Camilla Jessen
Report details secret file on Obama inside BND.
A new account has raised questions about covert intelligence practices between close allies. It suggests that sensitive communications of a former US president were monitored without political oversight.
Secret monitoring revealed
According to German weekly Zeit, journalist Holger Stark reported that the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) intercepted telephone conversations of former US President Barack Obama.
Speaking on a podcast by Bild vice president Paul Ronzheimer, Stark said the monitoring focused on calls made aboard Air Force One.
Stark explained that securing communications on US government aircraft was more difficult than on the ground.
“That’s why the Americans have from time to time had conversations that were either poorly encrypted, with gaps, or not encrypted at all,” he said.
He added: “And the BND knew this and knew the more than ten frequencies that Air Force One was using for this type of telephone communication. And it intercepted them.”
Internal handling described
There was no formal espionage mandate for the operation, Stark said.
Any intercepted calls were transcribed, circulated internally in a single copy, and later destroyed in most cases under internal rules.
“The Chancellery knew nothing about it for a long time,” Stark said. He added that the activity had been authorized by the BND president, who had the authority to halt it.
According to Stark, the monitoring was not constant. Recordings were made only when staff noticed Obama was transmitting on known frequencies.
Official silence maintained
When contacted by the German Press Agency in Berlin, the BND declined to address the allegations.
“The Federal Intelligence Service does not comment publicly on matters concerning possible intelligence or intelligence activities,” it said.
The agency added that it reports on such issues to the federal government and parliamentary oversight committees that meet in secret, Zeit reported.
Context of past tensions
The allegations are notable given earlier revelations that the US National Security Agency had tapped the mobile phone of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. That surveillance, revealed in 2013, strained bilateral ties.
“Spying between friends is not acceptable,” Merkel said at the time, visibly upset. Relations later improved under Merkel and Obama.
Stark said the BND also intercepted conversations involving Hillary Clinton and some US military personnel, calling it “simply too tempting to listen.”
Operation eventually halted
According to Stark’s reporting on the Zeit website, the Chancellery ordered the operation stopped in 2014. It remains unclear when the monitoring began or whether Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was also targeted.
Stark details his findings in his new book Das erwachsene Land. Deutschland ohne Amerika – eine historische Chance. He wrote that references to a secret BND file emerged during a parliamentary inquiry in 2014 and 2015.
Sources: Zeit, Bild, German Press Agency
