The US intelligence agency NSA asked its German partner service BND to spy on the European country\u2019s engineering and technology giant Siemens, a German newspaper reported Sunday.<\/p>\n
In the latest report on a widening spying scandal, the newspaper said the US National Security Agency (NSA) suspected that Siemens was supplying communications technology to a Russian secret service, said the newspaper, citing unnamed US intelligence sources.<\/p>\n
A Siemens spokesman said the German company was \u201cnot aware of any facts in the company\u2019s area of responsibility\u201d that would support making it a target of such surveillance, reported the same newspaper, Bild am Sonntag.<\/p>\n
The newspaper also said it remained unclear whether the BND had in fact delivered any intelligence on Siemens to the NSA.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBND affair\u201d \u2013 in which the German service allegedly also spied on the Airbus Group, the French government and the European Commission for the NSA \u2013 has rattled Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s government and angered some of Germany\u2019s European partners.<\/p>\n
In response to the scandal, which is straining Merkel\u2019s ruling left-right coalition, the BND last week reportedly scaled back its cooperation with the NSA on communications intercepted at its listening post in Bad Aibling in the southern state of Bavaria.<\/p>\n