WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The German security services are unlikely to be spying on major US government institutions such as the US Air Force and the Department of State on a regular basis, CIA counterterrorism analyst Philip Giraldi told Sputnik.
"I don't imagine that they regularly collect State Department or British Ministry of Defense or NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] or US Air Force intelligence," Giraldi said. "It would be a waste of resources to do so."
Giraldi was commenting on the report on Sunday by the German national news magazine Der Spiegel that the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was spying on major US institutions, including the State Department, US Air Force and NASA. The BND was also watching Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense, according to the report.
Giraldi noted that surveillance of intelligence targets in the United States, Britain, Israel and other countries was likely to involve leads that would require accessing information from the major institutions named by the Der Spiegel report.
"Usually this sort of thing is collateral. Other stuff probably comes up when they are targeting a journalist or a foreign diplomat from a third country, and they make a connection when that person speaks to an American or other European official. They would then monitor the connection," he said.
Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. At present, he serves as Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.
