Barack Obama was surveilled for years by Germany's foreign spy agency, which intercepted his phone calls, according to German media
Barack Obama. Credit line: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP / Profimedia
The German Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) conducted a surveillance operation on the former US President Barack Obama for several years, periodically intercepting his telephone conversations on board Air Force One. Surveillance of the US presidential plane ceased in 2014, at the behest of the Chancellery, according to an investigation by the German publication Die Zeit.
According to Die Zeit, the BND was able to intercept Obama's phone conversations because the US presidential plane's communications encryption was vulnerable.
Technicians on the presidential aircraft were using several frequencies for Obama's calls, which the BND knew about and, according to Die Zeit sources, monitored regularly, though not constantly.
The intelligence service was fully aware of the sensitivity of the operation: the United States was not part of the official mission profile that determines which countries can be surveilled by the BND.
The transcripts of Obama's communications were kept in a special file, in a single copy, which circulated only within a narrow, carefully selected circle of the intelligence leadership.
After the consultation, the transcripts were to be destroyed, and the findings were then integrated into overall assessments of US positions, which were forwarded to the Chancellery.
“Spying between friends is not done”
According to information published by Die Zeit, the BND did not request authorization for the surveillance of Obama. It is unclear when the surveillance operation began and whether Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, was also targeted.
The chancellery finally stopped surveillance of the presidential aircraft in 2014, but then-chancellor Angela Merkel had never been informed of the operation and would likely not have allowed it, according to Die Zeit.
The operation is considered extremely politically sensitive. After Der Spiegel magazine revealed in October 2013 that the NSA had been listening to Angela Merkel's mobile phone for years, the former chancellor criticized the NSA, saying that “spying between friends is not done”.
