Obama Assures Merkel U.S. Not Monitoring Her Communications
President Barack Obama has assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel the United States is not monitoring her communications, but the White House did not deny reports U.S. spies eavesdropped on her cellphone in the past.
"The President assured the Chancellor the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the Chancellor," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.
Carney was then asked whether U.S. spy agencies had picked up Merkel's communications inadvertently, but repeated the linguistic formulation of his earlier answer.
The tenses used by Carney did not rule out reports that the United States eavesdropped on Merkel's cellphone calls in the past, as reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Wednesday.
The latest embarrassing revelations of activity by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) threatened the trust and close cooperation between Obama and Merkel.
Merkel's spokesman said earlier Wednesday that the German government has received information that U.S. intelligence is spying on the mobile phone communications of Merkel.
"The chancellor today telephoned President Obama" and "made clear that she unequivocally disapproves of such practices, should they be confirmed, and regards them as completely unacceptable," spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
Berlin had demanded "an immediate and comprehensive explanation" from Washington.
"Among close friends and partners, as the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S. have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of the communications of a head of government," the statement added, indirectly citing Merkel's comments to Obama.
"This would be a serious breach of trust."
"Such practices must be prevented immediately," the German chancellor told Obama, the statement said.
The U.S. president considers the newly reelected German leader as one of his closest allies and friends on the world stage and has frequently spoken of his respect for her.
Source: Agence France Presse
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