‘German security agency working with NSA’

Germany™s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or BfV, has regularly handed over classified data to the US National Security Agency (NSA), a report says.

German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the BfV, in charge of Germany™s domestic security, works closely with Washington. The daily cited secret government documents.

The documents obtained by Sueddeutsche Zeitung recorded more than 850 data packages sent to the NSA — which collects the phone records and email information of both US citizens and foreign nationals, Russia Today reported on Saturday.

The German daily also revealed regular meetings between the officers of the NSA and of BfV.

The revelation came as leaks by American whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Germany™s foreign spy agencies share massive amounts of data with the US and the UK.

In reaction to the report, the BfV has confirmed to the daily that it cooperates with the NSA, but stated that it adheres œstrictly to its statutory powers.”

œThis cooperation contributes to the prevention of terrorist acts and maintaining German security,” head of the BfV, Hans-George Maasen said.

However, German people are furious at the reported data sharing between German secret services and their American counterparts.

On September 7, thousands of people in Germany staged a demonstration in the capital Berlin to protest against the US spying activities.

According to the organizers of the event, including the opposition Greens, The Left and Pirates parties, some 20,000 people participated in the protest.

The massive surveillance operations by the NSA was uncovered in June, when former US intelligence contractor, Snowden, leaked two top-secret US government spying programs under which the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are spying on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies.

MR/NN/AS