German authorities on Monday said they were summoning the country’s U.S. ambassador to discuss what they called a breach of trust — the recent revelations that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices.
U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy is due to have a phone conversation with the political director of the Foreign Ministry in Germany late Monday, the Wall Street Journal said.
Government heads in Germany said they want “trust restored,” The Associated Press reported.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said if the report in Sunday’s Der Spiegel were true — that the NSA had secretly bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and in Brussels — then the U.S. was guilty of “unacceptable” behavior, AP reported.
Member states with the European Union are reportedly incensed over the revelations brought forth by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
On Sunday, The Independent reported that German’s top prosecutors were “preparing to bring charges against British and U.S. intelligence [on Monday] amid fresh allegations that the services spied far more extensively than thought on German phone and Internet traffic.”
SEE ALSO: European officials slam U.S. over bugging report
CNBC reported that the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, demanded an emergency security sweep of all European offices and computers, to root out further surveillance technology and privacy breaches.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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