Germany’s counterintelligence services are to be ordered to conduct active surveillance against US secret agents, a newspaper report said on Thursday.
An investigative journalism unit affiliated with German television networks and the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said top security officials in Berlin had met and agreed to order “360-degree surveillance” of foreign agents in Germany.
Previously, the agents of the United States, Britain and other allies were not actively monitored.
The decision followed Germany’s fury over the discovery of a mole, reportedly in the pay of US intelligence, in the headquarters of its BND foreign spying agency. The US Central Intelligence Agency “resident” in Berlin was ordered out of the country in protest.
A variety of media reports said Germany used to identify such foreign agents where it could, but it did not tail them or use advanced electronics to eavesdrop on them as the Germans are believed to do in their monitoring of Russian, Chinese and Iranian agents.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government was previously reluctant to step up surveillance of allied agents after protesting that US surveillance of Germany undermined the basis of trust between allies.
It had asked Washington in vain to agree to a pact against mutual spying.
