It started in 2002, Merkel was elected as Chancellor in 2005, that implies they are watching for up and coming politicians (she was CDU leader in 2002). I did f

It started in 2002, Merkel was elected as Chancellor in 2005, that implies they are watching for up and coming politicians (she was CDU leader in 2002). I did find it interesting that the NSA admitted also collecting information from Washington DC in 2008 (an election year), the assurances that this was an accident are sounding more and more hollow, and the implications are frightening for a functioning democracy. This, along with the Airbus, Petrobras and Belgacom revelations, makes it clear that surveillance is not targeting terrorists or part of the war on terror - it is engaged in for economic and political advantage, even against allies. That's quite a serious breach of trust. "President Barack Obama promised Mrs Merkel he knew nothing of the alleged phone monitoring" I can't decide which is more damning, that he know about it, and didn't stop it, or that he knew nothing about it, and the NSA takes it upon themselves to monitor the communications of allied politicians and interfere in other nations. Either way his reputation and his promises are meaningless now. Along with being used by the US, raw intercept information is also shared with other allies of the US like Isreal and the UK, potentially damaging its European allies by giving out secret information to third parties, and I find it hard to believe given the lack of security the Snowden and Manning leaks highlighted, that Russia and China also don't have access to much of this intel through the many private contractors with security clearance. While it is somewhat hypocritical of Merkel to be outraged by this and not by the widespread surveillance of her citizens, I'm pleased that this story has at last triggered such a virulent reaction in European politicians. The best thing she could do now in response is to offer Snowden asylum in Germany, and allow him to speak openly about the US security state - I do believe that would be in the interests of all the citizens of the world, if not of their leaders. The blowback from this affair is just starting to pick up pace - it's already taken US relations with South America to a new low, and is about to do the same in Europe. Hopefully it will lead to meaningful change.