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BERLIN
—The U.S. ambassador to Germany was summoned to a meeting in Berlin
Thursday following allegations that the U.S. had tapped the phone of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
BERLIN
—The U.S. ambassador to Germany was summoned to a meeting in Berlin
Thursday following allegations that the U.S. had tapped the phone of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The ambassador John Emerson is to meet with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle later Thursday, after Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the chancellor had spoken Wednesday evening with President Obama via telephone. He said that if the allegations were found to be true it would be "completely unacceptable."
"Among close friends and partners, as Germany and the U.S. have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of government communications," he said. "This would be a serious breach of trust. Such practices must be stopped immediately."
He added that high level talks with representatives of the White House and the U.S. State Department had already taken place in Berlin to clarify the facts but that talks would be ongoing.
Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has been one of Washington's closest allies in Europe. The United States was West Germany's protector during the Cold War and the country is still home to thousands of U.S. troops.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Merkel's phone is not currently being tapped and would not be in the future but didn't comment on the allegations that it had previously been.
Whitehouse spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that "the president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring, and will not monitor, the communications of the chancellor."
Emerson will be the second U.S. ambassador ordered to report to officials of a major EU country this week as a result of the ongoing fallout over the NSA files leaked by government contractor Edward Snowden.
Charles H. Rivkin was summoned to meet with French officials after a major French newspaper reported that the National Security Agency had collected tens of millions of communications from French citizens, and had spied on diplomats.
On Wednesday, European lawmakers called for the suspension of an agreement that grants U.S. authorities access to bank data for terror-related investigations, a sharp rebuke of Washington's surveillance programs.
Leaders of the European Union's 28 countries meet in Brussels later Thursday for a long-planned summit.
Contributing: Associated Press
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The ambassador John Emerson is to meet with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle later Thursday, after Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the chancellor had spoken Wednesday evening with President Obama via telephone. He said that if the allegations were found to be true it would be "completely unacceptable."
"Among close friends and partners, as Germany and the U.S. have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of government communications," he said. "This would be a serious breach of trust. Such practices must be stopped immediately."
He added that high level talks with representatives of the White House and the U.S. State Department had already taken place in Berlin to clarify the facts but that talks would be ongoing.
Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has been one of Washington's closest allies in Europe. The United States was West Germany's protector during the Cold War and the country is still home to thousands of U.S. troops.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Merkel's phone is not currently being tapped and would not be in the future but didn't comment on the allegations that it had previously been.
Whitehouse spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that "the president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring, and will not monitor, the communications of the chancellor."
Emerson will be the second U.S. ambassador ordered to report to officials of a major EU country this week as a result of the ongoing fallout over the NSA files leaked by government contractor Edward Snowden.
Charles H. Rivkin was summoned to meet with French officials after a major French newspaper reported that the National Security Agency had collected tens of millions of communications from French citizens, and had spied on diplomats.
On Wednesday, European lawmakers called for the suspension of an agreement that grants U.S. authorities access to bank data for terror-related investigations, a sharp rebuke of Washington's surveillance programs.
Leaders of the European Union's 28 countries meet in Brussels later Thursday for a long-planned summit.
Contributing: Associated Press
end quote from:
