American listening stations are all over the world.

101On October 26th, hundreds of people took part in a demonstration in Washington to protest against the large-scale surveillance activities of the National Security Agency (NSA) against ordinary Americans.

German media10126 reported that the United States is based in the German Embassy in Berlin, Germany, and engaged in monitoring activities against German officials, while similar monitoring stations in the United States are located in about 80 locations around the world. The report also revealed that the private phone number of German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared on the monitoring list of the National Security Agency as early as 2002, which means that American intelligence personnel may have monitored Merkel for more than ten years.

The whole world is listening?

Der Spiegel also quoted secret documents from the National Security Bureau as saying that American embassies and consulates in about 80 locations around the world have secret listening stations to eavesdrop on the communication information of senior officials in their regions.

The report said that the US National Security Bureau set up a "special collection service" website at the US Embassy in Germany, and the staff of the National Security Bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency monitored German officials including Merkel. The document shows that this "spy station has not been legally registered".

A document in 20 10 shows that there are about 80 similar monitoring stations in the United States around the world, including 19 in Europe, including Paris, Spain, Rome, Italy, Prague, Czech Republic and Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to Berlin, the United States also has monitoring stations in Frankfurt, Germany.

This document specifically mentions that if the situation of the United States setting up monitoring stations in foreign embassies is known to the outside world, "the relationship between the United States and the governments of the countries involved will be seriously affected."

Be stared at for more than ten years

Germany's "Sü ddeutsche Zeitung" reported on the 25th that American intelligence personnel may monitor Merkel's mobile phone communication at the embassy in Germany less than one kilometer away from the Prime Minister's office.

The next day, Der Spiegel revealed more details of this incident. According to a copy of the secret documents of the National Security Bureau obtained by this newspaper, Chancellor Merkel's private telephone number has appeared on the monitoring list since 2002. At that time, Merkel had not yet become German Chancellor.

Until this year, a secret document dated a few weeks before US President Barack Obama visited Germany in June showed that Merkel's private phone number was still on the listening list. This means that Merkel's private telephone communication may have been monitored by American intelligence personnel for 10 years.

"Der Spiegel" reported that the details of the specific monitoring of Merkel by the US are still unclear, which may be recording her calls or just contacting her call records.

Doesn't the president know?

Der Spiegel quoted a source from the German Chancellor's Office as saying that after the "eavesdropping door" was exposed on the 23rd, Merkel called Obama to make a statement. Obama apologized for the eavesdropping incident and assured Merkel that he knew nothing about it before, claiming that if he knew, he would stop it.

Merkel's spokesman declined to comment on the above. "We will not comment on the details of our diplomatic conversation," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

The monitoring activities of the United States in Europe were exposed earlier this year, when the monitoring targets only involved hundreds of millions of phone calls, emails and text messages from the EU offices and Germany. The German government said in August this year that the United States has made "full guarantees" and will respect German laws. The news that Merkel's mobile phone was eavesdropped by the United States made the gap between the United States and Europe, which was almost bridged by the outside world, deepen again. The German government therefore summoned the American ambassador to Germany to protest. Reuters reported that this was the first time in decades that Germany expressed its dissatisfaction with the United States by summoning an ambassador, highlighting the unprecedented diplomatic turmoil in German-American relations since World War II.