Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has protested to the Americans against the wiretapping of their cell phones by the US intelligence agencies less violent, as they made the public in October 2013, believe ("spying on friends - that's not"). Ben Rhodes, then Deputy Security Advisor to US President Barack Obama, says Merkel was only upset that she "created a PR problem in the German public, not because of the interception itself."
According to Rhodes, Merkel and Obama had already talked about the subject several times in the summer of 2013. When Obama visited Berlin in June, Merkel is said to have asked him to go to a balcony of the Chancellery, pointed east, and recalled the surveillance by the Stasi. The Germans are sensitive there. Obama showed understanding, according to Rhodes, and told of his role model Martin Luther King. The FBI had been listening to US civil rights activist King for years.
Rhodes asserts that Obama has not been aware that Merkel's phone has been intercepted, and this has been stopped. For the German intelligence services, however, the eavesdropping on Merkel could not have come as a surprise. They would have "knew or should have known about it," said the Obama man.
The Chancellery has so far made no statement on Rhodes' memories. His memoirs will be published by CH Beck this week. The balcony scene is missing, although it was originally in the manuscript. Rhodes says he deleted 40,000 words because the text was too long.
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