US to Cut Intelligence Cooperation With Germany If NSA Spy List Published

Washington will consider decreasing cooperation between the US and German intelligence services and transferring the assets of the US National Security Agency (NSA) to neighboring Poland, if Germany makes the list of the NSA surveillance targets in the country public, Bild am Sonntag reported on Sunday.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — In April, an espionage scandal erupted in Germany when local media revealed that the intelligence agency BND had provided technical assistance to the NSA in spying on targets inside the country and throughout the European Union, including top political figures and corporations.

Following the scandal, German Bundestag required the government to reveal the list of spying targets so that the parliament's committee could proceed with an inquiry. On Wednesday, the German government proposed that only a special investigator would inspect the controversial list and report to the parliament.

According to the newspaper, the United States strongly opposes even partial disclosure of the targets, that were under surveillance of the BND in cooperation with the NSA.

The disclosure, according to Washington, would breach the agreement on cooperation between the security services, signed in 2002, and would seriously damage relationship with Berlin, the newspaper said.

The recent developments followed the 2013 revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who disclosed that the US intelligence agency had been collecting data on European targets for years.

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