Germany's Spy Agency Monitored Own Branch Tied to US

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency BND spied on its own branch, gathering information at the US request, the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported Sunday.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — According to the newspaper, the internal surveillance practices were kept secret, and the results of the operation were not revealed.

In January 2006, BND learned that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was allegedly planning to secretly spy on the joint Franco-German aerospace and defense corporations European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and Eurocopter.

Following the reports, the German spy agency started monitoring its staff, who had delivered the information to the US service, the newspaper said, citing its own research.

In April, an espionage scandal gripped Germany as local media had uncovered that the BND had provided technical assistance to the NSA in spying on European targets, including top political figures and corporations.

BND is believed to have spied on some 800,000 IP addresses, phone numbers and email addresses at the request of the US intelligence agency.