While German Chancellor Angela Merkel called revelations that the NSA spied on Germans "extremely serious," recent documents seen by Der Spiegel indicate Merkel may have been extremely serious about cooperating with the NSA.
Staffers at the Hamburg newspaper wrote today that the German government and associated intelligence agencies were actually "eager" to embrace NSA surveillance, and the NSA "was pleased" with that eagerness.
At a very early juncture, Merkel insisted that her government had been completely unaware of the NSA's activities. It is a position she reiterated before starting her summer vacation last Friday.
The repeated assertions by the government and intelligence agencies in recent weeks that they were not fully aware of what US surveillance specialists were doing appear disingenuous in the extreme in light of the documents SPIEGEL has seen from the collection secured by Snowden.
The Spiegel documents and the revelations therein should come as no surprise: espionage on enemies, rivals, and even allies is a wide practice for most nation-states.
There is one simple rule: don't get caught.
Which may be part of Merkel's outrage, even Der Spiegel noted that she had little choice but to take up a position against NSA spying, politically speaking.
It's just a shame that exposure of the NSA comes hand-in-hand with the Spiegel's revelation that "The German government modified [sic] its interpretation of the G-10 privacy law" to allow for surveillance of its citizens.
Certainly this puts Merkel — who's gearing up for re-election— in a tight spot.