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German intelligence agency spied on John Kerry, Hillary Clinton; claims it was done accidentally

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Germany's foreign intelligence agency BND reportedly spied on the United States Secretary of State John Kerry and his forerunner Hillary Clinton. According to reports published in German weekly Der Spiegel, intelligence agency of the country apparently accidentally collected calls. However the reports claim those recordings were destroyed immediately. 

German spies had eavesdropped on Hillary Clinton while she was the US Secretary of State, reports the BBC. A spokesperson of the U.S. embassy in Berlin refused to comment on the issue. The magazine claims none of the two top US officials were not targets of BND. Kerry's call was recorded on 2013 and Hillary's in 2012. BND was tapping phone calls to gather intelligence on Middle East when they accessed calls by these leaders. Hillary was talking to Kofi Annan on the "same frequencies" which were under BND's vigil. German aagencies perhaps fearing repercussion chose to keep this information classified. But they destroyed the call recordings. 

A BND spokeswoman told Reuters that Germany was not tapping the phones of allied countries US was not a target. "Any accidental recordings are deleted immediately," she added. Media reports suggest German government spokesperson skirted the issue by merely saying it was up to the parliamentary control committee to deal with the accusations. Hillary Clinton's phone calls are encrypted so US Secret Service officials believe it would have been extremely difficult for BND to decipher the telephonic exchange. 

This latest information is quite embarrassing for the Germans as they had earlier taken a very tough stand on alleged spying attacks by US. Germany had earlier accused the United States intelligence organisations of spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel which had also lead to the expulsion of the head of the CIA from Germany. Relations between US and Germany have become weak following the accusations of spying on American intelligence agencies. Earlier this month news surfaced that Israel, ally of US tapped the phone of Secretary of State John Kerry.

Spying by nations on each other have recently hit the headlines thanks to whistleblower like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. 

 

 

 

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