that secret information can leak too easily in Germany.
The decision to give Merkel a full briefing came at a time when Cameron was attempting to convince her to help him keep the UK inside the European Union. The pair also discussed his demands to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership at the meeting.
Unlike the UK, Germany is not a member of the ‘‘five eyes’’ intelligence-sharing community, which also includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.