{"id":17054,"date":"2015-07-03T09:29:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T09:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=17054"},"modified":"2015-07-03T09:29:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T09:29:39","slug":"uk-spied-on-merkels-greek-bailout-plans-and-told-nsa-wikileaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=17054","title":{"rendered":"\u2018UK spied on Merkel\u2019s Greek bailout plans and told NSA\u2019 \u2013 WikiLeaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018UK spied on Merkel\u2019s Greek bailout plans and told NSA\u2019 \u2013 WikiLeaks<\/h1>\n

RT.com<\/p>\n

\"German<\/a>

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Reuters \/ Fabrizio Bensch)<\/p><\/div>\n

British intelligence agencies spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders as they discussed Greek bailout plans for European banks in 2011, WikiLeaks revelations suggest.<\/p>\n

Phone calls from top German ministers, public officials and even Merkel\u2019s personal assistant were intercepted by the UK and shared with the US National Security Agency (NSA).<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks claims the leaked cables reveal Merkel\u2019s personal skepticism about solutions to Greece\u2019s financial crisis and Berlin\u2019s support for a special IMF bailout for banks funded by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).<\/p>\n

The cables, published Wednesday, also purport to show Germany\u2019s support for a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) to be levied on banks, a move opposed by the UK and US.<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks has not revealed the source for this latest round of intelligence. The publication follows thousands of cables leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.<\/p>\n

Labeled \u201ctwo levels above top secret,<\/em>\u201d the reports on intercepted telephone calls were passed on to the NSA.<\/p>\n

In some cases, the cables were shared with other nations belonging to the \u201cFive Eyes<\/em>\u201d spying alliance \u2013 the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Merkel & Co: NSA also spied on top German ministers \u2013 Wikileaks<\/a><\/div>\n

In one cable, Merkel expressed her doubts about solutions to Greece\u2019s debt crisis.<\/p>\n

The cable states: \u201cDiscussing the Greek financial crisis with her personal assistant on 11 October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel professed to be at a loss as to which option \u2013 another haircut or a transfer union \u2013 would be best for addressing the situation<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The term \u201chaircut<\/em>\u201d refers to \u201cthe losses that private investors would incur on the current net value of their Greek bond holdings<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMerkel\u2019s fear was that Athens would be unable to overcome its problems even with an additional haircut, since it would not be able to handle the remaining debt,<\/em>\u201d the report adds.<\/p>\n

Merkel is also said to support a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), something she allegedly thought would be \u201ca major step toward achieving some balance in relief for banks<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that regard, the Germans thought that pressure could be brought to bear on the US and British governments to help bring about an FTT<\/em>,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

In another cable, France and Germany are described as supporting \u201ca special IMF fund into which the BRICS \u2026 nations would pool funds for the purpose of bolstering Eurozone bailout activities<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting on the leaks, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said: \u201cToday\u2019s publication further demonstrates that the United States\u2019 economic espionage campaign extends to Germany and to key European institutions and issues such as the European Central Bank and the crisis in Greece<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur publication today also shows how the UK is assisting the US to spy on issues central to Europe<\/em>,\u201d Assange said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould France and Germany have proceeded with the BRICS bailout plan for Greece if this intelligence was not collected and passed to the United States \u2013 who must have been horrified at the geopolitical implications?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

It previously emerged Merkel\u2019s phone was tapped by the NSA, a revelation which caused diplomatic friction between Germany and the US.<\/p>\n

However German prosecutors recently dropped a probe into the case, citing a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks also published a list of 69 German government telephone numbers which it claims are from a \u201chigh-priority NSA target interception list<\/em>\u201d started under the Clinton administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018UK spied on Merkel\u2019s Greek bailout plans and told NSA\u2019 \u2013 WikiLeaks RT.com British intelligence agencies spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders as they discussed Greek bailout plans for European banks in 2011, WikiLeaks revelations suggest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}