American spies have continued to eavesdrop on the German military even a decade after the 2013 NSA scandal, the newspaper Die Zeit and national TV channel ARD reported on Thursday, citing a fresh ‘Pentagon leaks’ document detailing information that US intelligence had gathered, about talks between the German and Chinese militaries. The document describes a February meeting between German Defense Ministry officials and a Chinese People’s Liberation Army delegation.
Die Zeit and ARD said they considered the leaked document to be “authentic,” even though Washington did not officially confirm it.
The affair is serious, though, as the leaked ‘top secret’ document bears a ‘signal intelligence’ mark. This indicates that the information contained therein was obtained through electronic surveillance. This would potentially mean that US intelligence had either intercepted German Defense Ministry’s emails or had hacked IT systems, the German media reported.
