A cylindrical structure is seen on the roof of the British embassy in Berlin. According to media reports there are bugging systems installed on the roof of the British embassy.
Reuters/AFP/DPA/Berlin
Germany’s foreign ministry said yesterday that it had asked the British ambassador to come and discuss a report that Britain was operating a covert spying station in Berlin, using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof.
Documents leaked by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden show that Britain’s surveillance agency is operating a network of “electronic spy posts” from within a stone’s throw of the Bundestag and German chancellor’s office, British newspaper Independent reported.
“At the instigation of Foreign Minister (Guido) Westerwelle, the British ambassador was asked to come for a talk at the foreign ministry,” a German foreign ministry statement said.
Westerwelle did not lead the meeting, the ministry said. “The director of the European department asked for an explanation of current reports in British media and indicated that tapping communications from a diplomatic mission would be a violation of international law.”
The foreign ministry’s request for an explanation is a less serious diplomatic move than summoning the ambassador.
In London, a spokeswoman for Britain’s Foreign Office said that the ambassador had not been formally summoned to the meeting. She declined to say what had been discussed.
State surveillance is an especially sensitive subject in Germany, a country haunted by memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.
Allegations of British surveillance surfaced just weeks after reports the United States spying agency tapped Merkel’s mobile phone, prompting a furious response from Germany and a flurry of diplomatic and political activity.
Berlin’s top intelligence chiefs have been in Washington trying to negotiate a new no-spying agreement with the US.
The Independent report cited aerial photographs and information about past spying activities in Germany, as well as documents provided by Snowden.
An eavesdropping post on the roof of the US embassy in Berlin is believed to have been shut down last week as Washington scrambled to limit damage from the row, the Independent reported.
William Gatward, press spokesman for the British embassy, confirmed the meeting had taken place.
“The ambassador did attend the meeting at the foreign ministry this afternoon,” he told AFP, without giving further details.
