German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) spies on Greece through emails and communications on internet. In an exclusive report of the Saturday edition of TA NEA published obtained documents showing that the spying was generally undertaken for reasons of “international terrorism. The surveillance has been performed through DE-CIX, the largest communications node in Germany and through three telecommunication companies operating in Greece Forthnet, OTEGlobe and CYTA. But also social media providers like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin use these node. Apart from Greece, 195 countries and locations are included in the list of BND wiretapping targets. Among them are UK, France, Belgium, Burkina Faso and others. The surveillance list is on effect since 13 April 2010, Ta NEA notes.
So far there has been no reaction from Berlin.
The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) spies on Greece
“The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) spies on Greece through emails and communications on the Internet, according to documents that the newspaper ‘Ta Nea‘ has in its possession, Crash Online reported on June 14.
As shown in documents filed during litigation between a German lawyer and the BND, the intercepts are generally undertaken for reasons of “international terrorism». However, this pretext fails to clarify, either the size or the scope of the wire-tapping on foreign targets.
According to ‘Ta Nea’, three telecommunication companies, Forthnet, OTEGlobe, and Cyprus CYTA, which are operating in Greece, are among the 550 members-customers of DE-CIX, the largest communication node in Germany. There, according to Spiegel, German intelligence agency has established its surveillance network.
OTEGlobe was the first in Greece to come to an agreement with DE-CIX in the mid nineties. The documents produced by the BND in court don’t show whether the intercepts were made before the 2005 signing of the agreement between the Greek firm and the German telecommunications hub. Nevertheless, it is clear that the secret services have been conducting such activities at least since April 2010. A collaboration between Forthnet and DE-CIX was announced in May 2011, while CYTA signed an agreement with DE-CIX in April 2014. Apart from Greece, 195 countries and locations are included in the list of BND wiretapping targets.
The plaintiff lawyer, Nick Harding, sued the BND, because he felt that his communication via e-mail with foreign clients could be a target of the German intelligence agency, and argued that the agency had no right to spy on him, as he is a German citizen, not a foreigner suspected of spying or terrorism.
Apart from the 3 Greek companies, veritable industry giants, such as facebook, and twitter, Microsoft, Verisign, Yahoo, Amazon, LinkedIn, Ebay and Deutsche Telecom also use DE-CIX. “(crashonline summary in English )
Full Story in Greek TA NEA
On Sunday, the spokesman of Greek Foreign Ministry expressed hope that Germany will give an explanation for the surveillance. However on Monday, Berlin was still silent on the issue.
UPDATE
The German deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter directly dismissed TA NEA report. Replying to a journalist question about “whether the locations mentioned in Ta Nea had a solid basis” Streiter said that the list “simply describes areas through which telecommunications routes could be of interest for intelligence agencies.”
PS OK, the BundesNachrichtenDienst spies on your emails, social media communications as well as on your books and clothes purchases. So what? The NSA was spying on the mobile of German Chancellor Angela Merkel….
