Top Judge to Scrutinize List of Targets Handed to German Spies by the US

The controversy over US - European spy deals continues. So, we have French President Francois Hollande furious that communications data was intercepted by the US National Security Agency (NSA), despite "commitments" made by the US not to spy on France.

And we have German President Angela Merkel red-faced and embroiled in controversy over how much access the German government gave to the NSA to spy on its citizens. The anti-espionage deal between Merkal and Obama's administration was not to be as watertight as the German citizens expected, with German media reporting that the deal was "exaggerated."

#Karikatur — I love it :-) #Obama #BND #NSA #France #USA Francois #Hollande: "Allo Barack" pic.twitter.com/sCZllccDCc via @issamchleuh

— Muschelschloss☕ ️ (@Muschelschloss) June 29, 2015

But now a top judge is to scrutinize a list of targets handed to German spies by the US. A judge on the bench for Germany's highest court is to be allowed access to a controversial list of so-called 'selectors'.

According to German media, Kurt Graulich has been chosen as the independent person to look at the list which includes the telephone numbers and email addresses of people used to carry out targeted surveillance. The government had refused to release the 'selector' list for MPs to scrutinize for themselves. The 'selectors' identify phone numbers and email addresses of those who are chosen to conduct targeted surveillance on people.

#FranceLeaks gives a clue about what to expect among the selectors the German gov is eager to hide. Leak them! #Selektoren #BND #WikiLeaks

— ibnFoo (@abuVeliki) June 24, 2015

Passing the Buck to the BND

So what happened then? The NSA sent millions of selectors to Germany's security agency, BND, to carry out surveillance on their behalf. This went unchecked by German officials for years. 

But we already know that the BND spied on German and European companies and high-ranking European officials — including Francois Hollande's presidential office. But the controversy that has been brewing recently is that the government has so far refused to release the controversial list to MPs.

However, it may come as some relief that the German government has agreed to appoint a commissioner whose job will be to look at the list of 'selectors', including diplomats and companies, as he reports back on his findings.

The former judge Kurt Graulich, who sat on the bench for one of Germany's highest courts for 16 years, was suggested by Social Democratic Party members of the NSA inquiry. Graulich's main job will be to identify which of the 40,000 selectors relate to European politicians.

So what should we expect? Probably more fury and red faces from politicians across Europe over complicity between the BND and the NSA.