BERLIN, January 20. /ITAR-TASS/. After U.S. President Barack Obama made a statement about the necessity of limiting the surveillance of American security services over U.S. citizens, “many questions remain open.” This position of the German government was expressed by Government Spokesman Steffen Seibert. “We did not receive any answers on those issues that occupy us as the federal government in the interests of German citizens,” said Seibert. That is why the negotiations about cooperation between security services of the two countries should continue, he added. Germany’s federal government spokesman could not “be sure that [talks] will be successful.”

U.S. spies on its European allies

In October 2013, the German government has obtained the information that German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone was wiretapped by the U.S. security services. On October 21, French Le Monde, citing data from Snowden, reported on its website that the NSA has extensive wiretaps of French citizens. Thus, from December 10, 2012 to January 8, 2013 the NSA intercepted phone calls and SMS messages.

The secret program was called the US-985D. Le Monde believes that this is the designation of the so-called “third group” of countries tapped, which also includes Germany, Poland, Austria and Belgium. In the “second group” includes countries more close in their policy to the United States — UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.