Identify your spy: Germany asks other countries for names of secret agents
Germany is asking foreign diplomatic missions to reveal the names of secret service agents working in the country, a report states. It comes amid the spy row between Berlin and Washington, following revelations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
READ MORE: Spy for a spy: Germany to monitor US, UK agents
The German Foreign Ministry sent a note verbale to all the
foreign embassies in Berlin on Wednesday, urging them to submit
“lists of names of all active agents,” Der Spiegel
reported. The note was also addressed to consulates, cultural
institutions, and intelligence apparatuses.
The Foreign Ministry reportedly expects its non-binding request
to be answered by all the embassies. The ministry did not deny
the information to AFP.
Media reports suggested that Germany’s request was triggered by
Berlin’s disappointment with Washington’s denials that US spies
are operating in the country. Spiegel estimates that there are
around 200 US intelligence officers operating in Germany under
diplomatic passports.
The US and Germany have been at odds in the spying row ever since
revelations were made about the extent of global espionage by the
US National Security Agency (NSA) in June 2013.
Last October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was angered after
learning that she had allegedly been on the NSA’s tapping list
since 2002. The chancellor called the alleged spying – which was
revealed thanks to Snowden’s leaks – “unacceptable.”
A German parliamentary committee has since been holding hearings
on the NSA’s spying activities in Germany.
Adding to a row of embarrassing spy scandals, earlier this month
Berlin announced it had discovered an alleged American spy in the
country’s Defense Ministry.
That came just days after the arrest of a German intelligence
officer who worked as a double agent and passed information to
the CIA about parliament’s NSA investigation. Following the news,
Germany ordered the CIA station chief in Berlin out of the
country.
READ MORE: Germany expels CIA Berlin chief over
NSA spying
Amid all the intelligence concerns, German politicians are
considering going back to old-fashioned manual typewriters for
confidential documents, in order to protect national secrets from
American NSA spooks.
Patrick Sensburg, chair of the German parliament’s enquiry into
the alleged NSA spying, said committee members are considering
new security measures and are seriously thinking about abandoning
email and returning to old fashioned typewriters.
“As a matter of fact, we already have [a typewriter], and
it’s even a non-electronic typewriter,” he told the ARD
Morning Show on Monday.
READ MORE: ‘No joke’: Germany mulls using
typewriters to combat US snooping
