MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The 2013 attempt of the German intelligence service BND to wiretap calls, made by Kerry from his personal cellphone, failed after an agent mixed up the US country code with that of an African nation, Der Spiegel magazine said, citing official data.
The agency resorted to other sources of information about Kerry’s communications, including tapping phones at the US Department of State.
German spies also reportedly targeted UK politician and former foreign policy chief of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, from 2008 and for several years onward, the German outlet said.
BND was pushed into the global spotlight last spring when German media discovered the US National Security Agency had used its monitoring station in Bavaria’s Bad Aibling to eavesdrop on numerous French officials and European businesses.
