Obama 'Aware Of Merkel Tapping Since 2010'

A German newspaper has claimed Barack Obama knew three years ago that his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel - contradicting reports that he had told his counterpart he did not know.

Bild am Sonntag claimed the US President allowed US intelligence to continue listening to Mrs Merkel's calls, after being briefed on the operation by the National Security Agency in 2010.

It also alleged that Mr Obama personally authorised the monitoring of Mrs Merkel's mobile phone.

Germany received information last week that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged Mrs Merkel's phone, prompting Berlin to summon the US ambassador - a move unprecedented in post-war relations between the close allies.

The NSA denied that Mr Obama had been informed about the operation by the NSA chief in 2010, as reported by the newspaper, but the agency did not comment on whether Mr Obama knew about the bugging of Mrs Merkel's phone.

Both the White House and the German government declined comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the NSA ended the programme that involved Mrs Merkel after the operation was uncovered in an Obama administration review that began this summer.

The programme also involved as many as 35 other world leaders, some of whom were still being monitored, according to the WSJ report, which was attributed to US officials.

Activists in Washington DC staged a weekend protest over the NSA's tactics

Citing a source in Mrs Merkel's office, some German media have reported that Mr Obama apologised to the Chancellor when she called him on Wednesday, and told her that he would have stopped the bugging happening had he known about it.

But Bild am Sonntag, citing a "US intelligence worker involved in the NSA operation against Merkel", said NSA chief General Keith Alexander informed Mr Obama in person about it in 2010.

"Obama didn't stop the operation back then but let it continue," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

The NSA said, however, that Gen Alexander had never discussed any intelligence operations involving Mrs Merkel with Mr Obama.

"(General) Alexander did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel", NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement.

"News reports claiming otherwise are not true."

On Sunday, another German media publication, Der Spiegel magazine, claimed the US may have bugged Mrs Merkel's phone for more than 10 years.

It said the Chancellor's mobile had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service since 2002 and was still on the list weeks before Mr Obama visited Berlin in June.

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