A list published by Wikileaks on Monday has revealed that Germany's National Security Agency (NSA) spied on German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and 20 other target selectors for the Foreign Ministry and provided assistance to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the secret rendition flights scandal.
According to the site, NSA spying dates back to 1998, a few years before 9/11 and went on , till 2005. It was reported that over half of the 20 target selectors were cell numbers, two of which were assigned to the German Foreign Minister. Others named on the list included Jürgen Borsch, who now serves as the German Consul General in Miami, Viktor Ebling who is the Commissioner for International Energy Policy at the Foreign Ministry, Bernhard Von Waldersee, former director for Latin American and Caribbean Affairs at the Foreign Ministry (2008-2011), now Ambassador to Argentina, and Peter Ammon, Secretary of State at the Foreign Office from 2008 to 2011 and then Ambassador in Washington until last year when he became the Ambassador to the United Kingdom in London.
It was also stated that the NSA has provided assistance to the CIA for illegally abducting people in Europe and bringing them to US prisons for torture, which was exposed when reports about rendition flights emerged in the media.
The Wikileaks hads previously published 125 German phone numbers targeted by the agency, exposing systematic spying on German government officials.
