Quadriga - US-German Spy Scandal: The Deepening Divide
Just last year the US government acknowledged that the NSA had tapped Merkel's mobile phone and carried out widespread surveillance on telecommunications in Germany. The disclosures prompted public outrage; the German parliament formed a committee to investigate the extent of the spying. The new reports suggest that US intelligence bodies, including the CIA paid the double agent to pass on information about the German government. Some of the stolen documents were intended for the committee investigating US espionage in Germany.
Members of the governing coalition have called for the BND, Germany's intelligence agency, to increase its espionage efforts against the US. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière of the conservative CDU said Germany needed a '360 degree' approach looking at friends and foes alike. That option has received less support from the Social Democrats and opposition parties. The co-leader of the Greens' parliamentary group, Katrin Göring-Eckardt said counterespionage was not an appropriate answer to the spying scandal, calling instead for increased security and more respect between the partners.
The response from Washington has been muted. US president Barack Obama stressed the importance of US relations with Germany and promised to aid the investigation. However, in talks with Merkel earlier this year, Obama had refused to enter a bilateral no-spy agreement with Germany. Now the case of the double agent is putting additional strain on US-German ties.
Can trust between Berlin and Washington be restored? Should friendly nations spy on each other - or does that do more harm than good?
US-German Spy Scandal: The Deepening Divide
Tell us your opinion: quadriga@dw.de
Our guests:
Ines Pohl – is the Editor in Chief of the Berliner Tageszeitung (taz). After graduating from Göttingen University having majored in German and Scandinavian Studies, she took a job there as officer for women’s issues at the university’s Philosophy department. During her time there, she started working as a freelance broadcast and print journalist. She then moved on to the Hessichen/Niedersächsischen Allgemeinen newspapers were she headed the politics desk. She interrupted her term there to go to Harvard on a fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. In 2009 she was named „Newcomer of the year“ by Medium-Magazine. Since 2010 Ines Pohl has also served on the board of trustees of „Reporters without Boarders“.
Tom Goeller – born 1958, he studied American History and Politics at the University of Bonn/ Germany. He has been a journalist for various media, among them BBC and ARD. From 1997 to 2004 he was a political analyst of international affairs with the German Weekly "Das Parlament" and the US correspondent in Washington, D.C. From November 2004 until end of 2010 he was the correspondent for Germany of the US daily “The Washington Times” and of the Egyptian monthly "Egypt Today". He now works as a freelance journalist and political analyst of US and Middle Eastern, as well as security affairs.
Anton Troianovski - is a US-american journalist of Russian Origin. Based in Berlin, he is the chief German politics and economics correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. In recent weeks, Anton Troianovski covered the Sochi Olympics as well as the Crimea referendum. Before moving to Germany last year, worked for the newspaper from New York and Washington. He also has reported from Moscow for The Washington Post and The Associated Press.