Germany reportedly spied on foreign journalists
BERLIN — Germany’s foreign intelligence service apparently spied on the phones, faxes or emails of several foreign news organizations, including The New York Times, the British Broadcasting Corp. and Reuters, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.
Der Spiegel said it saw a list that indicated the German intelligence service, the BND, had monitored at least 50 phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses beginning in 1999.
One number was listed for The New York Times in Afghanistan. Others monitored by the BND included Reuters offices in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, as well as the BBC World Service in London, Der Spiegel reported.
The surveillance targets also included The Daily News of Zimbabwe; unnamed news agencies in Kuwait, Lebanon and India; and journalists’ organizations in Nepal and Indonesia, the article said.
The only journalist identified by name as having been monitored was Arnaud Zajtman, 44, a Belgian journalist who Der Spiegel said had worked for almost 20 years in Africa, including a decade in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The German newsmagazine said it had contacted Zajtman and told him it appeared the BND had noted the telephone numbers of two of his Congolese contacts. Zajtman told Der Spiegel that it was not a good feeling to know “highly sensitive sources” might have been monitored.
Martin Knobbe, one of three reporters who wrote the article, confirmed the newsmagazine had seen the BND list of connections, but said it did not have it in its possession.
The reference to a New York Times connection appeared to be a satellite-phone number that was used around the time of Afghanistan’s first presidential election in 2004, after the U.S.-led coalition entered Afghanistan, Knobbe said in a telephone interview.
He said the BND list mostly contained numbers and addresses that appeared to be several years old. He declined to specify the circumstances under which Der Spiegel viewed the document.
The BND routinely declines to comment on its activities, and Der Spiegel said it had received the standard reply that the intelligence service was obliged to explain its actions only to the German government or relevant bodies of parliament. Der Spiegel noted the activities of the BND had come under scrutiny during a three-year parliamentary investigation of allegations that American intelligence services had conducted mass surveillance outside the United States. Those accusations were initially made by Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Agency contractor, who leaked top-secret documents in 2013 that exposed the extent of the NSA’s classified cybersecurity program.
Those allegations stirred strong reactions in Germany, where citizens remember the state surveillance of the Nazi and Communist years. The controversy reached its height when it was revealed in fall 2013 that the United States had monitored a cellphone used by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel testified before the parliamentary panel for seven hours this month, but no new details emerged about the NSA activity or the BND links to the U.S. services disclosed earlier during the inquiry. The panel is expected to deliver its final report this summer.