Angela Merkel Hits Back In US Phone Tap Row

Angela Merkel says spying between friends is "not done" as the US refuses to say whether it bugged the German leader's phone.

德国媒体在一项调查中发现，美国安全机构很可能监听德国总理电话多年。默克尔因此致电奥巴马表示抗议，要求其对这一事件作出彻底解释。明确表示盟国之间这样的监控行为“完全不可接受”，是对互信的严重践踏。

德国外交部长韦斯特韦勒在柏林召见了美国驻德国大使埃默森，就美国安全机构可能对德国总理默克尔手机通话实施监听一事进行交涉。

白宫方面说，奥巴马告诉默克尔，美国情报部门并没有监听她的通讯，白宫发言人卡尼说“美国没有也不会监听德国总理的通讯”。当记者询问白宫发言人卡尼，美国情报机关之前是否意外监听到默克尔的通讯，卡尼只是重述稍早的答案，没有回答记者的问题。

美国国家安全局(NSA)一位发言人在回答《镜报》的闻讯时称，“美国总统向默克尔总理保证，美国政府绝对不会监督她的通讯交流系统，将来也不会这么做”。该发言人没有回答美国过去是否这么做过的问题。

自从前安全机构工作人员斯诺登公开了一批“窃听档案”之后，NSA针对盟国的一系列窃听事件随之曝光，德国作为受害者首当其冲，而法国也在日前公布，该国在一月之内有7000万通讯往来被NSA窃听。欧盟在布鲁塞尔以及纽约办公室的通讯往来也未能幸免。

28 world leaders gathered anywhere, the digital army follows. Journalists advisers security detail, logged in, and charged upl But could new technology had provided a key hole through which the private conversation of Angela Merkel were recorded by America?

"Spying among friends does not work at all. This is what I said in June when he was in Berlin, in July, also yesterday on the phone. And this is in the interest of German citizens. This is not about me specifically, but about all citizens. And we need to trust among partners. And this trust need to be restored now."

The French leader's also angry. Millions of phone calls and text messages allegedly intercepted there. Both leaders called President Obama and sought an explanation from American diplomats. The global spats now focused on Brussels.

That's because one of the key items on the agenda of this summit was data protection. Safeguard in European citizens from invasion of privacy in the digital age. But what they probably had in mind was cyber criminals, not key allies.

Attempts by the US government to calm the growing roar achieved the opposite when the administration spokesman refuse to deny it had happened:"The president assured the Chancellor in the United States is not monitoring, and will not monitor the communications of the Chancellor."

For Angela Merkel, this hits home. They leader so attached to her mobile she bought 10000 specially encrypted handset for her and her staff. Her background also highlights sensitivities.

"I think it's quite serious reach of trust because I think it's beyond the imagination for Mrs. Merkel. She herself growing up in a country GDR in the eastern part of Germany, where phone tapping was quite invasive. So I think she's never been imagining something like this could also be happening from friend and close ally to Germany."

But don't all countries spy on each other. Even friends do understand their real negotiation position, their priorities and their redlines. The former Prime Minister of Belgium says rarely on this scale.

"The problem was not spying. The problem is one of these conference that is on spying. That's the problem. Normally spy activities, well, everybody knows that they exist. But when we see this scale now, we'll say, oh, is the USA a friendly country? Are we friends or not?"

This was a dense summit focusing on competition, economic union and migrant disasters. Now the trans-Atlantic roar has united this frequently bickering in shared anger.