The US National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly worked hand in glove with Germany and several other Western countries on a ‘no questions asked’ basis, former NSA employee and US PRISM programme leaker Edward Snowden has claimed.
The German magazine Der Spiegel cited Snowden as saying the US agency was in collusion with the Germans, just like with most other Western states.
"Other agencies don’t ask us where we got the information from and we don’t ask them," Snowden said.
"That way they can protect their top politicians from the backlash in case it emerges how massively people’s privacy is abused worldwide."
Germany has also sought explanations for Snowden’s claims of large-scale snooping by the NSA, and by the UK through a programme codenamed ‘Tempora’, on their partners such as Germany and other EU states, as well as EU institutions and embassies.
Snowden also claimed that an NSA department dubbed as the Foreign Affairs Directorate worked in close relation with foreign secret services.
The claim from the Snowden undermines the claims from the German government, which expressed surprise over the large scale electronic surveillance by US authorities.
Recently, the European Commission warned that the European firms would probably quit services offered by the US Internet providers following the NSA surveillance scandal.
Snowden also reported that the NSA hacked China’s three state-run telecom firms including China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicomto snoop on SMS information from the Chinese carriers.