Germany accused of helping NSA spy on firms

Germany’s BND intelligence agency sends mammoth amounts of phone and text data to the US National Security Agency (NSA) each month, Die Zeit Online has reported, highlighting the scale of spying co-operation which has unleashed a political row.

Critics have accused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff of giving the nod to the BND to help the NSA spy on European firms and officials. They also say officials lied about the prospects of a US-German “no-spy deal” before the 2013 election.

Polls show the scandal is starting to hurt Merkel whose office is responsible for the oversight of intelligence. Citing confidential documents, Die Zeit Online reported that of about 220 million pieces of meta data gathered per day, some 1.3 billion pieces per month go to the NSA.