Berlin's Espionage for NSA Proves Merkel Turned Germany Into US Vassal

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Recent revelations that German intelligence allegedly spied on European targets at the behest of the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accepted Germany's transformation from an EU leader to a US puppet, a German lawmaker told Sputnik.

Earlier in the week, German media reported that Merkel's chancellery, which oversees Germany's foreign intelligence service, was "closing its eyes" to NSA requests that Germany's BND foreign intelligence spy on European targets.

"The problem is that Merkel does not care about [the] US attitude towards Germany as she believes in the German-American friendship, [which is] turning Germany into one of [the] US's vassals," Alexander Nau, a member of Germany's lower house of parliament, told Sputnik.

The lawmaker did not rule out the possibility that Merkel did not know about the surveillance orchestrated from the United States. "However, this does not excuse the case," Nau continued, adding that "Merkel is the prime minister, and she must control her subordinates."

The German parliamentarian pointed out that suspicions about the matter first emerged back in 2008, but were fully disclosed when whistleblower Edward Snowden started leaking NSA documents in 2013. The data revealed that the United States had been using a German intelligence facility in Bavaria to collect data on German and Western European companies and state agencies.

The Bad Aibling Station, located southeast of Munich and known for its giant golf ball-like radomes, had been operated by the NSA until 2004.