Angela Merkel has said she expects the US not to break German laws in data collection. A newspaper has reported that Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service knew about the US National Security Agency’s snooping for years.

The online espionage activities of the National Security Agency have firmly established themselves as an election talking point in Germany.

"I expect a clear commitment from the US government that they will adhere to German law in the future when on German soil," Merkel said, adding that she did not yet know whether German laws were breached by the NSA or other bodies in the past. "We are friends and allies. We are in a defense alliance and we need to be able to rely on each other."


Ends versus means
The Christian Democrat said that while cooperative efforts to combat terrorism were important and would continue, boundaries should be defined, preferably on an international scale.
"Not everything that is technically feasible - and more and more will be in the future - should be allowed," Merkel said. "The ends don't justify the means here, in our view."

The chancellor added that she would sound out EU leaders on a continental data protection standard agreed by all, saying strong German data protection laws could do nothing to help people using websites based abroad.
"We have a truly excellent federal data protection law, but if Facebook is registered in Ireland, then Irish law applies, and that's why we need a unified European directive," Merkel said. The chancellor also said that, so far as she was aware, her communications had not been tapped.



Asleep at the wheel?
Opposition politicians have sought to pounce on the government's reaction to the NSA spying allegations, claiming that German authorities must have known about the activities and arguing that the government's response was too soft once Snowden went public.

"Mrs. Merkel has sworn as chancellor to protect the German people from harm," Social Democrat challenger Peer Steinbrück said in an interview with the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag, calling for a parliamentary probe into possible dereliction of duty. "I envisage damage limitation as something rather different."

"Whoever is at the wheel carries the responsibility, regardless of whether they're awake or have dozed off," Steinbrück surmised.

Steinbrück's colleague, SPD secretary general Andrea Nahles, said Merkel's Sunday interview offered only "trivialities."

Meanwhile the daily newspaper Bild reported Monday that Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service has known about NSA snooping for years. Bild reported that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) had, for example, asked US intelligence services for help when German citizens were kidnapped abroad.

"We know of a long cooperation between the German intelligence service and US agencies," an official quoted by the newspaper said. "The government has not made the details of this cooperation public, except for to a parliamentary committee."

Election countdown

September 22: Germany votes
41% - CDU poll rating
5 % - pro-business Free Democrats (CDU allied)

If the elections were today "Frau" Merkel could not form a government. 

 Sorce: msh, mkg/av (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire for defending the surveillance of telecommunications as a way to prevent terrorist attacks. This comes ahead of a visit to the United States by her interior minister.

The chairman of the opposition Social Democrats, (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel used an interview published by Spiegel Online on Thursday to accuse Chancellor Merkel of being passive in light of revelations about the alleged activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Germany.

The SPD leader also accused the chancellor of trying to pass the buck on the issue to her chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, when she noted that he was responsible for issues relating to intelligence services.

"The scale of this scandal is so large that nobody other than the chancellor personally needs to ensure that basic rights are protected in Germany," Gabriel said.

The co-leader of the opposition Greens, Claudia Roth, struck a similar tone.

"The chancellor alone is responsible for this government," Roth told the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper.

Merkel denies Stasi parallel

The statements followed comments the chancellor made in an interview published in this week's edition of Die Zeit newspaper, in which she rejected the suggestion that there were parallels between the alleged activities of the NSA and those of the former East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.

"For me, there is absolutely no comparison between the [Stasi] and the work of intelligence agencies in democratic states," Merkel said. "They are two completely different things and such comparisons only lead to a trivialization of what the Stasi did to people."

She also highlighted the need for governments to protect their citizens, saying "a country without intelligence work would be too vulnerable."

At the same time though, Merkel called on the United States to clear up allegations about American surveillance activities made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Her comments came just hours before her interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, was to fly to Washington for meetings to discuss the issue.

In an interview with Spiegel Online, Friedrich said he would use his talks with US Attorney General Eric Holder to express not only Germany's concerns but also how seriously Berlin is taking the issue.

"Between friends one must be able to speak openly," Friedrich said. "This includes the fact that for us, the comprehensive surveillance of the contents of all communications is in no way proportionate," he added.

Snowden, who was also once an employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency, has been on the run from the US authorities since he leaked details of a wide-reaching surveillance program, known as Prism. The 30-year-old American has spent more than two weeks in the transit area of one of Moscow's international airports.

His revelations have stirred up controversy in Germany in particular, due to sensitivities about data protection, in part related to memories of repression by East Germany's Stasi and the Gestapo under the Nazis. This comes just weeks ahead of the next federal election, to be held on September 22.

pfd/ccp (dpa, AFP, AP)